Gingerbread Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

The Gingerbread Girl and some of her suiters!

As you can tell from the pictures my Christmas baking has started of course, and just look at how happy this gingerbread girl is in amongst all her cute male suitors. She’s probably going to need to remind them to take off their muddy boots before coming in the house! So far I’ve completed all the gingerbread and some of the shortbread cookies and even a pan or two of Rice Krispie Treats. Hopefully I manage to find the time to get more baking done. Let me see, there’s the orange-oatmeal cookies, the lemon flavoured sugar cookies, maybe a Yule log still yet to get made. Maybe I’ll save all the calories and just stop now!

These cookies are some of my all-time favourites.

The Turkey Drive challenge was a huge success. The Turkey scoreboard was completely full. Our original goal had been 25 birds and then it was increased to 50 and then 100 turkeys but we exceeded even that. By Friday morning we had collected enough money to provide 160 turkeys setting the bar very high for anyone else. I was so proud and still have a tear in my eye for all the kind and generous co-workers who really pulled together to make this huge donation happen. The stakes have been raised for next year and I know we will exceed them because that’s just the type of team spirit we all have. We may even have to have two Turkey scoreboards!

Just a few of the donated turkeys on the front doorstep.

We may need a bigger scoreboard next year.

I have included a few pictures of our Christmas decoration as we have been busy getting ready for the Holidays. I have lots more to get done before the big day which is closing in rapidly. Just remember, only 10 more sleeps everyone!!

The Christmas tree was almost finished.

This owl guards one of the crystal snowflakes.

Fondue Night

As you can see from the pictures fondue night was awesome. The meat was so tender it just melted in our mouths. That’s not always the case with this meal. We have had some fondues where the meat came out of the broth very tough and chewy. Last night’s was great whether we cooked it for a short time or a long time. This is probably because of the way it was processed. The butcher is also the farmer who raised the cattle. He actually hangs the meat for 21 days in his cooler and then does the cutting himself. This is the way butchers used to do things but it’s not the way they do it at today’s grocery stores. It’s just one more reason to make the trip to the Farmer’s Market.



We first had this meal at a restaurant in Montreal years and years ago. They called it a Chinese fondue for whatever reason. The meat was sliced into very thin pieces and was brought to the table on a platter. The cooking medium was beef broth and was served with a variety of dipping sauces and bread. It made a big impression with us. Later, at home in Toronto, we found an Austrian restaurant called the Graf Bobby that also offered the same meal. We must have gone there a hundred times and we always had the same thing. It became quite a tradition for us; they even kept our favourite table reserved for us on Friday nights. Unfortunately, the Graf Bobby went out of business so we had to learn how to make fondue for ourselves. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to do.



We make all the sauces ourselves. We start with a mix of plain yogurt and sour cream as the base then we add our own blend of spices. Hubby loves the curry sauce so I usually make two. I love the onion sauce. It’s made with a bit of onion soup mix. We tried two new dips this time. We used the chipotle chili spice and the hot paprika we wrote about a couple of weeks ago to make them and they turned out great. They are definitely keepers. If you are going try this yourself make the dips a couple of hours ahead of meal time to let the flavor spread into the base.
The veggies are great cooked this way, too. They always add an extra welcome to the broth in the pot. We use the broth a day or two later over some ramen noodles for a quick dinner. We always put out a selection of different cheeses, too. A couple of different breads just make this meal perfect.







Hubby got a very nice surprise for Valentine’s Day this morning. This is the second year I have made these cookies for him. They’re fun to make and are delicious, too. I think he was pretty happy to get them. I think the Snowman is also happy. Hubby made me a great breakfast this morning and now I'm stuffed. I also got a beautiful card and the wine we had with dinner last night was also my Valentine’s gift. I didn't want any flowers this year.





Oh, and I just had to include one more picture. I purchased this beautiful poinsettia tree after Christmas for $5.00 and the colour is such a bright red that I call it my Valentine's tree.



Hope you enjoy.

Granny New Year Came Sometime Through The Night.

Wow, what a beautiful full moon last night! It was actually a blue moon and there won't be another one of those on New Year's Eve until 2028, so I hope you saw it, too. We rang in the New Year out in the driveway trying to take some pictures of it but they didn't turn out very good. The night was truly beautiful, though and we did get a couple of shots which lit up the diamonds in the snow on the front lawn.



Granny New Year did come and I was really surprised because I received some money to buy new clothing (and not thrift store clothing!). I don't know where to start. I always buy from Value Village and other places like it and now I'm going to have to figure out where new clothes come from. This may be the biggest challenge yet for me in 2010. Don't laugh because I'm serious.



Hubby received some goodies (a tray of his favourite iced lemon cookies, nicely decorated in Christmas-sy colours) and a solar powered radio for his shed. Granny New Year knew just want he wanted.



Speaking of Granny New Year, the tradition has been handed down from my Great Grandmother, Ludivine. I have always loved that name, she was usually just called Luddy (of course, not by me).

She was Scottish and their tradition was to extend the spirit of Christmas giving by having a small present to open on New Year's Day. It usually arrived in your stocking and was a small toy, nuts, fruit or chocolate. Times were tough back then and really your stocking was all you had. Try explaining that to today's generation.

Hope you enjoyed me sharing this with you. Maybe Granny New Year will have a few more places to visit next year.
Happy 2010, everyone.

Christmas is just WAY too busy!

I hate feeling guilty about not posting. I know that if I want to keep my readers happy I have to say something interesting on a reasonably frequent basis but this week I think that I might have dropped the ball, or at least fumbled it a bit. My, oh my, we have been busy and I'm just now finding the time to sit down here for a few minutes to write this. Guilt be damned!

The training that I have been doing for my new position has been accelerating every week since I started it. At first I was told that I would apprentice for a year or more, maybe a year and a half, but on Friday I was told that both my trainer and my supervisor think that I have progressed far beyond expectation. They think that I am ready to receive almost full qualification.

It makes me very anxious, more than a little nervous, to accept full responsibility for my work. Don't they realize that I have only really had about three months of training? I appreciate the vote of confidence they have given to me but surely there must be a heck of alot more to learn. Hubby is extremely proud of what I have achieved but I am just worried that someone is going to notice that the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes. I hope that I'm not going to let everyone down.

On top of that we have the Christmas holidays and all the attendant stress involved. There are presents to hunt down, crowds to deal with, wrapping, oh the wrapping, and shipping off to the big city. And then comes the baking, cookies, lots of cookies, everybody wants cookies and they need to be shipped off in a timely fashion as well. Top that off by spending a sizeable chunk of our annual income and our savings to purchase a reliable vehicle just so that we can make it to work in the winter. Sigh...



All right, enough of the whining and complaining. In spite of what I have just said I love the new truck, I love baking and the Christmas holidays, I love my new position at work, I love the challenge it brings to daily life and I love my family (what a surprise). So here are a few pictures of the cookies we are sending home. The first picture shows a couple of batches of Shortbread cookies. Some are naked, just as they came out of the oven, and the others have been dipped in Belgian chocolate and then into either crushed almonds or crushed candy canes, mmm! The other picture shows a batch of the orange flavoured oatmeal-raisin cookies that the folks back home claim to love so much. I wonder if anyone would use the recipe if I shared it? Let's find out, here it is...


Orange-Spiced Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - Dipped in White Chocolate
(original recipe might be from Sun-Maid Raisins)

3/4 cup raisins
3 tbsp orange juice or Cointreau liqueur
1/2 cup butter (at room temp.)
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp grated orange peel
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
8 ounces white chocolate chips

Combine orange juice, orange peel and raisins; let stand overnight. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Combine flour and baking soda; stir into butter mixture. Add raisins, any soaking liquid and oats; mix well. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart; flatten slightly. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool completely.

In the upper pot of a double boiler, over medium heat, warm the chocolate until melted. Stir until smooth. Dip one edge of each cookie into chocolate and gently shake off excess back into the pot. Place dipped cookies onto wax paper lined cookie sheet and allow 15 minutes to set completely. Chill or freeze. Doesn't matter, they won't last long anyway.

Makes about 3 dozen