Oh the stories this old porch swing could tell…
Of afternoon story time with mama and sons,
and little boy shenanigans, plots, and plans.
Afternoon breaks for dad and mom,
important decisions discussed and planned.
Moonlight kisses,
and engagement photos.
Tears shed while swinging,
both happy and sad.
Deep conversations,
and happy reunions.
You have carried us through,
and will continue to do.
I finally got around to some Christmas cookie baking this weekend, and the highlight for my gang is the Apricot Kolaches.
Mine are not quite as perfect and beautiful as Grandma used to make, but they are getting thumbs ups around here. Apricot Kolaches are a traditional Polish tender cream cheese pastry cookie with a sweet-tart apricot filling. Grandma was 100% Polish, and her cooking and baking were like none other!
I remember Grandma painstakingly measuring each 2 inch by 2 inch square so that every singly one looked exactly the same. I don’t have nearly the patience, but I smile remembering those days in the kitchen with her. I can also now relate to the aching back and feet she had at the end of the day after rolling, cutting, filling, folding, baking, cooling, packing up… And I wish I had a young Jodi to rub my feet and massage my legs with Jergen’s cherry almond lotion like I did for Grandma in the evening after an all-day baking session.
But the joy on Marty’s and Nick’s faces and the “Mmmmm’s” that escape their lips between bites make it all worth it!
(and then I have to hurry up and freeze some or they would be gone quicker than it takes me to clean up the dishes!)
I also made some of my Jodi’s Almost Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies – a perennial favorite around here…
…as well as some with dried blueberries and white chocolate chips using the same recipe (another of Marty’s faves).
And it wouldn’t be Christmas without some Peanut Butter Blossoms…
And gotta have some Pittsburgh Thumbprint cookies too. I made a batch with chocolate fudge and another with colorful sprinkles and green icing centers.
Here is the recipe I use for the Apricot Kolaches.
(The Chocolate Chips and Pittsburgh Thumbprints can be found by following the links to previous posts.)
APRICOT KOLACHES
2 8-oz blocks of cream cheese, softened
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, softened
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups apricot preserves or apricot filling (I use Baker’s)
1 Egg, beaten
Confectioner’s (Powdered) Sugar, for dusting
Beat cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed of stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Turn mixer on low, and gradually mix in the flour until a smooth dough forms.
Knead dough on lightly floured work surface, and gently form a ball. Divide dough into fourths, flatten, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line cookie sheet or baking stone with parchment paper. Working with one piece of dough at a time (after bringing back to room temperature from refrigeration), roll out to approximately 1/8 inch thick rectangle. Trim edges and cut dough into 2 inch squares.
Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of apricot filling into the center of each square.
Fold one corner into the center, dab with the beaten egg, then bring the opposite corner into the center and press firmly to seal.
Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, and bake for approximately 10 minutes.
Dust with confectioner’s sugar and cool on wire rack.
These cookies freeze well, and thaw quickly.
This recipe makes about a million …. or at least feels like it when you are making them! 🙂
I hope you and your family will try these and enjoy them as much as we do.
Cheers & Sweet Hugs,
Jodi
One of my favorite things to bake (and eat) for the holidays is my Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Apricot Nut Bread.
For me, it is like spending a little time with Grandma – even though she’s been gone for 20 years now. The smells that fill the house… using her recipe card – complete with stains from baking episodes past… using her old tin measuring cup, snipping apricots, chopping nuts… To me, the holidays aren’t truly here until I make Grandma’s Apricot Nut Bread and spend a little time with her through this ritual.
When I was young, I spent Christmas vacations (and every other moment I could) with Grandma. We spent a lot of our time together in the kitchen. While we were cooking or baking, Grandma would tell me stories about her childhood. It was sadly a pretty short one, because she had to become Mama to her baby brothers at only 9 years old when her mom died at a devastatingly early age. We would talk about her early married life with outhouses, coal furnaces, and washboards. And some of my favorite stories, especially when I was young, were the ones she would tell about me when I was a baby and how she danced in the hospital hallway with the doctor after I was born and how she fed me her homemade chicken soup on my first day home.
We laughed while we worked, and I never felt so loved.
One of the things Grandma made every year was Apricot Nut Bread. Growing up, it really wasn’t my favorite. I much preferred the lady locks or nut horns or nut roll – even the chocolate chip cookies. This bread is not overly sweet. It is not overly moist. But as an adult, it has become my absolute favorite. A slice with a swirl of creamy salted butter or a schmear of rich cream cheese and a cup of coffee might just be my favorite way to start the day.
This weekend, I made my annual batch of Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Apricot Nut Bread.
I started with some dried apricots, which I snipped with scissors into large chunks. (I cut most of the apricots into fourths.) Sharp kitchen shears work much better than a knife given the stickiness of the apricots while cutting. And – it’s how Grandma did it…
After the apricots are coarsely snipped, they are placed in a bowl of hot water to further plump and soften. Equal parts of apricots and water are used.
The dry ingredients are mixed together next in a separate bowl: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a third bowl, eggs are beaten, and sugar is added.
Next is time to coarsely chop some walnuts – 1 cup per batch (unless you are my son, Nick – then no nuts are added!)
To combine everything, alternately add the apricots with water and egg/sugar mixture to the dry ingredient bowl.
At this point, you could place the batter in your greased and floured bread pans if you are not adding nuts.
Or gently fold in the nuts.
It is important to thoroughly grease and flour your bread pans. I use a paper towel to generously smear Crisco into every corner and crevice of the pan and then dust thoroughly with four. If done well, the bread will roll right out when you tip the pans once out of the oven.
You can use a number of small bread pans or one large bread pan for a single recipe. I tripled the recipe this weekend and made eight smaller loaves.
I fill them about 3/4 full to get a nicely risen loaf.
Baking time varies depending on the size of the loaf, so watch carefully and check with a toothpick. If you insert a toothpick in the center and it comes out clean, the bread is done.
I immediately pop them out out of the pans and cool completely on a wire rack. These loaves freeze beautifully if wrapped in saran wrap and foil or in freezer Ziploc bags.
Slice and serve warm or cold and with or without butter or cream cheese. In my opinion, this is best served as breakfast or brunch fare with a steaming cup of coffee (with Italian Sweet Cream of course!). Sometimes we even toast a slice of it, and then the edges are crisp and the center is warm and gooey and the butter just melts into it.
Here is Grandma’s well-loved and stained recipe card:
I remember typing these on index cards for Grandma as a young girl. I wish I had more of her handwritten copies, but they are long gone…
Some beloved people and possessions in our lives may no longer be around, but memories can never be erased or replaced.
May cherished memories of your loved ones and holidays past fill you with warmth and happiness.
Here is the recipe for you to try:
Grandma’s Old-Fashioned Apricot Nut Bread
Mix together 1 cup chopped apricots and 1 cup boiling water. Let stand until the rest of the ingredients are ready.
In another bowl, beat two eggs and gradually add 1 cup of sugar.
In a third large bowl, stir together:
2-3/4 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking sodaAdd the first two mixtures to the dry ingredients – alternating as you incorporate. Fold in chopped nuts.
Bake one large loaf at 375 degrees F for approximately 50 minutes, then 350 degrees F for 25 additional minutes.
For smaller loaves, bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes.
I hope you enjoy.
Cheers & Nostalgic Hugs,
Jodi
I’ve been blogging a little over six months now here at lifeinbetween.me, and I can’t believe how much I am enjoying it and how much I am learning…
about blogging, writing, technology, but most of all about MYSELF!
I thought it high time I build a Welcome (Home) Page for those that may visit and wonder what this is all about here.
It was fun pulling photos and linking them with the posts that I thought summed up my blog and my lifeinbetween.
Check it out HERE, and let me know if you think I hit the highlights or if I missed something important or should do something different. I did it very late at night and kept falling asleep in the middle of working on it! 🙂
I would LOVE your feedback, comments, questions, whatever you’d like to say or share – as I grow on this journey of blogging and the never-ending journey of self-discovery.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I hope everyone that celebrated yesterday had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
(It still blows my mind that people read my blog from all over the world, so there are places that don’t celebrate this American holiday!)
Today is a day of relaxing and reflecting for me – on an amazing day spent with this crazy coop of turkeys that I so adore!
My crafty and stampin’ friends might appreciate the table setting complete with hand-stamped fall wreath place settings :).
But… as much as I love to dress up the table, decorate, and prepare creative dishes, I have to say – Thanksgiving is no time for breaking tradition!
No messin’ with the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, canned jellied cranberry sauce (though Jill did cut them into adorable little stars that made them taste even better!), Pillsbury crescent rolls (or Nick would be seriously upset), pumpkin and apple pie.
A couple veggies took on a little twist this year – like my new favorite Roasted Butternut Squash with Rosemary, and the amazing Brussells Sprouts with Chorizo and Almonds that Joyce and Rob brought (still need to get that recipe!), but I did get in a bit of trouble with Marty (and only Marty!) for not making that disgusting green bean casserole with (GAG!) cream of mushroom soup…
We toasted family and friends, and of course Oh Rob had a story for us!
It just wouldn’t be the same if he didn’t! (Love you Oh Rob!) 🙂
and homemade Reflection Wine – for in wine there is life.
Colleen made this cute cheesey turkey – complete with brussells sprouts eyes straight from Jake’s garden, which was devoured immediately.
I also made this super easy, but TO DIE FOR appetizer: Bacon Wrapped Dates stuffed with Blue Cheese. Every single person L O V E D them, so don’t judge by the interesting combination of ingredients! I simply cut a slit in each date, removed the pit and replaced with a pinch of crumbled blue cheese, wrapped it in a half strip of bacon, jabbed with a toothpick to hold together and make for easy serving afterwards, and baked at 400 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Even those that claimed to not like dates or not like blue cheese adored them! Highly recommend these for your next get together – just saying. 🙂
Sweet Jackie brought the most adorable gift. A print of a tree and a frame, to which we each stamped a fingerprint or two and labeled with our name and something we are thankful for.
I already have it hanging right outside my dining room. What an amazing memory I will always have of this day and these peeps I love. Thank you so much, Jackie!
And how cute are these? Isn’t this a fun way to take wine as a hostess gift? Dress them up for the holiday. Jackie also made these adorable bottles of red and white into boozy turkeys. I LOVE THEM!
Colleen and Jake brought me the most awesome smelling winter holiday candle – who doesn’t love a wonderful smelling candle – and Joyce and Rob brought a crock stuffed with bags of pistachios and a festive apron and hot mitt along with a Bountiful Blessings calendar with a note written on it saying, “Looking forward to spending more time together in the new year.” Now isn’t that a great idea?! Such creative peeps I hang out with – eh?
I share these for those looking for great ideas for hostess gifts around the holidays. Wine, candles, nuts, aprons, calendars – all very appreciated gifts!
And Jill handmade all of us these adorable turkey t-shirts. Is she amazing or what?!! And look how cute they all look.
They even had turkey feathers on the back!
It was wonderful to SKYPE with Julie, who if you look really close at the iPad Jackie is holding, is also wearing a turkey shirt that Jill sent ahead of time. 🙂 We only missed connecting with Jayme :(.
We ended the evening with board games, including Cards Against Humanity…
and laughed until our cheeks hurt!
We were even fortunate enough to have Marty’s 91 year-old Aunt Francie with us, who is such a good sport.
I am simply stuffed with thankfulness and reflecting on my many blessings.
Wishing you all the same!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
I’m busy Roasting Turkey,
Mashing Potatoes,
Chopping, Slicing, Smiling, Laughing, Sharing, Clinking Glasses….
Being Thankful!
Happy Thanksgiving!
May you be thankful for everything you have at Life in Between and always.
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
Growing up – I lived in many different homes – for various reasons…
Parents divorced – Live with Grandma – Mom remarried – Bigger house – Smaller house…..
For as many reasons as moves, I never really had the opportunity to grow “attached” to a house.
Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not knocking those that had the good fortune of growing up in the same house with the same family their entire life.
In fact, I feel a bit of envy! But my life circumstances didn’t provide this, so for that reason I have never grown “attached” to bricks and mortar.
What I do love about my “home” is who I share it with.
It could be a hut, a tent, an igloo, a teepee, a boat, a trailer, a shack, a mansion. It really doesn’t matter.
As long as I get to share it with the people I love….
My family…
My friends that are like family…
That is what makes a “house” a “home.”
As we approach Thanksgiving, and I look forward to sharing my home with some of the people I love best, it reminds me of one of the best gifts I’ve ever received from my bestie Jill. Jill hand-painted the sign above in red knowing me so well that she just knew when she saw this saying it was me to a tee.
I love it!!!!
In fact….. I love it so much, Jill had not realized I had recently purchased a similar plaque with the exact same saying just a month prior, as you can see below. 🙂
So how lucky am I?!? I have two signs that express my deepest feelings of home hanging in my home.
Feeling so blessed… Feeling so loved… Feeling so thankful…
On this day before Thanksgiving, I wish for you a home shared with the people you love – whether they be family or friends that are “chosen” family. We really all are one family – right?
Cheers & Thankful Hugs,
Jodi
We have been having a lot of fun playing board games again lately.
I have such fond memories of board games growing up. I was a kid before video games and personal computers and cell phones, so when we weren’t playing outside or watching The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family or My Three Sons or Hazel or The Waltons (who’s with me here?!) :), we played board games. I loved Chutes and Ladders, Hi Ho Cherry O, Trouble, Operation, Battleship, Life, Monopoly….
Anyone else remember this commercial?
Playing board games waned as I got older and life got crazier (and when I thought I was too cool).
Then when I started dating Marty, I loved going over to his house, because his Mom loved playing games. We played Trivial Pursuit weekly for years it seems. (Oh – and often while sipping Bourbon Slushes!) And hey – I learned important “stuff” – like how six shakes equals a “dash” of salt.
And when the boys were young, we played all the good ole’ favorites again.
We now usually play a few board games at our family New Year’s party with The Hendy family. But for the most part, the games remain in the cupboard below the bookshelf – resting – and waiting…
Lately we’ve started playing Scrabble again. Cold weather…. warm fires…. it all kind of works together – right?
(Pssssstt – Don’t tell anyone my letters, because Liz ROCKS at this game, and I need all the help I can get!)
(and do you notice that every stinkin’ letter is worth a whopping 1 point on my tile rack?)
And then we recently dug out Smart Ass…
It’s like a modern-day, fast-paced Trivial Pursuit in which “even if you’re a dumb ass, you can win!”
The goal is to be the first to shout out the answer as another players reads clues from more vague to more specific. BUT – if you get it wrong – you are out. If you hang on until the end (when the last clue often gives initials to to the answer), you can almost always get it, but it’s usually too late because some other Smart Ass already shouted out the answer. So you have to think fast, but balance it with knowing you are right and risking whether to shout it out or not.
So try your hand at this one in the “What am I?” (my favorite the easy peasiest) category.
I’ll post the answer tomorrow if you haven’t already figured it out by #10.
Here’s a “Where am I?” (my least favorite the category I am least likely to get correct) question:
What number did you get the answer on? Would you have spouted it out or waited? Are you a Smart Ass? That is the challenge!
“Timing is everything for the true Smart Ass.” 🙂
What’s your favorite board game? I try to always buy a new game for our annual New Year’s get together – so looking for fun suggestions.
My other “son” Jake (Hendy) and I are total champs at Cranium and Pictionary. Julie typically kicks our asses butts at ImagineIFF. And PLEASE don’t ask me about Awkward Family Photos!! Oh I do stink at that game! I always feel so sorry for all the awkward ones…. 🙂 And we have beat Cards Against Humanity to death. (right Oh Rob?!)
So other than that….. we’re just makin’ memories of smart asses and dumb asses ’round these parts these days.
That’s what’s happening here at Life in Between….
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
We had the pleasure of spending an unforgettable Un-Thanksgiving with some of our undeniable favorites this past Saturday.
Now before you get all, “What the heck? Aren’t you thankful? Are you anti-Thanksgiving?” on me…
I LOVE Thanksgiving, and I am unbelievably thankful for so many un-deserved blessings in my life.
It’s just that it is impossible to be with everyone you want to be with on that one certain day for that one certain meal at that one certain time. Right?
So my unparalleled cousins, Nikole and Michael, undertook the task of preparing an unforgettable Un-Thanksgiving feast and family celebration.
Unlike your traditional Thanksgiving meal, we had the most unequivocally sumptuous pork roast with an unbearably amazing vinaigrette, roasted potatoes, the most unfathomably incredible roasted brussels sprouts with chorizo and chopped almonds, roasted fresh carrots, and fresh baked bread with oil for dipping.
We uncorked unlimited bottles of vino (apparently too many as I certainly did not have my camera focused for this timer-set group shot!)…
We laughed unstoppably….
We even unleashed our inner Broadway talents while singing and dancing to “Frozen” after unsparingly stuffing our tummys and snuggling on the couch.
The unlimited love unraveled that day was unmistakable.
So think about doing something untimely and unexpected like an Un-Thanksgiving or Un-Christmas or Un-Whatever…… You might just unravel some unexpectedly untouchable moments and memories.
Now do you understand? 🙂
Until next time…
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi
My Dear Ole’ Kitchen Table –
I know you are growing old and tired and worn (and as I look at this photo I took of you just yesterday, I realize it even more!) There are days I think I want to replace you – or at least refinish your surface. Many a discussion has been had about you!
But then I remember all the things we’ve been through together… The memories you’ve been a part of… The people that have sat around you… the food and festivities you have held… the activities that you supported…. the different homes you have moved to with us through the years…. and I have a hard time parting with you.
Remember all those Christmas cards we colored on you? Hours and hours over the years of markers and ink accidentally sliding off the paper onto you, which you gracefully accepted.
Remember how many times milk was spilled on you? It often slithered through the cracks and off the edge onto the floor, but you never complained while we all scampered to gather clothes to wipe you off and rearrange dinner.
Remember homework, filling out school papers, permission slips, sick notes….?
Remember science projects and art projects?
Remember gift wrapping sessions with paper and scissors and tape and boxes and bags and tags?
Remember daily family dinner time conversations? Arguments? Laughter? Prayers? Tears?
Remember games of Chutes and Ladders, Old Maid, Monopoly, Life, Trouble, Five Crowns, Rummy, Yahtzee, Set, Operation, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, and the hardest of all on you – Jenga!?
Remember breakfasts with friends with strips of sizzling bacon, stacks of pancakes, bowls of eggs, and cups and cups and cups of coffee?
Remember when the boys were in high school and we hosted weekly Thursday night flag football games for 5 or 10 or 15 at a time – and then served pots of spaghetti or chili or whole hams or turkeys or roasts to all for dinner – always with a cake or pie or plates of cookies for dessert for hungry growing boys (and girls!)?
Remember vacation-planning sessions discussed around you – like our trip to Hawaii with Jill & Todd – or reminiscing about favorite vacations like our Caribbean Cruise where we met our wonderful Bubby and Glenn or our ultimate excursion to Alaska with our sweet Janet?
Remember our first Christmas reunited with Dad and Carole and Aunt Gwen and Uncle Frank and John and Jeff and Dawn and Jen and the whole gang?
Remember bantering and jokes between Pap and Ron?
Remember shower and wedding planning discussions for Jake and Colleen?
Remember meeting Liz and seeing how happy she makes Nick?
You’ve cooled cookies and cakes and pies on warm summer days and cold winter evenings.
You’ve held fresh flowers and birthday cakes and candles.
Each scratch and fade and mark is a reminder of all of these times….
Thank you for being with our family and helping to keep us in touch with each other. You were often the center of important deep and meaningful conversations. Other times you were pounded on as we laughed until we cried….. or cried until we laughed.
You may not be as beautiful as you were 24 years ago when we bought you from the quaint shop that sells handmade Amish-built oak furniture, but neither am I?
And I’m ok with you if you’re ok with me.
What we have together goes much deeper than superficial “looks.”
Thank you, my dear ole’ kitchen table, for all you have given to our family.
With love,
Jodi
the creative life in between 