National Pie Day!

This is a redo of a post from a couple of years ago. I brought it back for National Pie Day!


The best, best Christmas thing Mama made was real mincemeat pie. She and Grandma would get together and make the pies before Christmas. I loved those times.  In later years, I watched and wrote down the recipe, because mincemeat pies were one of those things that they had no recipe for, they just made them. When they were all still on the farm, Grandma made up  metal dishpans full of mincemeat. They canned whatever they did not use at the time. The only thing they needed to buy was flour, sugar, and oranges. Everything else they grew on the farm. Plenty of beef, an orchard of apples, and a vineyard. Grandpa made homemade wine, a sweet concord wine. Grandpa was first generation English, and Grandma first generation German. I don't know whose family had the tradition of mincemeat pies, probably the English side.


This year Mama and I made mincemeat pies again. We have customized the origional recipe over the last 20 years, because we don't make the mincemeat from scratch anymore.  Here are a few pictures and the recipe.

Mincemeat Pie

Makes 1 deep dish pie and 1 regular pie

3 cups of beef roast, cooked and chopped finely ( I do a chuck roast in the crockpot)

Peel from  1 and 1/2 oranges
1/2 orange, diced

2 cups raisins

1 apple, diced finely

2 cups of Mogan David concord wine ( no fancy wine, you need Mad Dog, the sweet, cheap stuff)

1 jar (1 lb) of mincemeat

crusts for 2 pies

Add all ingredients together in a large bowl, and combine. Fill pie crusts with this mixture. Make sure you have steam holes in the top crust. Bake at 375 degrees for  45 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned.                 

Cozy Winter Supper

Thick, nourishing soup and warm crusty bread with butter makes a cozy winter supper. 

The little hen is a butter dish, and the bread and butter plates are Coaching Scenes by Johnson Brothers. 

I love these huge Mason's Vista pattern soup bowls. 

Oh! There I am upside down in the spoon!

These blue glasses are Fostoria, that I have had for over 20 years. 

I am joining Tablescape Thursday at

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Easy on the Eyes

January is such a hard month, no matter where you live. Winter has arrived everywhere, in some form.

My hutch sat empty since Christmas, due to one thing or another, family sicknesses, lack of inspiration, boredom, etc. So I kinda eased into it with white. Just subtle, easy white. (And I can add reds easy enough for Valentine's soon)

I tucked in a little green here and there, just for hope! 

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for Tablescape Thursday 

A Study in Blue and Cream

Here's a little vignette on top of my chest of drawers. I like to keep surfaces pretty sparse in the bedroom, but this grouping just grew.

Miniature dress maker forms holding pearls....

an urn looking candle holder...

and some caged china orbs.

The prints were found years ago  rolled up in the corner of a dirty antique store. One for behind the chest, and one over the bed. 

The matching print hangs above the bed.

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