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By now—if your house is anything like mine—the stockings have been unstuffed, the presents have been opened and everyone is enjoying the day we’ve been anticipating all month. It’s been fun counting down to this time with a “carol a day” from my collection of Christmas CDs. I hope you’ve found a new favorite or two among the songs you heard here. As I ponder the countdown possibilities for next year—I’m thinking ornaments!—I thought I’d share a carol that captures a sense of winding down before the new year comes and we start all over. Here’s Amy Grant, with Til the Season Comes ’Round Again from her CD A Christmas to Remember:

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Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the CD cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the CD—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here. No pressure—just a fun way to share resources and ideas!

2009 was a pretty typical year in the Hemmings household—which means that it included some incredibly fantastic times (such as our first-ever family trip to Disneyland!) and a few challenges, too (like trying to carve a somewhat orderly life out of the chaotic “remodel-recovery mode” in which we continue to operate). We survived—and thrived, as revealed in the “firsts” and “favorites” of each of us listed below:

KELLEN, 9

Firsts: piano lessons and recital, pet guinea pig (Root Beer), swim team (Kiwanis Piranhas), weekend campout (with his Webelos pack), magazine article assignment (for Living Without, about having food allergies).
Favorites: Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland ride), backstroke, French Children Sing (piano piece), “Oh, snap!” (catchphrase).

KERRICK, 7

Firsts: Ebay purchase (a Webkinz lava dragon), pet guinea pig (Prairie), swim team (Kiwanis Piranhas), overnight campout (with Kellen and Dad), top tooth lost (knocked out on accident by his friend with a bungee cord).
Favorites: Tower of Terror (Disneyland ride), freestyle stroke, Scout-o-Rama event, trading Pokemon cards, rock-climbing/rappeling (at an indoor gym).

KENNAH, 4

Firsts: bicycle (with pink training wheels), Webkinz (a pink pony), manicure/pedicure (with pink polish, of course), Broadway-scale musical (Little House on the Prairie).
Favorites: Cinderella (whom she met along with ALL the princesses at Disneyland), Pinkalicious and Purplicious (books), girl time (with mom, friends or cousins), babies (real and toy), shoes (all kinds).

KEILLOR, 2

Firsts: tricycle (he can steer, but not quite pedal), true trick-or-treating experience (he wore his “punkin’ suity”), haircut (NOT! He’s never had one, as mom can’t bear to do it yet!).
Favorites: It’s a Small World (Disneyland ride), “Super high!” (way to be pushed on a swing), “Beary, Doggy, Froggy” (stuffed animals), cars (real and toy), balls (all kinds).

SONYA

First: www.hemmings.com (blog!).
Favorite: Splash Mountain (Disneyland ride).

SHAWN

First: Cub Scout den leader.
Favorite: Thunder Mountain (Disneyland ride).

Wishing you all many firsts and favorites in 2010!

Keillor, the youngest member of our family, has gone without a Christmas stocking his entire life. Luckily, he’s only 2, so it hasn’t been all that long, and I think the risk of emotional scarring is minimal. Still, I figured he might notice this year if he didn’t have one. I know what you’re thinking: “So what’s the big deal? Get the kid a stocking!” And, of course, if it was as easy as that, I’d have done it long ago. But no. I couldn’t just run out and grab a fuzzy felt little number and scrawl his name across the cuff at the top with colored glitter glue. I had to create one that matched the handmade, lined, double-sided flannel stockings with cross-stitched personalization that the rest of the us hang each year.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to make the stocking. In fact, I had cut out all the pieces awhile back. Instead, it was a matter of finding those pieces—as well as the time to sew it together. Finding things has been a challenge in the midst of our as-yet-unfinished remodeling project that began more than a year ago. And finding time? Well, let’s just say there’s nothing like a deadline to get my adrenalin pumping. Shawn located the bag of half-done craft projects that I had strategically—but forgetfully—placed on the top shelf of a bedroom closet. (Whew!) Two nights ago, I sewed the stocking together. And last night I cross-stitched Keillor’s name on one side. (The other side might have to wait until after Christmas, but hey, at least Santa will know which one is his!)

I started with this. . .

. . .and finished with this.

And here's the full line-up.

In the process of working to check this task off of my to-do list, I rediscovered my love of sewing—something I once did a whole lot of, but that I haven’t had much time for in recent years. The plaid fabric I used in our stockings was actually left over from a Christmas shirt I made 13 years ago for my nephew (who is now 20). My sister passed the shirt back to me for my boys to wear, and I still have it for Keillor to try on in a couple of years. That same year, I made a Christmas dress and pinafore for my niece (who is now 16). Miraculously, I found the dress a few weeks ago (in the same closet where the stocking pieces were tucked away!) and was able to get it ready for Kennah to wear to church on Sunday. It fit her perfectly, and she loved spinning around to make the extra-gathered skirts flare out.

Kennah’s Christmas dress: still life. . .

. . .and not-so-still life.

I’m hopeful that in the new year, I might be able to sit down at the sewing machine now and then. Maybe Santa could leave that wonderful gift called “spare time” in my stocking tonight. . . .;-)

I am so looking forward to this Thanksgiving! It will be the first time in at least five years that we will celebrate the holiday in our own home. Not that I haven’t enjoyed the out-of-town trips to feast with our extended family, but I have a strong desire to establish some of our own traditions while our Littles are still little. And although it has been nice in years past to divvy up the cooking and cleaning duties among all of the folks in attendance, I’m ready this year to take on the task of creating a complete menu and cooking everything on it from top to bottom! One reason I’m delighting in and not dreading this challenge is that it provides the perfect opportunity to convert some standard dishes to real-food fare. The centerpiece, of course, will be the pastured turkey we ordered from A Bar H Farm, where we also get pastured chickens and eggs, as well as grass-fed beef and lamb, throughout the year. I will pick up the turkey on Friday, and I won’t know what size it is until then—although I requested one in the 12- to 15-pound range. And thanks to my friend Wardeh Harmon’s incredibly detailed instructions for cooking a pastured turkey and keeping it moist—click here to find those instructions on her blog, www.gnowfglins.com—I feel prepared to turn out a top-notch bird on my first try. (To clarify, it won’t be my first turkey—just my first pastured one. And from what I gather, the rules for roasting regular turkeys don’t apply.)

While some of my focus will be on the turkey, I intend to concentrate just as intently on the all-important side dishes, which will include roasted garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of stuffing—one gluten-free and the other made with sprouted-grain bread—a twist on a traditional family fruit salad, and, of course, a dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free pumpkin pie topped (by those of us who can have it) with raw dairy whipped cream. Two of these side dishes—the sprouted-grain stuffing and the fruit salad—will be a departure from the norm for me and will require some extra prep work. For the stuffing, I’ve already baked, cubed and frozen a loaf of sprouted-wheat bread, which I will thaw and dry out a bit a day or two before Thanksgiving. And I’ve sprouted more wheat to combine with cornmeal to make cornbread that also will be an ingredient in the stuffing—along with sage, butter, chicken stock and toasted pine nuts.

Stuff for stuffing: sprouted bread.

Fruit salad fixings.

In my head, I’ve already made over the fruit salad my mom has served every Thanksgiving I’ve ever known. Her recipe combines apples, bananas, raisins, celery, walnuts, mayonnaise and maraschino cherries. I’ve decided to forgo the bananas (because they’re not representative of the season and because some of my family members exhibit a slight allergy to them) and replace them with pears. I’ll substitute soaked pecans for the walnuts (mostly because I have a lot of pecans in my freezer that have made the circuitous route from my aunt’s pecan trees in southern Arizona, to my parents’ home in northern Arizona—where my dad shelled them all—to me in central Arizona). The maraschino cherries are definitely out, and instead I’ll include coarsely chopped cranberries simmered in a bit of raw honey or agave nectar to tame their tartness. Finally, I plan to make my first attempt at homemade mayonnaise using the yolks from the pastured eggs I’ll pick up Friday along with my turkey.

As I have pondered all the possibilities in coming up with our Thanksgiving menu, it has occurred to me that I have a lot of work ahead of me to put together this one meal. But rather than feeling overwhelmed by the prospect, I am eager to discover what can actually be accomplished. And I am hopeful that some inspiration will spill over into our daily food life—that ideas and techniques will take root here and help us continue to grow in the ongoing transformation of the way we eat all the time, not just on special occasions. For that, I will be most thankful.

I have shared this post and its images in the Gallery of Thanksgiving Sides at www.gnowfglins.com. To link to the complete lineup, click here.

Last week, I interviewed not only real-food guru Sally Fallon (author of Nourishing Traditions) but also Janie Quinn, author of several other books that are worth reading for those who want to dig deep into nutrition ideas that are both old and new. Quinn’s book Sprouted Baking, released in 2008, offers a fascinating look at the benefits of sprouting grains before they are milled into flour and used to make everything from sandwich bread to birthday cake. Sprouting grains, she says, fulfills their destiny and converts them into living plants, which are more easily digested and offer increased nutrient absorption.

Because I spoke to her primarily for an article I’m working on for Living Without magazine (a publication for people with food allergies, intolerances and sensitivities), we spent a lot of time talking about how her work fits into what she calls “gluten-free land.” (More on that in the article to come.) But we ventured off that topic a bit to discuss sprouting methods, and I must say that that part of the conversation left me a little discouraged about my own recent efforts in the area of sprouting. Quinn, a self-proclaimed former “home sprouter” of grains, says she is convinced now that she has overseen operations at the small mill that produces her line of sprouted flours (spring wheat and spelt) that there is just no way to achieve the desired quality of both flour and finished baked goods by sprouting, dehydrating and grinding grains in our own homes. Here are her reasons:

• Improper or infrequent soaking and rinsing equipment and techniques lead to grain that might look sprouted but not truly be sprouted, she says. “Grain may appear to the naked eye to be sprouted when it has actually been drowned, resulting in the swollen endosperm pushing through the bran coat,” she writes in Sprouted Baking. “In short, drowned grain does not possess the benefits derived from sprouting. Sprouted products made from a mash are much coarser in texture and can have a distinctive fermented taste.”
• A home sprouter has no way of conducting a “falling number test,” which is used to determine peak levels of sprouting action and enzyme activity.
• While home sprouters can grind sprouted, dehydrated grains into flour, they have no way to sift out the foreign matter that inevitably finds its way into any grain.

All of which has left me with some uncertainties: Am I truly sprouting my grain, or drowning it? I have noticed a hint of a fermented taste and smell—though not unpleasant—to my sprouted spelt, but I just figured that was the way it was supposed to be. I admit that I’m not equipped to conduct a falling number test—nor do I particularly want to be. And I’m sure some foreign matter has made it’s way into the flour I’ve ground. How unsafe might that be?

I also have noticed a few other things about working with sprouted spelt, in particular. For one thing, it is very thirsty flour, soaking up way more liquid than most recipes I’ve used it in even call for. I almost always end up having to add more liquid just to incorporate all of the ingredients and create a dough or batter than can be properly mixed. And baking times or temperatures seem off when I’m working with sprouted spelt in a recipe that calls for regular flour. The two breads I’ve made with it were slightly burned on the crust, or exterior, while the crumb, or interior was OK.

Now I realize that it is in Quinn’s interest to steer consumers toward her own products—the Essential Eating Sprouted Flours her mill produces. But I have to say that despite the flours’ high price (they’re available at health-food stores and online at www.shilohfarms.com), I’m tempted to try some just to compare them to the fledgling flour I’ve made on my own. Then again, I also know that sprouting, as a traditional food-preparation method, has been around a long time, and people have somehow managed—without owning their own grain mill—to reap at least some benefit from their own home-sprouting/dehydrating/grinding efforts. If you’re a more experienced sprouter, I’d love it if you would weigh in on this topic and offer some wisdom for newbies like me!

Because I’ve been reading about and writing about food, I haven’t been doing anything really new with food in the kitchen this past week. I am sprouting more pinto beans this week to use in chili, and I’m pondering some things I want to try soon (sourdough bread and water kefir, to name a few).

This post is part of the Tuesday Twister blog carnival hosted by www.gnowfglins.com. To link to today’s Tuesday Twister on that site, click here.

Please note: It is my goal to provide a top-quality, content-driven, ad-free blog. That said, I do occasionally include affiliate links in some of my posts. For example, if you click on the book cover above, you will link to Amazon.com, where you will have an opportunity to purchase the book—and if you do buy it after clicking through from my site, I will receive a small commission to support my work here, as well as my own book-buying habit. Seriously, though, I’d be just as happy if my recommendation inspired you to check out the title from your local library or borrow it from a friend.