Turkey Cranberry Wreath and Holiday Plum Cake

So many people have asked for this recipe, I decided to post it..... it is a family favorite. I am also posting my holiday plum cake recipe. This has been a holiday staple for the Roberts household since my kids were young. I make it small loaves and give it as gifts and it is beautiful made in a bundt or tube pan.




Turkey Cranberry Wreath Recipe

2 pkgs. crescent roll dough
1/2 c. mayo
2 Tblsp. honey Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. course black pepper
2 cups cooked chopped turkey (or chicken)
1/2 c. thinly sliced celery
3 Tblsp. snipped fresh parsley
1/2 c. dried cranberries (Craisins work great)
4 oz. grated swiss cheese
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
1 egg separated

Combine all ingrediants except the crescent rolls, and the egg.
Separate crescent roll dough into triangles, With wide ends facing toward the center, arrange 8 triangles in a circle on a round baking stone or a pizza baking sheet. Corners of wide ends should touch, it will look like a flower. Take remaining 8 triangles and match wide end to wide ends with points facing the center of the baking stone or baking sheet.
Scoop mixture onto the wide ends of the dough, making a circle.
Weave dough, outside piece, inside piece, alternating all the way around to make a wreath.
Take separated egg, discard or save for later use the egg yolk. Beat egg white lightly and brush over wreath.
Bake at 350- 375°F depending on your oven for 25-30 minutes.
It's really good, I've made it with leftover turkey, deli turkey (not the best though), and chicken. The cranberries really give it a zip!!

Holiday Plum Cake

Sorry folks... that one is a family secret and my daughter has forbidden me to give it away so if you got it on the one day it was on the blog...count your blessing.

Let's Party til the wedding is over !!

Thank you Aunt Harriett for the wonderful engagement party for Peter and Amy. Thank you also to all of you who came out to wish the happy couple a wonderful engagement. I feel already that my days of having Amy to myself are slipping away so quickly. I am so glad that she is marrying Peter but at the same time will miss her being within reach every day for hugs and chats and Jammie time.
I think that we will be celebrating for the next 6 months... Amy and Peter.... our new grandson , Britton and Bo's graduation from Stetson Law School in December. Once the holidays hit in a few weeks , we will be on gooooooooo time. My lofty goal of having the downstairs painted by Thanksgiving and the Archdale house on the market is pressing in on me now. What am I doing taking time to blog??????? gotta go !

Now the paint choices !

It is incredible how many shades of green are in the paint chip racks...and gold and red and any other color. You can even choose between hundreds of shades of cream or white...WHITE .. I kid you not ! Each night I pull all the paint chips out and go from room to room to see if one of them just sort of jumps out at me and says" I am the one !". Eventually, I will just pick one and go with it and for the most part that works. A decorator told me once that if you pick a palette of three colors and stick with them ( varying hues are allowed) that you can never go wrong. Fall colors work best with me. I just feel good around them ..they are warm and cozy. So , on with the "broken pot " which is a shade of terra cotta ... and paint on with the "restrained gold" ... what does that mean? Hopefully, when it is all on the walls the house will look" lived in" . That is the shade for which I am really striving. Picking the colors has been difficult but now the real hard part .... picking up the roller ! The holiday crush is on.

Like I have time and Money to Decorate right now !

The wedding is just around the corner...right after the holidays and decorating for that season, Bo's graduation Dec. 20th in Tampa and still trying to get the house on the market ( old house ).
I do not really have time to decorate and shop and paint but the ox is in the ditch so who needs sleep really? Jim and I are off on a little 4 day jaunt to Niagara Falls to attend a wedding and see friends but not before I get this dining room at least a jump start to the holiday frenzy. Jim picked up the table and sideboard for me today. I just love them. The table is 86 inches long at it's longest but has many configurations from 2 people to 10. The chairs are most favorite furniture I have ever bought. I cannot wait to get the new tapestry on them and have a few precious friends over for dinner.
The wedding plans are moving.. We booked a site for the reception. It is a beautiful ballroom and will make a great spot for a big celebration. Everyone is so excited. Amy has waited a long time to find her perfect match. She just started a new job as well. Her new job is perfect for her and pays her very well and she is working in her field which is rare. She is an instruction designer for The Citadel. We are a Citadel family so her love for the school is just icing on the cake.
Kelly loves her job. Sophie and Caleb are doing well . Caleb and I have the best time the 4 days I have him each week. He is very into superheroes ! I have learned all the names of every superhero group that exists. I did not know I would get such an education. He has mastered the computer now. He can navigate around and print his heroes very well.
Bo is doing really well. He will study from graduation until Feb. and then take the Florida bar. I am sad that he is not moving home to Charleston but happy he will only be a days drive away. We are all looking forward to the holidays ! Turkey, broccoli salad, pumpkin pie, plum cake.... I can feel the pounds just thinking about it all. I love Christmas so as much as I do not really have time, I am sure that the house will be loaded down with decorations. I hope you all are enjoying the fall ! The colors here are just starting to turn. Back to the dining room project...

They are even cuter than the picts !

Jim and I got a chance to see some of our little "youth group grands" over the weekend. Donald and Mary Beth brought " Charley" to see us and we also got to love on little Jrew Rose. Thomas and Dita were in town and brought him to see us ! I promise you that even those pictures you see here on the blog are not as cute as these two little ones are in person. I had a hard time letting go of them at the end of the visit. Jrew is just a little shrinky dink of Thomas and Charley is sooooooo beautiful. They were both as sweet as they could be. Donald and Marybeth and Thomas and Dita are doing a wonderful job as parents and each of them love their new roles.
The Spanns live in Greenville and the Roses live in Nashville. Too far away from Auntie MJ.

Retirement is not for the faint of Heart

Ahhh! Retirement. You spend your whole life thinking that day will come when you can put aside your work and rest and enjoy traveling, chillin with friends, relaxing on the beach, boating. Well, hopefully, it is coming but to date I have not seen any sign of it. The work only changes. No one tells you that with retirement comes grandchildren, weddings for your offspring, graduations and aging parents and aunts. There is no mention of the mounds of paperwork that still pour into your box and the upkeep on all the things you have aquired over the years of hard labor. My niece, Mandy was complaining about her new schedule the other day. School all day and then work. I said " welcome to the real world, honey". She quickly retorted, You ain't got no job!"
So innocently said my dear. My job is 3 houses to be upkept, one to get market ready, one to decorate and unpack, one to continuously clean and ready for friends and parties, one grandchild to print superheroes for each day, one husband ( God bless him, he is the overlooked one in all of this) , paperwork and computer work... for the house, the ministry of JOY, the wedding, a wedding to plan , a graduation to prepare for, food in the house, calendar to keep and that is only what I can think of at this moment. I HAVE A JOB ! School and a 3 hour a day job, trade me anytime. That said, I have a blessed and wonderful life so not complaining just making sure all of you know that retirement is not what you think. Enjoy your life whatever stage you are in !
Life is sooooo busy that for the first time in 32 years, I did not get out to buy a birthday present for my two wonderful girls last week. Late but not forgotten girls. It will come when you least expect it. LIFE is Busy !

Let the planning begin...

Well, it is well underway ! The planning and stressing out for the wedding of Amy and Peter. All we know so far is it will be in the spring. Unbelievable to me is that all the places we have called for the reception site are booked for all of April, May and June until 2011. Is that incredible that people are planning for a wedding in 3 years? I am sure the right place will surface but for now Amy and I are online and onphone searching for the perfect venue.
Over the weekend we did manage to get away to a nonservice area for mobile phones which gave us a much needed and forced rest. We spent the weekend at Givhans Ferry state park enjoying the family reunion. It is an annual event where we reunite with cousins and aunts , uncles and catch up on the latest weddings, engagements, babies, deaths and happenings. We had a cabin and 2 campspots so it was a lot of fun.
NO PHONE SERVICE ! That was really a challenge for everyone. I don't know what earth shattering news we missed. How did we ever manage without the constant connection to the world.The weather was perfect for camping ( though I slept in the cabin) and it was really great to taste all the home made dishes at the reunion dinner. The bluegrass tradition continued with the younger generation taking the helm. Clary and Scottie have really mastered the mandolin and all the guitars and singing and violin were awesome. If you closed your eyes, you could just pretend the Old Grady Boys were there . I am sure that if they could hear , they would be pleased to know the tradition has not been lost.
The calendar continues to be filled with so much activity ! The holidays are now getting close.. Bo will graduate , Amy will get married, my house will get decorated, Kelly's stint at teaching will end, the custody battle will get solved, the new pastor will get chosen and installed, the garage will get cleaned and organized and Jim and I will survive it all. What dream am I in again????

The Caterpillar or as Caleb calls it... clattapeeler

Last week, Caleb found a pretty lime green caterpillar on a leaf outside our house. We brought him in and put him on the leaf in a cup. The caterpillar had no idea who had moved him or even that he had been moved but I imagine that in a very few minutes he had an instinct to start moving toward freedom. If he could think ( in human terms) he would have been saying " hey wait a minute... what is going on... why am I in this prison and what is going to happen to me... what can I do to escape?" He did not know that all along the plan was to carefully feed him, watch him and eventually return him to freedom as a beautiful butterfly. In his little green cup , he had food, safety from predators and an audience to watch his beautiful spinning , sleeping and eventual flight BUT he did not know that... He did not know that there was oversight and protection for him. He thought surely that being free of this " unexpected bad situation" was the best thing for him.
YOU guessed it...he escaped. I looked for him for a little while and then assumed he would never be found. That night, Amy found him...well half of him...on the kitchen floor. He was still wiggling but not viable so he ended up in the caterpillar morgue.
Life lessons filled my head....
How many times an unexpected bad situation comes along for us. We think ...How can I escape this...Don't we know that God the omnipotent, God the provider, God the overseer and protector has a plan for us..... In Jeremiah...one of our favorite and most quoted passages, God says, I know the plans I have for you.....for good and not evil ....to give you a future and a hope. Like the caterpillar ....we do not see the protection and plan so we wiggle to get free and change our circumstance.... instead of appreciating the provisions and blessings we do have , we focus on the things we do not have or the thing we want to happen. God's timing is good. He wants to spin us into a cocoon with our temporary capture and see us through to our eventual flight all the time knowing that we will be more beautiful for the experience. Those who " wait on the Lord" see that good plan come to fruition...those who fight it and escape sometimes find a worse situation on the other side. The Word tells us to Wait on the Lord.... to be patient in trials and persevere.... that is when we build character and also come into the perfect plan He has for us...
Next time you fall into a "prison" trust that God has your back ! Wait on Him and see what beauty he will bring from the experience.

AND the move continues

We are going on the 3rd month in the new house and I am amazed at how many boxes are in the garage and still unpacked !!! You might recall that when we moved from Niagara Falls, we sold everything with the house to the new commander there. We only brought our personal items and a few treasured antiques... all the furniture and accessories were left in the house. We still managed to fill the largest u-haul truck available. What was in that truck???? Now I am finding out. Craft supplies I will never use, clothes I will never wear, dishes from which I will never eat or serve,COATS I WILL NEVER WEAR ( THANK YOU , LORD) you get the picture. I am trying as I unpack to get rid of all of it. The kidney foundation and goodwill will have to build a new location. Truthfully, if someone set the garage on fire( the storage spot for all of this) I would have a hard time saying what was in there. STUFF ! Do we really need stuff? I think if I could bring myself to it, I could live on white t-shirts, black pants a few blazers and a few scarves. Think how easy life would be. That will be my new project.
Well, the camper life is out for now. The auction campers turned out to be in terrible shape and the base did not make us take them. For now, I will continue to live in the house and try to get it ready for the holidays. This will be another weekend that I do not accomplish this because Cindy and I are still in the process of moving my aunt to her new apartment. That will take the weekend to get the bulk of her stuff over there. Talk about stuff !!!! We did manage to get rid of about 20 huge bags of stuff from her place. WHERE do they put all the stuff when you get rid of it? I hate to think about the landfills etc.... hopefully, they burn all this stuff.
Let's talk about coffee. It is kind of like salad, always taste better when someone else brews it. I have tried every coffee on the shelves. I even joined Javalia and ordered coffee from them for a while... got the free coffee pot and everything. I have yet to find a coffee to brew at home that tastes as good as the fine restaurants serve. What is the secret? Do you have a coffee you swear by? My mother makes the finest coffee I have tasted . She has given me her secrets...you buy Maxwell House Master Blend... You use a heaping teaspoon for every two cups ( cups meaning her cups she uses to drink from) and then you dash the grounds with a little salt before brewing in an electric percolator. I followed all of the instructions and still cannot get the house to smell like hers when her coffee is brewing and cannot get that taste. It must just have to do with being home. I have to think back a long way to get visions of home where I grew up. That will be another post.
Must move on to my day. Caleb is on the way and we are taking a picnic on the boat with Big Daddy. Have a great day!

The weekend went by fast. Bo was here for a wedding with his good friends, Dennis, Angelo, Matt and Anna and he brought his friend, Jessie with him from Florida. They all stayed at the beach house. I have yet to go out there and see if it is still standing. Dennis informed me that they cleaned up before they left. Amazed that it even crossed his mind, I will report later what that means in his glossary because I can assure you that it will not meet my standard. In the past, I have found items I cannot discuss here and wondered if it was really my house when I entered due to the sand, beer can and general untidyness of it all. The old house will survive them and I only hope that the memories everyone makes there will be good ones. I only got one little hour with Bo over the weekend . We met for lunch Sunday and then he and Jessie flew the simulator for an hour before they hit the road back to law classes and Florida. Dec. 20th is on the way. Pray for Bo to do well on the bar in Feb. and to find a good job.
I have really enjoyed keeping my grandson , Caleb. Today was just an ordinary day, nothing to speak of but even those days are special when he is around.
My sister , Cindy and I have been moving my aunt's household from an apartment on James Island to one closer to us. Did I mention I hate moving? I am sure I did somewhere in my blogs from the last couple of months since I am still moving into my new house.
Jim and I won an auction for a pop up camper this week and I am considering whether to chuck everything and move into it. Wouldn't that be the simple life. You could move around visiting great spots and when you decide you don't like the people or the weather, you just jump in your car and pull your little home along to the next adventure. How much trouble could it be to clean?
Think of the money you would save !!! Even gas prices would be okay if that was your home.
Cindy and Scott also won one in the auction. We have not seen them yet...YES, you read that right, we bought them sight unseen. This could be a mistake but for the price we paid, we could put new tires, new mattresses and new awnings and even new ac and still come out on top ! Now you might say, I did not know that Dixie was a camper.... you are right , I am not a camper but if I do go camping, I am not sleeping on the ground so for the 2 times a year that I may go to the reunion at Givhans or take a little mountain trip, it will be fun. Also , all my kids now have access to a pop up so I think it is a good purchase. Bo may end up needing a home if he does not pass the bar so I can soooooooo see him in the pop up.
Amy started her new job today. I am a little sad because it has been great having her at home to jump in the car and do errands, etc.. Now it is back to Boogie and me.
I met the mom and sister of one of my new cadets over the weekend. Great people ...easy to see why my cadets are so special. I think they are doing really well.
The next few months are busy.... may not blog much but will try to keep in touch with all of you who have a blog. Adios