Christmas Mornings and Oyster Stew

For as long as I can remember, and even years and years before that, my family shares an extremely unique holiday tradition- we enjoy Oyster Stew as our Christmas morning breakfast. Of course, as children, my brother, sister, and I would excitedly wake our parents and spend a pretty traditional morning "oohhing" and "ahhing" over the piles of presents Santa left for us while tearing into festively wrapped gifts. After the excitement of the morning slowed, however, and the adults had enough time to finish their coffee either my dad or my grandma would head to the kitchen to start our traditional pot of Oyster Stew. The tradition dates back for generations, actually. My grandma's grandparents lived on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. As best as I can remember from the years of hearing the tale of our tradition (and I'm sure my Grandma will correct the details that are a little off) my Grandaddy Sheilds would get oysters in the shell from the Eastern shore, or if not, my great-grandmother, would find some from the local grocery store. Many families would make oyster dressing, but not ours. Our family has warmed our tummies with this creamy treat for generations. Christmas morning always has my grandma or dad standing at the stove stirring a warming pot of delicious tradition. I can literally count on one hand the Christmases that I have missed my oyster stew, including one that I spent with my family on a cruise to Mexico. To emphasize the importance, the first Christmas that I spent with my new husband's family his mom bought oysters to make oyster stuffing and oyster stew for me, and even though they didn't really like it the welcoming sentiment was ever present. This unique Christmas tradition will forever hold a very special place in my heart because of the people I share it with. Feel free to enjoy our recipe at any time of the year as I do, but sprinkled with a little Christmas morning magic, the stew tastes even better.

Oyster Stew

• 1 quart oysters (the fresher the better, and my Grandma Pop will tell you not to even bother with Gulf oysters)
• Milk- most of a gallon
• 1 stick of butter
• Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper
• oyster crackers (or saltines if you must)

1. Using a large pot, melt the stick of butter on medium high heat.

2. Fork the oysters from the container, leaving the juice and residue behind and simmer the oysters in the butter. Add several very generous shakes of Worcestershire sauce along with plenty of salt and pepper.

3. Cook oysters in the butter mixture until the edges curl (they begin to look like ruffles).

4. Slowly fill the pot with milk while stirring the oysters, butter mixture, and milk together. Fill the pot 2/3 full of milk.

5. Reduce heat to medium or medium/low, keeping the stew warm but not boiling for at least 15-20 minutes for the flavors to combine. Make sure to keep watch over the pot and stir pretty continuously. The butter will rise to the surface but should stay liquid. If the butter starts to harden, slowly turn the heat up.

6. Ladle out bowl fulls and serve with bite sized oyster crackers. Enjoy our family holiday tradition!

Thank you Grandma, Dad, and Mom for keeping this tradition alive and well in our family. It holds a very special place in my heart and in my holiday traditions. Merry Christmas!

Tea Wreath- My First Pinterest Project

Whew, I didn't think I was ever going to be able to post to this blog again. :P I had trouble logging in to the account a while ago, and then because I attempted it so many times, my access was denied. This happens sometimes, especially when you have a million accounts online with variations of pretty much the same password. The major problem occurred this time, however, when I clicked on the trusty old "password recovery" link and it look me to a page that was entirely written in arabic. Oh no. I read absolutely nothing in any language but English. I'm not quite sure if the website used my ip address to set the language or what, but to make matters worse, I couldn't find the link to translate it back. Eeeekkkkk. Normally, amist the sea of arabic letters, I can find the one word to save me from my own ignorance- (English), but this time it was no where to be found. I tried randomly clicking links, filling in foreign fields, or any form of guesswork I could manage but to no avail. The only thing I succeeded in was resetting my password to something I don't know or can't read, I'm not entirely sure which. I was positive my access to my blog was lost- until today! Then I realized Paul had editing access to "our" blog. So I will be posting from his account from now on. I only hope I don't get his access denied also. :)

Anyway- on to the real blog for today, my new addiction: Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/all/
http://pinterest.com/nikki_fiely/

I found a website that lets me save all of the little gems I find online such as recipes, cute crafts, school projects, or stuff I want to buy. It also helps me remember all of this stuff that I decide I might not be able to live without. :) First, let me explain a little about pinterest- it's basically an online version of a pin board or tack board to keep things you want to remember. Once you find a website you want to save, you "pin" it to one of your boards. It's there for others to see or for you to reference when you need it. Its quite handy, actually. And addictive. I spend quite a bit of time lazily searching through pins of others and occasionally pinning something I like while sipping tea. Then I found my first real project- a tea wreath. I had no idea I needed a tea wreath until I stumbled upon this one. It was crafty, cute, and colorful. Not to mention it displays different varieties of tea! I can't wait for someone to come over for tea and actually use my new creation by selecting their flavor of teabag from the attached clothespins, which I will be able to refill once they leave. :) My mother in law Deb and aunt Brenda will be here on the 27th, they might just get to be my guinea pigs. Otherwise, this is now an open invitation to anyone that would like to pop over for tea- I have it handily displayed for you to choose your flavor. And any of you that know me, I love having a variety of options. Now on to actually making this handy little pinterest project:




1. Create a cardboard circle of the size of desired wreath by tracing something round in that size. I choose a plate and the bottom of a salad bowl for my two circles. Make sure to leave enough room on your circle to fit clothespins!





2. Select the colors you want for your wreath. The colors of scrapbook paper and clothespins can vary. You can even choose to spraypaint the clothespins if you want the sides and middles to be a certain color. I chose to do a variety of colors but left the clothespins their natural wood color. If you are going to use this wreath to clip something besides teabags, you can choose appropriate colors accordingly. For example, if you wanted this wreath can hold Christmas cards or small advent gifts, you might choose to use red and green paper.

















3. Cover the cardboard circle with scrapbook paper by tracing the cardboard circle and cutting slits in the paper to glue to the round edges.
































4. Once the cardboard wreath is covered with the background paper, cover the clothespins. Cut the paper to size and glue to the tops of the clothespins.















5. After all of the clothespins are covered, design your wreath. Do you want the colors random, purposeful, or in a pattern? Make sure to put all of the clipping ends facing out and the pinching ends facing in the middle of the wreath. Otherwise, the tea will be on the wrong edge of the wreath.



















6. Tie a ribbon around the wreath and hang on the wall. I choose a grosgrain ribbon, because how can you go wrong with grosgrain? :) It is also available in Paperchase (Al Mushrif mall here in Abu Dhabi) in a variety of colors.




7. Clip a variety of teabags to the outside using the clothespins. You can also get really creative and make a wreath to hold notes, cards, lists, pretty much whatever you want. I love the idea of displaying a variety of tea flavors.

8. Invite friends for tea and enjoy!

9. For all of my teacher friends, this will also at some point be adapted for some kind of holiday or Mother's day gift for my students to make. Depending on the age of students, they will be able to do many of these steps. It's an easy and fairly inexpensive project that many mothers will enjoy. :)