Phew! I’m glad that Christmas is finally over. I feel like ran a race in past couple of months and then in a flash it was over with the exception of pieces of wrapping paper, bows and scotch tape strewn everywhere and dirty dishes piled in the kitchen sink. Talk about a let down.
It’s just Mom and me these days, but she still wants the same things I always bake so I couldn't’t get out of that. I always do pumpkin bread for us and her neighbors, who take care of her like she is their own mother God blessed us with them: They mow her lawn, drag out her garbage, change her light bulbs and even bring her home-made chicken soup when she’s sick. I don’t worry so much about her with them there. They do whatever she needs and watch out for her. One of them puts the newspaper at her door every morning and if it isn’t gone later in the day he starts banging on her door.
Back to the baking, Mom makes cranberry-nut bread that is out of this world, but last year she ran out of steam and didn’t make it so this year we were all clamoring for those luscious loaves. Ummm! They were extra special good since we went without last year.
My Italian grandmother made up a recipe for a cross between a cookie and a donut she called Chombels, which we all loved. I figured out how to make them after she died and usually make them at Christmas time. She made them year-round, but they are too time consuming for a working person. They are made from dough that has to be kneaded and rolled and cut like a donut with the hole in the middle.
My grandfather was a dunk-er and didn’t like really sweet things so these were perfect. I used to bring some to work with me over the years and everyone would ask what I was eating. I would tell them about them and tell them they probably wouldn’t like them since they are on the bland side but they always wanted to try one anyway. And lo and behold they got hooked so each year I had to make more and more. I mailed them to my Dad in Vermont while he was alive and to my Uncle in New York until he moved to Florida.
Mom mentioned me being home making Chombels to her neighbors and they asked “what are those?” She brought them one and now they want some, too. This year, even though I didn’t have to make so many since I don’t work I put them off until the last day, Christmas Eve. I was interrupted twice with visitors while trying to make them answering the door floured nearly head to toe. I was quite a sight, I’m sure.
When I finally finished those and they were cooling I made the pumpkin pies. I finished cleaning the kitchen and taking the pies out of the oven about 9 pm. My herniated disks were screaming at me to sit down. It was a long, long day.
Well, it’s over until next year.
Now I have to make the black-eyed peas for New Year’s.
Mom hates them, but she comes up every year and eats one spoonful just in case the myth is true about them bringing good fortune for the year. We also always tack a dollar bill over the door that we use the most to come into the house following my Aunt Dorothy’s superstition that if you do this you’ll always have enough money during the year. I do it as a tip of the hat to my Auntie.
That way I always think of her when I go out that door and spy that dollar and maybe it really does work. I do know that during the hard economic times I have managed to get by monetarily even on disability so who am I to dispute the myth?
In a couple of days the New Year begins and I wonder what it will bring. No one knows but I wish you all good health, happiness and love in the coming year. These things you can have even if you don’t have money.
Happy New Year to all!