Long Time No Blog, eh?

Hello peoples.  I am a very bad blogger, neglecting you for two and a half months (yikes!).  We have been so busy here at Casa Paja, it's insane.  Good thing we specialize in that *evil grin*
So without further ado, flash update: COMMENCE!

The Godfather, Mamasita, and Beena got to enjoy a mid-winter vacation to Florida earlier in the month.  The Godfather won a company trip that included staying in a nice resort, going to Universal's Islands of Adventure, and eating a ton of free food.  In addition, they visited the grandparents, swam in the pool (not the ocean, it was too cold), and got to escape the 10-degrees-and-below weather that Ribbajack and I were blessed with.  We stayed home to finish Confirmation, so we didn't begrudge them any of it... well, not much of it, anyway.

Ribbajack has recently joined a local shooting club that does competitive air rifle shooting.  Ribbajack wowed the instructors at his first session and has been steadily improving, so much so that he will be in his first competition on Saturday!  I'll let you know how that goes.

Ribbajack and I have spent the last five months working closely with our church's Confirmation class of 2012, which came to a fine conclusion two weeks ago.  The whole experience was wonderful; we made some great friends, learned a lot with them, and had the honor of serving serving at their Confirmation Mass.  It was well worth all the time and energy, and we would happily do it again!

I'm in my last semester of high school, so I have been spending a lot of time on college prep.  Research, applications, essays, visits... the works.  When I'm not working on school related stuff, I'm knitting up a storm.  Big Sissy is expecting twins in May, and 2 of my brothers are getting married shortly after that, so I have a ton of stuff I need to make.  In case there's anybody reading this who I haven't told yet: I'm leaving Casa Paja next Thursday (March 1) to stay with Big Sissy as an extra pair of hands to help with all the squidjees (No, not squeegees).  I'm very excited!  Excited enough that I can almost get over how much I dislike packing, and the rest I will gladly offer up.

I do intend to update the blog from time to time, since life at the ranch will still be plenty interesting even without me in it.  Maybe I'll start a separate blog recounting my escapades... What do you think?

Since Lent started yesterday, would anyone like to share what they gave up or are doing extra as a penance? I'm giving up reading novels, Beena and Mamasita gave up chocolate, and I don't know what the menfolk gave up.  Ribbajack did try the age-old "I'm giving up school" ploy, but that has yet to work for him.  How about you?  What will this Lent mean for you?

The Origin of the Picayune

Did you know that this blog is not the first Prairie Picayune?  I wish I had some cool historical fact to throw at you, but in truth the name is a Casa Paja clan original that we use for our Christmas letter.  Our family has sent out a Christmas letter since long before I was born, but it's only been called The Prairie Picayune for the last 15 years.  The name changed when we moved out onto the "prairie" of eastern Colorado, so that part was easy, but what about "picayune"?  One of  the definitions for "picayune" (pronounced "pick-ah-yoon") is "something trivial", which is us acknowledging our own comparative unimportance to the miracle of Christmas, while still managing to be whimsical about it.

The writing of the Picayune is a long-standing tradition that has been passed down from sibling to sibling; eventually, even Beena will have her turn to be Editor in Chief.  Tradition, though, has nothing to do with punctuality since we seldom actually manage to get the Christmas letter out before Christmas; one year, it was almost Easter when we finally published it.  But the point is not whether we get it out on time, the point is that the Picayune helps us chronicle our lives and keep the people in our lives close.  Welcome to our family tradition!

P.S.  Happy Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe!  O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

How-To's Day: A St. Nick's Day Treat

Hello peoples!  Yes, I have been a very bad blogger, but Christmas is coming and I have much crafting and baking to do.  Speaking of which, did you know that today is the Feast of St. Nicholas?  St. Nick's Day is a mid-Advent celebration with a very simple tradition: the night before, all the kids in the house put a slipper or sock outside their bedroom door, and in the morning "St. Nicholas" will leave them some kind of treat in it.  It's a lot of fun, particularly for the little kids!

Now I realize that it's a little late to start this tradition this year, but it's never too late to bake treats!  What we have for you today is a cookie recipe that was sent to us in an email so many years ago, I don't even know who it came from.  These are not St. Nick's day cookies, necessarily, but they are delicious and they have a story all their own.  So without further ado:
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Sweet Revenge
I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas and decided to have a small dessert.  Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus Cookie".  It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe and the waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not."  Well I said, "Would you let me buy the recipe?"  With a cute smile, she said, "Yes."  I asked how much, and she responded, "Only two fifty!"  "It's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab."  Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.  I looked again and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for the two salads and about $20 for a scarf.  As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250"  That's outrageous!  I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it was "two fifty", which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars by any possible interpretation of the phrase.  Neiman-Marcus refused to budge.  They would not refund my money, because, according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem.  You have already seen the recipe - we absolutely will not refund your money."  I explained to her the criminal statutes which governed fraud in Texas, I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud.  I was basically told, "Do what you want, we don't give a darn, and we're not refunding your money."  I waited, thinking of how I could get even, or even try and get any of my money back.  So I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250, and I'm now going to have $250 worth of fun."  I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an email account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free.  She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this."  I said, "Well, you should have thought of that before you ripped me off," and slammed down the phone on her.
So here it is!  Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of.  I paid $250 for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever make another penny off this recipe...


Neiman-Marcus Cookies:
(Recipe may be halved)


Ingredients:
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
18 oz. chocolate bar, grated
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)


Directions:
Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.  Cream the butter and both sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda.  Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts.  roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack, otherwise they will fall apart.


Makes approximately 120 cookies.
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The original author is unknown, but I salute this person wholeheartedly.  Just a quick note: if you have gluten allergies to deal with, these cookies are easily adapted.  Simply swap the wheat flour 1 for 1 with Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Mix, or something equivalent.  Nobody will be able to tell the difference!

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

How-To's Day: The Christmas Cactus

I finally have a how-to for you this week! (and there was much rejoicing....)  For years, Mamasita has had a fascination with the Christmas Cactus.  It's a very pretty plant even when it's not blooming, but the flowers themselves are especially pretty.  Christmas cacti are a good fit for our family because they are relatively easy to care for and keep on blooming year after year.  They are pretty hardy in-door plants, but every once in a while we accidentally knock off one of it's little branches.  The cool thing about Christmas cacti, though, is that  a broken branch has the opportunity to become an entirely new plant.  If you take the broken piece right away and set it in some water, after a few days you'll start to see little roots:

When those roots start to look strong enough, you can plant the new shoot in its own pot.  To help retain water, we always put a few rocks at the bottom:

Once you finish planting the cactus in the soil, you should water it to help it get over the shock of replanting:

When your cactus get's big enough, it'll start blooming; first with little buds...

Then the buds will get bigger...

And bigger...

Until they burst into full bloom!

What the camera wasn't able to capture is the natural sparkle that these flowers have, but as you can see, Mamasita's Christmas cacti blossom in glorious pink and white.  Christmas cacti can bloom in other colors, too, but I've only ever seen this one.  If you decide to try it, let us know if you have any questions!
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Just like everybody else, we have a whole bunch of Thanksgiving and family madness to partake in this week, so there won't be any more posts until at least next Monday.  In the meantime, I thank God for anyone and everyone who reads this blog and I ask His blessing on every single one of you, with a special intention that all of you who are traveling have safe and uneventful passage on your way.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Old Cartoons Vs. New Cartoons

Has anyone besides me noticed the severe drop in quality of kids cartoons these days?  When I was a kid, I watched stuff like Justice League, Veggie Tales, and Samurai Jack...  I even watched things that were outside of my decade and yet are totally immortal, such as The Animaniacs, the original animated Batman, Tom and Jerry, and Looney Tunes.  These were and are all good shows that I still enjoy very much, so it's really sad to me that the entire cartoon industry seems to have gone into a decline.

These days, cartoon shows consist of: characters whose very physical forms don't make any sense; pointless or nonexistent plots; vulgar jokes instead of anything that resembles real wit; and a tendency to be so fast-paced and obnoxious that kids are left with absolutely no time to think.  To me, that doesn't sound like it's in any way beneficial or even very entertaining.  In fact, there was a study done that shows that these types of cartoons can adversely affect a child's ability to focus.  You can read all about it here.  (Yes, she is ranting, officer, but what do you plan on doing about it?)

In a nutshell, somebody needs to tell the cartoon writers to slow down and use their brains a little more so that maybe the kids who sit through their shows will have brains by the end of it.  In the meantime, I will be consoling myself with Batman.  Ciao!

Happy Menoversary to Us!

I was honestly considering not posting today.  I couldn't think of anything to say, so why bother?  Then I realized that today is the first menoversary of this blog.  How exciting is that?

What do you mean "menoversary" isn't a word?  Sure it is, Urban Dictionary says so!  I'm sure that means it's a real word... * searches through unabridged dictionary *... Huh.  Guess not.  At least not for now.  That's the great thing about the English language: make up a word, get a lot of people to use it, and voila! you've added something to the American dialect, possibly even the dictionary.  I've lost rounds of Boggle to my brothers because they somehow combined random letters into things that I was dead certain weren't actual words, but then a quick search through the dictionary proved them right and me wrong.  Some of those words you definitely wouldn't use in a conversation and some of them specifically said they were "informal English" (can you say "bad English"?), but they were words nonetheless.  For instance, Ribbajack once came up with "neep", which you'd think is something like "the sound you make when you sit in something wet and cold", but in reality is the Scottish word for turnip.  Strange? Yes, but at least now you've expanded your vocabulary!

I'm something of a Grammar/Spelling Nazi and the wanton torture of the English language pains me, so to the end of keeping people enlightened, I have a little something for you:

Cranberry Sauce Revamped!

Ugh.  I missed How-To's Day again...  Yesterday was just one of those off days.  You know how it is: when you've got a headache most of the day, you can't seem to get anything done, and you zone out while watching Die Hard with the guys.  One of those days...

Thankfully, though, I'm back on an even(-ish) keel: I have coffee in hand and I'm good to go.

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Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away, and I'm sure you're all working on your shopping and menu planning for that.  Just don't forget the cranberry sauce!

I'm not sure where this came from, but at some point in time somebody came up with the idea that cranberry mash was the perfect item to serve with Thanksgiving dinner, and it has inexplicably become an American tradition.  Now you can just open a can of cranberry sauce, plop it in a bowl and set it on the table without a second thought.

There are very few things that my family believes are acceptable to eat directly from the can, and cranberry sauce isn't one of them.  Instead, we make a cran-apple Jello mold that is utterly delicious and works well whether you have turkey or ham for your holiday meal.  I'd like to say that we came up with this idea ourselves, but that would be dishonest.  Mamasita found the recipe on a can of Musselman's applesauce I don't know how many years ago.  We've made it for as long as I can remember, and I honestly can't imagine Thanksgiving dinner (or Christmas, for that matter) without cran-apple Jello.  It's super easy and really popular with the kids; I highly recommend that you try it!  

Cran-Apple Mold

Ingredients:

2 packages (3 oz. each) cherry flavored gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (16 oz.) whole cranberry sauce

1 3/4 cups apple sauce

Directions:

1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water

2. Stir in cranberry sauce until melted.  Mix in apple sauce.  Pour into oiled 5-cup mold.  Chill until firm.

3. Flip mold onto a plate and enjoy!

Speaking of cranberries, that reminds me of something:

Happy Wednesday!