The Pauley Principle: FUNTHINGS TODO! Ideas for Gathering Friends and Family for the Holidays

Welcome to The Pauley Principle!

The Pauli Principle, named for Wolfgang Pauli, deals with atoms and electron-sharing that results in new, stronger bonds. Think 2 parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, a shared delectable (!) electron and VOILA! Water!

Similarly, when you prepare whole food to share with family and friends, especially foods you've grown, something amazing happens. Meals become tastier and healthier. Your soul, not just your stomach, becomes fulfilled. You live life more abundantly as a result. During a shared meal, the bonds that people create grow stronger and become something new: GREATER than the sum of the parts! I give you The Pauley Principle.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

FUNTHINGS TODO! Ideas for Gathering Friends and Family for the Holidays

It's a Christmas Cookie Exchange that a friend of mine is hosting and I'm so excited!

BTW, that's a wonderful way to get family and friends together for the holidays. Then, everyone walks away with a great assortment of cookies, ready for parties or gift-giving!

For this particular party, besides sharing cookies, the guests will also be sharing their recipes. Now, what to bake? What to bake? Hmmm...maybe NO-BAKE. Any ideas? I want a cookie that will be as much a delight to the eyes as it is to the tongue but not too time-consuming or complicated! Of course, I'll want to post the end result and maybe the recipe.

Also consider another FUN, FUN, FUN (!!!) Christmas tradition of mine~the TAFFY PULL! If you've never done it, you might want to consider making it your own family funthing for the holidays or anytime. It requires more than one person, so plan a time when you can do it. My mother's recipe (God Bless) is posted. I miss my mother every day, but using her favorite traditional recipes brings a warm feeling, almost like having her there. She wouldn't mind my passing them on but, I'll warn you, she always left something out! Her little way of keeping her secrets to herself! It was always up to me to figure out what was missing. (She's still doing it. The missing ingredient is MOM. What a sense of humor!)

I challenge you to either start a new and fun family/friend tradition or do what another friend of mine is doing this Christmas~she's doing random acts of kindness all month long. She's already a kind person, just kicking it up to the next level!

6 comments:

UnknownDecember 1, 2011 at 12:02 PM
P.S. The fancy crochet-encased candy cane is a gift from my cousin Stephanie who does such beautiful crochet.
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Granny SueDecember 1, 2011 at 9:40 PM
What fun! I'd love to do another one of these. I remember going to one some years ago. I came home with great recipes and delicious cookies. Suggestions? Haystacks are so simple, mincemeat tarts are also simple and a bit different. Let me know if you want recipes :)
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UnknownDecember 2, 2011 at 12:03 AM
Thanks, Granny Sue! I haven't made a decision yet. What are haystacks? Coconut? That would be terrific! I've been looking for a recipe for coconut haystacks!
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robinlt_64December 3, 2011 at 12:05 PM
We have done a cookie exchange at Kelly's for ... I think 12 years now ... Mom, Dar, Aunt Emmarie, Me, Tracy, Marsha, Kelly, Aleta, Joni, Ellen, Ruthie ... and now the youngens have started joining in the fun. Zach, Logan, Paige, Kassie, Lindsey and Lexie. It's so much fun.
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AnonymousDecember 7, 2011 at 10:35 AM
That is my goal this Christmas season is to do random acts of kindness. Monday morning I went through the drive-thru at Tim Hortons,got my order, and then paid for the order of the car behind me. It was only a couple of dollars, and tt was a great way to start my day, I hope it was a great start to his/her day as well.
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AnonymousDecember 16, 2011 at 6:32 AM
So far, so good, every day I have kept up my random acts of kindness for Christmas. Hopefully it will carry through to the new year as well!
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Give Yourself the Fast Food Alternative: 1, 2, 3 makes 4 and More

For many people, late night ballgames, church, work and other events make fast food too convenient to resist, but what's in that stuff? I can't begin to answer. Big franchises such as Taco Bell say the 63% or so that isn't beef is made up of "the secret ingredient". If we consume their food, don't we have a right to know what that secret is? And more importantly, what's it doing to our bodies? My plan is worth the effort since meals eaten at home with the family benefit our physical and mental health.

Here's an alternative and my answer to Rachael Ray's A Week in a Day. I call it 1,2, 3 Makes 4 and More. On the fifth day, Friday, make a quick and easy pizza.
In one day, you can make a roast, a hearty soup, and a one-dish casserole to get you through most of the work week.
Meal 1: the roast with salad and a veggie.
Meal 2: the soup served with warm bread or in a bread bowl.
Meal 3: the casserole with a salad.
Meal 4: soup from Meal 2 served with sandwiches using the roast, Meal 1.
Meal 5: homemade pizza.

Plan meals and shop for it. Then take a few hours to prepare the entrees ahead. Start with a roast seasoned to taste. I'm talking real meat. While that's slow cooking, start chopping veggies and meat for a good, hearty soup, one that will be a meal in itself. Get it started and simmering away and then begin a one-pot meal that takes a little more attention.

This week my plan is Day 1, a slow roasted ham with salad and mashed potatoes; Day 2, minestrone; and Day 3, shepherd's pie. I'm making mashed potatoes for two days (meals 1 and 3) at one time on my cooking day. The fourth meal will be ham sandwiches with minestrone. Salads and breads round out the meals for the week. Fruits with cheese make a quick and good-for-you dessert. A truly delicious recipe for shepherd's pie is in my blog.

Be good to you. Be good to others. On days 6 and 7, change it up by going out, having a pot luck with friends and family or grilling out. Remember, live your life abundantly.

About Venison

Venison should taste really delicious! No kidding. It is my favorite meat, except for crab.

Some things to consider though:
*If you wouldn't think of eating a bull, then don't eat a deer that had huge antlers or was in rut. I don't. It affects the flavor and tenderness of the meat.
*Replace the deer fat with beef fat for your ground meat for an 80/20 ratio. Deer fat tends to be slightly bitter and leaves that thick coating in your mouth that, although edible, is not palatable.
*For roasts, sear with butter and olive oil. These impart a wonderful flavor.
*For sausage, use pork shoulder, at a ration of about 3 parts ground venison with 1 part ground pork shoulder.
*Venison by nature is a lean red meat. A good young deer processed properly will give you many delicious meals.
*Anything you would do with beef, except ribs, you can do with venison. Look for my recipe for Shepherd's Pie. Use either beef or venison. Enjoy, share, and live abundantly.

Plan Now for Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is cooked down from sap that you gather from sugar maple trees. There are no other ingredients, not even water. And it's incredibly good. On the market, maple syrups will often have corn syrup, gluten, color and other additives which can stretch profitability and decrease the steaming time required. Since it takes 35-45 gallons of the thin slightly sweet sap to make a gallon of pure maple syrup, doing it the old-fashioned way takes time but the result is pure YUM!

If you have the opportunity to tap into maple trees and decide you'd like to give this a try, plan ahead. If you steam off the sap inside your kitchen, it can strip your wall-paper! Been there, done that, at our old farmhouse. If you cook it down outside with a gas turkey fryer, the cost can end up being around $8 a pint. We began cooking over a wood fire a few years ago, using a tripod and kettle. Oh, and a large firewood supply. Whatever method you choose, proceed slowly and with caution.

Gather your supplies. We use food safe plastic jugs, buckets, and little water line spouts. Maple syrup production houses will collect into stainless steel vats using long water lines but we simply gather the jugs, pour into buckets and bring it to the kettle twice daily. I buy little pint jugs to store it in. Very fresh, very pure. Start tapping the trees when daytime temperatures are going to be above freezing but nights are still very cold. In Ohio, the sap will be running fast sometime in February.

Try my cousin Stephanie Krupla's recipe for Sticky Bun Tea Ring and you'll want to search for maple trees you can tap into yourself!