December 11

 Today has been busy with all kinds of things, including a dental appointment for me and putting snow tires on our car for Mr. T.

In addition, he baked the apricot-filled Sacher torte cookies and the lemon spritz cookies shown above.

I made a lasagna for our Ladies of Grace Christmas party which is tomorrow night.  It's an easy make-ahead, so I prepared it today and will bake it just before the event.

I also made a hash brown casserole for a breakfast we'll be doing on Saturday with some of the grandkids.  Very helpful to have that done ahead.  I will try to do more components for that meal tomorrow.

Another Christmasy  thing I did was to wrap my gift for tomorrow night's gift exchange.  

And worked on posts for my Christmas blog ... that may be about it for today.

December 10

 Lots of Christmasy happenings here today!

Mr. T baked and frosted another batch of Eggnog Logs.  He also baked a batch of Lemon Shortbread Thumbprints and made a batch of Special Holiday Fudge.

I finally got around to baking Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies from Ambitious Kitchen.  They involved a lot of work but are beautiful and delicious.  There was an option to make them a peppermint mocha flavor so I did that.

I listed a few more Christmas cards in my Etsy shop and worked on more posts for my Christmas blog.

We got the lights on our Christmas tree and then between us we mostly got it decorated.  There are a few more things I want to add, and a few more decorations to go up in the house, but mostly we are in good shape for our annual grandkids breakfast and craft time which will be Saturday.

It snowed all day, which was another Christmasy thing, and I had Christmas music playing as we worked on our various projects.

December 9

 

Let's see,  I feel as if very few Christmasy things happened today.  On my part, at least.

My hubby baked a second batch of the Gingerbread Coffee Cake Cookies because he had streusel topping left from yesterday's batch and wanted to use it up.  

He also baked a pan of the Cranberry Cheesecake bars.

I was going to try a new chocolate candy cane cookie recipe and even softened the butter for it, but it was after 2:30 by the time I could have started, and that just wasn't happening.  Tomorrow!

He is currently working on putting up the Christmas tree, and he restrung the lights on our little outdoor fir tree to make them look better.

I had soooo many computer tasks to attend to; things to order, customer service people to communicate with, emails to send on my hubby's behalf.  I had an Etsy order to prepare and send.  I did send several Christmas cards to friends, and a birthday card to a Nevada granddaughter.

Tonight I need to compose some more Christmas emails to missionaries.  We may get a start on decorating the tree, but we'll see what happens!  Tomorrow is supposed to be snowy, so we will be happy to stay in and enjoy our Christmas preparations.

Cookie Dough Brownies

 

Probably back in the 1990s I found a recipe for Cookie Dough Brownies in Taste of Home magazine.  I made those brownies many times and people always enjoyed them.  Over the years, though, I've done a lot of tweaking, the most notable being to use a completely different, old favorite brownie recipe for the brownie base.  Another was to add a third cup of mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough filling.  

 In the past year or so, my hubby has started baking the cookie dough brownies, and he added some tweaks of his own.  For instance, he decided there wasn't enough chocolate in the topping, so he uses more chocolate chips.

One of his flag wave friends asked for the cookie dough brownie recipe a few months ago.  I knew I would be seeing her on Saturday, so I got ready to print the recipe.   And that's when I came to the realization that the recipe had been tweaked so much that I would have to completely rewrite it.  Since I had to do that anyway, I thought I would share the retooled recipe with my blog readers.  Here it is:

COOKIE  DOUGH  BROWNIES

BROWNIES:
3/4 cup melted butter
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

FILLING:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tblsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flour
1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

GLAZE:
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tblsp. shortening or butter
Chopped walnuts if desired

    FOR BROWNIES, in a large bowl, beat together the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; stir into mixture in bowl just until flour is incorporated well.   Pour into a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.  Bake at 350º for 25 minutes or  until brownies test done.  Cool completely.

    FOR FILLING, cream butter and sugars in a mixing bowl.  Add milk and vanilla; mix well.  Beat in flour. Stir in the miniature chocolate chips.   Spread filling over the brownies; chill until firm. 

    FOR GLAZE, melt chocolate chips and shortening or butter in a saucepan or microwave, stirring until smooth.  Spread over filling.  Immediately sprinkle with nuts (if using), pressing down slightly. 

Yield: 2 to 3 dozen

(The cookies in the photo at top don't really look like mine, but just imagine them with chocolate mini chips in the filling and no walnuts on top. Or, if you want them to look like the photo, leave the chips out of the filling and add chopped walnuts to the top.)

For National Coffee Cake Day ...

 

Photo is from Faithfully Gluten Free

 
Yes, who knew?  Yesterday, April 7, was apparently National Coffee Cake Day!   

It's a neat fact to know because we love coffeecake in this house and would be happy for a reason to celebrate. 

One practice I've been developing in recent years is the technique of turning muffin recipes into coffee cakes.  Muffins are great and we do enjoy them, but as I age I am finding it more and more trouble to spoon batter into tins or paper muffin cups.  Inevitably there are spills on the rims of the tins which need to be wiped off or they will burn.  

So I've begun working on ways to adapt muffins to coffeecakes.  Sometimes it can be done with no changes at all to the recipe proportions; other times the quantities need to be increased or at least tweaked a bit.

Years ago in Nevada we greatly enjoyed some maple apple muffins we trted at a favorite coffee shop,  We learned that these muffins were not baked in-house, but had been purchased at Costco,  One year we even bought a dozen to take home with us and a plastic box to carry them in so they could be safely stashed under the seat in the airplane.

After a bit of searching I found a muffin recipe on AllRecipes.com that tasted very much like our old favorite, and I baked them fairly often.  

Recently I got to wondering if I could turn this maple apple muffin recipe into a coffeecake.  My hubby, fast becoming the resident baker, was game to try.  This is what we ended up with:

Maple Drizzled Apple Coffeecake

1 3/4 cups flour (a bit more if you think it needs it)

1 1/3 cup quick oats

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder 

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup maple syrup 

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 1/2 cups chopped peeled apples 

Chopped pecans if desired

Glaze:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/2 Tablespoons maple syrup 

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  In a small bowl, mix milk, butter, syrup, and eggs; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in apples.  Spread batter in a greased 13 x 9 pan; sprinkle with chopped pecans if desired.  Bake at 375º for 45 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan on a wire rack.  When completely cooled, combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle over the coffee cake.

We did add the additional 1/4 cup flour as we thought it needed it.  However, the coffee cake was a bit crumbly, so maybe another time we would add only 2 additional tablespoons.

The coffeecake might not be quite as yummy as the original muffins, but it is tasty and we have even brought it along for coffee breaks this week for the volunteer work crew!

So Happy National Coffee Cake Day to you all!  If you'd like to celebrate, even a day or two late, this just might be your recipe.

The picture I didn't have

 

I've shared before about the delights of my mother's kitchen at Christmas time when I was a child.   At one time I wrote: "Kitchen gifts were somewhat of a tradition in my family as I was growing up.  My mother made pans and pans of her maple fudge, but she also made lots of Christmas cookies, and loaves of cinnamon swirled bread which she topped with a thin white icing plus sliced almonds and a few candied cherries. "

We didn't take photos of everything we did back then as many of us do now.  Taking photographs in those days involved a camera loaded with film.  When the roll of film was used up, one sent it away to be developed.  Both film and developing cost money, so in the 1950s we planned photos carefully rather than always being spontaneous with them.  (Although many snapshots, particularly of children, were taken spontaneously.) 

All that to say, at least in my childhood home we rarely took photos of food.  So I don't have pictures of my favorite Christmas goodies.  Those pictures all reside in memory's picture album, gilded with nostalgia.

The other day, I was sorting through some more boxes of Christmas cards and stationery to prepare for more Etsy listings.  And I came upon the card pictured at the top of the post.  It was just an inexpensive freebie card sent along with others to potential donors to a charity.  And this card just spoke to me of my mother's Christmas preparations.   Nut meats, and candied fruits, made an appearance in her kitchen every December.  The bread board resembles closely one that she had.  And oh, the bread itself!  Although this looks like a bread studded with fruit, my mom decorated her cinnamon-swirled yeast loaves almost exactly like this, with a thin white icing garnished with cherries.  The only thing she did differently was to add some thinly sliced almonds to the trimmings along with the candied cherries.  

What a lovely reminder of my childhood Christmases!  I am so happy to have come across this.

Time to make some kitchen lists!

 Yes, if you haven't already, it's time to give some serious thought to all that'll be happening in your kitchen this December.  List-making is really a must if you do any baking or candy-making over the holidays.  I make a tentative cookie list, a tentative candy list, and a tentative kitchen gifts list every Christmas.  If I don't do this, I will be sure to forget something I wanted to include.  I have made most of my tentative lists for 2024 already.  The one you see above is a "Kitchen Gifts" list from a previous year, fancied up for blog presentation.

Many of you have probably made similar lists already.  But if you haven't, now's a good time to begin!

Above you see a glimpse of my lists for this year.  I'll offer a more detailed look at them over on my Christmas blog.  

I also will be making a fourth list, what I'm calling for lack of a better title a ministry list.  When I can, I like to help friends who may be busier than I and have a houseful of company over the Christmas season.  For one family, for example, my list will include two frozen lasagnas and possibly another main dish as well, in addition to cookie trays and probably some breakfast items like granola and coffee cake.  You may be able to help out a friend in a similar situation, and if so, you will need a list.

Tomorrow we'll talk about another helpful list of a slightly different sort.  Meanwhile, have fun with your own list making!

A very special cookie for all of your Spring and Summer events

 

Last Wednesday evening my Nevada daughter messaged me on Instagram to ask about this recipe.  Her young daughter had a piano recital coming up and Joanna wanted to make these cookies to add to the refreshments at the recital.  

It's so appropriate!  Decades ago,  I made these cookies for the piano recitals of all three children. They were a great favorite on the refreshment table! In fact, they became such a favorite of the kids' piano teacher that I frequently presented her with a tin of these as an end-of-the year gift. These cookies are quite a bit of work, but the impressively delicious results are worth it!

The recipe (which I originally found in a Farm Journal cookie cookbook) ended up being published in another cookbook, The Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook. This came about in an interesting way.  

 

Our children's piano teacher was an elderly lady with many students.  One of the families whose children took lessons from her lived in a large and beautiful home and they offered their music room, complete with baby grand piano, as a recital venue.  

I wanted to bring cookies as elegant as the surroundings, so I tried this recipe.  And the hostess enjoyed them so much that she asked if she could have the recipe.  Friends of hers held an annual cookie exchange and she thought these cookies were special enough to share.  Later when Yankee published the cookbook, this wonderful recipe was included.

 SPRITZ CHOCOLATE SANDWICHES

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Buttery Chocolate Frosting:
3 Tblsp. butter, softened
4 1/2 Tblsp. unsweetened baking cocoa
3/4 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
About 6 Tblsp. light cream or evaporated milk

1 cup chopped walnuts

For dough, beat butter until light; gradually add sugar, beating after each addition. Beat until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla to blend well. Sift together flour and salt; gradually add to creamed
mixture, mixing well.

Put star plate in cookie press. Working with one-fourth of the dough in the press at a time, press out strips of dough about 2 1/2 inches long about an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 400° for 6 to 8 minutes or until very delicately browned.  Remove cookies to cooling rack at once.

For Buttery Chocolate Frosting,
combine the butter and cocoa. Beat in vanilla, salt, sugar, and enough light cream to make frosting of spreading consistency. When cookies are cool, put them together in pairs with frosting between. Dip ends of sandwiches in the frosting and then in the chopped nuts. Allow frosting to set before packaging or storing cookies. Makes about 5 dozen sandwich cookies.

A note on the quantity of cookies this recipe will produce.  The original recipe says it makes 69 sandwich cookies.  I had adjusted it to say 5 dozen, which would of course be 60 sandwich cookies.  However, when Joanna made these, she found she only got about 30 sandwich cookies (2 1/2 dozen).  So when making these, be aware that the quantity of cookies can vary greatly depending upon how large you make them.  

Jerusha  about to press cookies

Finished product!

It's so much fun that these cookies are being served at a second generation of piano recitals!

Italian Sweet Bread

 

I used to make this recipe a lot back in the day.  For most of my life I've liked to bake some type of yeast bread or quick bread (like biscuits or cornbread) to accompany soups.  For the past couple of years and trying to eat more low carb, I've gotten away from that.  

A couple of weeks ago, though, I was preparing a birthday meal for my daughter -- lasagna and salad, and wanted a homemade bread to accompany it.  I just wasn't in the mood to make focaccia bread, which might be my usual go-to.  But then I remembered this Italian Sweet Bread -- which isn't actually very sweet, as it contains only 1/4 cup of sugar.  I remembered it as being quite easy, and it makes two loaves, which is a definite plus when one is feeding teen grandchildren with hearty appetites!

The only problem was that this recipe uses a bread machine to make the dough, and I no longer own one.  So I decided to tweak it and see if I could make it work with a more traditional method.  Here's what I did, and thankfully it worked.

ITALIAN SWEET BREAD

3/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp. active dry yeast
1 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp. butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tblsp. sugar
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour

 In a small bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and 1 Tblsp. sugar.  Stir well and let stand 5 minutes until bubbly.  Stir in the butter.

In a large bowl, beat the egg.  Stir in the 3 Tblsp. sugar, the cream, and salt.  When well blended stir in the yeast mixture.  Stir well and then add the flour.  You may need a little more flour to make it less sticky.  Turn dough out on a floured surface.  Let rest while you clean the bowl and grease it. Knead the dough a few times and form into a ball.  Place in the greased bowl, turning to grease the top of the dough ball, then cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes.

Then punch down the dough and return to the floured surface.  Cut the ball of dough in half and shape each half into a ball.  Flatten slightly and place each half into a greased 8-inch or 9-inch round pan.  Cover pans with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.  

Recipe calls for brushing an egg wash (1 beaten egg/1 Tblsp. water) on top of the loaves before sprinkling on some Italian seasoning and baking.  I didn't want to go to that trouble, so I brushed on some cream instead.   Then I sprinkled lightly with Italian seasoning.

Bake the loaves at 350º for 20-25 minutes or until loaves are golden brown.  Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.  Makes 2 loaves, 3/4 pound each.  Photo shows the loaf cut in slices, but we chose to cut ours in wedges.  

This bread went over big at the birthday dinner!

Answering just two

 

Vintage Thinking of You card sold in my Etsy shop

 No time for a long post today, and some of the Hodgepodge questions would have taken much more thought than I am capable of at the moment.  So I picked just two of the questions that I could answer quickly and easily.  Here goes:

2. Do you have a special place or organizational system for gift wrapping? Do you still buy 'real' cards to send for birthdays, anniversaries, get-well, etc? 

I keep most gift wrap, ribbon, tags, etc.  in two under-the-bed storage totes.  Everyday gift wrap for birthdays and such is in one tote. and Christmas gift wrap in the other, larger one.  I also have some smaller gift bags in each tote -- and the one with the Christmas wrappings also contains some packaging for kitchen gifts -- food-safe tissue paper, foldable cookie boxes, cookie bags, and the like.

Oh, and yes, I do still buy "real" greeting cards to send for birthdays and other occasions.  Often birthdays sneak up on me so I will resort to an e-card, but I try to keep get-well and thinking-of-you cards on hand at all times.  I will either buy them at the dollar store (where they are only 50¢!) , at Christianbook.com or sometimes at our local thrift store.  I also like to keep blank note cards on hand for writing notes of encouragement to folks.

3. It's National Banana Day...are you a fan? What's your favorite thing to make with bananas or, if you're not a cook, your favorite thing to eat that contains banana? 

I do like bananas but they need to be fairly green.  I've eaten very few bananas in the past 18 months or so, since I try to watch carbs quite carefully.  Probably my favorite way to eat bananas would be in a banana split.  

As for baking, I like to make banana coffeecakes or muffins more than banana bread.  I'll link to a couple of favorite recipes for you.

 This Banana Split Coffee Cake is from Jocelyn at Inside BruCrew Life.  I've never been disappointed in one of Jocelyn's recipes.  I leave the glaze off this one as it's sweet enough without it.

And this Banana Crunch Cake found in an old cookbook is really tasty too!

It's a gorgeous spring day here though just a little cool still.  Have a wonderful Wednesday, all!

A new cookie recipe this year: Chocolate Dipped Maple Logs

 

 This recipe has been on my list of want-to-try Christmas cookies  for many years.  

I found it in the 2007 Christmas magazine pictured below, but have just never found the time to try it out.  

Many readers know that my hubby has taken over most of the Christmas cookie baking at our house.  Last year he tried a couple of new cookie varieties that caught his eye.  And this year, he asked if there were other kinds I might want to bake myself.  I promptly added these Chocolate Dipped Maple Logs to the list.  An occasion (an informal cookie swap) presented itself and so I baked these for it.

They are wonderful!  Easy to make, not overly sweet (just a half cup of confectioners sugar in the recipe) and really delicious.  The only problem is that the recipe is not on the Taste of Home website.  My Nevada daughter thought the recipe sounded good (and I think she may have given me the magazine I found it in, in the first place!) so I thought I would send her a link.  I couldn't find it, but thankfully a bit more of a search turned up the recipe on Bakespace.  And now I'm sharing the link with all of you.  

Hope you enjoy these delightful cookies if you try them!

Before we get any deeper into December ....

 

 ... you will want to check your pantry, freezer and fridge for ingredients you'll be needing.  If you don't usually do this sort of planning, I think you will be surprised what a difference it makes.

In my Christmas notebook I have a list titled "Long-Term Holiday Shopping List".  I think it was an idea from FlyLady some years back.  It includes not just baking ingredients, but also groceries for our traditional Christmas Eve meal, ingredients for a few freezer meals and kitchen gifts, and more. It's so helpful to check this list against your pantry and fridge contents before beginning to bake or cook for Christmas, to find out what will be needed.

I'm sharing my list, but really it will differ for everyone.  In fact, as I looked it over I saw that there were a number of things I needed to add.  So I added them in, and have now actually printed out the revised list and placed it in my notebook.

LONG-TERM HOLIDAY SHOPPING LIST

Extra flour -- regular and gluten free
Extra sugar -- brown, white, confectioners
Corn syrup and molasses
Extra cornstarch
Extra butter
Lemons and oranges
Walnuts, pecans, sliced almonds
Raspberry and apricot jam
Baking chips -- white, semisweet, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and peanut butter
Marshmallow fluff
Evaporated milk
Sweetened condensed milk
Baking chocolate -- unsweetened squares and cocoa
Extracts -- almond, orange, lemon, maple, vanilla
Whole spices -- cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, allspice berries
Ground spices -- cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves
Almond bark -- white and chocolate
Candy -- Hershey kisses, Andes mints, candy canes, M&Ms
Colored sprinkles
Red and green colored sugar
Stretch-tite plastic wrap (best for wrapping cookie trays)
Extra foil, waxed paper, parchment paper
Cheeses -- shredded cheddar, blue cheese, ricotta, Neufchatel, mozzarella
Half-and-half cream
Bacon
Celery
Extra eggs
Frozen chopped broccoli, spinach, pureed squash
Lasagna noodles
Sour cream

So make up your own list, making note of specific ingredients required by your own favorite family recipes for the holiday.  Then check it against what's in your pantry.  Hope this idea saves someone a trip to the store!

A berry important question

 

Image from The Graphics Fairy

I'm late, far too late, for the Wednesday Hodgepodge, so I've selected just one of the questions to answer.  I'm sure you can guess why this one appealed to me most out of all the other questions:

4. June 14th is National Strawberry Shortcake Day...are you a fan, and if so will you celebrate? How do you make yours? Have you been strawberry picking? If so what do you do with all those berries?

I am definitely a strawberry shortcake fan. 

I wasn't aware, or didn't remember, that June 14th was National Strawberry Shortcake Day.  So we didn't celebrate.   But we could have, although we were traveling that day.  Let me explain.  

We had traveled up to Boothbay Harbor, Maine, on Monday, June 12 and spent two nights at a lovely B&B with friends from Pennsylvania.  On June 14, we were heading home and passed through the city of Brunswick.  Still full from our hearty breakfast, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a break and an iced coffee to share.

BUT across the street was this place:

You can tell it's April, not June, in this photo of The Brunswick Diner.

where, on a rainy April day some years ago,  we ate the best strawberry shortcake either of us has ever tasted.  

It was made with baking powder biscuits, strawberries, and real whipped cream, as is the New England way with shortcake.  But there was one important and stellar detail that the Brunswick Diner added: vanilla ice cream in between the strawberry and biscuit layers.  

At home, I make my strawberry shortcake simply with biscuits, strawberries and whipped cream.

Strawberry picking?  Yes, we have often gone.  Not yet this year ... it's been a wet June and I'm not really sure what that will do/has done to the strawberry crop.  But we will very likely go strawberry picking if it's a possibility for us.

Little granddaughter Arielle had a hand (or two) in picking these

Strawberry field where we picked in 2022

What do I do with all those berries?  I usually freeze some whole.  We wash and hull the berries, then place them on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid.  Then they are transferred to zip-top plastic bags.  Now we have frozen berries that will not clump together and one can pour out whatever is needed for a recipe.

To use the fresh berries, probably my favorite thing to make would be strawberry shortcake.  To be a little more fancy, this Strawberry Lovers' Pie is another huge favorite.  

 

And this Strawberry Cheesecake Pie is another. 

Photo from Spend with Pennies.com

I also like this homemade Strawberry Pie Filling as another way to use fresh berries.  

 
And these Strawberry Muffins (or, as you will see, Strawberry Coffeecake) are also scrumptious!

And there's my answer to a berry important question. 

December weekend 2

 

 It was another festive weekend as we move toward Christmas!

I've already told you about the Christmas book (pictured above)  that I found at our local thrift store last week, but I will share again for any who may have missed it.  We've been enjoying it very much as it is so Christ-centered.  I paid 50¢, but Thriftbooks has it for $4.19 if you are so inclined.  You can see it here: The Heart & Home of Christmas.  I brought it along to our camp as we stayed over that night.  Mr. T enjoyed reading through it while I worked on other projects.

I guess this book came to mind because we went to the thrift store again this Friday.  It isn't usually a regular stop for us, unless we are dropping off donations.  But last week, we had bought a few Christmas plates (plastic) and we've already used several of them. It seemed a good idea to look for a few more.  These plates were 50¢, so it beats the dollar store.  We bought a half dozen in various sizes and designs.

My local daughter also suggested that I check out some special vintage Christmas books she had seen in the Christmas room at this shop.  They are subtitled An American Annual of Christmas Literature and Art.  I did buy one just for fun.  The image below is the one that I bought.  It's from 1959.  I paid $5 but have seen them online for $18 and up!  Some of the older ones at the thrift store were as high as $12.

 I hope to blog about this book later this week when I have time to look through it more.

We browsed the Christmas room a little more and I picked up a package of 3 lovely glass ornaments for only $1 (if I remember right).  The bottom part is painted gold on the inside and the rest is clear.  So pretty!

Also on Friday we did our grocery shopping and picked up a few ingredients for cookie baking. Our supermarket has rolls of really fun kraft wrapping paper for $1.99, so we got a couple rolls.  Probably some of the unused rolls we have in the attic will end up going to the thrift store.  I like these much better!

 Saturday was a festive day from beginning to end.  In the morning I was able to attend a monthly ladies' Bible study which I enjoy so much.  I've mentioned our friend Amanda Reed, who leads this study, before.  This summer, she and her family moved to a beautiful log cabin with amazing views.  It was so fun to see how Amanda had added Christmasy touches like bows and ornaments to snowshoes both on her porch and on inside walls (and I wish I'd had a means of taking photos).  She also had jars of simple greenery all around the house.  

This was the last Bible study for awhile as we finished up this study on idolatry: More Than Anything.  We will resume in the spring with a new study.

Amanda had prepared a lovely brunch for us as it was our last time together for awhile: a delicious egg bake, fruit salad, pecan coffeecake, and smoothies.  Beyond kind.  It was such a gift to all of us.  You can read Amanda's latest blog post here: Making a Big Deal of Christmas.  I'm sure you would find it a blessing!

In the afternoon, my hubby and I were embroiled in all kinds of festive pursuits as I finished some cookies and he brought in the Christmas tree.  My hubby had previously made some chocolate pressed cookies in the shape of Christmas trees and I was turning them into little cookie sandwiches with minty white chocolate.

You can find the recipe here: Chocolate Peppermint Trees.  I didn't tint the white chocolate pale green as the recipe says, but instead left it white and then sprinkled on some green sugar.  Below you see them in their freezer box.

After that, I also baked some Chocolate Orange Cookies.  I just love the festive flavors of chocolate and orange together!

 
All the while, as I baked and he set up the Christmas tree, we had Christmas music playing and it was just a nice time together even though in separate areas much of the time.  We finished decorating the tree together after supper.

And then Sunday was a very festive day as we enjoyed our Christmas program at church.  Lots of music, Scripture, kids playing bells, and much more.  It was a very nice program that showcased the true meaning of Christmas!

Sunday afternoon Mr. T was out of town for a few hours so I wrote some blog posts, packaged up some Etsy orders, and wrote a few Christmas cards.  Below you see what one of the Etsy orders was for -- this gorgeous unused vintage Christmas card.

And that was the second weekend in December!

A pressing situation

 

Aren't cookie presses wonderful? I love the way they produce many beautiful cookies so quickly. I don't remember ever making pressed cookies in my childhood or teen years, although I often helped my mother with baking, especially at Christmas.  I'm not sure that my mother even owned a cookie press; I certainly didn't find one when I cleaned out her house.

When I had a kitchen of my own, I did acquire a cookie press -- if I remember right, as a gift from my mother. I have been through several cookie presses -- at least four that I can recall.

This lemon spritz recipe is a favorite of mine because it is very different. It has a lovely flavor from the fresh lemon juice and rind.

LEMON SPRITZ
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 Tblsp. lemon juice
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt

Beat butter until light; beat in sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon peel and juice and egg to blend thoroughly. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture, blending well.

Fill the cookie press with one-fourth of the dough at a time. Use the plates of your choice to press out cookies about 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. (I often use the camel plate for these cookies, but they are good in any shape.)

Bake at 375° for 10 to 12 minutes, or until light brown on edges.

Remove from baking sheets to cooling racks. Makes about 8 dozen cookies.

I mentioned yesterday how much baking Mr. T has been doing.  One of the cookies he made was Christmas Tree Spritz -- and,  in doing so, he ended the life of yet another cookie press.  We went to our local thrift store that afternoon in search of another, but the store was closed.  So, we investigated Amazon that very day and ordered another, but it has yet to arrive.

Fast-forward to yesterday when we finally got to our thrift store.  We found quite a deal -- a vintage Sawa cookie press, made in Sweden, for only $4!  I have seen them on Etsy from anywhere to $20 to $75.

 Ours is missing the box, but has everything else.   (It came to us packaged in a zip-top plastic bag.)  Everything is metal, which means it is so sturdy and well-made.  My hubby is so pleased with how it works.  Yes, he has already whipped up a batch of spritz!

December 2

 

I'm trying to post daily in December at both of my blogs.  It may not happen daily here at my kitchen table, but there is plenty to talk about so I will share a little today.

Mr. T has accomplished so. much. Christmas cookie baking.  He's a dynamo in the kitchen!

He has made every cookie on this list from the Lemon Thumbprints down through the Sacher Torte cookies, making double batches of most.  He's also made some that are not on this list -- Macaroon Kisses, for one, and he is currently in the kitchen working on Peanut Blossoms to use up the chocolate kisses!  Peanut Blossom recipes are fairly easy to find, but if you want to try the Macaroon Kiss cookies -- which are scrumptious -- look here: Cookie recipes from an old magazine. 

He's also made, I think, four batches of Heavenly Delight fudge (shown above).

I haven't done a drop of Christmas decorating yet, other than turning a flannel throw to its Christmasy side, just this morning.  Its everyday side is dark green flannel.

 
Yesterday we spent the day helping out at The Wilds of New England (and I couldn't make myself begin Christmas decorating in November), so today is the day I begin with some simple first steps to Christmas decor.

I've completed a few small handmade gifts and one larger one, but have much more to do.

Today is this sweet girl's birthday!  Rosemary, shown here with her mom, turns 2 years old today.  So happy she could be here in NH with her family in September!

 
That's today's simple December post.  Have a wonderful day, everyone!

The quintessential fall dessert

 

Photo from Hannaford Fresh

For one of our fall meet-ups with friends, Mr. T made a very special dessert: Gingerbread Whoopie Pies with a browned butter-maple filling.  He had found the recipe (as you will see if you click the link) in an older Hannaford Fresh magazine and was determined to try it. 

So he did!  One thing I found amusing about the recipe was that each part (cookie and filling) called for "16 tablespoons butter".  Oh, come on, recipe developers!  Why not just say "1 cup butter"?  The only reason I can think of is that they wanted it to sound like less butter than it really is.  

I've only browned butter a time or two in my baking/cooking life (and only small amounts at a time -- certainly not one cup!), and Mr. T never had.   He was a bit off in his calculations as to how brown it needed to be (it said the butter should smell nutty, and that took longer for him than it might for some).  So the butter was possibly a little browner than it should have been.  It didn't really detract from the flavor, but I think it may have overwhelmed the maple flavoring a bit.  So that's something to watch out for next time -- and, now that I think about it, a little stronger maple flavor wouldn't hurt either.

There will definitely be a next time; he's already saying "When I make these again...".  They are indeed very delicious and are the quintessential fall flavor.  I also love pumpkin whoopie pies, though.  Here is the link to the recipe my daughter Carrie uses: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies from Annie's Eats.  Wouldn't a platter featuring some of each be fun?

This Gingerbread Whoopie Pie recipe was supposed to make 12 whoopie pies, but as we looked it over we realized they were going to be huge.  Each one called for 3 tablespoons of batter.  So we decided to try making them with 1 to 1/2 tablespoons of batter.  This worked out perfectly and I think we got 26 whoopie pies out of the recipe.

We had plenty for our get-together on Columbus Day, and we took a container of them to our work project at The Wilds of New England, where Mr. T enjoyed sharing them at break time with his fellow volunteer workers.  

These whoopie pies are just a fabulous fall treat!  I hope you enjoy them if you happen to try the recipe.

One new thing ...

 

 So here goes with another One New Thing post, inspired by Becki at Field Lilies.   My plan as of now is to post about one new thing every Monday.  We will see how it goes!

For today, my One New Thing is learning to substitute maple syrup for refined sugar in baking.  If you are interested in learning how to do this, visit Michelle at Souly Rested, where you can print out a free conversion chart to help you do it right.  I took a screenshot to show you what it looks like.

Now I realize not everyone has a "free" source of maple syrup like we do.  And ours, of course, isn't really free.  Family members work hard to produce it.

If you read Michelle's post you will see that maple syrup has a lot of minerals and other health benefits, so it's really worth your while to learn to bake with it.  She has many other great-sounding ways to use maple as well, including maple kombucha which I plan to try very soon.   If you are so inclined you can even learn how to make your own maple syrup!

Ordinarily when we are on a sugar fast as we are now, I just don't make very many baked goods.  But recently I found myself with some truly overripe bananas that just had to be used up, and I didn't want to take time to research a healthier recipe online.  So I adapted a banana muffin recipe, and we just couldn't be more pleased with the results.

BANANA WALNUT MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350º.  Line 12 muffin cups with either foil liners or parchment liners.  Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.  Add the bananas, maple syrup, oil, and eggs and beat on low speed until mixed.  (I actually used a whisk.)  Stir in the walnuts.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cups.  Bake at 350º until tops of muffins spring back when touched lightly, about 23 minutes.  Serve warm.

Have you ever tried substituting pure maple syrup for refined sugar?  If not, I encourage you to give it a try!

A Christmas kitchen table

 

This is pretty much a repost of something I wrote back in 2008.  I've been trying to simply feature it as a featured post, but since Blogger won't let me do that, I'm going to repost it  Only a couple of readers commented on it in 2008, so I'm sure my newer readers won't mind me posting it again.  Here we go:

This little display on my kitchen island (really an old formica-topped desk built by my dad) sums up so much of what I feel about a Christmas kitchen. The Christmas bandanna underneath it all is one I bought many years ago with just such a use in mind. The little "oil" lamp is from a dollar store and the Merry Christmas ribbon some I bought at Walmart a few years back. The two Gooseberry Patch books, Christmas Pantry and Comfort & Joy, fit perfectly in my kitchen this time of year. The pantry is stocked with plenty of cookies, fudge, and apricot fruitcake, and the makings for many other food gifts. And I find my kitchen at Christmas time to be truly a place of comfort and joy.

The "ribbon candy" is really ornaments, made by my daughter Joanna in 2007. I love the way she packaged them to look like real candy -- and I enjoy them as much (or more) as part of a display like this as I do hanging them on the Christmas tree. The cookie cutters are some of my favorites, and the oversized teacup is from the Mitford snowmen collection. (I found it in a consignment shop a few years ago.) The little rolling pin recipe holder with the candy cane handles was a gift from my granddaughters, and the cut-out cookie recipe is a favorite from my good friend Marilyn. I found the package of vintage light bulbs when we were cleaning the attic, and saved them for just such a use as this.

May your Christmas kitchen be a place like this... filled with sweet old memories and new ones being made... a place where you and your family find joy and where others find comfort too... a place from which your light shines forth to encourage friends and neighbors at this blessed season.