Christmas Update
Wow… we're SO busy!
But I do have to say, it's (mostly) nice this year. We have all of the prezzie shopping done, and a lot of the baking stuff planned and the ingredients purchased. I had to run out today for odds and ends, but it was under $10, and I'm sure I'll have to go tomorrow (note to self: molasses, corn syrup, Pet milk, sweetened coconut, light brown sugar). My sister and three-year old niece are coming tomorrow to help decorate sugar cookies, which should be fun. The dough is in the refrigerator waiting for cutting in a few minutes, and we also made a batch of gingerbread to go with an early gift of mine - some really cool 3D gingerbread cookie cutters that make the various pieces of snowmen, trees, and a sleigh and reindeer that fit together and stand up. Cur's been a bad boy and has been indulging my inner foodie - all of my gifts from him are from Williams and Sonoma (the last time we went in, I pretty much got a job offer for part-time work, just based on my general knowledge - hee!). We got a bunch of cool sprinkles and jimmies for decorating, and it should be a blast having my niece over to decorate cookies.
Due to my annoying (and painful) injured foot, I'm not being as much help as I wanted, but I've been doing as much as I can (and that's usually as much as Cur asks, which isn’t that often), but I fetch and dry dishes, pull sets of recipes and select the best ones (if we don't have a favorite already), and keep the animals out of harms way (not an easy task with a 16 week old half-Siamese kitten that LOVES water and MUST be anywhere where water is running… like doing dishes). Cur's been doing really well: we got the Spicy Pepper Cookies done (allspice, cardamom, black pepper, and all the usual suspects) and they taste like Christmas in the Far East. We also made some Russian Teacakes because we hadn’t made them in forever and I wanted some (bizarrely, because I don’t like them much). Cur jazzed them up with some candied cherry and almonds and is now addicted to them with coffee. Today, we made fruitcakes (his mother's traditional recipe that I've never had, but modernized it a touch by using my mini-bundt pan and using an amaretto simple syrup instead of bourbon (yuck) to baste it. There will also be sugar cookies (undecorated, for tomorrow), and gingerbread with the 3D set for tomorrow. We'll probably save the rest of the dough until tomorrow, and maybe for some pieces for a gingerbread house.
We're planning on a lot of different things this year, but we're not putting any pressure on it since I've got two weeks off. Generally, we kill ourselves this month and it's not as much fun as it should be. Cur observed that baking together for the holidays is really our own tradition for own household, and though I never thought about it, he's absolutely right. So, the baking (and candy making), will hereby focus on fun and what we want to do. That said, I'm going to make (small batches of): English toffee (Cur's English), pecan pralines (like out trip to New Orleans), some chocolate barks (dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds, dark with crystallized ginger, dark and white with peppermint like a favorite gift from a few years ago), and we're going to try some homemade marshmallows (plain dipped in dark chocolate and toasted coconut). We're also going to retry last year's successful test of peanut brittle - perhaps peanut and macadamia nut since I have both left over from the year. Oh, and some turtles with the leftover pecans! :D Mostly, we're just going to have some relatively cheap fun making things we've always wanted to try (especially considering movies are $20 a pop for the two of us and dinner out is more that that). Oh, and I forgot to mention… Cur's parents are buying us a small deep freeze for Christmas, so we'll have a place to keep the extras. :D
But I do have to say, it's (mostly) nice this year. We have all of the prezzie shopping done, and a lot of the baking stuff planned and the ingredients purchased. I had to run out today for odds and ends, but it was under $10, and I'm sure I'll have to go tomorrow (note to self: molasses, corn syrup, Pet milk, sweetened coconut, light brown sugar). My sister and three-year old niece are coming tomorrow to help decorate sugar cookies, which should be fun. The dough is in the refrigerator waiting for cutting in a few minutes, and we also made a batch of gingerbread to go with an early gift of mine - some really cool 3D gingerbread cookie cutters that make the various pieces of snowmen, trees, and a sleigh and reindeer that fit together and stand up. Cur's been a bad boy and has been indulging my inner foodie - all of my gifts from him are from Williams and Sonoma (the last time we went in, I pretty much got a job offer for part-time work, just based on my general knowledge - hee!). We got a bunch of cool sprinkles and jimmies for decorating, and it should be a blast having my niece over to decorate cookies.
Due to my annoying (and painful) injured foot, I'm not being as much help as I wanted, but I've been doing as much as I can (and that's usually as much as Cur asks, which isn’t that often), but I fetch and dry dishes, pull sets of recipes and select the best ones (if we don't have a favorite already), and keep the animals out of harms way (not an easy task with a 16 week old half-Siamese kitten that LOVES water and MUST be anywhere where water is running… like doing dishes). Cur's been doing really well: we got the Spicy Pepper Cookies done (allspice, cardamom, black pepper, and all the usual suspects) and they taste like Christmas in the Far East. We also made some Russian Teacakes because we hadn’t made them in forever and I wanted some (bizarrely, because I don’t like them much). Cur jazzed them up with some candied cherry and almonds and is now addicted to them with coffee. Today, we made fruitcakes (his mother's traditional recipe that I've never had, but modernized it a touch by using my mini-bundt pan and using an amaretto simple syrup instead of bourbon (yuck) to baste it. There will also be sugar cookies (undecorated, for tomorrow), and gingerbread with the 3D set for tomorrow. We'll probably save the rest of the dough until tomorrow, and maybe for some pieces for a gingerbread house.
We're planning on a lot of different things this year, but we're not putting any pressure on it since I've got two weeks off. Generally, we kill ourselves this month and it's not as much fun as it should be. Cur observed that baking together for the holidays is really our own tradition for own household, and though I never thought about it, he's absolutely right. So, the baking (and candy making), will hereby focus on fun and what we want to do. That said, I'm going to make (small batches of): English toffee (Cur's English), pecan pralines (like out trip to New Orleans), some chocolate barks (dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds, dark with crystallized ginger, dark and white with peppermint like a favorite gift from a few years ago), and we're going to try some homemade marshmallows (plain dipped in dark chocolate and toasted coconut). We're also going to retry last year's successful test of peanut brittle - perhaps peanut and macadamia nut since I have both left over from the year. Oh, and some turtles with the leftover pecans! :D Mostly, we're just going to have some relatively cheap fun making things we've always wanted to try (especially considering movies are $20 a pop for the two of us and dinner out is more that that). Oh, and I forgot to mention… Cur's parents are buying us a small deep freeze for Christmas, so we'll have a place to keep the extras. :D