I Hope...

...Your Christmas....

...was filled with friends and family....

...Sharing love and traditions....

...companionship and joy...

...advice and secrets...

...abundance to give...

...simple pleasure of just being and working together....

...experimentation and something new...

...pride in accomplishment...

...and unbearable cuteness!!! (our Delta's growing)

Our Italian fig cookies were made at Grandma Rivero's house and the recipe was similar to this one Italian Fig Cookies. 

When my Mother-In-Law was a very very young mother (17 years old) she lived on a street with quite a few Italian families.  My Father-In-Law worked on tug boats which kept him away from home most of the time.  Her Italian neighbors thought she was widowed and began to call her the "little widow".  They took her under their wing and shared their wonderful food with her and how to make it.

These cookies were made at Christmas time and for St. Joseph's altars.  All of the ingredients for the altar had to be begged for door to door.  All of the ladies got together and made huge batches of these cookies.  Each lady having their own responsibility. 

One day my Father-In-Law was home and all of the ladies were delighted to see the little widow "had a boyfriend".  Eventually they were learned that this was her husband and even many years later they laughed about the young "little widow".

Our filling included:

raisins

dates

figs

pecans

walnuts

orange peel

nutmeg

cinnamon

allspice

Steen's cane syrup

If allowed to dry a couple of days and then sealed, these cookies last up to a year!

...oh yes,  I like them dripping with icing and covered in those adorable dots.

This Saturday's Wedding

I so enjoyed doing the flowers for this Saturday's wedding...I love the delicate ultra feminine look...here is a pic of the filled silver tussie mussies the mothers carried....sweet...

The bridal bouquet was a teardrop of blue hydrangeas and white roses...um....um....I am so ready for the strapless look to exit the wedding scene...it's been ten years!!!...arghhhhhhh....something different please designers....designers?.....designers?....are you listening to me?!...anyway the bride was beautiful....

...the bridesmaids carried a swanky arm bouquet of callas and peacock feathers wrapped in gold ribbon...it reminds me of the '20's for some reason.....really like them....especially since it is a departure from the round pave' bridesmaid bouquet look....

This is the bride's son....he was an adorable stinker....I overheard this conversation....

...between him and this little girl....boy, "...I hate all this..",  little girl.." you bettah not say dat...you remembah what ya mamah said huh?...Let's go have a convahsation?!"  ...hmmm?  I guess his mammah had been having some convincing conversations about proper wedding behavior!   Oh, too cute....I adore, adore, adore, children in weddings......

...making sure the musician has his equipment set up and in working order before the wedding begins...

Simple delicate cake topper....I love this location for weddings...It's a shabby chic plantation home and an old church...The weddings take place in the house or the grounds and the reception in the church...huh?...but I love it!

...the giant old palms and cypress trees are breath taking...Looks like the groom is saying..."c'mon guys line up!"

...this is the front of the home.  These old plantation homes were designed to be seen from the Mississippi river when they were built long ago.  Now the levee blocks the view of the river, and the back of the house faces to highway.  If you climb to the top of the levee you can imagine how beautiful the view of the plantation homes must have been from the deck of a steamboat.

This particular home "Woodland Plantation" has the particular fame of being the home featured on the Southern Comfort bottle...

...there's also a beautiful swampy area complete with gators and snakes...ha ha...no really...there are gators and snakes....did I mention this place is kid friendly?...

...the ceremony area presided over by a great old Louisiana bald cypress...

...and a simple bouquet of blue hydrangeas to adorn the church....

Click here to see other wedding flowers I've done.

This Amazes Me

It's amazing how much food that can be grown with part time effort.  All of this is from my garden!  Much of it was grown with minimal effort. 

The citrus was as simple as planting a tree in the spring, giving it a little water every now and then during dry spells the first year, watering it during any extended dry spells the next year, spreading a little composted chicken manure around it twice a year, and when black soot appeared giving it a spray of neem tree oil once a week several times at twilight....and now....a beautiful tree that gives abundant fruit chock full of nutrition and goodness!!!!   I would encourage anyone to try it...

So much idle ground being mowed, trimmed, treated and fed...taking up time, effort, and money....why?  Your land has so much to give you...plant a seed....a tree....a plant......and let it give......

Green beans from the garden...(the frost last night has just about killed them....but oh what bounty while they lasted!)

...dried chili peppers ready to crush...

....PECANS!  (I have twelve gallons of pecan meat in the freezer right now.  I plan to make praline pecans as presents to teachers and friends....super yum...I'll post the recipe later.)

Pickled Cauliflower and canned green beans from the garden.  Super juicy yummy sweet grapefruit and navel oranges from the trees....

Green onions, green peppers, green cucumbers, and yes...potatoes!!! From the towers...I must recommend the towers...I'll tell more later.  There's my compost bucket.  I never chop anything without having my bucket ready....those are stalks of dried basil seed I need to save....

Summer stuffed artichokes from the freezer warming up.....

...and a very sweet and crisp cabbage freshly picked from the garden...

....my Mother-in-law and I made the most delicious venison sausage from two large roasts a cousin gave us.  This is soooo delicious...It is mixed with ground pork 1/2 and 1/2.  After figuring all of our expenses we estimated the cost to be $1.05 a pound....compare that to $3.89 that a local grocery charges for a similar product.

...there's plenty to store and plenty share...

....value the land....be nice to the land...and It'll will give to you....