Chesnuts

Let me tell you about chesnuts: The doggone things do NOT pop-pop-pop like the lyric writers of the popular song Sleighride would like to have you think. They EXPLODE, blowing little chesnut body-parts all over creation, especially when you "roast" them on top of the woodburning trashburner stove, under a cast iron skillet.

Being a bit novice at the process, we did the best we knew how, thinking that we would try something new and interesting for Christmas this year.

Here is my evaluation of the experiment:

#1. Chesnuts taste better raw than roasted.

#2. Chesnuts explode, so find a way to contain the resulting blown-apartness.

#3. Do not try said experiment in close proximity to your recently out-of-school kindergarten-teaching daughter. She is absolutely great, but hadn't had enough time to rest up, just being dismissed for Christmas on the 23rd.

#4. I did enjoy the experiment. . . I would not repeat it. Ha-ha-ha.

Have to tell you, it was a wonderful breakfast. Wayne had made cornbread, but we all had to add our own little touch to the menu. Jake's description of the fare follows:

Train-wreck Eggs

Breakfast Meat besides

Fried Potatoes prepared with an Army Grater

in addition to

Wayne's great cornbread and

Exploding Chesnuts.

Man, don't Joanie's traditional Christmas sweet rolls sound great right now?? I almost called and asked for her recipe the week before and got too involved in other things. . .

Taught me two things:

#1. You have to have a thick skin with sons' accounts of home happenings.

#2. Don't procrastinate asking for a recipe.

Another Christmas tinged with unique family color!!

I am grateful we enjoyed some quiet Christmas stories in the afternoon before dinnertime. . . .