The Vermont Homesteader's Christmas Memories: Wit, Wisdom & Holiday Recipes

By Nancy Carey Johnson

The award-winning author of Life Is Good is back with another feel-good collection of essays, both humorous and inspiring, about life in rural America that includes 40 of her favorite sweet and savory holiday recipes! A transplanted New Yorker, Nancy Carey Johnson has made a happy life with her husband,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Honeyberry Books
• Release date: Oct 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781735729428

Book preview

The Vermont Homesteader’s

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

WIT, WISDOM & HOLIDAY RECIPES

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Nancy Carey Johnson

Honeyberry Books

POULTNEY, VERMONT

Copyright Notice

Copyright © 2020 by Nancy Carey Johnson. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior written permission from the publisher. For permission, contact the author at the website below.

Nancy Carey Johnson / Honeyberry Books

NancyCareyJohnson.com

Cover Design Gus Yoo

Copy editing and production Stephanie Gunning

Author photograph Matthew Pirrone

Library of Congress Control Number 2020917211

ISBN 978-1-7357294-0-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-7357294-2-8 (epub ebook)

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

1: The Holidays

2: Pumpkin Hats

3: The Joy of Flannel

4: Undressing

NANCY’S SECRET Blue Cheese SALAD Dressing

5: The First Snowfall

6: Too Much of a Good Thing

CHEWY, OOEY-GOOEY, CHOCOLATEY DENSE BROWNIES

7: Set Another Place at the Table

8: An Old Friend

Pickled Beets

9: Exquisite Mother Nature

10: Stained Tablecloths

NANCY’S FAVORITE CRANBERRY SAUCE WITH STRAWBERRY

Glazed Carrots

11: Crazy About Winter

12: History in Every Mouthful

Indian Pudding

BILLOWY WHIPPED CREAM

13: Hunter and the Christmas Church

14: Looks Can Be Deceiving

GARLIC Mashed Potatoes

15: Talking Turkey

NANCY’S METHOD OF ROASTING A Turkey

MOIST, SAVORY stuffing

TURKEY gravy

16: A Labor of Love

PAPER-THIN Sugar Cookies

17: My Father’s Blessing

18: Thank You, Mr. Murphy

19: Christmas Touchstones

20: A Question for the Ages

21: Advent Calendars

22: Christmas Comes Early

23: Warm Toes and Cold Sheets

24: Unexpected Pleasures

25: Tassies for Lassies and Lads

RENEE’S Tassies

26: Sleighbells

27: Making Memories at Rockefeller Center

28: Christmas Songs vs. Christmas Carols

29: Silver and Gold

30: Fa La La La La

31: A Mother’s Heart

32: Red and Greens

33: Wait for It . . .

34: The Four Gifts of Gift Giving

35: Angels Among Us

36: Not Fit for Man or Beast

37: The Myth of the Perfect Tree

38: A Daughter’s Surprise

39: Seventeen Dollars and Karma

40: Santa’s Challenge

41: The Yule Log

BÛCHE DE NOËL

SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

meringue MUSHROOM DECORATIONS

42: Simple Gifts

43: Thoughts on Holly

44: The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get!

45: An Early Christmas for Jolly

46: Tougher Than Alligator Baggies

47: Fresh Cinnamon Buns

CINNAMON BUNS

48: Jing-a-ling, Hear Them Ring

49: One Dog’s Trash

50: Silence Is Crystalline

51: A Love of Greenery

52: Having a Dickens of a Time

53: The Treasure Chest

54: You’ve Gotta Hear This

55: I Believe

56: Winter Solstice

57: Getting Cozy

58: Lighten the Load

59: New Math

Kahlua Krackles

60: Love Thy Neighbor

61: Silly Party Presents

62: Out of the Mouths of Babes

63: Keepers of Christmas

64: A Cup of Cheer

65: Decorative Tins

BISCOTTI

NANCY’S JELLY COOKIES

CRISP, ORANGE-FLAVORED SUGAR COOKIES DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE GANACHE

CHOCOLATE GANACHE SAUCE

CHOCOLATE COOKIES WITH PEPPERMINT SPRINKLES

66: An Elvish Diet

67: Shine a Light

68: The Tall and Short of It

69: A Crock Full of Rolling Pins

CHRISTMAS MORNING Egg pie (QUICHE)

TRADITIONAL PIE CRUST

EGG PIE FILLING

CHRISTMAS MORNING SWEET SCONES

LEMON CURD

MOM’S CRANBERRY ORANGE MUFFINS

70: Stumblebummers

71: Christmas Treasures

72: A Festival of Lessons and Carols

73: The Cookie Cutter Mystery

74: Gingerbread Houses

HARD Gingerbread COOKIES

Royal Icing

75: Some Things Never Change

76: Cookie Love

Peanut butter Cookies

77: It’s a Seasonal Thing

78: Top of the Heap

79: Lost and Found

80: The Gentle Reminder

81: A Circle of Love

82: Artistically Challenged

83: The Hostess with the Mostest

CHRISTMAS EVE HERB CHEESE

CHRISTMAS EVE HOT CRAB DIP

CHRISTMAS EVE FRESH SALSA

DEVILED EGGS

CHRISTMAS EVE FETTUCINI ALFREDO

STANDING RIB ROAST

84: Communion

85: Pride Goeth Before the Relatives Arrive

86: A Nickel and an Orange

87: Under Tall

88: Fifty Shades of Snow

89: A Treasure

Almond Dots

90: Chase Away the Winter Blues

91: Night Sledding

92: A Christmas Wish

93: A Jealous Bone

94: The Christmas Elf

95: Snowballs

Jolene’s Snowball COOKIES

96: Mother Nature Is Moody

97: For the Love of Sour Cherry Pie

Sour Cherry Pie

98: Unbroken

99: All or Nothing

100: The Snowman

101: Unfit for the Rag Bag

102: New Year’s Supermoon

103: Critter Tracks

104: Four-Paw Drive

105: Christmas Books

106: Jack Frost’s Magic

107: Goopy’s Greatest Gift

108: Red, White, and Green

109: The Best Kind of Gift

110: The Belfry

111: Always the Best Party

112: Hurling Out the Old

113: Happy New Year!

114: Let’s Brooch the Subject

115: Looking Ahead

Acknowledgments

Keep in Touch

About the Author

Dedication

For Jolene Pirrone, Annie MacIntosh, Lisa Light Rugen, Christine (Lulu) Herbstman, Cindy Snow-Pitts, and Stephanie Gunning, who said, Yes, you CAN do this! and who’ve shown me unwavering love, support, and encouragement from the very beginning of this process.

Introduction

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For years I’d heard stories about magazines needing to put together their Christmas editions in June when everybody is hot and sweaty and would much rather be thinking about going to the beach than wrapping Christmas presents. That concept seemed so crazy to me. I’m the kind of woman who looks for a bathing suit in July right when I need one, not in February when it’s freezing outside or just because a preseason or postseason sale is going on!

It was a shock to me last year when Stephanie, my editor extraordinaire, asked me, Sooooo, have you started your next book yet? Shocking because we were only ten days away from the official publication date of my first book, Life Is Good: Wit and Wisdom of a Vermont Homesteader. I should add that it was also late July.

The thing is, she suggested that my next book be a Christmas/holiday/winter book, and said it needed to be written and ready to go by the end of October.

I had to laugh at the irony. After all, I’m one who definitely lives in the present so, needing to look forward to the holiday season in the heat of the summer, five months ahead of schedule, blew my mind! However, with her advice ringing in my ears, I found myself easily harkening back through the years and losing myself in all the wonderful holiday memories that live in my heart. As I sat there reminiscing, my fingers started to dance over the keyboard and the Christmas and Thanksgiving stories began to pour out of me.

Then, because of everything going on in my life, it took me a year to get my act together!

Included with my remembrances of Christmases past and present are recipes. My friends and my family have been begging me to put together a cookbook of their favorites from the collection of holiday recipes that I’ve served them over the years. These are the ones I make annually, without fail. Maybe you can find room for them on your groaning board. After all, it never hurts to mix things up.

While the publication of this book has come a year later than originally anticipated, it is my hope that this collection of essays and recipes will trigger your memories of past holidays and perhaps give you some ideas for new traditions you might want to start. For me, it has been both a moving and an entertaining experience to revisit scenes from my childhood and those of my sons when they were small. Time passes quickly, but the holidays are an anchor of the year and an anchor into the traditions of our families and connect us with our absent loved ones.

Without further ado, this is that collection of essays, musings, memories, and recipes. I hope you enjoy them along with the rest of your holiday season.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

Nancy Carey Johnson

1. The Holidays

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After the heat of summer and (if we’re lucky) long Indian summers, the first time the temperatures really drop, my mind turns to the holidays.

Make no mistake, I LOVE autumn—the intense color of leaves, the yellows and purples of the last of the season’s wildflowers, bright orange pumpkins, and the towering corn stalks that grace porches and gates—but there is something about the first real cold snap that reminds me that the holiday season will be upon us soon—and I get really excited!

I LOVE both Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the traditions that go along with them.

I LOVE taking stock of the bounty I’ve got left from my garden, things like carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, potatoes, and beets that I can use for Thanksgiving dinner.

I LOVE looking through my canning jars to see what I might want to use that year to add to my groaning table.

I LOVE thinking about and planning my menu, delighting in imagining how I may feed my family and friends with love and abundance.

I LOVE winding greens around the uprights on my porch and entwining them with little white lights, allowing graceful swags between them. I attach big, dark red bows to the posts, creating a contrast to the greens and lights. And then I finish the decorating by hanging the 3D wire snowflake my sister, Merrill, gave me a million years ago, which is white and sparkly, right in the center of it all.

I LOVE all the cooking and baking, shopping, and wrapping. I love the excitement of picking out a Christmas tree and how its pine scent fills my home and the annual ritual of unwrapping all my ornaments from years past and visiting with them again.

I LOVE the palpable excitement of little ones who are not old enough to be burdened with extra work themselves, nor even able to understand just how much extra work the holidays are for their parents. They just know that it’s Christmas time or time to eat a huge Thanksgiving meal, and they’re excited!

And I adore Christmas music! It fills my heart with joy to sing sacred songs and carols at the top of my lungs.

But perhaps my favorite part of the Christmas season is the unspoken camaraderie of folks, neighbors and strangers alike, who, in spite of having so much more on their plates, seem to have a sparkle about them, a cheeriness that exudes from their very pores as they greet one another in the street/store/church/school or at a civic event. That’s called Christmas spirit, and I, for one, adore it! I find myself basking in the warm glow of it, wishing that we could somehow hold on to that spirit all year long!

Wouldn’t year-round Christmas spirit make the world a much nicer place to be?

2. Pumpkin Hats

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My dog Jolly woke me in the middle of the night, begging to go out. Being the mom that I am, I dutifully got up, dressed, and took her for a walk.

As we stepped outside the back door, the floodlights sprang to life, illuminating our way as she quickly found a spot to squat and do her business.

As we turned back to head inside, my eyes fell upon a row of bright orange pumpkins sitting on the back steps, which were now wearing hats of snow.

It’s early November here in Vermont, and yesterday was our first real snow of the season. I love the snow. I love how clean and white it is. I love how just the very sight of it floating down from the sky can instantly put me into a Christmas mood! —to the point where yesterday, once the snow started to fall, Let it Snow absolutely poured out of me much to the annoyance of my coworkers Daphne and Kat. Daphne both laughed and groaned as I started to sing, but Kat came running over, her red hair flying, and said, "No. NO! You are not allowed to sing Christmas music before Thanksgiving! This is against the rules!"

I replied, "As much as I understand that rule Kat, it does not apply if it’s snowing out! Snow changes everything!" And for me, it does.

At the risk of repeating myself, I love snow. And for me, living in New England, the holiday season is not the holiday season unless there is snow.

3. The Joy of Flannel

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I put flannel sheets on my bed yesterday. It’s finally gotten chilly enough at night that crawling into plain cotton sheets was too cold and shivery to tolerate. On top of the initial chilliness, it just takes soooo long for cotton sheets to warm up!

The thought of sliding in between flannel sheets that are soft, warm, and enveloping is very appealing on a frosty evening! Honestly, that creature comfort is one of the things I love most about cold weather.

For me, putting flannel sheets on the bed is a rite of passage. They announce that the cold weather is here to stay, and it’s time to hunker down and nest. It’s also a sign that it’s time to rest, reflect, and dream sweet, soft flannel dreams.

4. Undressing

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Years ago, one Thanksgiving, a friend’s mother sent me to the store to buy some Italian seasoning dressing saying that I would find it in Aisle 2. This grocery store was one of the first really big ones, which meant that aisles were very long and so I walked up and down aisle 2 about 6 times (which probably took me about half an hour) looking high and low on both sides of the shelves, but as hard as I looked there was no dressing in sight.

Discouraged and sure she’d given me poor directions, I finally went to the payphone and called, telling her that there was absolutely no dressing in Aisle 2, not even so much as a bottle of olive oil or vinegar, and asked her for clarification.

There was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone, and then she erupted into laughter, saying, "I didn’t mean salad dressing, I meant stuffing! You know, dressing!?!"

This story came to mind as just the other day somebody else referred to stuffing as dressing, and I had to think twice as my brain put what she said into context before I realized she meant stuffing, and I got a laugh out of it again.

But seeing as I’ve already given you a stuffing recipe, and because I’m now talking about salad dressings, and because my sister, Merrill, requested that I (finally) reveal my secret blue cheese dressing recipe, and because, at the request of my boys, blue cheese dressing graces my table every Christmas Eve to go along with our salad, I’m sharing this recipe with you.

Enjoy!

NANCY’S SECRET BLUE CHEESE SALAD DRESSING

While I’ve used any number of varieties of blue cheese depending on availability and cost, all blue cheese is not created equal. The one I’ve found I like by far the best is Danish bleu. It’s got a lovely blue flavor that comes through without being harsh, and the texture is truly creamy and smooth.

Yields 3 cups

Ingredients

1 cup mayonnaise, well mixed

1 16-ounce container sour cream

4 teaspoons sugar (1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)

Juice of ½ lemon, seeds removed

1 teaspoon garlic granules (not garlic salt)

12 turns pepper from a mill

4 ounces (or ½ cup) blue cheese

Instructions

In a bowl, add mayonnaise and mix until smooth.

Add sour cream and incorporate it thoroughly.

Add the sugar, lemon juice, garlic granules, and pepper and mix thoroughly.

Add the blue cheese and incorporate it.

Allow the dressing to sit for an hour or overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Tips

Check to see that you like the taste balance of the base of the dressing (its sugar to lemon juice ratio, for instance) before adding the blue cheese. Doing it this way makes it easier to know what, if anything, you might want to adjust. Once you’ve added the blue cheese, it is harder to identify an issue. When you’re satisfied with the base, the blue cheese will be the proverbial icing on the cake!

Use honest-to-goodness lemon to get your juice, do not use lemon juice from a bottle, as it alters the flavor and the dressing won’t taste as good.

5. The First Snowfall

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Even though Killington Mountain opened three days after Halloween last year, it hadn’t actually snowed in my little corner of Vermont yet.

For a few days before the resort opened, however, weather people all over the place began predicting snow by nightfall. I had to run a couple of errands after work, and on my way home, it was still raining, although the thermometer in my car said it was 35 degrees.

When I got home, I found my husband looking at a truck online, and he said, "You know, I really ought