Thursday, January 12, 2012

Our Christmas

A few years ago when we were living in Germany, we made the decision to stop traveling during the Christmas holiday, and have deeply enjoyed creating our own traditions and building memories together as a family.

About two weeks before Christmas, Greg always picks out the largest live tree he can find (usually with the children), and then we all spend and evening decorating it together.  We have a box of misfit/handmade/unbreakable ornaments that the children hang, and then after they are in bed, Greg and I finish it up by putting up all of the glass ones.

In the nights leading up to Christmas, we often end our evening with all of the lights off but the tiny white ones covering the tree...a few moments of mellow light and conversation.

On Christmas Eve night, after the children have gone to bed, Greg and I put all of the gifts under the tree.
The Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve

Traditionally I am working on gifts up until the very last moment, and this year was no different as I worked at finishing up the children's little individual scrap books.
Christmas Eve


Each year I prepare a breakfast casserole or cinnamon rolls or the dough for baked doughnuts (stamped out and lined up on the cookie sheets, covered in plastic wrap), and then bake it the next morning -- a small amount of effort for a very special breakfast.  This year I made my favorite cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze, but subbed in 1/2 cup rolled oats (whirled in the blender for a moment to make it a semi-flour) for 1/2 cup of the flour, and ended up with an ultra tender and moist roll -- our favorite yet.

Christmas Eve
Raising the dough in a warm oven

The next morning I got up at 5am to set the rolls out to rise then went back to bed.  When the children woke we let them play for a bit while we slept in...

Finally we gathered to open our gifts, starting with the ones the children had made for us and for each-other (nearly all this year were wrapped in brown paper lunch bags.  So cute!)
Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening the little scrap books...they were so excited about them, which made me super happy.
Opening Christmas gifts

Adding to the collection of monster truck DVD's...
Opening Christmas gifts

Then we Skyped each of our families and opened their gifts on camera.
Opening Christmas gifts on Skype

Opening Christmas gifts
I love the way that technology allows us to be close across the miles....

Opening Christmas gifts

We took a break for cinnamon rolls, and then played with new gifts for a while before going back for round two and opening the rest.

Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning

Cinnamon Rolls on Christmas morning

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts

Opening Christmas gifts
I don't usually eat candy, but if I had to pick just a few, this would be on the favorites list

Greg's parents gave Andrew and Elijah these "Davey Crockett" costumes and fake guns that used to belong to Greg and his brother Keith, and the boys spent the next few days doing some of this:
Sparky and Max trying out their new Davy Crockett costumes

Once all of the gifts had been opened, I started on dinner, and at last we sat down to Canard a l'orange (Julia Child's recipe for roast duck with orange sauce), crisp roasted potatoes, quickly sauteed green beans, and a lightly dressed green salad.


Christmas Dinner


Christmas Dinner: Duck, green beans, oven roasted potatoes


For dessert at Greg's request, I made puff pastry (for the first time ever -- the dough was not fun to work, and I could not have been more surprised when it actually puffed!), and put together Raspberry Mille-Feuille (Napoleon) with fresh raspberries and vanilla pastry cream.


Christmas Dessert: Raspberry Napoleon


It was gorgeous until I sliced it up (no pictures of that -- some of the berries were crushed and the cream shifted out of the sides...) -- next time I will cut up the pieces of pastry into individual servings and then fill them with the cream and berries for a better final presentation.


Christmas Dessert: Raspberry Napoleon


A delicious ending to our day.


(If you have not tired of pictures yet, there are more in the flickr set here.)

Friday, January 06, 2012

Weaving and pasta

I warped my little Cricket lap-loom today and started a scarf...

Weaving a new scarf on my Cricket lap-loom

Spent some peaceful moments weaving in my studio all by myself.  It was lovely.

Also, I made this Italian-American baked pasta dish for dinner a few nights ago: Johnny Marzetti.  Delicious, even with the pre-shredded cheese that I used, but would be even more special with fresh mozzerella on top.  I sauteed everything in the order written in the recipe, but didn't take each ingredient out of the pan once it was done, just added the next ingredient to saute, and didn't add any extra oil (so I ended up using 1 or 2 tablespoons instead of 10).  I also upped the pasta from 8 oz to 12 oz to make it more filling/stretch further, and used bulk sausage instead of ground beef (less expensive/nicely seasoned).  It turned out well with this much-less-fussy method and alterations, and I would definitely make it again.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Back to school (snack)


Today was the first day back to school for my children.  Lavella gets home an hour before the boys do, so we worked together to make some after school snacks for everyone to enjoy this afternoon.

Making Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Puffs

I had originally intended on making these Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Breakfast Puffs as dessert on New Year's Eve, but we ended up going the simpler route with marshmallows, frozen custard and hot chocolate instead.  Plenty of sugar without me ever having to go near the oven.

Making Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Puffs

Today, however, when everyone needed an extra little dose of mommy/baking love to come home to, these were perfect.  Soft, warm, nutmeg scented little pillows are crowned in brown butter and cinnamon sugar the moment they finish baking, and oh my...

Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Puffs

Oh yes.

Brown Butter Cinnamon Sugar Puffs

Yes, yes, and YES.  Thank you, Smitten Kitchen.

Monday, January 02, 2012

New Year's Day Party

Happy New Year dear friends!  We celebrated the first day of the year with a potluck.  I baked a beer-braised ham and a double batch of these Potato Rolls with Caraway Salt (I used smoked Maldon sea salt flakes with the caraway seeds), and invited friends for a party that included a bonfire and fire breathing.  (Everyone shot pics of the night using cell phones, so please forgive the low-quality images.)


New Year's Day bonfire

Greg breathing fire
Greg

Greg breathing fire
Greg

Greg breathing fire
Greg

Pixie breathing fire
Pixie

Jason breathing fire
Jason

Jason breathing fire
Jason

Tom breathing fire
Tom

Tom breathing fire
Tom

I hope that your year is full of friends and fun and love.  Happy 2012!