AZDonna

With tomorrow the big day, I’ve spent today baking. Pies, pralines, potatoes. Each time I go through my recipe box and pull out a scrap of paper with a recipe scribbled on it, I’m reminded of the time in my life when I wrote that particular one down. It’s kind of fun to have this quirky link to the past.

Today I was reminded of the year Robin spent at the Indian school in Show Low. I’m making the Maple Twist recipe we got from Luanne, Robin’s roommate. My copy of the hash brown casserole is written on a notepad sheet from Central Christian Church. I got that one years ago from someone in my Sunday School class. The pralines recipe is on a card that I have to fold to fit into my recipe box. I remember copying it when Grandma Briggs was still alive. (And I remember burning her arm while we were spooning and dropping that molten mass together one time.)

A couple weeks ago I made the See’s fudge recipe that Dianna somehow obtained years ago before Mrs. See intended anyone to have it. My Silky Chocolate Pie recipe still has measurements for both 8″ and 9″ pies, although no one makes 8″ pies anymore. Of course, I always have to double the recipe because I never make just one chocolate pie! I do have a few new recipes. The last couple of years I’ve made Caramel Apple Pie from the Food Network’s Pie Contest, and my new Sugar Cookie recipe is one I found just last year; it’s Alton Brown’s and it’s the best one I’ve tried so far.

Of course, I have some recipes that I have no idea from where they came, but only a very few. Most of them have at least a face or situation linked with them, even the ones I don’t use very much. I can’t bear to part with them because they’re all a part of my life.

Lately I have been thinking of organizing and typing up my favorite recipes. The snips and scraps only mean something to me, but it might be fun to document some of my memories as I put together a new box, so they won’t be lost. And maybe I’ll post a few of them here on my blog, so you can forever remember AZDonna when you make them!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We had a great Thanksgiving week. The Holsingers were in town to celebrate with us. On Monday, we all went to Brian and Carrie’s for pizza and play. The kids got re-acquainted (and newly acquainted with Carsten), and we adults had some good catch-up conversation. Steven thought he was in heaven when he was let loose in the playroom. Just imagine a fully contained, childproof room full of toys, games and videos. (It was heaven for the adults too, when we could simply let him play to his heart’s content without worrying about what he was getting into.)

We had turkey dinner at my house this year … the first time in at least a decade. We always eat at Daryl & Gisele’s because they have a bigger house. But this year, I wanted to try it. With Robin’s very creative help, we fixed up a lovely table and dinner to serve to our crowd of twelve. There were the Holsingers, Laffertys, Mom, Glenda and Doug, and me.

We tried Wolfgang Puck’s honey-brined turkey this year, and it was delicious. Everyone who came asked me if there would be any chocolate pie. I was tempted to let them all think this was the year that pigs would fly. Because that’ll be the year our family has a holiday without silky chocolate pie. Yes, OF COURSE there was chocolate pie! There were also caramel apple and pumpkin pies.

My first week at Marvell went very well. I simply picked up on my project right where I had left off before packing up from Intel. We had a few glitches with licenses and some of the software, but nothing we couldn’t work around temporarily. The offices are much more open and some people are complaining about lack of privacy. But I think we just need to get used to them. Marvell likes to encourage lots of teamwork and they believe the open office environment is more conducive to that. This week, they sent out a questionnaire for jacket sizes. Marvell gives Christmas gifts. So far, I really like my new employer.

There are some more photos taken this week posted on my gallery.