Nearly ready

I'll save you the ubiquitous "wow, that went by fast," and "I can't believe Christmas is already here" comments so often seen at this point (though they are true). Instead, I'm going to focus on something that doesn't come naturally to me. Organization.  LOL  I'm not making a lot, but much of it needs to be done in the day or two immediately before Christmas.

I'm not hosting Christmas in any way this year. I never do. Our home is too small for more than maybe two extra people. Even at that, the kitchen table would be cramped. We were content to do Christmas here, with just the four of us. It's not how I grew up (we always went to a relatives, or hosted the whole big shebang), but it worked. Except the kids got a bit older and started getting restless spending the whole day at home, even with their new toys. Going to the inlaws for (an admittedly more low key than I'm used to) dinner breaks up the day and gives the kids a whole new (and much, much larger) space to play.

My mother in law likes to cook. We have different styles, mind you. To strike a balance, I've offered to bring a few things this year. I made some of Jamie Oliver's "get ahead gravy" earlier this week. Unfortunately the butcher gave us eight chicken wing pieces instead of eight whole wings. That has a dramatic effect on the end product, I can assure you. I hope the turkey produces lots of flavourful drippings. In the new year I'll make the recipe again, with the proper amount of chicken parts. It would be nice to have some gravy in the freezer for quick meals.

I've broken down the rest of what I need to do into blocks of time.  Last night I made the chocolate crust for the Candy Cane Cheesecake.  This morning I made the base for the sausage stuffing. Bulk sausage, browned with a melange of diced vegetables (onion, garlic, peppers, celery), seasoned with some traditional herbs (sage and thyme) and some which are less so (oregano and basil, in a nod to my Italian roots).  My mother often adds mushrooms to hers, and rosemary, but I'm a fan of neither.  I've added eggplant in past years to bulk things up even more, but I couldn't find any that weren't either huge or past their prime this week.  I've contemplated adding roasted chestnuts.  I still may.  Tomorrow I'll mix it all up with bread cubes and stock and pack it into a pan to cook alongside the bird on Sunday.

Later today I'll make up the cheesecake, using this recipe from Taste of Home.  I'll add extra crushed candy cane to ramp up the Christmas quotient, so I'll need to get those crushed soon.  It seems to be a tradition in our family to finish our holiday meal with a mint dessert.  I think I've done candy cane ice cream the past two years.  The mint is a very refreshing way to end a large meal.  Somehow it makes me feel less over-stuffed and a little more comfortable as I leave the table. LOL

I want to make a couple of gift foods as well, but I'll share about those later, as the recipients might actually read this before I see them.

Then there's the bacon to pre-cook for Christmas brunch and the chocolate chip muffins to bake to nibble between the stockings and the gifts.  I *think* that's everything.  Oh, and I have Christmas cards to finish making, gifts to organize and all of those last minute details (like showering and making sure the children are clean) to attend to.  Glad I wrapped hubby's gifts yesterday.

Since I will not be blogging again between now and Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  Thanks for reading my little blog.  May the year ahead bring blessings of peace, hope and joy to you and those you love!

~Mama B~

Shortbread, part 2

It's a new day, the sun is shining, and I have a large batch of savoury shortbread cooling in the kitchen.  I tweaked and played with a few recipes that I found, wanting to incorporate certain elements into a cohesive treat.  The result is a flaky cookie, with a nice, savoury edge that will pair well with a glass of wine or cider. There is a little sweetness from the cranberries, and a bit of crunch from the walnuts. I wish I'd added a bit more salt (I've compensated in the recipe), but otherwise I'm pleased with the result.  A little cayenne or thyme or even nutmeg would work in variations, too.  So would very small bits of smoky Speck.

Cheese Walnut Cranberry Shortbread

1 Cup butter, softened
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Kosher salt (careful if you're using a salty cheese)
4 C grated flavourful cheese, at room temperature (I used a blend of old cheddar, Oka and Asiago - this is no time for mozarella and colby)
1/2 C chopped toasted walnuts
1/2 C chopped dried cranberries
2 1/2 C flour
milk, to moisten

Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter, spices and salt.  Add the cheese, walnuts and cranberries and blend well.  Mix in the flour until crumbly.  Add the milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough just barely comes together.  I may have used a tablespoon or so.

On a floured board, work with half the dough at a time.  Bring it together with your hands and roll out to 1/4" thickness.  Cut out into desired shapes, place on prepared sheets and bake for 12 minutes, until light brown.  Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.

Makes about 5-6 dozen, depending on size. 

(As always, I'm not a photo-blogger. My cookies did not actually come out this yellow.)

Shortbread

There's something about Christmas and shortbread, isn't there?  They seem to go together.  I seldom make shortbread outside of the holidays.  At least, not straight up, unadulterated shortbread.  I'll add chocolate chips or dried berries or citrus zest to it.  But plain, buttery shortbread seems to be reserved for Christmas.

I had a package of unsalted, cultured butter in the fridge which I had bought for something else that never did get made.  I thought it would make a lovely cookie, and so I pulled it out to soften.  I found a recipe that used plain flour and some icing sugar, plus a whisper of vanilla.  It sounded lovely.  The softened butter danced in the mixer with the sugar until it was a fluffy mass on the sides of the bowl.  I added a restrained splash of vanilla and smiled.  By the time my 4 year old and I had patted out the soft dough, scored it and docked it with little fork marks, I was eagerly anticipating the cookies that would come.  Going against my own nature, I waited for them to cool before sneaking a taste from a crumbly corner.  The flaky fleck almost melted on my tongue.  Such a wonderful texture.  And then... nothing.  No flavour.  Just blandness. 

I forgot the salt!  The scant 1/4 tsp of savoury balance that holds together the very fabric of the food world was still in my little blue salt pig.  The subtle nuance of flavour from the expensive block of cultured butter was lost forever, and the whisper of vanilla was mute.  I tried in vain to salvage the batch, smearing some of the biscuits with melted chocolate and a sprinkle of salt, but it was too late.  There was no saving them.  Though, to be honest, my husband will probably still eat them all.  He just loves shortbread and can't bear for it to go to waste.

Tonight I'm making a batch of savoury shortbread with Oka cheese, walnuts and dried cranberries.  And salt.

Oh yeah. Duh.

I tried to make candy for my ladies gourmet night.  Twice.  A single batch, and then a double.  And nothing worked.  At first, I thought it was the granulated sugar that I rolled the fruit jellies in, instead of icing sugar.  I thought perhaps the hygroscopic properties of the sugar was the culprit that was making my candies weep and soften.  But the next day the same happened when I used the powdered sugar.  And then I looked outside.  And realized it had been raining heavily for a couple of days.  Um, duh.  High humidity and candy don't mix.  I know this.  And yet somehow I totally spaced on such a simple fact.

That's okay.  I didn't even end up going anyway.  Seriously.  I skipped my beloved gourmet night.  In favour or what, you ask?  Sanity.  Simple sanity.

Wednesday was a stressful day, coming off of a stressful several days (did you read my last post?)  I was frustrated by my candy failure, unimpressed with my appetizer offering (barbecue pulled pork wontons), short with the kids, spinning in circles in my own mind, and feeling like my breaking point was in sight.  My friend was coming to pick me up just after 7:00.  Hubby took the kids out just before 6:00.  Between those two times, I called my friend to let her know that I just was not going.  I asked her to come by and pick up my appetizers, and convey my apologies to the group.  I couldn't go.  The thought of socializing, even with friends, was too much.  The thought of sitting at someone else's house, sitting on the couch watching a movie left me realizing that if I was going to spend the evening in front of the TV, I wanted it to be with my husband. 

And do you know what happened?  The moment I hung up the phone and sat down to continue making my appetizers, I smiled.  I began singing the Christmas song on the radio.  My heart lifted and I felt... good.  Like I'd sprinted back from the brink to a cozy, safe place where I could sprawl out and breathe.  The relief was palpable.  And it felt wonderful.  I'd made the choice to do something for me.  And I didn't regret it or feel selfish.  And I got to put my kids to bed and give them extra cuddles, and I got to curl up with my husband for a little TV and, most importantly, time spent sharing the same space without running here and there.  It was a good decision.  One I won't hesitate to make again.

If My Inspiration Returns

Our four year old princess has been sick for a bit now.  What started out nearly 2 weeks ago as a fever and cough progressed to what we thought was the flu, then maybe nothing, then maybe Roseola, then.... We really don't know.  Any of the above are still on the table, but the bottom line is that she has this wet, lingering cough that is keeping her (and me) from sleeping well and has been the suspected root cause of her throwing up at least 3 times in the past week and a half.  Taking medicine also triggers her gag reflex (though not immediately - a few minutes after willingly taking it).  Now she won't take anything at all.  I don't blame her, mind you.  All of this has left me quite stressed.  And tired.  Very tired.

This week I have a couple of things requiring my time in the kitchen.  I need to make cupcakes for the kids for an event with a group that says it's "nut aware."  We've come to realize that what they mean is that they know peanut allergies exist.  Period.  It doesn't mean that they take any steps to choose safe snacks for affected children.  Don't get me started.  I wish that Babycakes mini-cupcake maker was available in Canada. 

Anyway, there is also my ladies gourmet night.  We're doing a goodie exchange and tapas.  We need to bring 4 1/2 dozen of something, plus appetizers for 8.  I have my dishes in mind.  Pink grapefruit "Turkish delight" (jelly candies, which I'll roll in white sugar and citric acid, for zing), and Asiago frico cups filled with balsamic drizzled arugula and topped with some smoked prosciutto.  Sounds simple?  And it is.  Except my motivation has vanished along with my energy.  I'm debating going at all at this point.  I want to, but I don't, kwim?

What I really want is to take an evening when all of this sick is over and get a hotel room, by myself.  I want to zone out alone, just staring at the wall if I choose to, knowing that short of a fire in the potted plant in the hall or a Spider Man wanna-be smashing through the window in my room, I will not be required to do anything.  Nothing will be demanded of me.  No one will need me to fetch water, get a snack, find socks, wash clothes....

I guess I'm just feeling a bit burnt out.  There is enough positive to keep me going right now.  It's just hard to focus on when I'm so worn down.  Little Miss is really doing okay.  We'll take her to the doctor later, just to find out what's going on and if it's running its course.  I can't imagine trying to give her anything for it at this point.  She's so gun-shy that we'd never get it in, let alone figure out how to make her keep it down.  But I'm heading into the negative again.  Ultimately she's still relatively perky, still cuddly, still her happy self.  Just not as often.  And her brother, who I need to stop referring to as "Little Mister" now that he's turned seven, is taking the lack of attention relatively well.  Must remember to focus some time just for him today.

I'm going to take some time to dwell on the pluses, rather than the minuses, and see where that gets me today.  Prayer is a great way to shift from looking inward at the bad stuff to outward at our blessings.  I'll admit it's not always my go-to solution, though.

So, if I end up roasting the chicken I bought on the weekend (assuming it's still good) rather than sticking it in the freezer, we can assume things are looking up.  I'll Tweet about it later and let you know.

Let the season begin

And just like that, we're hurtling towards Christmas.  Wasn't it just Hallowe'en?  Wasn't it just early October?  So now we sit, on the edge of the cliff, ready to base jump into "the holiday season."  Some have already taken the plunge, diving headlong into the lights and trees and garland and bows.  Others hang back from even peering over for another few weeks.  Me?  I'm gearing up to rappel down for a bit, easing into things so that I don't miss a lot on the way by.

I began playing Christmas music the other day.  Just a little, and mostly instrumental.  I'm not ready for full fledged choirs singing Angels We Have Heard on High yet.  Though I'll admit that I've begun dreaming of a White Christmas and longing for a little snow (it was 17C yesterday).

And I've begun... no, not baking.  I don't bake a lot at Christmas.  I've begun making candy.  I found a bag of my beloved Meyer lemons on the weekend and spent part of yesterday turning them into candied peel (and some bonus lemonade and Meyer lemon infused simple syrup). 

Yes, only one picture. Photoblogger I'm not.

I's so simple to make candied peel.  Last year I made quite a bit.  I love nibbling on it through the season.  The kitchen smelled amazing (until I shattered the plastic spray bottle of vinegar, anyway).

Candied Citrus Peel

2 Cups citrus peel

Boiling water

2 1/2 Cups white sugar, divided

1 Cup water

Scrub the fruit to remove any wax (organic is worth it here).  Peel it and cut the peel into strips (I make mine pretty narrow - think shoestring fry).  Place in a medium saucepan and cover with boiling water and simmer for 5 minutes.  Strain and repeat 2 more times (it helps to have a kettle of recently boiled water handy).  If you're doing grapefruit, you may want to repeat the process for a total of up to 5 times, as it tends to be more bitter.

Meanwhile, place 2 cups of sugar into a medium saucepan with 1 cup of water, over medium heat.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.  Add the blanched, strained peel and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the peel is soft and translucent.

Strain the syrup into a container to save and spread the strips of peel on a wire rack set over foil or parchment.  Once cool, toss them in the remaining sugar.  Epiphany moment - I added a little citric acid as well, to cut some of the sweetness and complement the lemon flavour.  It's wonderful! Spread the pieces out again, keeping them separate, and leave them to dry for several hours, or overnight.

These can be dipped in chocolate, nibbled with a cheese and nut tray, or chopped up to add to fruit breads, muffins and cookies.

Oh, and I've also been replaying our kick off to Christmas last year.  The amazing Chorus Niagara Flash Mob that we got to witness.  Still the best way I've ever started the holidays!

Of Hallowe'en and Chicken Soup

It was a quiet Hallowe'en (am I the only one who still uses the ' in that word?).  Not just because there seemed to be fewer kids out and about, but also because 3 of the 4 of us were losing our voice.  Hubby stayed home from work (always nice on my birthday, which was also yesterday) because he "woke" -aka barely slept- with a really sore throat and almost no voice.  Never good when you have to do work in schools.  My voice was fine until the evening, and ditto Little Mister.  I caught a cold a couple of weeks ago, and am still coughing up a bit of the last of it, and the guys seem to have caught a bit of it now too.  Little Miss seems fine, after getting over it quickly already.

*Bunny trail - There weren't too many costumes last night that made me pause, though there were a few really over the top gory masks.  But there was this one... a girl of about 16 maybe, handing out candy with her mother.  Her dress was the Candyland game board.  Not sure where she got it, or if she found the fabric somewhere and made the dress, but either way there was a measurement issue, because not only was the dress SHORT, but let's just say that this girl's ample jujubes were spilling out of her candy bag. /Bunny trail

So today, with November here, and our routine back to normal after a fun filled evening of Trick or Treating, I've retrieved the capon carcass from Thanksgiving (remember U.S readers that Thanksgiving was nearly a month ago here) and I'm simmering it to make us a very nourishing stock for dinner.  I do not want a repeat of last February, when we lost the whole month to illness that consumed all of us.  And I've realized that our current diet is not exactly supporting our health.  We've been blessed lately with a little extra money, and sadly we've spent a disproportionate amount on take out and restaurant food.  *sigh*  I have no excuses to offer.  I just know that our current habit has contributed to our current lack of well being.  And I want to change that.

The stock is simmering.  The house smells amazing.  Like a warm, soothing hug wafting down the hallway.  Glorious healthy fat is rendering out, along with minerals and other assorted nutrients that will provide us with what we need to nourish our bodies, soothe sore throats and bring us together at the table (in our own home).  There is a whole head of garlic in the pot as well.  Little Mister has requested lentils and barley in his bowl (it's his favourite soup).  I think I want some noodles and hot sauce.  Hubby will want some actual meat in his, and Little Miss... I don't know that she has an opinion.  LOL