They have forecasted a huge winter storm with snow for us this week! Wouldn’t that be great? I know if you live in the North you don’t understand the sheer joy and delight we southerners feel when the word snow is mentioned. We call off school for the slightest snow flurries. Yesterday, I woke up and decided that if it’s going to snow, I’m going to redecorate my house for Christmas and take pictures. It rarely snows in Middle Georgia so this was my chance to get a wonderful photo to use on next year’s Christmas cards!
Under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have tackled this decorating do-over. It really was easy tho, because I still had my Christmas decorations in an upstairs bedroom, awaiting the annual trip to the attic….All I needed was fresh magnolia branches for my windows. Hanging my wreath was simple enough. My bows are ready to be tied on the magnolia, so after lunch I headed out to gather my branches and put them together so my husband could put them out the windows when he got home from work. That’s always been his job at Christmas. That and to put the candles in the windows. He gladly obliged me in this crazy venture.
In the middle of all this decorating, I decided to make Crab Stew. It’s one of our favorites and it tastes as if you have spent a lot of time making it when in reality it goes together very quickly. On a busy day, it’s the perfect lunch! And I was busy.
Begin by sautéing half of an onion, 1/2 bell pepper and 2 stalks of celery, chopped, in 4 tbls of butter until tender. Add 4 TBLS flour to butter and combine until smooth and cook briefly, being careful not to burn the butter…add 4 cups of chicken stock and 2 medium potatoes chopped into half inch pieces. Cook until potatoes are tender. Add 1 pound of canned crab meat. To thicken I add two tablespoon of dry instant mashed potatoes. Add 1 cup of milk, half and half or cream…or a combination equal to 1 cup.
Salt, pepper and pepper flakes to taste.
To serve: add a Tablespoon of sherry to each bowl…(optional). I served with toasted biscuits.
Now, back to my decorating do-over. I still had my faux Christmas tree in the window upstairs. All I needed to do is to plug it in. Done. My husband says when he is dead and gone I’m going to be an old lady and the children are going to call me “that Crazy Christmas Lady”.…sounds ok to me!
I took 4 small faux trees and put them on stools at various heights to be my Christmas tree in my living room. From outside it looks like I have put up a huge tree!!!!
I tied red bows on my porch lights and filled the urns beside my doors with greenery and red bows. I’m ready.
So, I sit here tonight, waiting for the ‘snow’ to arrive. And what if it doesn’t? Well, I have kept the spirit of Christmas alive a little longer in my neighborhood this year. And that can’t be all bad. Just call me “That crazy Christmas lady”.
FAST FORWARD 5 hours: It’s morning now…and we got a very little dusting of snow.…so much for the major snow storm for Middle GA….still, it’s pretty and I had so much fun decorating my house once again….for Christmas…too bad I can’t leave it up all year…wouldn’t that be fun?
So today, on this ‘snow’ day, I’m making my Eggplant Stew…more comfort food. Merry Christmas everyone….;) From That Crazy Christmas Lady ~
