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Sunday, December 28, 2025

Menu Plan: Days 4 through 10 of Christmas


Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We are still joyously celebrating the Nativity Feast! I hope you are, too. Christmas is far from over and has, in fact, just begun. The feast begins on Christmas Eve and goes through the Feast of the Theophany/Epiphany, and the season goes through the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord and Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Because I am just returned from overseas, we are making things a little simpler this year than we normally do, though still very celebratory.

We are also celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary this year! This is the end of our 29th year, and we begin the New Year with the first day of our 30th year of marriage. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend and the beloved of my heart. We are having a New Year's Eve dance for our celebration this year.

Next week, we will be celebrating Old Calendar Christmas with Dominic, Shawn, and Winnie, along with Shawn's parents and brothers, and we are so excited to see all of them. Christmas movies are being watched, Christmas music is being played, and we will have wonderful meals and treats to share with them, as well as the gifts to exchange. May you enjoy and be blessed in the Feast of the Nativity and the joy of the New Year.

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 12:28 PM 0 comments

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Menu Plan: Days 5 through 11 of Christmas


Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Our 12 Days of Christmas were a little turned upside down, but in the best way possible. Madelyn was born about three weeks early, but all well and Autumn is doing well, also.

Because of that change of events, our whole weekend suddenly became babysitting Amelia, and no sleep for us. Our church family came through amazingly and took over the dinner after church, as well as providing some meals and treats for Alexander and Autumn for when they come home. I will be setting up a meal train for them, for when they head home after their first night here.

This week is a busy week for us, as it is our wedding anniversary as well as New Year's Eve and Day. Rich already had our anniversary and New Year's Day off, but because of our exhaustion took Monday off, too. Hooray!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:39 AM 0 comments

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Menu Plan: Days 7 - 12 of the Nativity Feast and Theophany


Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

We have a whole other week of no fasting! It has been both a restful and celebratory time, which is just perfect.

Tonight is our 27th anniversary, and we get to celebrate with our church family and then with dancing. This Friday, we will have a 12th Night Christmas party for my knit night group. It is a good week. Next week we will be back to normal school schedules.

Once we are back in the New Year, we will also return to a little more frugal shopping, and use what we have in our freezers and pantries as much as possible. We are still making room for more butchering, and also preparing for a lovely trip for Dominic and Shawn's wedding. We are so excited to share in that with them. Our prayer for you in this New Year is that you find the joy and peace of Christ!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 4:13 AM 0 comments

Sunday, December 26, 2021

Menu Plan: Second through Eighth Day of Christmas


Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

This week we are celebrating and holing up a little. The temperatures are finally at and below zero in the mornings, and except for Rich and Dominic who have to work in it, the rest of us are staying home and resting and eating delicious things. Rich and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on Friday, and he gave me a gorgeous silver and diamond wide band ring a little early (he is getting a silver framed monacle). We will have a special dinner at home and celebrate with our kids, but will take a night at a nearby resort after the New Year to ourselves. We had planned to have a bigger celebration for this 25th year, but between all the idiotic Covid restrictions and my month of illness, we decided to go a little smaller.

There is no fasting this week! We are enjoying that immensely. Even Jerome gets many treats, because of being able to eat egg and chocolate again. He was never a great milk drinker, but after eight months of no dairy at all, his small portion each day tastes delicious to him. May you have a blessed Nativity and New Year!

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 6:18 AM 0 comments

Sunday, January 04, 2015

Recipe Round Up: Fromage Fort


I picked up this recipe from Rebecca. I've played with it over the years and we make it a tiny bit differently, but really, it is a frugal way to use up bits and bobs of cheese and make some humble ingredients into something greater. The combination of cheeses and herbs are infinite, with the caveat that especially pungent cheeses like feta, brie, or bleus should not be in the majority of your mix, more in the background.

2 - 3 cloves of garlic, peeled (depending on how garlicky you like it)
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon, for garnish, fresh herb leaves (I often use thyme - and I've even used a tablespoon of dried when I didn't have fresh)
various cheeses that add up to around 1 pound
1/4 - 1/2 cup white wine

Bang up the garlic in your food processor, then add the cheeses and herbs and whir it around until they are finely chopped. Pour in the wine and whir it until it is a texture you like. If you want it a bit thinner add more, thicker, add less. It will firm up in the fridge, though, so keep that in mind. Scrape into a nice bowl, sprinkle with chopped herbs for a garnish and refrigerate a few hours or overnight to mellow and blend the flavors.

Serve with bread, crackers, vegetables, or on a spoon.

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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:34 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Yarn Along: Year End Tally and New Goals


Now that Christmas Day has come and gone, and I showed the work in progress to the recipient, I can show you my finished (not blocked - but I'm still counting it for 2014) Pear Scented Candle Shawl for my MIL. The plan is to block it tomorrow, and send it to her the following day - well within the 12 days of Christmas. I was hoping to finish Equinox before the end of the year, but I was too tired. There are about 45 rounds on the last sleeve, and the blocking to do. I'd like to get a picture of my friend wearing the cowl I made before I post the final photos for that, but here is my list of finished objects for the year:

That's just over two and a half items each month. Which isn't too shabby for a homeschooling mother of eight, I think. I did do more designing, even submitting some proposals to Interweave Knits (though they were rejected this time), and having a design accepted in a book coming out this spring. There are a few unfinished items that I wanted to get done earlier this year, and I still plan on working on them this new year. My goals for the coming year are similar to what they are each year:
I'm not sure if I should include learning to steek or do intarsia. Those are on my list, but I'm not sure I'm going to tackle them this year. How about you? What are your crafting goals?

In the reading department, The Very Nearly Honorable League of Pirates #1: Magic Marks the Spot was such a fun and clever read. I was checking it out to see if it would be appropriate for and interesting to our younger kids, and I really like it. We're getting the next book in the series from the library, too. I have about six days to finish Christ in His Saints, and I think I might make it. The goal was to have it completed before we started school up again. It's been such a good book, but hard to read all in a sitting or two, because each character sketch causes one to think and want to read more and savor a little. Though it has taken me a long time to read it, that is not an indictment of the book, it is to its credit, actually.

My book list for the year. I didn't realize until making this list that I didn't finish a single book in the month of April:




Also posting to Keep Calm and Craft On


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// posted by Ranee @ Arabian Knits @ 11:32 PM 0 comments

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