New Year’s Eve - December 31, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

I’ve been a real slug-a-bed lately and didn’t get up until 5:45AM. This of course alarms the furball because he doesn’t get to spend an hour reminding me to feed him at 6AM.

It turned into a pretty nice day, warmer and mostly sunny. I got my post up, got the kitchen cleaned up, got a shower, and sat down off and on. My helper friend had called from the dentist’s office at 8AM. He was getting an emergency tooth repair and might not be here until 11, if then.

So I had plenty of time to plan the day and get things ready. I was hoping to do a lot of cooking. He arrived at 11:15AM and I sent him on errands. I had most of the stuff needed for cooking laid out when he got back and we got started.

We got the vegetables prepped and sautéing. Then I remembered to ask him to see how long a 10” taper takes to burn down. The answer was, roughly 10 hours. It was after 1PM, so I lit the bayberry candle.

I was given a pair for Christmas by my friend. I shared one with my youngest brother who took it to CT for New Year’s.

More about bayberry candles can be found here.

source

Next I sprayed coconut oil on the 10” x 2” pie pans. Then I coated them well with grated Parmesan cheese.

The first one, he said oh, you don’t have to mix everything together first, as I was getting out a big bowl to do so. So we didn’t. And we forgot to add the cheese before the eggs. So I sprinkled at least 1½ cups of the grated 3 cheese mix on top, making sure it went to the edges.

That one’s vegetables had been cooled on the back porch stoop and had a good amount of liquid in the pan. I didn’t want to just dump it in, afraid it would make the pie too wet. But my helper friend, who is a far better cook than I, said well, put it in the egg mix for flavor, so we did that.

I had this recipe in my files, but I could not find the source. I don’t do wheat so no crust. The pie plates were 10” x 2” not 9” x 1½” so we increased the eggs to 7 and the milk to 1¾ cups. I put in ½ lb of mushrooms sliced thin, 1 small head of broccoli sliced thin, and 1 cup of chopped Walla Walla onions from the freezer in each one. There was celery salt added and pepper.

The second pie was made by spreading the vegetables AND the cheese in before adding the eggs. I don’t think I used quite so much cheese on this one. In the photo, the one on the right is the first one made.

For a change, the old oven was keeping temperature well. We put the bottom pie on a cookie sheet just in case. We centered the top pie over the bottom one, just in case.

I knew it would take a lot longer for them to bake as they were so much bigger. It was actually 70 minutes. I had to swap them on the top and bottom at about 55 minutes.

In the finished photo, the one on the left was the one with extra water and cheese on top. It did come out more watery, but not too bad.

While we were waiting for them to cook, I had already hard boiled some eggs to make the chocolate pudding again. This time I planned to follow the recipe. I hoped to make 2 batches.

Last time I sort of winged it. It came out okay, but a tad salty and VERY chocolately. I had used a lot of cream, which I didn’t have to spare this time.

This time I cut the eggs in half and added them after the milk. I blended them before adding sugar, cacao, and vanilla. It didn’t look nice. So I carefully added the remaining ingredients, including the salt. It smelled of eggs strongly. Hmmmm, I’d used old eggs so they would peel well last time and no egg smell…

So we started adding more sugar, cacao, and vanilla, and blending a LOT. It finally was okay enough, but next time, not so old eggs… And definitely use cream!

So the remaining eggs were turned into devilled eggs and were just right.

So I got the Christmas tree and all the candles lit at 4PM and had a couple pieces of quiche for supper. Then I sat down to watch a movie. The candle had burned down this far.

I was on my own from about 3PM until late New Year’s Day. It was quiet, peaceful, and I liked having the house to myself.

I started a second movie around 7:30PM but I didn’t finish it until around 11PM. I’d lit both stoves as it was to be in the 30’s during the night. But the masonry heater made the living room too hot, so I opened a window on the porch (so Larry couldn’t escape) and went into the office until it cooled down.

When I finished the movie, the candle was out, burnt to the socket. I left the Christmas tree and candles lit all night. I also left the music playing in the office so it would be on when I got up.

New Year’s Eve is the last time I will turn the candles on. From now on, the shades get pulled when the sun goes down around 4PM to keep the heat in.

On New Year’s Day I plan to take the candles out of the windows. I have my surrogate grandchild and her mom visiting in the afternoon, so that will be fun. It’s to be cloudy and in the 40’s, so I’ll have the stove going all day.