My Greek neighbor, in Price, used to make these.‏ Actually, I had a Greek neighbor on each side of me. One had married an Italian so her surname did not sound Greek but she was certainly a cook of Greek food. Great food.

Now that my sis, Laurel, is married to a Greek, she makes all of these wonderful foods herself.

It just wasn't Christmas without these cookies.

Melomakarona - Honey Cookies with Walnuts

Though the name is hard to pronounce, Melomakarona (meh-loh-mah-KAH-roh-nah) are delicious and not very hard to make and are also known as Finikia (fee-NEE-kya), If I were pressed to name one Greek cookie that reminds me of Christmas, this would be it. This is an oil-based cookie recipe that produces moist cake-like cookies flavored with orange juice and brandy flavoring that are bathed in a sweet honey syrup and topped with chopped walnuts. YUM!

Ingredients:
For the cookies:
1 cup olive oil
1 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
Zest of one orange
1 cup orange juice
1 tsp. brandy flavoring
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup walnuts, ground coarsely
Ground cinnamon for sprinkling
For the syrup:
1 cup honey
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 cinnamon stick
3-4 whole cloves
1-2-inch piece lemon rind
1 tsp. lemon juice

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, using your fingers, combine the orange zest with the sugar – rubbing the grains as if you were playing with sand to release the orange oils into the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat the oil with the orange sugar until well mixed. In a separate bowl, sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the orange juice and brandy flavoring to mixer and mix well. Slowly incorporate the flour cup by cup until the mixture forms a dough that is not too loose but not quite firm either. It will be dense and wet but not sticky. Once the flour is incorporated fully stop mixing. To roll cookies, pinch a portion of dough off about the size of a walnut. Shape in your palms into a smooth oblong shape, almost like a small egg. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Shape and roll cookies until the sheet is filled. Press the tines of a large fork in a crosshatch pattern in the center of each cookie. This will flatten them slightly in the center. The cookies should resemble lightly flattened ovals when they go in the oven. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes until lightly browned. (The cookies will darken when submerged in syrup.) While the cookies are baking, prepare the syrup. In a saucepan, combine the honey, sugar, water, cinnamon, cloves, and lemon rind. Bring the mixture to a boil then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon, cloves, and lemon rind and stir in lemon juice. Place the ground walnuts in a shallow plate or bowl next to the stove top. When the cookies come out of the oven and while they are still very warm, carefully float the cookies in the syrup and allow the cookies to absorb syrup on both sides. Using a fork or small spatula, remove the cookie from the syrup and place on a platter or plate. Press ground walnuts lightly into the tops of the cookies (syrup will help it adhere) and sprinkle lightly with ground cinnamon. Do not refrigerate Melomakarona as they will harden. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.



Melomakarona - Honey Cookies with Walnuts
Ingredients:
1 cup softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light vegetable oil
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 large oranges, juice of (strained)
2 tablespoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 cups all-purpose flour (do not use self-rising, it has salt)
3/4 cup very finely chopped english walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon, mixed with the nuts

syrup
1 1/2 cups honey
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Cream butter and oil until completely mixed, add confectioner's sugar, add orange juice slowly, add vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, add 2 cups flour and beat, add two more cups flour, and then add the rest. You may not need all of the flour, just don't let it get too thick, knead the dough lightly in the bowl. Using teaspoon, scoop out some of the dough and roll in your palms and flatten slightly in your hands. Bake at 350 for 25 minute and cool. Boil syrup ingredients for 5 minute in LARGE saucepan, as it will foam up, then dip each cake (I do several at one time) in the saucepan, turning a couple of times with a wooden spoon, place the cookies on waxed paper and sprinkle with walnut and cinnamon mixture. Cool completely before storing. Best stored in tins. These cookies will keep in tins for a couple of months, but I can't stay out of them long enough to last that long!

More Pickles (Our family loved the play on words.)‏

From: Gordon Smith

I saw this Pickles cartoon strip in the newspaper.  I love this cartoon strip.  I always read it last.  In fact I read the comic strip page last each day.  That is the most important part of the paper to me.  I need something to smile about.  And like I said, "I read Pickles last because it is the best."

Laughing doesn't make us old.  We get old because we don't laugh.  Find something to laugh at each day even if you have to laugh at yourself.

By the way, did you know about the study which found that birthdays are good for your health?  They discovered that the more birthdays you have, the longer you live. 

I hope I have a lot of birthdays.  However only if I am in good health.  I don't want to be a burden to my wife, or children.

Lots of love to you and yours!

I hope you had a very good Christmas.

Gordon

Myrna to Gordon: We do have something in common. I read the "funnies" last each day also. I also would like to live to be really old but only if I am healthy.

I think the study is valid--the more birthdays you have the longer you live.

Our Christmas was great. How was yours?

Gordon to Myrna: I'm glad someone besides me reads the "funnies" last.  They are the most important part of the paper.

We need to smile and laugh more.

We had a great Christmas.  We had most of our family here at our house for our annual Christmas party. Whole bone in ham and all of the trimmings.  There were over fifty people here.

Keep smiling,

Gordon

Remember

Myrna wrote: Where there is heartroom there is bedroom. We are excited to have fun together. Thanks all.

Amy G wrote: Uh, what?!?


Myrna wrote: It is a saying that means that we can always make room for more than one family at our home for sleeping, eating, etc. LHT's mom used to say that: "Where there is heart room (room in the heart) there is always bed room (room in the house for all who wanted to stay and sleep there)." That was just the way she said it. In my haste I typed it bedroom and heartroom. There should be a space as in, bed room and heart room.

Grandmother Smith was, likewise, always able to find room for a loved one in her home and in her heart. Garth's Grandma Childs would just bundle a bunch of grandchildren together in the same bed. It reminded me of the song, "Five in a Bed," or "Grandma's Feather Bed."

Amy G wrote: Ahhhh.  Makes sense now.  Todd and I were both wondering...

Myrna wrote: In other words--
There is always room at the inn for the people who are important to you.
We make room for the people we love.
There is always room for one more.


There is a children's book, "Always Room for One More" by Sorche Nic Leodhas (Author) , Nonny Hogrogian (Illustrator) that tells a great story about making room.

Lachie MacLachlan, the generous hero, is the exception to the rule that the Scots are a thrifty lot. In his "wee house in the heather," Lachie lives with his family of twelve, and he welcomes to his hearth every weary traveler who passes by on a stormy night.

"There's always room for one more," says Lachie, and his grateful guests say a wonderful "thank you" in the story that provides a warm and tender ending to this hilarious tale of kindness.

The story, derived from an old Scottish folk song, is reflected superbly in the charming illustrations of Nonny Hogrogian.

Always Room for One More is the winner of the 1966 Caldecott Medal.
 

"Like An Angel Passing Through My Room" Sung by Sissel

Long awaited darkness falls
Casting shadows on the walls
In the twilight hour I am alone
Sitting near the fireplace, dying embers warm my face
In this peaceful solitude
All the outside world subdued

Everything comes back to me again
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

Half awake and half in dreams
Seeing long forgotten scenes
So the present runs into the past
Now and then become entwined, playing games within my mind
Like the embers as they die
Love was one prolonged good-bye

And it all comes back to me tonight
In the gloom
Like an angel passing through my room

I close my eyes
And my twilight images go by
All too soon
Like an angel passing through my room


Sissel Kyrkjebø has been singing professionally since she was 15 years old when she first appeared on the Norwegian TV show, Syng med oss (Sing with us). At age 16, she made her international TV debut during the intermission of the Eurovision song contest, which was viewed by over half a Billion people across Europe.

A few months later, on 16. October 1986, Sissel released her first album at age 17. Sissel's combined record sales amount to over 9 million copies sold, most of them in Norway -- a country with only 4.5 million people.


Helen, Leonard and I heard her sing on Dec 15,  2006. She caused a sensation when she sang with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We loved her performance and, as a treat to us, Helen bought tickets for the three of us to attend, as her guest, Sissel at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City on February 9, 2008.

The lyrics to one of the songs she sang appear above. I found them quite beautiful combined with the music. It has become a favorite.

The Skinny on Chocolate

Chocolate is made from tropical cacao beans, which are transformed by machines into a bitter, brown paste of cocoa butter and cocoa solids.  When this unsweetened chocolate is combined with sugar, vanilla, and other ingredients, the result, of course, is heavenly.

Chocolate's notoriously hard to work with.  If you don't store it properly (preferably at 65° or so), the cocoa butter can separate slightly from the solids, causing the chocolate to "bloom."  This leaves a telltale gray residue on the surface and impairs the taste and texture slightly.   Chocolate will scorch if you melt it at too high a temperature, or "seize" and become thick and grainy if you add even a drop of cold liquid to it as it's melting.  You can prevent it from seizing by adding hot liquids (like cream) to chopped chocolate in order to melt it, or by making sure that anything you're dipping into the melted chocolate (like a strawberry or whisk) is perfectly dry.  If your chocolate has seized, you can still use it in any recipe that calls for chocolate to be blended with a liquid.  Just add the liquid to the chocolate and melt it again.

If you plan to melt chocolate, it's best to buy it in bars.  Chips contain less cocoa butter so that they can better hold their shape in cookies, but this makes them harder to melt and less tasty.  It's easiest to melt chocolate in a microwave oven.  Just break the chocolate into small pieces, heat it for 30 seconds at 50% power, stir, then repeat a few times.  Take it out of the microwave when the chocolate is almost completely melted, then continue stirring until the melting is complete.  If you don't have a microwave, use a double boiler.

To All

Myrna wrote: We have a winter scarf left here on Christmas Eve. It has beige and gray circles on it various shades.

We also have not been able to find Sorina's shoe but not without effort. Mary spent quite a while looking because she said she had promised Sorina she would find it for her. Grandpa will go out today and tackle the biggest snow drift and see what he can find. Yesterday, I nearly lost my own shoe in looking for Sorina's. ;)

Kirsten is coming on Tuesday and will spend the New Year's Eve with us and then head out. Julie and family are also sleeping over. Any other takers?

Those of you who live too far away to join in: just know that you are welcome and that we love you. If we were angels, we would travel in the twinkling of an eye to be with all of you for a minute or two.

Todd wrote: It's Hailey's.

Myrna wrote: Wow! Todd, how did you manage that? Oh, I know, you already are angels and can pop in and out at will.

Melanie wrote: hahahaha...thought it was Braden's... .

Kimberly wrote: Sorina’s.

Myrna wrote: Kimberly, we will get the scarf to you. There is still no luck with the shoe. I found one of AnnMarie's the next spring when the neighbor plowed. I hope it doesn't take us that long.

Kimberly wrote: No problem on the shoe.  Thanks for spending so much time looking.

Amy J wrote: David left his gloves on Christmas eve.  If you find them will you save them for New Years Eve, and we will get them then.

 

Thanks,

Amy

Myrna wrote: We already left them at your house.