December 2011

Christmas was fake presents under the tree meant to trick the eager openers before the real revelations.

Christmas was pajama traditions.

Christmas was a beautiful golden table.

Christmas was a plate of mom’s simple approach to beef and roasted chicken.

Christmas was my sister’s experiments with carrots and horseradish, potatoes and cheese and sweet potatoes with apple, apple butter and spices.

Christmas was a clean plate club

(and a little Ninja strike)!

Before I ventured into Philadelphia for city wanderings, Mom proposed we gather around the table again.  I simultaneously made a request and proposed a brunch challenge.

When my older sister visits from Nebraska, we always eat waffles, so even though she wasn’t in town, it felt like a waffle sort of occasion.  With lots of leftovers filling the fridge, I proposed my other sister’s apple butter and sweet potato experiment from Christmas dinner find its way to the brunch table… via waffles!

Mom filled the table, as she usually does when serving a meal.  Cinnamon rolls and fluffy scrambled eggs (I wish I had my mom’s egg making abilities) and my lemon cranberry thyme bread and fruit accompanied both the waffle experiment and a more traditional batch of waffles.

Mom pureed the delightfully spiced apples and sweet potatoes, so the flavors smoothly blended into each waffle bite.  I topped my grid of nooks and crannies with locally made apple butter for a real burst of fall and wintry flavors.

Reds, greens, yellows and a touch of turquoise really brought us together on a sunny, cold morning for a delicious moment around the table.  Though I generally dislike the vagueness of the word, the morning was, well, it was just nice!