Family Traditions: Christmas Cards

Christmas cards were a holiday tradition at my house. In front of our fully decorated Christmas tree, all sparkling with lights, would be a small coffee table. One of those nice ones that I had to polish on the weekends. Around December, it would be overflowing with cards. That was the sign that Christmas was on its way.

The tradition continues

Cards would come from everyone: family members, family friends, co-workers, friends from church. Even people that my parents knew from long ago. We may not have been able to see some people for long stretches of time, but we still received cards from them. And they got cards from us, wishing them a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

My favorite card this year

And, since I grew up with this idea of, "giving cards is part of celebrating Christmas", I decided it was finally my turn to take part in the tradition of card exchanging. Honestly, I had no idea how much effort I was going to put in doing this.

First off, I can't remember when was the last time I sent someone anything in the mail. Or sent anything in the mail, period to be honest. So, it took some time to round up all the addresses of the people I was going to send cards to. My friends had spread out far and wide over the years. Thank goodness for Facebook. Then, it took several hours to actually sit down, write in the cards, sign them, and then address and stamp the envelopes. Next time I do this, I am definitely investing in labels. I'm not sure how my mother did this year after year. She made it look so easy.

I really like the glittery ones :)

Personally, I'm not sure how many of my friends mail out cards for Christmas, but I think it is a nice way of letting people know that you are thinking of them during the holiday season. This is a tradition that I plan on keeping for a long time.

Kitchen Adventures! - Stuffed mushrooms

Any other mushroom lovers out there? The only person who can beat my love of mushrooms in my family is my father. The two of us can put a hurting on anything that involves mushrooms. My father had no idea that I liked mushrooms until I was a teenager. It was sort of a bonding moment.

Getting mushrooms ready for the oven

Until recently, I had only been using mushrooms as a garnish or a topping. I was very naive to all the other things you could do with them. I also discovered using fresh mushrooms instead of those in a jar. The difference was amazing. Coming across a stuffed mushroom recipe was an accident. I feel like this recipe was has been waiting for me to find it. I went ahead and tried it, because why not.

They are the best when they are warm and gooey!

The filling is mushroom stems, garlic, onion, cream cheese and parmesan cheese. My only complaints were the filling tasted a bit too salty, while the mushroom caps tasted a bit too fresh. I blame human error. I added salt when I sauteed  the mushrooms, onions and garlic, not thinking how much salt the cheese had. Also, I think the filling needs a bit more. An herb or something to brighten it up. I added crab meat to the filling, but it wasn't enough for me to notice it, flavor wise. Not sure how I'm going to remedy that in future.

The mushrooms did taste much better the next day. So, all in all, it wasn't a bad recipe. Just one that needs some tweaking. I have a feeling that once I get this right, it is going to become one of my quick and easy go to dishes.