cooking – New England's Narrow Road

Today is Christmas Eve 2024, and the post is just a quick one. I’ll share what I’ve been doing today (cooking and knitting), and send wishes for Happy Holidays.

First, an update on my latest knitting project. The Birthday61 sweater, is moving along slowly. I knew it would be a long haul, but I am enjoying it. I’ve already begun on my second skein of yarn, and I’m still knitting the yoke. A little bit of knitting is happening today.

knitting Birthday61 sweater — Progress on Birthday61

Food is mostly made for tomorrow’s small feast. Christmas Day is spent with my son. It is just the two of us, so we don’t go nuts. He has the day off, so he will make a ham. Probably cooked on one of his grills. I also made potatoes au gratin to be baked tomorrow. The vegetable will be my baked Seminole pumpkin. It’s all cooked and ready to eat. This was the only pumpkin I got from all my garden this summer. It tastes a lot like winter (butternut) squash.

baking Seminole pumpkin — Baking my garden pumpkin

Today at my home in Central Florida the weather is gloomy and cool. My cats have been sleeping indoors, which is unusual for Skittle. She likes to be outside, but she likes it warm!

black cats sleeping — Sleepy cats – Fontana and Skittle

We have lights up outside, but nothing for decorations inside! I’m just not in the mood to add more stuff to the house. My little fake tree is still in the shed, along with the few other holiday things I still have.

Whatever you are doing today and tomorrow, I hope it is enjoyable and peaceful. I miss the excitement of children, but I’m also happy for the low key way I celebrate.

I don’t write about Christmas these days, but have a few very old posts related to the holidays.

Our DIY Christmas Village

Keep reading

by Pam 12/27/201007/08/2023

Christmas Dinner

Keep reading

by Pam 12/27/200901/16/2021

Blooming Christmas Cactus

Keep reading

by Pam 11/02/200907/08/2023

Pot pies are delicious and certainly one of my favorite foods. They tend to be filled with calories, and that is the only reason I don’t eat them more often.

My new Dutch Oven Obsession cookbook contains a recipe which I followed (somewhat) to create the pot pie pictured here.

I used a lot less chicken, only about a cup, and there recipe called for 6 cups. My favorite meals have more vegetables than meat. After lots of chopping of the carrots, celery, onions, and herbs from the garden, and boiling the frozen peas, I was ready to create the sauce. Then it was mixed together and a crust was added to the top.

I always buy my dough for crust because it’s good, and I don’t want to spend the time to make my own.

pot pie filling — Sauce and vegetable filling

This would have been perfect with mushrooms, which the recipe calls for, but I didn’t have any. The sauce turned out nice and thick.

Putting the pie crust on was not as difficult as I imagined. A fork was used to push down the edges to make the outer crust. Because it all fit down inside the pan, there was no bubbling over to make a mess. Once it was assembled it was baked in the oven, uncovered.

Making my own food is important in keeping excess salt from my diet. I used unsalted butter, and fresh or frozen vegetables in this recipe. It’s one of the wonderful aspects of cooking for yourself: control of what is added. I also changed the recipe to suit myself. I didn’t have leeks or mushrooms, and I added potatoes and peas.