Home cookin'

I used to have huge family dinners about every other weekend.  During the holidays, I picked up the pace, cooking all the food that I loved when I was a kid.  
I had to quit doing that, because Cliff and I gain weight too easily these days.  And of course, if the food is here, we're going to eat it.  Oh sure, I send some stuff home with the kids, but that doesn't keep us from eating it while it's here.  
Somewhere during each Thanksgiving/Christmas season, I just have to let down my guard and cook, because there are things I love that I'll never get to eat if I don't cook it.  Oh, other people in the family cook; they just have their own traditions, which is as it should be.
Some of the things I crave this time of year:  home-made yeast rolls; made-from-scratch noodles; lots and lots of mashed potatoes.  Oh, and my mom's cranberry salad, which is really more like dessert than salad.  The recipe makes a huge batch, and I'm not sure anybody else loves it like I do.  I always end up eating most of it myself (burp). 
Something strange has happened to me in my old age.  I used to take every chance I could get to eat out; these days, most of the food doesn't taste nearly as good as what I'd make at home, and I could make it much cheaper.  For instance: biscuits and gravy, a dish that is pretty darned cheap to buy at a diner or restaurant, leaves me wishing I'd ordered a piece of toast.  The biscuits aren't quite right, they're never hot, and the gravy is made from a mix.  Please!  
I still love my Pizza Hut, though!      
A couple of weeks ago I bought a turkey and a half-ham.  We hardly ever buy ham, but once a year I splurge, costly as it is.  Tomorrow I've invited the kids and grandkids, and we're having ham and rolls and mashed potatoes and chicken-and-noodles.  The daughter is bringing broccoli-and-rice casserole.  I'm trying to think of a vegetable to throw in, just because it seems like the right thing to do.  Pea salad, maybe?  Creamed peas?  Creamed peas and carrots?  Glazed carrots?  (Obviously I have a lot of peas in the freezer, and carrots in the crisper.)  Cliff kept worrying that half-a-ham wouldn't be enough, so I got some arm roast out of the freezer (gotta love free beef) and I'll cook that, just in case.  I'm saving the turkey for another day.  
The desserts are made:  Oreo dessert, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, and lemon pound cake, which I haven't made in ages.  If you want an easy, tasty dessert, here it is.

LEMON POUND CAKE

I lemon cake mix

I lemon instant pudding mix

4 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 cup sour cream

Mix together and pour into a bundt pan.  Bake at 350 for 55 minutes.   Make lemon glaze and pour over cake while it is still warm.

Lemon glaze

1 T butter

2 Tbs lemon juice

1-2 T milk

1 cup powdered sugar

The Kennedys

I set my DVR to record "The Kennedys", a series on Reelz channel, some time ago.  
I downgraded our Directtv package recently, so we no longer have that channel, but we still had that series on the DVR.  
Tonight Cliff and I finally got around to watch the five episodes of "The Kennedys" that I actually managed to record.  Wow, what a great series.
So many memories.  And yes, I do remember exactly where I was when I got the news that President Kennedy had been shot.  
Something else I recall, though, is that when he was running for office, everyone in my little world was afraid that if a Catholic won the election, the Pope would rule our country.  
Good grief, were we all nuts?    
As we were watching the episodes, Cliff and I agreed that things were better back when the press didn't feel it necessary to tell the public about every little indiscretion the President committed.  We think it would work out better if they would leave a man's private life alone.  
But that's just us.