Bena Mae’s Kitchen: That is all there is?

That is all there is?

Every year it’s the same. What to give the person who has everything. Flat screen TV’s are good and the prices seem to have gone down a bit. Electronic gadgets and games are popular but that’s not an option for me since I don’t even know what to ask for. They make them so fast that they become obsolete within a week. Plus, they take me out of my comfort zone when a young “with it” clerk asks me what I want. I don’t know what to say.

In the fun gift category I saw an ad for a Mona Lisa pillow that laughs when you squeeze it. This would end the eternal question people have been asking the mysterious looking lady these many years: Are you really smiling?

Seriously, most of us have everything we need. It goes without saying that many of us can’t even remember what we got last Christmas. And re-gifting could be downright embarrassing. Imagine the giftee opening a present he or she gave you last year.

Thinking about it, I can’t imagine a present that would excite me as much as the box of chocolate covered cherries from Newberry’s Five and Ten Cent Store given to me over a half a century ago. Or of anything else bought from that hallowed place that sticks in my memory. A 25 cent box of chocolate covered cherries, dainty ladies handkerchiefs? A set of Evening in Paris perfume? Except for the candy they are all collectibles that are hard to find. I know because I’ve searched for them in antiques shops and failed to find them.

Now that I’ve gotten myself in a nostalgic mood, thoughts of Christmas’s past begin to crowd my mind. And I can’t help thinking about the little things that were once so important but are taken so much for granted in these modern times. Like, for example, oranges and apples and nuts and grocery-mixed candy in the bottom of our Christmas stockings. They were not an everyday thing in our lives. But oh, so delicious when we delved into the bottom of that stocking and savored them for days. If only we could recapture the simple pleasures we enjoyed back then.

The economic situation doesn’t seem to have curtailed what people are spending today, judging by the crowded stores and buying over the internet. But hopefully, people are being selective in their gift-giving. and will concentrate on practical gifts.. In years past, Christmas buying became so lavish that it spun out of control, took on a carnival-like atmosphere of glitter and spending. And today, it has become even more so.

Yet, the day after Christmas when we look at the torn wrapping paper under the bereft-looking Christmas tree, we will be left with the sad feeling of an old Peggy Lee song, “Is That All There Is?” Somehow, we always get that letdown feeling.
This year we can make it different. This year we can concentrate on what Christmas is really all about. Home and hearth and family and PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN. This is real fulfillment.
 

Praline Pound Cake

Courtesy White Lily Flour

Ingredients
No-Stick Spray
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups butter
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
3 cups firmly packed brown sugar
6 large eggs
3 1/4 cups White Lily® All Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions
HEAT oven to 325°F. Coat a 10-inch tube pan with flour no-stick cooking spray. Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans in pan.

BEAT butter and cream cheese in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed. Beat in brown sugar about 5 minutes or until very light. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in flour, just until combined. Do not over mix. Stir in vanilla and remaining 1 cup chopped pecans. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Place tube pan on baking sheet.
 
BAKE 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack to cool completely.