Sweet Acorn Squash Soup

Apples provide a delicate sweetness to this velvety soup that develops much of its deep flavor from roasting the squash.

Ingredients 

3 Medium Acorn Squash

1 Medium Onion

3 Sweet Apples (Macintosh is a good choice)

5 C Stock

1/2 C Apple Juice or Cider

1/4 C Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Curry

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 TB Salt

1 Stick of Butter

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions 

Halve the squash and clean.

Mix together Salt, Curry, Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Brown Sugar

Place 1/8 C Butter 1/6 of sugar/spice Mix in each half

Bake at 375 for about an hour or until the squash is tender.

While Squash is baking cook onion and apple in a little olive oil with the remaining butter until soft.

Once Squash is cooked scrape flesh out and puree in a food processor with the above apple/onion mixture

Place puree in a soup pot and add stock and apple juice, bring to a simmer, reduce and adjust seasoning.

ButternutSquashAppleSoup

Cerise’s Hot Water Gingerbread

Cerise’s Hot Water Gingerbread

A found recipe, it was laying on the ground outside of the library. Cerise took it and made it her own and WOW is it good.

Ingredients:

2 C Flour

1/2 C Sugar

2 tsp each Baking Soda, Ginger and Cinnamon

1/2 tsp each cloves and salt

1/2 C Shortening

1 C Dark Molasses

2 Eggs

1 C Hot Water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Combine dry ingredients

Add last 4 ingredients

Mix Well with a Mixer

Pour into 9 X 13 Pan and Bake

20141120_051310

We made a quick Royal Icing and drizzled it over the top and served with milk. YUM

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 25: “Christmas Is A Special Day”

In 1993 Fats Domino released his only Christmas album, Christmas Is A Special Day, and it included two original compositions. One was a secular song, “I Told Santa Claus,” the other a religious themed one, “Christmas Is A Special Day.”

It is one of my favorite songs that remind us of the why of the season because it is upbeat and The Fatman’s warm vocal embodies the spirtit of the season.

Thanks for reading along each day and may you all find the peace Jesus offered today and everyday.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 24: “(Everybody’s Waitin’ for) The Man with the Bag”

Kay Starr brought a little hipness to Christmas in 1950 when she released this Irving Taylor, Dudley Brooks, and Hal Stanley penned homage to Santa. Released by Capitol as a single, it is one of Starr’s most famous songs and has been covered most famously by Vonda Shepard on the Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas album.

I like this one a lot better than other Christmas Eve songs like “Here Comes Santa Claus” or “Santa Baby”. Now that it’s time to settle in and wait for Christmas morning, pour yourself a cocktail, sit back and relax to this swinging cut by The Queen of The Jukeboxes.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 23: “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

One of the oldest Christmas songs, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” recounts a series of elaborate gifts bestowed upon someone during the course of the 12 days from Christmas (Dec 25th) to The feast of Epiphany (January 6th). The first known appearance of the lyric was a published version from 1780 in England. The version that is sung today comes from a 1909 arrangement by English composer Frederic Austin. This is where the elongated “five gold rings” first appeared.

The reason I included this song is because of the fantastic (and fun) job Straight No Chaser have done with it. They add several other Christmas songs and stray far from the rigid cumulative manner of the published song. This video helped the a cappella group formed in 1996 at Indiana University gain popularity and eventually led to them to a five-record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 22: “Merry Christmas Polka”

Willie Phelps wrote the “Merry Christmas Polka” sometime around 1962 and it was recorded by Jim Reeves on his Twelve Songs of Christmas album in 1963. He is backed by The Anita Kerr Singers (Anita Kerr, Dorothy Ann Dillard, Louis Nunley, William Wright, Winifred Breast). There is a sub genre of Christmas songs that are Polkas and this is probably the most famous.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 21: “No Room At The Inn”

As we approach the big day, I would feel remiss if I didn’t include some of the religious songs associated with Christmas. “No Room At The Inn” is a hymn written in 1891 with lyrics by A L Skilton and R Kelso Carter and music by E Grace Updegraff. In 1955 Mahalia Jackson recorded an amazing Gospel version of the song for her Mahalia Sings Songs of Christmas album. She was backed by the Falls-Jones Ensemble: Mildred Falls, piano; Ralph Jones, organ; Lionel Hampton and Robert Prince, vibraphones; and Milton Hinton, Bass. Mahalia was the “The Queen of Gospel” and was in full force on this bluesy, upbeat take on an otherwise somber song.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 20: “Blue Christmas”

 

 

First recorded in 1948 by Doye O’Dell, it was a minor hit the next year for Ernest Tubb in (Number 1 for the first week of January 1950 on Billboard magazine’s Most-Played Juke Box (Country & Western)), Hugo Winterhalter ( No. 9 on Billboard’s Records Most Played by Disk Jockeys chart) and Russ Morgan (No. 11 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Pop Singles chart). The next year Hugo Winterhalter released an alternate version with shortened lyrics sung by Billy Eckstine that is most akin to the one that has become a holiday standard sung by Elvis on his 1957 LP Elvis’ Christmas Album. In 1974, the song was featured in the children’s Christmas special The Year Without a Santa Claus.

 

Presley’s version is notable because of the use of the “blue notes” (septimal minor thirds replacing the just minor thirds for you musical people), creating an added layer of depth to the songs content. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without the King singing this Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson’s tale of unrequited love.

 

 

 

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 19: “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”

Originally from ACT 2 Scene 14 of the ballet The Nutcracker, the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” has become one of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky most famous compositions. Tchaikovsky took eight selections from the ballet and made them into a piece to be performed in concert, sans dancing, called The Nutcracker Suite. The ending to the ballet version of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” was altered and gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century. In 1940 Disney’s Fantasia brought it into popular culture, and its original context, in a Christmas themed ballet, helped solidify it as a concert staple of many orchestras Holiday programs.

In 2005 The Red Baron remixed the Berlin Symphony Orchestra conducted by Peter Wohler’s 1989 recording, adding a trip-hop beat and accentuating the celesta in the mix. It breathed new life into the 100+ year old song, making it fresh for the new millennium. In 2008 BMW used this version of the song in a television commercial.

25 Days, 25 Songs — Day 18: “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy”

“The Little Drummer Boy” (originally known as “Carol of the Drum”) was written by Katherine Kennicott Davis in 1941. The 1958 recording by the Harry Simeone Chorale made the song into a holiday classic. In 1968 it was made into a TV special by the Rankin / Bass team.

In 1977 David Bowie was invited to sing a duet with Bing Crosby for his upcoming television special Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas. At Bowie’s urging a new song, “Peace on Earth,” was composed by Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, and Alan Kohan, to be added as counterpoint to “The Little Drummer Boy.”

This was Bing Crosby’s last recording, he died October 14 of that year, just five weeks after this recording was made. As beautiful as the duet is, the pair’s witty banter before the song is great fun with Bing quipping “right or wrong, I sing either way” to Bowie’s question “You’re the singer, right?”