A journey of cooking and living my way
The next three days I will be in culinary heaven.
Right now, I have a pot of pea soup on, blind baking a crust for quiche Lorraine, and about to start on the baked stuffed clams.
Have a very happy Christmas Eve! ♥️
🥰🎄✝️🎅🏻
We picked up Klaus’ ashes on Tuesday. Marty and I were still shell shocked and happy he was home again.
Neither of us had it in us to open the bag containing Klaus’ memorial package. The bag sat on the window seat until today.
I decided to take things out of the bag and put him where he belonged, next to Otto.
I chose to do it today while Marty was at the farmers market, he and Klaus were very close from the day Marty brought him home in the cup holder of his car.
I moved the shelves around in the living room making a proper space for my boys. I can’t lie I cried my head off while I did it.
Nelly was sitting at my feet and at the bottom of the chair I was standing on. As I took Klaus and his bag of hair out of the bag ahead of me, she got up on her hind legs.
When I was done I sat on the floor with her still crying. Then, the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me happened.
Nelly began to smell my right hand, the one I used to touch Klaus’s hair. She put her paw on my hand and began to rub her forehead on my hand.
She did this for a few minutes. It was so touching to watch and I realized that love really does know no bounds.
Klaus was her big brother who taught her the ropes and they showed each other unconditional love, the way Otto did to Klaus when he was a puppy.
I have a million things to do but I played with Nelly until she was tuckered out, just like Klaus would have done.
She crawled on my lap and eventually settled down with her chin on my hand. I knew she missed her big brother and she now knew he was still here with us.
Are you crying yet? This is my last and final sad post about my boys. Thanks for your love and support. ♥️ ~julz
***No real editing I’ve gotta get back to cleaning and holiday prep and baking.
Well I did have to edit two photos after all. 🤦🏻♀️
I just wanted to tell you guys how much your kind words of comfort and support meant to me.
Instead of mourning our Klausie-boy we decided to remember him as a funny goofball, protector, and love bug.
As I vacuumed up his hair and cleaned up slobber, I realized I was at peace.
The house is very quiet now and we miss him but life goes on and so will our memories of our boys.
Enjoy each day, you never know how things can change in the blink of an eye. ♥️
I’m truly not sure what’s sadder to me today Nelly, Klaus’ new Christmas stocking I got with Nelly’s or the quietness of the house.
All three I guess.
We are completely heartbroken. 💔
We had to take our Klausie-boy to the vet yesterday. Without getting into his diagnosis, he is on hospice care with us.
We may have one day, week, month, or longer. He is still in good spirits and wags his little nub whenever we say his name.
Marty and I are making sure he is living his best life. He will tell when he’s ready to go, just like Otto did the same time last year.
We are sad and so are the boys. Both will be here over the weekend and will be able to spend time with him.
As his stewart’s, we decided to not put him through any advanced medical care to prolong his live.
He is not in pain and the moment he is, we will help him.
We owe it to him the same way we did for my sweet Otto.
Knowing now how it feels when you lose a beloved pet, we are preparing for the inevitable.
What breaks my heart is poor little Nelly who loves Klaus and looks up to him. Nelly and Klaus have been inseparable.
If you can please think good thoughts that Klaus has a smooth passing we would appreciate it.
Thank you during this difficult time.
I grew up not knowing any of my nationalities. If you have recently joined my blog, I was adopted. People tried to guess my nationality for years.
The number one thing people guessed was Italian, then Jewish and Mediterranean, coming in third place. I honestly thought I was those things myself. These photos are good examples.
My adoptive mother told me year after year that I could wear green on St. Patrick’s Day since “Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” almost rubbing it in because she was Irish and a bitch.
Christmas 1986, did I look Italian or what? I was a full-on Jersey girl guidette who gave the Brooklyn girls a run for their money. Lol.
Our family didn’t have a traditional Christmas anything when it came to food. I remember eating an early snack on Christmas Eve with my dad at his Aunt Fran & Uncle Eddie’s place.
Fran’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Spano, were right off the boat from Sicily and spoke no English. Food and music are universal languages. I loved being around the Spanos.
When I was little, we would go to my great-grandma’s place for Christmas Eve. My cousins were there, and it was fun. I don’t remember anything about food, so it had to be unremarkable, like cold cuts and salads.
After Great Grandma passed away, we moved to Iselin, 15 minutes away from Elizabeth, NJ. My Aunt Fran and the rest of my dad’s side of the family didn’t want us to move away.
My mother didn’t like any of them, including my Mema. She couldn’t wait to get away from them. I was sad and afraid when we moved; I was nine.
After we moved away, we went out to eat on Christmas Eve. I hated it and would look at the other poor children in the restaurant. They probably had a mother that didn’t like to cook too.
When Marty and I got married, I wanted to be sure we began our traditions for the holidays. However, It took six years for that to happen.
Our first Christmas tree was in 1989, and our first barn apartment was decorated for Christmas.
Right from the start, both of our mothers would ruin every holiday by fighting over who got us and putting unfair expectations and obligations on us. It was awful.
It got so bad one year, and we were tired of it. We decided the following year not to celebrate Christmas at all. No gifts, no tree, we ate Chinese food like Jewish people did on Christmas.
After that year, I volunteered to work on Christmas Eve and open the store I worked at bright and early on the 26th. That solved the problem we had. We would visit sometime in mid-December, and the pressure wasn’t as bad.
This tree is the year Noah was born in 1985. We decorated it long before he was born.
The year Noah was born, on December 18, I told everyone that my children would always wake up in their own beds on Christmas morning.
Since he was born a week before Christmas, both sets of parents and Marty’s brother Andy were at our place for the holiday.
The whole thing was a complete blur to us, and quite frankly, I didn’t give a fuck what anyone did, ate, or if they were fighting or killing each other.
The following year, we finally celebrated the holidays the way we wanted, which was wonderful! We always had a real tree, something I never had, and collected ornaments for the boys as they grew
We could have more grown-up meals when the kids were a little older. I decided we would do the Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve.
I usually make clams, shellfish, calamari, and maybe flounder this year. I always make fresh pasta, gluten-free, of course.
Marty chose his family tradition of pea soup for Christmas Eve lunch and his traditional breakfast on Christmas morning, German pancakes with lots of fillings and toppings.
Homemade split pea soup with a balsamic reduction and German pancakes hot and fresh.
We decided on prime rib, popovers, and a potato and vegetable dish for Christmas dinner. Look at that gorgeous Christmas dinner! I’m drooling just looking at it. That year, I made a spinach souffle that turned out perfectly for my first time making one.
I learned about the Feast of the Seven Fishes from my Aunt Fran and some Italian friends I worked with. I went to their homes and saw the preparation in full mode. Oh, how I wanted to stay and eat with them and not in some restaurant.
You don’t have to be Italian to celebrate the feast. I was looking for something that felt traditional to me and made me feel like I belonged somewhere.
The Feast of the Seven Fishes originated in Southern Italy and Sicily by the Roman Catholics. The practice is known throughout Italy and Italian homes here in America.
The Christmas Eve meal is very serious business regarding religion, but more importantly, it’s all about the food.
This is an understatement. Family members start prepping the food days before. Everyone has certain dishes they are in charge of, and of course, there is a lot of loud talking in the kitchens.
I don’t think I know any Italians who don’t talk loud; it felt natural since I am a big mouth.
While the feast name has seven fishes, some families have three dishes, others as many as 9 or 11. The number always has to be an odd number for some reason.
Why seven fishes, you may ask. Most people believe seven represents the seven sacraments in the Catholic faith. It makes sense since I had to know those sacraments in and out when I attended Catholic school.
Roman Catholic people always fasted on Fridays and before the big holidays like Easter and Christmas, eating only fish as a vigil. That’s how it started in Italy.
Not growing up in an Italian family, I wasn’t introduced to a variety of fish like salted cod, other varieties of fish, eel, baby octopus, squid, and more.
I can’t even fathom eating an eel or watching it being nailed down to a cutting board and the skin peeled off. 🤢
Calamari and shellfish I knew, along with a regular Friday night supper of fish sticks or Gordon’s Fishermen’s breaded cod fish filets. I loved them, and fish sticks with lots of tartar sauce.
I usually make at least three fish on Christmas Eve. Like others in the past, this year’s menu does not have authentic dishes, but that doesn’t matter. Here’s my menu:
When planning a holiday meal, I like to visualize what the colors of food will look like and what vessel I will serve them in. This is super fun for me.
I’d love to hear what some of your traditions are. You can email me directly at julziestyle@gmail.com. Food and traditions are an excellent way of connecting with people.
I am 78% Irish for new readers, which was a shocker to me, but I am happy to be part of two beautiful biology Irish families now.
I loved autumn this year. I have embraced the dark and have the holiday spirit. This hasn’t happened since our boys were younger.
The change that occurred in me after being diagnosed with lung disease has been life-changing in the best kind of way.
I began getting excited for Christmas at the beginning of October. With Nelly still a curious and playful puppy, I knew I needed to simplify things.
I made “nature ornaments for the two small trees in the two front windows of our living room, which I took out of the neighbor’s trash.
The tree ornaments are white and brown: snowballs, icicles, pine cones, and tiny acorns. The trees are pretty much identical, like twins.
The trees came out exactly how I imagined. If I stick with the woodland tree theme next year, I will have to forage for regular-size acorns instead of the teeny ones I used this year.
I would not be using my collection of vintage glass Christmas balls from the 1940s that belonged to my Mema. They are too precious to me if one gets broken from the chaos.
I’ve always wanted a Christmas tree in my bedroom, and this was the perfect year to dig out that 3 ft tree we had in the basement.
I purchased inexpensive plastic Christmas balls and wired ribbons to decorate my small French tree.
This tree is very romantic and fits in perfectly with our Parisian bedroom. I love this tree and how beautiful it came out.
Next, I got out another tree from the basement, a tiny tree I used in the dining room with those vintage ornaments. I decided to put the little tree in the kitchen.
I’ve always loved when kitchens are decorated, but I’ve only seen them done in magazines and home/decor shows. I finally got to do mine on a very small scale.
I also found a use for a chalkboard I missed when we took it down when we renovated the kitchen two years ago. An idea sprung into my head, and voila, it’s now a menu board for the upcoming week.
I think it’s finally time to talk about the title of this piece, Decking the halls, which is named after the song Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly.
The lyrics to this famous song were written in 1862 by a Scottish musician, Thomas Oliphant.
The word deck comes from the Dutch word dekken, which means to adorn with something ornamental. The word deck is also used when describing a well-dressed man; “He’s all decked out in his Sunday best.”
As a child, I knew the words to Deck the Halls; we all did, but I never thought about them. Until this year, I still never gave the lyrics a thought.
Decking the halls means to decorate one’s home, not just the halls at Christmas time., everywhere. Decking the halls was initially done for entertaining purposes.
This year, I “decked the halls” very minimalistic and understated. It suits this period of time in our empty nest home and decor.
I changed things up outside as well. The front porch is different than I have for years. It looks much better with the greenery and lights than the usual icicle lights that found their way to the back deck this year.
I decked the halls over three weeks and didn’t kill myself to finish it in one day. Now that I think of it, that was ridiculous. Why the hell did it have to be one day?
This is a different year and a different holiday season to go with the different me. It took me until this year to realize I didn’t have to run around and stress myself out over Christmas.
I also realized I didn’t always have to spend hours trying to find those perfect gifts for people.
This year, I bought gifts with my heart and am looking forward to wrapping them; this has never happened before. I hated to wrap Christmas gifts and left them until the last minute.
Sam is a perfectionist in gift wrapping and puts us all to shame. 😂
I wish you all a great week and wanted to remind you to slow down, enjoy the holidays for what they are, and be grateful for the people you spend them with. Cheers!
Sweet and sour “pork.”
Let’s clarify: I am not a vegetarian or vegan. Life is too short not to indulge in foods that you love. Everything in moderation is my motto.
We were vegetarians for a couple of years back in our twenties, but at the end of the day, we are carnivores.
I have been making meatless meals at least twice a week for some time now. I still use beef or chicken stock and dairy in those dishes.
Marty has high cholesterol, and we should watch our diets for heart-healthy reasons. Yes, I usually post foods that are indulgences, but why can’t healthier recipes taste like them, too?
I support vegetarian diets as a healthier lifestyle while eating whole-natural foods. I can also understand why people do it for ethics.
I can’t think about ethics, or I won’t want to eat meat either. It’s a circle of life thing; we don’t have teeth to eat only vegetables.
A vegan lifestyle is a choice, and many times, food is laden with many scientific and chemical byproducts and is something I do not support.
I support people as vegans if they are eating whole-nature foods. However, many vegans I know have horrible diets and eat shitty fattening foods and NO vegetables. Weird.
If vegans are craving a bloody hamburger and are eating all that chemical-filled impossible stuff, well, dammit, it may be time to reevaluate what in the fuck you are doing. Why are you craving bloody meat?
Some people’s bodies need the amino acids and iron you cannot get without eating meat. It happened to a friend of mine whose hair started falling out, plus my ulcerative colitis left my body needing more iron than vegetables and vitamins could provide.
This is 100% true for me. My body wanted and needed meat. My opinion on veganism may not be popular, and I am ok with that.
Once, I said something on my personal Facebook page about impossible burgers after we attempted to try one. The fake bloody hamburger smelled like nothing I’d ever smelled before.
I read the ingredients on the package since I always read labels due to my gluten intolerance. Here is what I found. 🤢
After my post, my Facebook “friends” lost their shit and got all up in my ass by telling me I didn’t know anything and began making comments defending the impossible line of food.
They insisted their meat-eating partners love it more than meat. I wonder what their honest opinion would be. They weren’t convincing me; they were justifying themselves for eating it.
Hey, you do you, and I’ll do me. I feel that way about most things.
Ok, enough about all that bullshit; this is a post about soy curls. What in fucks name they are? Where do they come from, what are they made of, and are they healthy for you?
Soy curls were created in 2000 by a family-run, Oregon-based company, Butler Foods. They wanted to create a meat alternative for vegetarians and vegans.
Soy curls are healthy and are a whole-natural food, meaning they do not have a bunch of chemicals in them. There is only one ingredient on their package: soy.
Marty stumbled upon soy curls while picking up a snack for us while we were in Albany making a delivery to the store Honest Weight. He chose a soy curl teriyaki salad made without gluten.
It was delicious, and we needed to know more. I researched what they were while heading to our next delivery in Saratoga. After the Four Seasons health food store delivery, I grabbed a bag of soy curls.
I looked up some recipes. I couldn’t wait to make one of our favorite dishes, Mongolian “Beef.” I used my Mongolian sauce recipe, which was the best part. I already knew what it would taste like.
Mongolian “Beef.”
The bottom line is they were easy to prepare, and the dish was better than the one I made with beef. They didn’t get tough in the refrigerator; we ate them cold the next day. You can’t do this with beef./
I have an excellent sense of smell and palate. The soy curls don’t have any smell or taste. They absorb whatever flavors you are cooking them with.
We ordered a big box of soy curls, which we will keep in the freezer and use what we need a little at a time.
The amount of quick and easy meals we will get out of one box would be hundreds of dollars in meat.
What I like about cooking with them is there is no contamination to worry about or having to wash your hands dozens of times, like when preparing chicken, pork, or beef.
Here are some other dishes I will be making with soy curls.
I found the above photos of soy curls on Pinterest. Buffalo Chicken Salad, Steak Tacos, Hot Honey Chicken, Pulled Pork Sandwich, and Beef stroganoff.
I’ll use my regular recipes for these dishes and replace the protein with soy curls. You can be as creative as you want to be. The texture of the soy curls is just like other proteins. It’s amazing.
There are endless possibilities, and you won’t have to worry about defrosting or purchasing meat for quick dinners.
Will I still make steak, chicken, and pork? Well, hell, yes. We will continue to indulge in foods we love by keeping everything in moderation.
The only negative things about soy curls are for people allergic to soy and for my old pal cauliflower, which soy curls have now replaced.
You can find soy curls in most healthier stores like Trader Joe’s, health food stores, Whole Foods, and many other places.
They are more expensive on Amazon, so don’t do that. We ordered ours from Butler Foods directly, and they were half the price of Amazon.
I like to write about things people may not know about. I want to educate myself and my readers the best I can and teach them how to use or make whatever I am writing about.
I hope you found this post interesting. I am unsure if anyone will try soy curls, but if you do, I promise you will love them.
With some readers emails being returned and undeliverable, the best thing to do is to email me at julziestyle@gmail.com.
I tried to reply to a stuffing question this morning and it didn’t go through.
Thanks so much for your comments which mean the world to me. I want to be able to answer your inquiries too.
~j
I corrected my email I left out the .com! 🤦🏻♀️