Christmas Music Playlist... Part 2

As I've said before, when it comes to Christmas music, my tastes are pretty defined.  For example, I just don't get that new song about Maria and her bird...  And, although I like where I live, I've never thought Christmas in the Northwest was song-worthy.  But, that is my taste, and there is room for all of us out there.  And now...  to the next part of the list...

Believe it or not, Peter, Paul and Mary put out a couple of really good Christmas works.  Actually, only one is officially Christmas-centered, but the other only seems to be played around the holidays, so I am going to count it!

Perry Como is sure to be included in any traditional list, and mine is no exception.  Who doesn't get into the Christmas spirit when he sings about how great home is for the holidays?

A few years ago, when my daughter (someone who fully shares my love of the season, and looks forward as eagerly as I do to wall to wall Christmas music on the radio) still needed me to give her a ride to school, we turned on the radio on a cold and frosty morning in late November and heard this...

And finally, for today, one of my all time favorites, performed by two of my all time favorites...  The Christmas Waltz first by Frank Sinatra and, finally, by Doris Day.

One more thing...  In most cases, the YouTube links above were chosen for the songs, not for the graphics.  The following piece is one that I just came across, quite by accident, but it reminds us of some of the best holiday films around...  Enjoy!

Dreamsicle Salad... You Asked, I Provide

What a good idea to put this into little parfait cups!
Of course, I have never been able to limit myself to a
normal serving size, but, perhaps this will
encourage me to do so in the future.

I've been talking about this for so long, and many of you have asked for the recipe.  So, in the interest of sharing and caring, here it is, the recipe for the best "salad" ever. First, I should give the proper credit for it.  This recipe comes from my former step-mother's late mother, Loretta Keith.  Loretta was an old-style farm cook, and I can't think of a much better kind of cook to be.  I remember her pies, especially, the crust made with the now forbidden lard that we wouldn't think of using today (or would we?).  My mother also learned many of her cooking skills from her grandmother, on a wheat farm in Eastern Washington.  She's often talked about cooking for large groups of farm hands every day during the harvest, followed by endless games of Canasta with great-grandma.  I wonder if this kind of thing still goes on?  I like to think it does - a real connection between people over food and hard work.

Orange Dreamsicle "Salad"

2 small packages orange Jell-O

2 small packages cook and serve vanilla pudding mix

4 cups warm water

2 cups cold whipping cream

1/4-1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large cans mandarin oranges, drained

1.  Combine Jell-O and pudding mixes with the warm water in a medium saucepan.

2.  Heat mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, 5-7 minutes.

3.  Pour hot pudding and Jell-O mixture into glass bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap, directly on hot mixture to prevent a skin forming.

4.  Refrigerate until cold and set, 4 hours or more.

5.  Once mixture is set, whip cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff.  Beat pudding and Jell-O mixture for 1 minute with electric beaters.

6.  Fold whipped cream into pudding and Jell-O mixture, followed by drained mandarin oranges.

7.  Transfer "salad" into large, decorative bowl, or smaller parfait cups, decorating with additional whipped cream and mandarin oranges, if desired.

8.  Place in refrigerator, preferably in the back, so that you can convincingly forget to serve it to your guests, saving it all for yourself.

Step Into Christmas!

Holiday Greetings!  We hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving, as we did, and that you are looking forward to a delightful Christmas season.  It seems like we've been waiting forever to get to this time of the year, so full of blogging ideas are we.  Movies, music, shopping, decorating ideas and remembrances of Christmas' past...  The list is endless!

First things first...  We are pleased to introduce you to the Dapper and Dreamy couple for the holiday season!

Christmas In Paris

The Perfect Movie for Any Holiday... Holiday Inn

I have to admit that I was a little torn about what to write about today...  Melissa put one of my favorite movies, Holiday Inn, on last night and that became my first idea.  Then, today, she put on our video of the Christmas episode of The Judy Garland Show.  We'll come back to that in a few weeks and stick with a stay at Bing's Holiday Inn.

Released in 1942, Holiday Inn is as patriotic as it is Christmasy.  The story of a New York song and dance man, part of a trio made up of Fred Astaire and Virginia Dale.  When Fred and Virginia's characters decided to make a twosome, Bing gives up big city show business to run an inn in the country.  This movie is filled with some of the best music to appear on the screen, including one of the world's all-time hit songs, White Christmas.  The famous Easter Parade also makes it's debut here.

Holiday Inn is just the kind of place you wish really existed...  A charming place in the country, open only on holidays, serving up delicious food, fabulous entertainment and dancing until the wee hours.  Every dance number is staged with Busby Berkley-like precision and each song makes you want to sing along.

Fred Astaire makes history with some of his dance routines, most notably his Fourth of July number danced with and among live, crackling firecrackers.  It reportedly took three days of rehearsal to get it right, and boy was it worth it. 

Some of the references and routines in Holiday Inn are just a little uncomfortable to watch today.  For example, the number celebrating Abraham Lincoln's birthday seems shocking by current standards.  Seeing a stage full of white performers in black face and singing in exaggerated accents seems like a rather unfortunate way to honor the Great Emancipator but, considering the times, their hearts were in the right place, if their politics were more than a little incorrect.

Holiday Inn is, primarily, a Christmas movie, starting and ending with the great Yuletide festival, but every major holiday on the calendar is covered.  We watch it on New Years, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July and then throughout the Thanksgiving/Christmas season, and I never really get tired of it.  I love the sleekness of the early 1940's night club scenes, the charm of the inn and it's decoration, and the fabulous music.  It's a great movie anytime, but I promise you that one visit to Holiday Inn will keep you coming back again and again!

P.S.  White Christmas, the movie, is a semi-remake of Holiday Inn.  Even some of the earlier movies sets were revamped for the later, Bing Crosby/Danny Kaye vehicle...

The Dapper Christmas Play List for 2011 (And Beyond!!!!) - Part One

Is this another Douglas Crockwell original?  I think it might
be!  And I don't think that it's just the 7-Up or the tiny
weenies on a stick that's making this couple so happy...
They must be listening to my Christmas playlist!

Dreamy and I have some different tastes in Christmas music.  We agree on Burl Ives, Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and the Brady Bunch, but then she tends to go a little modern on me.  It's not that I don't like Jessica Simpson for Christmas, but give me Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians or Harry Simeone, and I'm much happier.

There's also one other problem with my love of Christmas music, at least in the view of 99.9% of the rest of the population...  I don't really like Silent Night and White Christmas gets on my nerves after awhile.  If it's part of watching Holiday Inn or White Christmas, I'm fine.  But I never include it in my own personal playlist.

Here in Oregon, Christmas music is playing on the radio 24/7, and I am delighted.  I usually hate commercial radio, but from mid-November through December, NPR loses out to any form of yuletide celebration.  There are times, however, when I just can't listen to any more of the world's worst Christmas compositions...  Christmas Shoes, Christmas in the Northwest, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and just about anything by Clay Aiken or Mariah Carey.  That's when I turn to my huge collection of real Christmas records and CD's.

For some reason, like everything else, my taste in Yuletide tunes runs from the 40's through the early 60's.  I'm just that kind of guy.  Big Band Christmas music is fabulous, Christmas swing is fun, and Burl Ives is my idea of Christmas incarnate.  And now, for your listening pleasure, is part of my playlist for 2011...

Holly Jolly Christmas is, perhaps, the one song that instantly, perhaps even faster, gives me that Christmas feeling, no matter where I am or what I am doing...  We always listened to this record as we decorated the tree when I was young, and still do today!

You all know of my love for the great Ray Conniff, at least his holiday hits.  This is one of my favorite of his medleys...

Now I am not entirely against new Christmas tunes...  Check out the Barenaked Ladies and Elf's Lament...

Remember Kate Smith?  Of course you don't...  But, for years and years, she was sort of the "voice of America" to many.  Most famous for her stirring rendition of God Bless America, here's a Christmas favorite...  Christmas Eve in My Hometown.

Now, Christmas can't be Christmas without this next composition.  The great Yogi Yorgesson is long forgotten, but his haunting tribute to Christmas will live on...

The Brady Bunch is, certainly, one of America's favorite families.  So, who else would you want to share the sounds of Christmas with?  Look out Mariah Carey...  You haven't heard O, Holy Night until you've heard Greg and Marcia Brady sing it...

No joke here...  This version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been an absolute favorite at our house for years.  When we first found it back in 1997, it only took the first notes to get our little kids moving.  Even our baby would dance crazily in his high chair when this came on.

I know it's a little early for Christmas music.  Many purists don't want anything to do with the red and the green until after Thanksgiving.  I understand that.  But, for me and my family, there's just too much Christmas to pack into four measly weeks!  I'll hold off on the decorations until a more "appropriate" time, but there's never a bad time for these songs, if you ask me.

A final sugar plum or two of music until next time...  Both from a period after my officially sanctioned Christmas music era, but classics all the same...

Talk about a one-hit wonder!  It's hard to see why Boney M didn't make more of a splash...

Movie of he Week... The Little Princess

I am going to be frank here...  I don't absolutely LOVE Shirley Temple movies.  They are cute, of course, and sugary, as can be, but they can be just a bit much for me.  I prefer her in her later films such as, Since You Went Away and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.  There is, however, an exception.  The Little Princess holds a special place in our movie collection.

I first saw The Little Princess when I was quite small.  Shirley Temple wasn't a big draw, but the setting was.  Victorian London never looked so cozy!  Especially that dreadful little attic room that the awful Miss Minchin sends her to after that lady learns that little Sarah Crewe (Shirley's character) is broke following the supposed death of her father in the Boer War.  Transformed into a virtual paradise with toasty fire and down quilts by her benevolent neighbors Indian servant, Ram Dass, the dingy space becomes a tiny refuge from her otherwise despair-filled days.

The ending of The Little Princess never fails to bring a lump to my throat and, just occasionally, a little mistiness to my eye.  Well, who couldn't be touched by the sight of little Sarah being befriended by an elderly Queen Victoria and, against all odds, finding her beloved "daddy"?

The Little Princess is the perfect movie to share with your own little princess...

The Best Hot Chocolate (Ever)... And Dana's Cheesecake

Sadly, this post will only entice those of you who are not in or near Eugene, but it will give you the idea to go and find your own best hot chocolate!

Cocoa is an important part of life in our home, in no small part thanks to my son Thomas.  Tom is a connoisseur of many things...  Herbal teas, biscuits and gravy and, obviously, hot cocoa.  For homemade hot chocolate, Thomas swears by Ghirardelli sweetened cocoa powder.  I agree.  But it's not just the kind of chocolate that you use, the milk plays a huge role in quality cocoa.  1%?  Are you kidding?  2%?  I suppose, if you are really pushing it, 2% will work.  However, for the best cocoa, it's got to be whole milk.  Trust me, if you are making your hot chocolate with some sort of water-hydrated powder, or even the much vaunted 2%, you are missing out on what this delicious beverage is all about.

What about other flavorings?  Mexican hot chocolate - your basic hot cocoa with the addition of a bit of cinnamon - creates a deliciously warming concoction, perfect for perking up any winter's morning.  Of course, there are countless syrups from companies such as Torani that will take your drink up a notch.  Peppermint and almond are our favorites, with vanilla syrup a close runner-up.  The key is to avoid over-sweetening the steaming mug with the syrup.

And then, the key question...  Marshmallows or whipped cream?  Why not both?!?!

Here in Eugene, the best hot cocoa is found, hands down, at Dana's Cheesecake at the Saturday Market.  In addition to (of course) truly fabulous cheesecake, the friendly, family-run and staffed Dana's is home to heavenly German Chocolate Cake and...  THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER.  Yes, email etiquette minions, that was in all caps, meaning that it was shouted...  loudly.  You see, there is simply no other way to say it.  Dana's hot cocoa is creamy...  So creamy, in fact, that I once asked if it was made with half and half (nope, whole milk).  It is chocolatey.  Not just kind of milk-chocolatey...  this is the real deal.  And the tall crown of whipped cream that tops the drink is cool.  Why is that important?  Because nothing is better than taking a sip of the piping hot chocolate through this cold cloud of cream.

I know, it's wrong to steal photos from other publications...
This one came from the Eugene Weekly.  I had to use it, though,
because this is the lady who served me my hot cocoa this
very morning.  Colleen Bauman is the wife of the
eponymous Dana of Dana's Cheesecake, and after you've
been served by her, you couldn't possibly have a bad day.

So, if you are ever in Eugene...  On a Saturday...  Head to Dana's Cheesecake at the Saturday Market.  Certainly, have some cheesecake, which is truly like no other.  Creamy and tangy, but just sweet enough, with a marvelous, buttery crumb crust.  That's the vanilla version, but there's also chocolate, butterscotch and turtle...  oh my!  The Seven Layer bars are not to be missed, either...  You know how I feel about desserts...  I like homemade best, but Dana's is certainly up to that standard.  In fact, I wouldn't bother making a German Chocolate Cake myself...  Dana's has it down.  And, by all means, have some hot chocolate, too!

Thanksgiving in Coming!

Does this look like your family
at Thanksgiving?

It's true, my friends...  Just as you are getting down to the bottom of the Halloween candy sack (Milk Duds, those oddly shaped gummy things, non-Hershey's chocolate...  you know what I am talking about), it's time to start thinking of what to serve for Thanksgiving dinner.

If you are like me, you love to look at all of the magazines with pictures of tempting, golden turkey's on the cover, or fabulous pies and cakes.  And, if you are like me again, you will end up serving exactly the same menu as you did last year.  It's not that I am uninterested in new foods and new ideas.  It always sounds fun to shake up the holidays.  In the real world, it's not all that fun after all.  While it's true that we prepare for hours upon hours for what amounts to a thirty minute feast followed by hours and hours of dishes, and we love to note this fact each year, most of us wouldn't have it any other way.

In the early years of our marriage, we were treated to a Thanksgiving out.  The idea was nice - no long day of preparation, no dishes...  But the reality was not.  "Dinner" time seemed to take hours to arrive.  The house was not filled with the smell of good food.  And, most upsetting, there were no leftovers.  I don't really care that much about the dinner itself.  By the time it arrives, I've been in the kitchen so long and have sampled so many things, I am not all that hungry.  I cook with an eye toward the real feast...  The one I get to have once everyone is gone.  Then, the gloves really come off.  No need to be polite, you can eat all the stuffing and Jell-O salad that you want!

The dreamy side of this proposition never really enjoys the holidays when I end up spending hours in the kitchen.  For some reason, she'd like to interact with me at some point in the day.  For me, the holidays really are about cooking - feeding the one's that you love.  It's also a time to visit foods that are saturated with nostalgia, and that aren't prepared at any other time of year.  For example, my great-grandmother's stuffing recipe is trotted out faithfully every year.  This almost always requires a call to my aunt.  Of course, I could write it down, but it's far more fun to have a reason to talk to her.  There's also the green bean casserole that's been served at every Thanksgiving that I can remember.  It's not the creamy, crunchy variety that everyone seems to know.  It's a sort of vinegary concoction topped with buttery bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  The recipe comes from a cookbook my mom has always relied on...  "How to Feed Your Family on $5 a Week"...  Obviously an old cookbook.

Perhaps my favorite holiday dish of all is a Jell-O "salad" that I can, and gladly would, eat by the tubful.  It might not fall in the category of dapper and dreamy food under normal circumstances... aw, who am I kidding...  this stuff is so good, I'd serve it to the Queen if she were coming to dinner.  The recipe actually comes from my dad's ex-wife's mother - a woman who knew how to cook and who threw some awfully fun holiday parties.  A woman who also, much to her credit, treated me as if I really were her very own grandson.  It's simple...  orange Jell-O, cook and serve vanilla pudding, mandarin oranges and whipped cream...  Heaven in a bowl. 

If there's any room for experimentation when it comes to the Thanksgiving menu, it generally has to be an addition, never a replacement.  You can add any number of side dishes and, even better, there really is no limit to the number of desserts one can have.  But, try to replace the whipped sweet potatoes with those bright orange yams?  Don't even try it, mister.

Even though I know exactly what I am going to make and precisely what I'll need to buy to make it, there's still a lot of fun in writing up the menu and lists, shopping and preparing the food, and listening to the sound of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, followed by Miracle of 34th Street, in the background....  I love Thanksgiving!

The Gariepy Family Thanksgiving Menu

Surprise Cheese Puffs               Stuffed Mushrooms

Roast Turkey

Great-Grandma's Sausage Stuffing

Sage Stuffing with Pecans, Bacon and Mushrooms

Mashed Potatoes

Turkey Gravy

Whipped Maple Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows

Spicy Green Bean Casserole

Creamed Corn

Yeast Rolls

Pumpkin Pie          Pecan Pie       Chocolate Covered Cherry Pie 

Being Sick and Remembrance

Being sick is almost no fun.  I say almost because there are some real benefits to a bout of non-serious illness.  First, if you are lucky, you have a sympathetic spouse, friend or incredibly talented pet to care for you.  That means someone to bring you food, cold drinks, hot drinks and, if you are really lucky, someone to force you to take those dreadful Zicam fast melts (they DON'T melt fast enough and, as my mother always said, there are two kinds of luck).

Another advantage of said sickness is the chance to sleep during the day, without guilt.  If you are, again, lucky, you will also have a never-ending supply of Leave it to Beaver DVD's to go to sleep and wake up to.  There's something awfully comforting about the sound of June and Ward Cleaver chatting in the background.

I am not one to read when I am in bed sick, it takes far too much energy with a pounding headache, but I do love the happy sounds of the house in the background.  On Saturday, I had to leave my daughter's 18th birthday party early but, as I lay dozing in bed, it was awfully cozy to hear the sound of a happy party.  People singing around the piano, laughing, playing games...  I think I had a better time listening to the party!

Being mildly sick gives you a fresh perspective on all sorts of things.  At some point (I'm not quite there yet if Dreamy is reading this), laying in bed in the afternoon loses it's luster and you want to get back to the ral world.  And that's the nice part - you start to appreciate your "real" world just a little bit more.

I am very fortunate.  I have small, and even not-so-small, people who will creep into my room as I am sleeping to give me a kiss or a reassuring pat on the shoulder.  I have small people who will faithfully stand by the television set adjusting the volume to just the right level for me (this is no easy task on our TV!).  And, I have a wife who loves me enough to force those @#$%! Zicam's into my tightly pursed lips.  See, being sick isn't so bad!

And, now, Remembrance.  No, this is not some treacly passage about nostalgia.  It's actually a pleasant statement that today, on an ill-advised (I am sick, afterall) outing, we found a whole box of our favorite silver pattern, Remembrance!  And the price was really too amazing to pass up.  It's good to have enough nice flatware for a proper family dinner again, and it's also a reminder of how fun it can be to run into some of your favorite things when you least expect it.

Remembrance pattern by 1847 Rogers,
introduced in 1948.

So, here's to being sick and ill-advised outings...  both can be Dapper and Dreamy, if they work out just right!

Vintage Magazines

First, let me explain my idea of vintage...  Unlike Etsy, I don't consider something that's a mere twenty years old to be vintage...  Far from it.  If I can remember it, it's not vintage in my book.  I well remember browsing with one of my kids at a local thrift shop.  Upon seeing some circa 1980's Disney buttons, the large round kind that pin onto things, my son picked them up to get a closer look.  The ever-vigilant worker admonished him to, "be very careful!!!  Those are vintage!"  Vintage, my foot.  Vintage also suggests something of some value.  Not necessarily monetary value, but something that has a certain je ne sais quois. 

For me, old magazines can fall into this category.  Old, in this case, means circa 1963 and before.  Whether they are from the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's or very early 60's, magazines offer a very accurate and up-to-the-minute look at life in different periods.  Generally not printed with an eye toward decades-long longevity, magazines are s snapshot of the tastes and interests of their time.  Unlike books, which are generally written after the fact and must consolidate a great deal of information, magazines are often forward-looking...  This season's latest fashions, movies, books, music and Jell-O salad recipes are on display.  And, since they are published monthly or weekly, considerable space is available to detail the topics of greatest interest.

Advertisements are particularly instructive.  Just yesterday I picked up for issues of McCall's from 1935.  You'd be surprised to see just how concerned people were about halitosis in 1935!  Countless cures were on offer, none of them still on the market with the notable exception of Listerine which, according to these ads, could do wonders for your social life...  even assure your chance to marry!  And, remember, when nature forgets, Ex-Lax remembers...

The art found in vintage magazines is remarkable.  Whether describing Norman Rockwell's evocative Saturday Evening Post covers, or the work of Douglass Crockwell (an artist almost as talented as Norman, and much more prolific), ads and other illustrations were lively, detailed, exceedingly colorful and so fun to review.

A Norman, er...  Douglass Crockwell ad...

My mother always had a few vintage Christmas editions of Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Redbook and the like that would be set out every year.  I'd pore over them again and again, enjoying a peak at what the holiday's looked like long ago.  I remember being particularly impressed by a family in Florida that changed their rugs, curtains, pillows and slipcovers each Christmas.  Their living room was transformed into a holiday wonderland.  It was always my dream to have a house that could be completely changed like that, just for Christmas.  Last year, we finally achieved it, and it was just as fun as I'd hoped it would be.

Even the food in these periodicals looked better, or at least more colorful.  Alongside a lot of really dreadful recipes for Jell-O salads, date and prune confections and various mystery meats, there are also fun desserts, a full month's worth of menus, each day using a different variety of Campbell's soup in one way or another, and remarkable ideas for all sorts of dinners and parties.

Crafts are another particularly interesting subject in vintage magazines.  Not really much of a topic until the 1950's, homemade decorations for holidays and seasons really took off.  Styrofoam balls, sequins, Quaker oats containers, yarn, glue, walnuts, construction paper...  You could make a veritable Sistine Chapel each year with just these common household supplies!  I've often thought it would be great fun to make some of these crafts, just to see what the world of crafting was like before Martha Stewart took over.

And, finally, the stories...  Not the news of the day or other topical subjects, but the fiction!  Melodramas, excerpts from the next great American novel, thrillers...  They were all there.  And, as I am just now finding out, some of them were pretty good.  You'd be surprised at some of the delicate topics that were broached in these seemingly innocent days!  Halitosis wasn't the only ailment being confronted in Good Housekeeping!

There are few modern magazines that will stand the test of time, in my view.  We've saved every copy of Martha Stewart Living, Martha Stewart Kids, Mary Engelbreit and Victoria, but I doubt that most of the other mainstream periodicals will be of as much interest to generations in the future.  And, really, it's too bad.  Browse the stacks of any good university library and pull out the giant, bound collections of Time, Newsweek, Life, The Illustrated London News, and you can sit for hours learning about life decades ago.  And you'll have a very entertaining time doing it.

Welcome to the New Dapper and Dreamy Couple for Thanksgiving!

Here they are, this season's Dapper and Dreamy couple.

Here's to the fun of the run up to Thanksgiving!