Christmas Traditions



Run, run, run as fast as you can! You can't catch me; I'm the Gingerbread Man!

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without baking cookies at Grandmother's house. The grandkids sleep over and wake up to homemade doughnuts. Then, they spend hours baking from scratch. The sugar cookies and gingerbread men aren't complete until covered and decorated with homemade frosting. What a treat, and what a great memory for all. What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is right up my alley. Check out their facebook page. I say shop small, local businesses year round! :)

Pecans at Thanksgiving

Fifteen years ago Hurricane Fran destroyed one of my grandfather's mature pecan trees but not before a seedling had taken root in one of my grandmother's flower pots. My brother rescued the seedling when it was only 12-15 inches tall and planted it on the farm. Here's that tree now.

Producing pecans? You better believe it! Yielded a couple of buckets full. Looks like our Thanksgiving tradition of picking up pecans after lunch lives on!

Dem Apples



Ok...there's apples...

Then, there's NC Pink Lady.

It's really hard to find a bad apple at this time of year. The first apple pictured above is a Gala from the local grocery store. While it is really good, it just doesn't compare to the Pink Lady from the NC farmers market. I challenge you to do a taste test at home. You will be sold! Nothing quite like dem NC apples.

Subtle Change 11

I highly recommend family dinner time together. It is a very important, and most favorite, time of day for me. Eating together keeps us close, as we use this time to turn off TV and talk about our day. We keep it real, laugh, have light-hearted conversation, and even at times serious conversation. We have had our fair share of spills and moments we will never forget at our dinner table. According to fancy, shmancy researchers family dinners promote healthier eating habits, but's that only true if the effort is made to have nutritious foods served. If you don't have family dinners, you are really missing out. I challenge to you to make this a subtle change. Begin with a few nights a week. Even if you're too busy to cook, bring home take-out. That counts, too, as Thursday night has become our Mexican take-out night. I would love to hear your comments about your experiences with family dinners. :)

Food Day

William and Helen Wise at NCSU Campus Farmers Market

If you grew up or still live on a farm, or with a garden in your backyard, you probably cannot imagine a diet without real food. By real food I mean fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy whole grains. Unfortunately, so much of the food our nation consumes today is overly-processed, stripped of valuable nutrients, and loaded down with salt and sugar to give it flavor. And this, I personally believe, is slowly killing us!

Food Day is an event that is storming across the country in an effort to support safe, healthy foods and to educate us about the importance of eating real food for good health. What better way to do this than to support local, sustainable agriculture. For more info about Food Day visit www.foodday.org

Tuna Salad

Here's my recipe for tuna salad. It's quick and easy and is delicious on a sandwich with whole wheat bread, tomato, lettuce, and mayonnaise. I also make my chicken and turkey salad this way from leftovers.

Tuna - 2 small cans tuna in water (that's 10 oz total, or just a little over 1 cup)
Chicken - 1-2 cups leftover roasted chicken, chopped
Turkey - 1-2 cups leftover cooked turkey, chopped
Egg - I use 1 egg for every 1-2 cups meat
Salt
Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil - I have recently discovered this yummy mayo with 1/2 the fat and calories of regular mayonnaise! Absolutely cannot tell any difference in taste.
Mt. Olive sweet relish - from none other than Mt. Olive Pickle Company, a local company in Wayne County, NC.

Boil egg for about 8-12 minutes. Then, run under cold water and peel after egg cools down. Chop egg and mix with meat. Sprinkle with salt to taste, and add 1 tablespoon sweet relish per cup of meat. Mix in 2-3 heaping tablespoons mayo. May need to add a little more mayo, or a little less, depending on your taste. I like to go with a little less. :)

Say bye-bye to chips with your sandwich, and serve with fresh, seasonal fruit instead for a very healthy and delicious meal.