Saturday, December 15, 2012

Holiday Edition

Happy Holidays!

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All of us at Canyonland would like to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season, whatever you celebrate whether it's the winter solstice, Hanukkah, or Christmas.

In honor of the season, each of us will be sharing either a holiday recipe or our favorite holiday tradition.

Holiday Dessert
By Anna Sugg
We have a tradition around our house for our Christmas Day dinner. All our children and grandchildren come for Dad’s Christmas dinner. His prime rib dinner is the dinner of the year. It’s succulent. Since he won’t let me in on his secret for cooking the perfect prime rib, I’ll have to give you a recipe that is always expected on our Christmas table.

My Christmas Jell-O recipe:
1 package (3 oz) Jell-O Raspberry Flavor Gelatin
2 cups boiling water
¾ cup cranberry juice cocktail
1 cup diced apple
¼ cup sliced celery
¼ chopped walnuts
1 package (3 OZ) Jell-O Lemon Flavor Gelatin
1 container (4 ½ oz) Cool Whip
½ cup Real Mayonnaise

Dissolve raspberry gelatin in 1 cup boiling water.
Add cranberry juice cocktail and chill until thickened about 1 hour
Fold in apple, celery and nuts
Spoon into 6-cup ring mold and child until set (15 minutes)
Dissolve lemon gelatin in remaining boiling water
Chill until slightly thickened (45 minutes)
Combine cool whip and real mayonnaise
Fold into lemon gelatin
Spoon onto the raspberry mold and chill firmly – 4 hours
Unmold. Garnish with crisp salad greens and apples or grapes, if desired.

If you need a good cheese ball recipe for the holiday days, I have one on my website: http://judybaker.coffeecup.com we use this recipe for more than just Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Anna

Holiday Traditions
by Marie Higgins
I make this every year for my friends and neighbors. It's soooo good and it doesn't take long to make or put together--which is another reason I make this. I don't have all day to spend on making Christmas goodies.

Applesauce Cake
½ cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips (or raisins - your choice)
1 cup sugar
1 cup nuts
1 egg
½ teaspoon cloves
1 ¾ cup flour (or so)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup applesauce
½ tsp nutmeg

Blend butter, sugar. Add eggs. Add applesauce with soda. Mix well. Add spices, choc chips and nuts. Add flour. Bake 350 for 50 minutes in greased and flour bread pan or small tins.

Recipe and a tradition
By Amy Durham

Toffee Spice Pudding Cake
1 box Spice Cake Mix
1 can Eagle Brand Milk
1 cup Heath Toffee Bits
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bake cake in a 9X13 pan according to directions on box. While still very warm, use a butter knife to punch holes all over the cake. Pour the can of Eagle Brand Milk evenly over the warm cake. Don't worry if it "pools" up in spots; it will all soak in to the cake! Sprinkle Heath Toffee Bits evenly over the cake.

Just before serving, whip two cups heavy cream. While whipping, add sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. When cream is ready when stiff peaks form. Top each serving of pudding cake with whipped cream.

Cake is best served warm. It will be incredibly moist, and is easier to serve with a large spoon than a cake server!

Ornaments
When I was a little girl, my mom and grandmother made a BUNCH of beaded Christmas tree ornaments. They were beautiful and sparkly, and they fascinated me as a young child. Many of them hung on our tree each year as I was growing up. The rest hung on my grandparents' tree each Christmas. My grandfather passed away in 2000 - my grandmother in 2010. Just before Christmas in 2009, when my grandmother was living with my parents as she battled ovarian cancer, she asked me if I'd like to have her beaded ornaments, since she wouldn't be putting up a tree of her own. It made me sad to know she'd never hang those ornaments again, but honored and happy that she wanted me to have them. This is the fourth year I've hung these beaded bells, stars, and icicles on my Christmas tree. And each year I love them a little bit more.

Holiday Traditions
by Mary Martinez
Okay I'm going to give you a break from recipes. Most my holiday recipes are pretty mainstream. I usually bake a big ham on Christmas Eve that way when everyone drops by on Christmas--usually at different times--who ever is hungry can make a ham sandwich. And of course I have other goodies to go with it. It differs from year to year.

But we have other traditions that start with Halloween. We take all the grandkids to Garden After Dark, this is Red Butte Gardens, Salt Lake City's botanical gardens. They open the garden up late into the evening and have booth's where they kids can make anything from fairy wings to vampire teeth. They have a pumpkin patch, the list of activities go on and on.

Then for Thanksgiving on one of our Papa and Nana nights (every Wednesday evening are grandkids come to have dinner with us) the kids make Thanksgiving decorations to sit around. On thanksgiving day we do the Traditional dinner.

Christmas is a fun month, we start with our family party. First we make ornaments for Nana and Papa's tree. Then make cookies or cupcakes or both and frost them. Then the kids run around like Comanches for a bit. Then we have a nice family dinner until we have a surprise visitor. The older kids roll their eyes a bit, but the younger once are so excited they can hardly sit still. And this escalates when they hear the door open and papa is talking to someone. Then the bells jingle and get louder as he's walking down the stairs. And there is Santa!

And then another fun tradition is our yearly trip to the Hogle Zoo. Yup, rain, snow, freezing cold, it doesn't matter we have to go see the Zoolights. Santa usually makes a visit and the reindeer are there. The animals are smart and stay indoors but it's a good time.

All of us from Canyonland wish all of you Happy Holidays and in we hope all your dreams will come true in the New Year!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

1st Edition, December 1, 2012

Madam Librarian Recommendation
Mary Taylor Huntsman
, Somerset Community College, Somerset KY

Iron Tongue of Midnight
By: Beverle Graves Myers
Iron Tongue of Midnight is part of Myers’ “Tito Amato” series, historical mysteries set in 18th Century Venice, with a castrata soprano as the detective. Ms. Huntsman recommends this book (and series) due largely to the historical detail that Myers weaves throughout the story. The author provides nice plot points about what it would mean for an Italian Catholic to convert to Islam in that era. She also addresses those who "go outside the pale" of society, particularly Tito’s sister, Grisella, who ran away from home and ended up a victim of sexual trafficking. She handles the issue of castrati very tastefully (If you don’t know what castrati is – Google it!) and in a historically relevant manner, providing notes explaining historical details, which may puzzle a modern reader. Additionally, Myers uses details about medical practices during the time, as well as the structure of the Venetian society during the 18th Century. Myers is a resident of Louisville, KY, and a champion of the Louisville Free Public Library, who she always acknowledges in her books for their research assistance.

We are delighted the Beverle Graves Myers gave Canyonland a quote:
Long before everyone was talking about Downton Abbey, I was in love with the literary version of the English country house. I wanted to try my hand at writing a mystery set in that milieu, but I was under contract for another installment of my Tito Amato Mysteries set in 18th-century Venice. I decided to bend the genre and put an Italian spin on it.

In September of 1740, singer Tito Amato receives a curious invitation. The German composer Karl Johann Weber is rehearsing a new opera at an isolated villa nestled in the hills of the Venetian mainland. Would Tito accept the lead role? Puzzled by the air secrecy, but attracted by a generous fee, Tito agrees. He finds the countryside awash in the golden hues of autumn, but all is not well at the villa. A notorious figure from his past is also in residence, and murder makes an appearance when a soprano stumbles over a corpse at the stroke of midnight.

I hope you enjoy Tito's quest for justice. To date, it has been the most emotional of the books for me to write because it uncovers such painful family secrets. Though THE IRON TONGUE OF MIDNIGHT is part of a series, the novel takes Tito out of his usual element of the Teatro San Marco and can easily be enjoyed as a stand-alone mystery.

Happy Holiday Season to all of our readers. Canyonland Editors would like to recommend their favorite Christmas Story or book.

Amy Durham recommends: The Last Boyfriend by Nora Roberts
The story doesn't totally center on Christmas, but a large part of the story takes place during the holidays, which in my opinion makes the romance even more romantic! This book is the 2nd in Roberts' "Inn Boonsboro" trilogy. Amazon



Mary Martinez recommends: Christmas in Cold Creek by RaeAnne Thayne
When this ended I pouted for a few days. I also read until about 3am to finish it because I couldn't put it down, and I had work the next day. I think I was a zombie all day. I wanted it to go on and on. I wanted to find out what happened with Gabi the next day. This is so hard not to give anything away. So you just have to read it! Amazon



Anna Sugg recommends: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
When I started thinking about my favorite Christmas story, I stepped back in time when I was a child, and when the magic of Christmas was wonderful. Besides the Bible story of Christ’s birth, I’m going to choose a book that adds to the magic of Christmas, ’Twas The Night Before Christmas. I can say the poem by heart because my mom read to us on every Christmas Eve, right after the Bible story of Christ’s birth. I read it to my children when they were young, and now I read it to my grandkids.

When you hear the name, Clement C. Moore, you automatically think of ’Twas The Night Before Christmas and you either have a book in your home, or you’ve read the poem from a book with pictures of a family on Christmas Eve. He’s the author, or is he really the author?

Nearing two centuries now, families have shared the Christmas poem, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, a classic since 1823. At first the poem was published anonymously, and then in 1837 a biblical scholar, Clement C. Moore put his name to the poem, stating he wrote the poem in 1823 on a Christmas Eve.

BUT, in 1808 Henry Livingston, supposedly wrote and read the poem to a group that remembered the delightful Christmas poem. By the time Moore put his name to the poem, Livingston had died. There’s no proof because the one only handwritten copy of Henry Livingston’s Christmas poem was destroyed in a fire - of course!

So a literary detective, Don Foster compared Moore’s and Livingston’s writings. There was a difference and some say the only great poem that Moore ever wrote was “Twas the Night Before Christmas, and his other stuff was bad! But, I’ll leave it at that – you might want to go to this site and make you own decision. Interesting. http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/xmas/livingstonmoore/index.htm#author

No matter who wrote the poem, I think, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas will be around for many more centuries.

Marie Higgins Christmas story recommendation: Gift of Love
Ever since watching this movie at home with my family as a young girl, I've always loved the feeling I had afterwards.  I remember the first time I watched this movie. I had a headcold and wasn't feeling well anyway, but the powerful feeling this movie brought had me crying at the end. Even my mother and grandmother had tears in their eyes. I've always been a fan of the Osmonds, anyway, and a few years ago, I remembered loving this movie and realized I wanted a copy of my own no matter it what it took. I finally found me a copy, and I cherish it to this day!

Inspired by O. Henry's short story about a young bride and groom, each of whom foolishly--but quite lovingly--sacrifices a treasured possession to buy the perfect Christmas gift for their mate. Amid a flurry of bustling New Yorkers clad in early-20th-century garb, O. Henry himself (David Wayne) sets the scene: Beth, a teenage orphan (Marie Osmond), comes to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle (the latter played by Donald Moffat). Her friendship with a cheerful kitchen maid soon leads to a stormy encounter with a handsome Swiss immigrant, Rudy (Timothy Bottoms). Despite Beth and Rudy's conflicting social statuses, and Beth's arranged engagement to a sickly bird watcher (a young James Woods, who truly fits the bill), the two fall in love and miraculously overcome these obstacles--all in about 95 minutes. Old-fashioned romance, elegant costumes, and a happy ending make this predictable story completely irresistible to those who love a good fairy tale--or to Osmond fans who fondly remember watching the movie on TV in 1978. Produced by the Osmond Brothers for PBS's American Short Story series. --Liane Thomas