Alphabe-Thursday..."F" as in FOOD I like...

Welcome to Alphabe-Thursday sponsored by Ms. Jenny over at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." For a list of this week's participants and information on how you can join in the fun just head over to Jenny's blog. It's never too late!

I don't know about you, but this is a busy time of the year for me. It's taken us forever to get our decorations up this year. I find myself quickly running out of energy. Around here a lot of people take their trees down the day after Christmas. I think that might have started many years ago when the only trees available were live trees which quickly dried out in the Texas heat. We never did that growing up in NJ and I don't recall anyone else doing it either. Now we always have an artificial tree and I like to keep it up way into January. Once it's up I enjoy seeing it every time I walk through the room. So, our decorations will be up for at least a month. It's a lot of work putting them up, so we might as well have time to enjoy them.

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I would say that's definitely true with our tree. No color theme, no fancy ornaments...just a tree full of memories. My mother saved some of the Christmas things I made as a child and I saved most (if not all) of the Christmas things our kids made. So, our tree is decorated with a lot of faded, torn construction paper.

I always tease Reid about our Styrofoam ornaments. I wrote my name in cursive and he scribbled. I always hang them next to each other. Of course, I was probably ten years old at the time and he was in pre-school. I made the Santa Claus on the left sometime in the 1950's.





I love this reindeer that Reid made. The antlers are his little hands. I made the snowflake in school. Interestingly, it's made out of a pot pie pan that says Swanson on it. We must have had pot pies in the 1950's. I would have thought they came later.





I colored the Santa Claus in school and Keith and Troy made the pine cone elf in Cub Scouts.





Keith made the tissue paper stars on the left, Reid made the canning jar lid ornament in pre-school, I made the red ornament with the orange, I think Reid made the strung orange macaroni. Beneath those ornaments is the Christmas tree sponge made by Keith, the clothespin Santa made by me (he's definitely seen better days), and another one of the pine cone elves. Some things are dated, but most just have names on the back.





Troy made the Santa on the left and Keith made the tree on the right.





One time my mother washed and ironed some old handkerchiefs and sent them to me. I didn't know what to do with them, so I had a lady make angels out of them. This angel is made with an Eastern Star handkerchief that belonged to either my Grandmother or mother. I no longer remember what my mother told me.





Troy made the Santa Claus head and I took a Chicago White Sox key chain that I had given my Dad and converted it to an ornament by hanging it on the tree. Dad was an avid Chicago White Sox fan for most of his life.





Here are a couple of Santa Clauses made by Reid and the stocking was made by Troy.


Just so you can date some of these "beauties" I'll be 66 this month, Keith is 42, Troy is 41, and Reid will be 36 next month. That helps explain the condition.

With all the decorating going on I haven't really had time to think too much about Alphabe-Thursday this week. I've been putting up a recipe each week and I couldn't think of anything for the letter "F" except FUDGE and I don't have a FUDGE recipe. So, I decided to go with FOOD that I like to make and eat. I can't remember where I originally got this recipe for Toffee Bars, but I've had it for a long time. I don't really think they're bars...they're more like candy to me. I guess you could calls these snack food. They're really great in the morning with a cup of coffee, but that's just a personal thing. They're hardly breakfast food!

Toffee Bars

1 box graham crackers (it doesn't take the entire box)

2 sticks of butter

1 c. brown sugar

12 oz. chocolate chips

Line 15 x 10 cookie sheet with foil. Cover pan with one layer of graham crackers side by side. Melt butter and brown sugar in small sauce pan. Boil three minutes STIRRING CONSTANTLY. Pour over crackers IMMEDIATELY and spread mixture evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Remove and sprinkle chocolate chips over top. Let soften a bit then spread evenly. Refrigerate 45 minutes then break into uneven shaped pieces. Store in sealed container in refrigerator. OPTION: Can sprinkle with chopped nuts after spreading the softened chips. I like to use pecans.

Enjoy!

Now head over to Ms. Jenny's blog so you can visit some more Alphabe-Thursday "F" posts.