The Say Cheese! 2020 Link Up

I hope everyone got through or even enjoyed Christmas and has a safe and Happy New Year.

Now this is how you say cheese. What a delightful child

Read my dad's jaunty hat, leave it in the comments and win a cheesy postcard.

And now it's time to link up your photos and SAY CHEESE!

The Say Cheese! Hopefully Last Day I Shop For Christmas Link Up

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and the Happiest of Holidays to those who celebrate whatever they celebrate.

The Joy Of Watching A Dog Walking On Two Legs For Chicken to those who won't be celebrating anything at all. 

I remembered the cannoli. I highly recommend Gino's Italian Deli in Middleton for all your fresh cannoli needs.

It's time to put down the smoking credit card and SAY ricotta CHEESE!

Digital Christmas Cards

Brian's dad over at Brian's Home put up a lovely Christmas card to cut and paste again this year (top right of the sidebar) and it got me into a festive mood. Here are some of the digital  mostly critter cards I've been putting under Brian's. What does it mean that most of my friends have fur and four legs?

I miss you, Bobby Boy

I love and miss all of you and so does Oliver

King of the Bark Box

Rusty's mom left to her own devices in the sixites

This is Luigi wearing my Steeler's hat a few years ago. He's a rescue and endless source of comfort and joy to my cousin Danie

Things aren't the same since he shipped off to Jersey. Shipped off, get it?

Soco  lived down the hall and once ran through the screen door because she thought I was in trouble

My cousin and mom of this fun trio is a big black lab fan like her dad. He turned me into one too

She was one of the smartest and sweetest pals a dope like me could  have. Born on Christmas and not really a barker

Luci jumped in my car if I left the windows open. She was the embodiment of a black lab 

Say Cheese! Saran Wrap Balls

The dice game where there's a bunch of prizes in large balls of plastic is known as the Saran Wrap Game and someone has to get all that stuff into large balls of plastic. So we met at cousin Nancee's house yesterday and got to work.

We started playing it a few years ago at the Dempsey Olson Christmas party down by the American Legion.

One person starts unwrapping the thing as the person to their right rolls the dice.

You have to roll doubles to get your turn and the longer it takes, the longer the greedy cousin to your left gets to unwrap the candy, booze and baubles that fall out. In our version you also have to wear a Santa hat which is what trips me up.

It gets pretty raucous and sometimes a sneaky cousin I won't mention any names, Lis, writes their name on booze bottles so even if you get a prize someone might snatch it away.

We made six big balls Sunday afternoon, the ones marked with an "A" stand for "adult" but could also stand for a few other things, use your imagination. 

We did this while the Packer game was on in the other room. That was unusual for some of the more rabid fans who enjoy yelling at the TV more than they enjoy wrapping then unwrapping mammoth balls of plastic. But we talked, we noshed, we laughed and we wrapped.

🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄🐄

And now it's time to wrap your head around the global phenom that is SAY CHEESE! and show everyone what you've been up to lately. Recipes with cheese are always welcome.
P.S. Let me know if you made a Christmas card to copy and paste and I'll put it in the sidebar.

Persimmons From Susie

I was excited and impressed to find a box bursting with persimmons  from Barefoot Susie's tree at my mailbox this morning. Impressed that she can grow something I've never tasted and impressed at how quickly the package arrived, especially for this time of year.

Two layers of delightful fresh fruit from Susie's tree

Did you know persimmons are from China and the trees can grow to be 25 feet? They're full of vitamin A and C and beta carotene. Susie Mac tells me they're also fiber licious.

Aren't they gorgeous? We were compelled to unwrap the top row and put them in a bowl

I'm not sure I've seen such a fine packing job. (I won't even talk about the Amazon returns guy at Kohl's who was chucking carefully repacked packages vaguely towards a table in the corner.)

Oliver wanted a boost up to check it out

There were two layers of these beauties, individually wrapped and screaming to be used in a delectable (but healthy) Christmas cookie recipe.

I found something I liked right away and thanks to Rebecca from Strength & Sunshine and her Vegan & Gluten-Free White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies I learned about sugar substitutes from Swerve.  

These must be for me

This will be my first solo baking effort since I found out I had diabetes last March. Here's the recipe I'm going to use.

PERSIMMON COOKIES from Two Peas & Their Pod with sugar substitutes

Cookie

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup Swerve granular sugar replacement

1 cup persimmon pulp

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup raisins

Glaze

2 cups Swerve confectioners sugar replacement

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tsp orange zest

-Preheat to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

-In medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt and spices.

-In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beat in persimmon pulp, egg and vanilla. Slowly add in the flour, fold in the walnuts and raisins.

-Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.

-Bake for approximately 12-14 minutes or until cookies are brown around the edges.

-Let cool for five minutes then remove to wire rack.

-For orange glaze combine the confectioners sugar substitute, orange juice and zest in medium bowl. -Whisk until smooth.

-Dip the cookie tops into the glaze and twirl the cookie. 

-Set cookies back on wire rack for glaze to harden.

Say Cheese! Cugina Cucina

We made una abbondanza of Italian Sesame Cookies Saturday and boy are my arms tired. Ba da dum (streaming The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and everything seems like a set up line).
Warning: All photos are phone or pocket camera pics.

Cousin Karen, Team Anchor & Good Sport

Cousin Phil3, Cook Extraordinaire & Kitchen Capo

Cousin Lita, Animal Lover & Ball of Energy

 Proudly Displaying A Black Eye From A Christmas Past

The Godfather, Taste Tester & Utility Player

Cousin Stevie, Who Right After This Drops A Cookie On The Floor Which No One But Me & Possibly Oliver Saw

Cousin Oliver, Floor Manager With A Sesame Seed Face

Thursday Hang

What's more fun than a Thursday hang with this guy?

We sang Christmas carols and greeted our fans at memory care.

Then on to the Fellini film that is my mother's apartment. #livingladolcevita

Dog v Tchotchke

Say Cheese! Evergleam Trees Part 2

I usually don't get into the Christmas spirit until the day after Thanksgiving. Then I lose it somewhere between the store and parking lot. Whichever way you want to interpret that is right.

But I watch It's A Wonderful Life and get all tearful and think, "If George Baily were alive today he'd end up on an episode of COPS."

Meanwhile, somewhere in the early sixties Nanci is putting presents under the tree Julian from Trailer Park Boys style.

And I want a General Electric steam iron and a Frigidaire Flair oven and the turquoise Lady Kenmore I've had my eye on in the Sears catalog. 

Put down the Brandy Old Fashioned Sweet and back away from the Evergleam because it's time to Say Cheese! Nanci.
"Hey, is that real fur?"

Black Friday

We needed a few more things at the Farm & Fleet today.

I didn't come here to get tongue kissed by a stuffed ornament, woman. 

Oliver reminded me of a joke.
"How do you get a bear out of your yard?" 

"Put up a goal post."

Because I don't look like enough of a redneck dressed in this coat while shopping at Farm & Fleet on Black Friday. 

I absolutely love, love, love the customer service at Farm & Fleet. #Eloisereference

Holy cr*p, it's cousin Lis, another Dempsey Olson. How many of them are there?

The Happy Holidays Evergleam Say Cheese! Linky

My family can be a real pain in the arse. But like Woody Allen said, nope, umm, Bill Cos—nope, as my father often said, "Family, you can't live with them and you won't live long enough to see one of them pick up a check."

A look often seen on my dad's face when sitting next to my mother

Let's take a detour back to the sixties and due east to Manitowoc, home of the Evergleam Christmas tree. 

We didn't get further than this exhibit on the first floor

Do you remember these trees? They're currently featured at the Wisconsin Historical Museum. My Aunt Dora had them in different colors complete with color wheel. She was the one who got me hooked on Shasta and candy sticks.

Our model today is Nanci, a cousin on my father's side, aka the Dempsey Olsons whose motto, "We can't cook but we can drink!" is eerily similar to members of a college sorority I kept running into at parties in the seventies.

Why yes, that is a brandy old fashioned

The modern gal can put up an aluminum tree with one hand and hold her husband's drink with the other

To Be Continued

Resting Up For The Holidays

Little Rat moved to his new house and it's all the way on the other side of town 😢. His new yard is full of turkeys and flowers and birds and all sorts of interesting stuff. It was a lot of hard work but now it's time to rest up for the official start of the holiday season.

Walkies Milk Bones Car Ride Stupid Turkeys Chicken New Toy My Pal Jeanna