Radically Retired

Blog

  • “Swiss”mas Eve

    “Swiss”mas Eve

    My Christmas gift to myself this year was a raclette grill.

    A part of my heritage is Swiss and many years ago, I enjoyed a raclette evening at the home of a nurse friend and colleague who had, as a young teen, immigrated with her family to Canada from Switzerland.

    The evening and the meal was so enjoyable that, over the years, it was never far from my mind whenever I was planning to entertain.

    This year, I finally purchased the grill and planned the meal for Christmas Eve with hubs’ brother and his wife.

    It was relaxing and enjoyable. Each person grilled whatever they wanted from the variety of foods available, and the raclette cheese was constantly melting in the little shovels that sit under the grill.

    Missing in my feature photo are the cooked baby potatoes and cooked mini carrots. There was no room on the table for them. The little ramekins on each plate held individual carrot salads.

    The melted raclette cheese was rich and smooth without the long strings like melted mozzarella would have, and was a perfect topping for the potatoes.

    It was a brand new dining experience for everyone but me. It was a brand new food prep experience for me.

    We’ll definitely do this again, and often!

  • The Eye of the Beholder

    The Eye of the Beholder

    Last week, I made my annual Christmas macarons.

    I make these every year as a part of our Christmas gifts to our friends here.

    I decided this year to paint them with edible glitter paint. This was all good and well, until I discovered that the food grade paint brushes I purchased, were too thick for the designs I wanted.

    I persevered. The red ones have a vanilla bean ganache filling. The painted tops were “supposed” to be gold ribbons and bows. Instead, they came out looking like mahjong tiles.

    The white ones have peppermint white chocolate ganache filling. They’re “supposed” to have holly wreaths painted on them. They’re close, but not what I had envisioned.

    The green ones have a rum/dark chocolate ganache filling and the painted designs are “supposed” to be abstract Christmas trees. Oh well.

    The good news is, they came off the mats beautifully, they matured to the perfect consistency, and all of the fillings are delicious.

    As the old saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

  • Sand Sculpture Paradise

    Sand Sculpture Paradise

    Every year, before Christmas, we make the hour drive over to South Padre Island, TX to take in the new sand sculptures.

    These amazing works of art are sculpted by sand artists from all over the world.

    The only sculpture you’re allowed to touch is Santa’s chair, and I once again tried it out.

    “I’ve been a very good girl, Santa!”
  • It’s a Norwegian Thing

    It’s a Norwegian Thing

    Hubs is Norwegian as far back as he can trace his roots on both of his parents’ sides.

    One of their typical pre-Christmas activities is to make lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with mashed potatoes and flour.

    My mother-in-law made beautifully thin and soft lefse. In their family, good lefse is defined in comparison to their mom’s. She taught me how to make it, and I passed the skills on to our daughter, who will, in turn, teach both of our grandchildren.

    I hadn’t made lefse since we started coming to Texas, but decided it was time, so purchased all of the equipment and yesterday, made a big batch (192 rounds), along with my sister in law, Lori. Hubs’ brother is also wintering in our park now and he loves lefse too. Lori had never made it before so wanted to learn and practice every step.

    This was our Christmas gift to our guys.

    It’s not an easy task and took us 8.5 hours of rolling and frying to make the amount we did. My feature photo is one stack of many we made yesterday. This amount used a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bag of potatoes.

    One Christmas, many years ago, my mother in law famously made lefse from 100 lbs (40.5 kg) of potatoes!

    The two- day process involves:

    Day 1: Boiling the Potatoes
    Ricing the Potatoes
    Mashing the Riced Potatoes
    Day 2: Making and Rolling the dough
    Frying the rounds
    Cooling, then bagging the rounds
    And flour everywhere!
  • A Lucky Catch

    A Lucky Catch

    A few days ago, as a part of our usual pre-Christmas activities, hubs and I headed to South Padre Island.

    One of our favourite activities while there, is to sit and watch the seagulls and pelicans as they scavenge and fish over the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

    The seagulls were especially plentiful, the day was windy, and I was trying to catch a shot of even one gull soaring on the wind current above us.

    I had no luck with my plan, but was completely shocked and amazed when we arrived home and I reviewed my photos to see this.

    The direction of the wings is something I’d never seen before, so to say I’m well-pleased with this accidental shot is an understatement.

  • Zero Humbugging Allowed

    Zero Humbugging Allowed

    Everyone in our park gets into the outdoor decorating for Christmas.

    Each year, on my morning walks, I find new and fun additions.

    About a week ago, this one, at our neighbour’s house, caught my eye and gave me a big smile.

    I agree 100% with “No Humbugging”

  • A New Cup

    A New Cup

    Last week, for our wedding anniversary, hubs and I spent the day visiting our fave stores in the RGV in search of things both useful and whimsical as a part of our anniversary and Christmas gifts to each other.

    For the next couple of weeks, as a departure from my usual Mon, Weds, and Fri posts, I’m going to just stop in randomly, and likely more often, to post things about our Christmas season here in South Texas.

    This cup caught my eye at the World Market Store near here.

    My Mexican Hot Chocolate actually tastes better from this fancy cup (the mind is a powerful thing).

    That’s cinnamon you see floating on the top. I stirred it in after the photo and enjoyed every last sip from my new cup.

  • Family Tradition

    Family Tradition

    December 1st is traditionally when I start my Christmas cookie baking. It’s when my mom always started hers, so I guess the date is firmly ingrained in me from an early age.

    I bake the cookies that both of my grandmas and my mom made over the years, plus I always add a few of hubs’ faves from his memories of his mom.

    My feature photo is of sugar cookies – a must every Christmas.

    Each year, we exchange gifts with friends here in our park, and my gifts always include a selection of my home made cookies.

  • Making it Pop

    Making it Pop

    It’s been some time since I’ve posted about the smart phone photography classes I’m continually taking.

    In a most recent class about photo editing in Lightroom, information was given about how to isolate one colour in a photo and correct/enhance it without disturbing the other colours.

    In my feature photo, the one on the left is the original, so I chose to work only on the blue water and sky, while leaving everything else as shot.

  • Love is All You Need

    Love is All You Need

    My cousin, Carrie has visited us in Texas a few times since we bought our place here.

    Hubs and I have enjoyed touring her around and I’ve especially enjoyed the fact that she loves to walk and hike.

    My feature photo was taken at Quinta Mazatlan, a fascinating and fun place to visit in McAllen, Tx

    We found this mural while hiking the trails that surround the historic adobe mansion.

    As I was making this post, I was reminded of the Beatles’ song, “All You Need is Love”.