New Year’s eve Angela and Leslie joined us for supper, games and music. We had homemade pizza, lasagna, and smoked salmon. The salmon turned out nicely- carefully following directions does make a difference. This time I not only covered the fillets with salt but measured the liquid which ran off to ensure a 10% reduction in weight. I then soaked them in brine for an hour. They drained and rested overnight to produce a shiny skin then were smoked over three hours, slowly raising the temperature from 100 degrees F to about 170 deg. F the last half hour.
The result: highly smoked, edible skin, mildly salted not raw but not cooked through flesh, and a toothsome, shiny outside.
Also on the menu: guacamole, pesto dip, various raw veggies, and refrigerator ribbon cookies. The recipe is an older one from Ellie. It is becoming a favorite here. There is a pound of dough in the recipe. I calculate there is about one teaspoon butter in each cookie. 
This particular batch had dried apricots as well as some cherries in the one layer since the cherries ran out. The other layers are chocolate and pecan and poppy seed.
Angela taught me how to play cribbage, a card game I grew up watching my father play but never totally understanding. A word game and ‘Cut the Rope’ on her little hand held machine were fun, too.
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The morning of New Year’s Day was spring-like and that continued into yesterday. The snow has mostly melted and in the evenings it sounded as if it were raining, but it was snow running off the roofs. I let the chickens out to run around and scratch.
This morning there was a lovely pink sunrise. Yesterday’s was pastel and hazy layers. Today it is back into the 20’s and Hawthorne coming back all Mr. Mud-Foot was not a worry.
Isabelle, A and two of her daughters, and I drove to a big mall in Syracuse yesterday after church so the two youngest girls could use Christmas money to purchase dresses for a fancy school dance. Isabelle came home with two. I have not been shopping for anything like fancy dresses and was astounded at the low sale prices. I could not have bought the fabric, pattern, and notions at the price of a ready-made garment.
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For us there are still three more days of Christmas. We celebrate up through Three King’s Day. Epiphany. The kings bring a present or two on that last day. Usually a game. In years past we would have a party with special Baba au Rum cake which contained a bean. Whoever got the bean became the King for the day, had to wear a crown, give a speech, and was able to give decrees. Not this year. Work and school will prevent that.
This is the tree. And here is what Hawthorne likes doing:
This year’s Christmas quilt: snow globes with birds and greenery.
abstractions 