happy new year – Bead Yarn & Spatula

A New Year Tradition Revamped

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday season. Can you believe 2023 has rolled in already? I am convinced that after July 4^th the year basically just flies by. At that point the summer is sort of winding down. Yes, I know that sounds crazy considering that July is just starting and there’s still August to get through. But, after that it seems like the anticipation of summer fun fades away. And then September rolls in and it’s all about back-to-school and the Fall. And before you know it it’s Halloween and then Thanksgiving and lo and behold the Holidays are upon us again. Not trying to be negative or anything but it’s definitely true that as you get older time somehow goes by faster. It’s probably because we are more aware of days, dates and holidays and everything that must – and needs to – get done. All the traditions and things we just do because we have been doing them forever. The holidays are the perfect time to get caught up in that. As they say, it’s hard to break with tradition. Not that there is anything wrong with it, I’m guilty of it myself.

For as long as I can remember I’ve eaten ham on New Year’s Day. It was something that my parents always cooked on New Year’s Day. I am not a 100% sure why, I vaguely recall my mom saying it was for good luck. I did a Google search once and as it turns out there’s a belief that you should eat pork on New Year’s Day as pigs move their snouts forward when eating – or something to that effect. This forward motion brings you luck in the new year. Here’s the thing though, I am not a fan of ham! There may have been a few times when I did enjoy it and look forward to eating it but definitely not often. The tradition is so engrained in me though that even though my dad passed away 7 years ago, and my mom has been in a nursing home longer than that I still make ham for myself on New Year’s Day! Subconsciously it’s probably a way for me to feel comforted and connected to memories.

For a few years I would begrudgingly eat the ham for a few days. And let me tell you even the smallest ham is too big so there would always be a ridiculous amount of leftovers even after me eating it for those days. One year, I even chopped up some of the ham and froze it convinced that I would do something with it, I didn’t, and it ended up getting tossed. Two years ago, I decided to make soup with it. And it was the best decision ever. So now, I look forward to the ham only because of the soup I know I will be making with it. For tradition’s sake though I still eat a slice or two on New Year’s Day. Come January 2^nd though it’s time for Ham & Potato Soup.

I like to think it’s somewhat healthy since it is homemade and loaded with vegetables.

Just ignore the stick of butter and whole milk that’s also needed to make it. Truth be told, those are the ingredients that help to make it creamy and delicious so they can’t be omitted.

Unfortunately, even after making my delicious soup I still have more than half of the ham left in my fridge. I was hoping to buy a small canned one this year but by the time I got to the supermarket they only had 2 large ones left and I wasn’t in the mood to start driving around looking for a small one. So, once again I will chop up some of it and freeze it and really make a conscious effort to use it for other things. Maybe I will make something controversial like a Ham & Pineapple Pizza. LOL!

Ham & Potato Soup

Servings: 6
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Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

1/2 cup celery, diced

3 cups potatoes, peeled and chopped*

2 1/2 cups cooked ham, diced

5 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 cup flour

4 cups (32 oz. carton) low-sodium chicken broth

3 cups whole milk

Salt and pepper, to taste

*Use 1 very large or 2 medium potatoes. Chop the potatoes into decent sized chunks as they will break down as the soup cooks.

Directions:

In a large pot melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and sauté until the carrots begin to soften and the onions are translucent. About 4-5 minutes.

Add the ham and potatoes, stir everything together and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Stir in the stock, mixing everything together. Bring to a boil, cover the pot and boil for 10-12 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir occasionally.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and add in the milk. Stir until the mixture begins to thicken and the soup is heated through.

Season with salt and pepper.

Recipe first appeared on Bead Yarn & Spatula.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! While there are some years we would like to hold on to, 2020 is one year where we can all agree we are happy to see come to a close. Granted, it’s not like midnight will hit and all the problems that we have faced this year will fade away, but, turning the page and starting anew with a new year gives people greater hope as opposed to a new month rolling in.

What I think most of us have found this year is inner strength, renewed appreciation for family and friends, who the real heroes are and who we really should admire and look up to, and just how fragile life is. That last one is one that I learned quite some time ago and because of it I do my best to appreciate every day and to find humor in things even in the worst of times. Laughter truly is the best medicine.

And speaking of humor, there are some light-hearted things we have learned this year that are just as important… That your pets make great coworkers (I’m looking at you “Bob the Bird”), that you finally learned where mute is on Zoom, how to position a camera properly so you look amazing on video calls (and no one sees your pajama bottoms), and that you have hidden talents like making sourdough or is it sourdough starter. Sorry, I didn’t jump on that trend. The only trend I tried was Dalgona Coffee and I actually made a chocolate version instead.

I wonder what the trends of 2021 will be. Will we still be making Hot Cocoa Bombs? I hope so. I was late to that one, so I have yet to try it. I’m also hoping to learn Macrame. But we’ll see, that seems to be an expensive hobby.

I leave you with the lyrics to the song “Better Days” by the Goo Goo Dolls. It was originally released in 2005 and once again this year on their Christmas Album. I think the message is perfect for this holiday season and as we go into 2021… Hopefully we all will find better days.

And you asked me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days
‘Cause I don’t need boxes wrapped in strings
And designer love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
‘Cause everyone is forgiven now
‘Cause tonight’s the night the world begins again

I need some place simple where we could live
And something only you can give
And that’s faith and trust and peace while we’re alive
And the one poor child who saved this world
And there’s ten million more who probably could
If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

So take these words and sing out loud
‘Cause everyone is forgiven now
‘Cause tonight’s the night the world begins again

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just a chance that maybe we’ll find better days

So take these words and sing out loud
‘Cause everyone is forgiven now
‘Cause tonight’s the night the world begins again

‘Cause tonight’s the night the world begins again

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! The holidays are quickly winding down. Truthfully, and I think most would agree, the holidays just seemed to fly by this season. Mainly due to the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With Thanksgiving falling so late there was less than a month to get everything ready for Christmas. Besides posting my annual Cookie Palooza recipes I just didn’t have time to blog anything else during the month of December. That doesn’t mean I didn’t do a lot of baking though. There were chocolate covered pretzels, Almond Biscotti (these were so good that I ended up baking a second batch the day after making the first), a few cakes (one of which was supposed to be a tangled lights decorated cake but turned into a congratulatory cake for my oldest niece after competing in her very first gymnastics tournament and placing in a few of the events), and of course cookies, cookies and more cookies. I baked about 300 cookies in one day and by the end of the day the smell of sweets and sugar was just too much for me to handle.

So here we are in a new year and a new decade. Truthfully it didn’t really dawn on me that a new decade was upon us until I was watching the news and they started talking about it. I was just thinking of how the year had gone by so fast. And granted one could say that about every year, but, 2019 in particular seemed to fly by to me. I was thinking about things that happened and they didn’t seem like months ago but more so days ago. I have heard that one of the perils of getting older is that time goes by faster. Maybe it’s because you have a greater realization of things happening. As a kid I think you forget more than you remember but as an adult everything that happens gets filed away so it’s easy to measure things by the events in our lives. My dad has been gone 4 years and I still measure things from before and after his death as well as before and after he got sick. I’ll remember something or see something from a particular year and I measure it against these dates. Not always a good thing. But, it is a good reminder to me of how quickly things can change and can happen. It’s true what they say that life can change in the blink of an eye.

And for many a new year means resolutions to change things in their lives or do things differently. I myself have never made a New Year’s resolution. I personally believe that there is no time like the present to make a change for the better. Every day you are given the opportunity to do things better and/or differently than the day before. So why not grab on to that as opposed to waiting for the year to change. Let’s say you fail at your resolution in February, does that mean you should wait 10 months to try again? Absolutely not! So, instead of resolutions I’ll look back and see if I have grown as a person over the course of time. Of course there are things that I would like to be different, but, at the end of the day I am content. And being content makes it a bit easier to work on those things that I would like to change.

So, what’s on my plate for 2020 so far… A semi-monumental college reunion that I may or may not attend and a pretty exciting vacation! And of course more baking and crafting. Next month marks 8 years that I have been blogging. And while I may not have the amount of followers that others have, I am still trudging along and thankful for those of you who do follow me and welcome any and all new readers. I enjoy baking, crafting, photographing, writing, and everything else that makes up my blog so I will continue on! Besides, good things come to those who wait.

I leave you with two pics…

A pic of the Christmas cake I made (this was totally not the design I had in mind for this cake, but, I had a frosting fail at 10p on a work-night so I had to improvise and was happy with the outcome)…

And the cake I made for New Year’s Eve – I decided to try out the decorated sheet cake trend. After piping the designs on to the cake I then sprayed it with Wilton’s Color Mist in pearl and sprinkled it with a mixture of festive sprinkles…

Happy 2020!

A New Year…

The holidays are officially over! Yes, I believe in the 12 days of Christmas and that the holidays officially end on January 6^th. Too bad I can’t gifts like the song though, not necessarily 5 golden rings, but maybe 5 skeins of yarn and 4 pairs of shoes as opposed to the calling birds. You catch my drift. All in all though my holidays were good. Filled with good times with friends and family and delicious food and treats. I am planning on getting my house back to “normal” this week. I unplugged my Christmas lights this morning, I never want to be the house with the lights on after the fact, and will start taking down decorations today. Not like it’s a lot, but, I don’t want to just rip it all down and throw it back in the box. I like to take my time.

How has the New Year been treating you thus far? A week in and I have no complaints. Although one could complain but it doesn’t mean anything will change overnight. I am not one to make resolutions. If you want to make a change then make it. I read an article recently that said we sometimes make these grand resolutions without truly giving thought as to how to accomplish them. You can’t simply say I am going to lose weight this year. There has to be something behind it. For example, I will walk/jog/run x amount of days per week, or I will watch my intake of certain foods, and so forth. I think making small life changes like that can have a bigger impact on one that some broad goal. I do apologize if that is your resolution and I just burst your bubble. By no means was that my intention. And while I don’t make specific resolutions I think what I am trying to keep in mind this year is Einstein’s definition of insanity… Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I know I want certain things to happen and other things to change but hoping they will happen without doing anything differently isn’t going to get my anywhere near those goals. I hope you will all get something out of that one. It’s definitely an important life lesson that can drive us to take chances and push us out of our comfort zones, which I have found always leads to a rewarding experience. There’s nothing like finding out you are a lot stronger physically, mentally and emotionally than what you think.

One thing I need to stop doing this year is being a procraftinator. Yes, you read that correctly, a procraftinator. I have numerous projects lying around that need to be finished. Just how bad am I? Well, I have a shrug that I finished knitting 3 years ago that I still haven’t stitched together. Don’t ask me why, I can’t really give you an answer on that one. Maybe it’s because finishing my yarn projects is my least favorite activity. But, I am sure once I start and finish I will be so happy I did. I also have a scarf I started over the summer (or maybe it was sooner) that I put down and just never picked up again. This seems to a recurrent problem of mine… LOL! I just put something else on my knitting needles that I am determined to finish, especially since it’s a small project, a coffee cozy. A friend gave me a cup for Christmas that needs one if I plan on drinking hot tea from it. I began to think that just maybe I could make them and sell them on my Etsy shop. Yes, I still have my Etsy shop (CraftedByFran). I haven’t mentioned it, but, it’s still there. I have actually found it a bit frustrating because getting sales is such a challenge, well, getting traffic to my shop is the main challenge. I have updated my keywords and still nothing. Not really sure how some people have it so easy. If any of you can offer some tips and tricks I am all ears!

And just maybe this year I will work on creating my own baking recipes. Cooking is a lot easier and forgiving, but, baking not so much. I have dabbled with it and have had success but I definitely need to delve more into it. I always have recipe ideas swirling around in my head, but I just need to build the confidence to come up with the ingredient list on my own and not depend on Google so much. I have baked enough that I should be able to do so. Who knows, maybe one day I will write my own cookbook. It would definitely be a mish mosh of different things… LOL! Did I just throw something out into the universe? Oh wait, I didn’t explain that one. Some people believe that in order for things to come to fruition you need to say them to the universe. I guess the universe needs to hear you in order to answer you.

Hopefully I will be blogging more often and including more posts like these. A little rambling, a little insight, a little more about me. I’ve been doing this for about 7 years now so I figured it’s about time. So, I welcome 2019 and whatever it has to offer and teach me.