Finally Finished

I believe I'm finally finished with the Christmas baking saga for 2010. I think I've narrowed down what will be my traditional Christmas baking list. The list will definitely include the following:

I decided to attempt Shortbread again except in a bit of a different format. This is a keeper - just roll the dough into balls and put a cherry in the middle! Easy Peasy!

The Shortbread turned out just perfectly this time... and oh so tasty!

The first Peanut Butter Balls of the season. These are my FAVOURITE Christmas treats.

Peanut Butter Balls dipped in chocolate.

This is the chocolate that coated the shortbread, that went on the tops of the peanut butter balls and that makes everything taste just that much better!!!

Finally! Remember the shortbread cookies that I made a while ago and that didn't turn out so good? Well. Look what CHOCOLATE can do!!! Amazing...

Just one more...

Shortbread. I obviously have not mastered shortbread yet. It turned out ok, but I burnt the first pan of cookies - too thin. Bah.

The dough looked good!

All ready to roll out and cut (that's my makeshift cookie cutter on the left - it's the insert into the lid of my blender!)

Looking good - before baking...

TOO THIN! ARGH! Burnt shortbread is the WORST!

I didn't complete the shortbread yet, so you don't get a finished product picture. I'll try to get them finished for tomorrow! To be continued...

More, More, MORE!

My weekend of motivation is still puttering along! I hope I can have another inspirational weekend to get to the shortbread cookies and peanut butter balls. I'm definitely done for now.

My mother's caramel corn (poppycock)

Next, I attempted those Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins. They are A LOT harder than anticipated and a number of them ended up in the home container - the container that we can eat at home.

I've never cooked with Cream Cheese. This weekend has had a number of firsts - first time baking with REAL butter; first time with Cream Cheese...

This is the chocolate part and the cream cheese part. They are separate. You put the chocolate batter into the muffin tin first and then top with the scrumptious cream cheese topping!

Finished! They were tough to get out of the muffin tins, but I figured it out... after having to eat a few first...

And So It Begins...

Christmas is close! It won't be long until there is snow on the ground, road conditions are sketchy and we are all bundling up to go for a walk out to the frosty car.

It also means that the Christmas music is just starting to play over mall speakers, on random radio stations and, quite often, at my house.

This is why today is the start of my Christmas baking journey. I've made a few Christmas-y things before - I was always the one to make peanut butter balls growing up. I've tried my hand at shortbread and gingerbread. I've only done a few little Christmas treats though. I've always been super close to my mom and her vast store of Christmas Eats.

This year, though, I'm going to try a little harder to see if I can make a few extra little holiday things. I was rather proud of today's success.

I had 4 things in mind to make today but only accomplished 2. I'm okay with that (I'm exhausted...).

First, soft ginger & molasses cookies with red & green sprinkles:

This is the cast of ingredients that I was intending to use today (I actually only used about half of them)

First, sugar and margarine - how every good recipe starts!

I'm ready to eat this already...

This is the end of my London Fog. It was a wonderful companion to the start of my baking career.

Molasses.... mmmmmm.... look at that goodness....

Add the dry ingredients...

Finished dough - I'm just grabbing a piece for the official taste test.

Little cookies, all dressed up and ready for the oven!

Next Up.... Cinnamon Crescents!!!

I've never baked with real butter before. I thought I should document it.

I guess the rest of the mixing steps didn't look too interesting. So. HERE IT IS! The finished DOUGH!

All dressed up with cinnamon and sugar

FINISHED for today. Tomorrow there might be more. Or maybe next week. Stay tuned :)

In all my efforts to think of ways to recycle and reuse; to be frugal and wise with my "things", I learned an interesting thing about my dad.

I visited my parents at their "new" farm (they just moved there Labour Day Weekend) and was struck by how my dad just naturally reuses, recycles and is very careful with his resources.

One of the first things dad showed me were the dehumidifiers in the basement of the farm house. "They both get filled up regularly with the water from the air" he said and then he got this happy glint in his eye. "Do you want to know what I do with it?" he asked. Dad can't stand the thought of throwing out all that water so he boils it. After he boils it, he uses jars that he found left over in the house when they moved in. Dad fills the jars with the boiled water and stores them on shelves. He tells me that the water has been purified through the de-humidifier first and then sanitized through the boiling process. He can now use the water in the jars to make coffee, in cooking, for drinking... Isn't that amazing?

I'm a little shocked at how naturally my dad does these things. I just don't think I've ever really taken any notice of the ways he respects and takes care of the resources given to him. I hope that someday, my use of the resources I've been given are as natural and as thorough as his.

Today marked the 15th day in a row that I've biked to work. I'm pretty proud of myself. Also, on the weekend, Zach and I went for a hike instead of our usual Sunday afternoon stay at home and nap. The weather was perfect. I love autumn!!

We've been discussing the 100 mile diet in the staff room this week. It's getting me thinking more about what I "cheat" on and what I actually do buy locally. I don't think I'd ever be able to go strictly 100 mile diet - how would I get orange juice, salt, chocolate and coffee? However, I should try and make sure that I buy what I can locally - veggies in the summer, meat, flour, bread, etc. It seems a lot of the staples of food can be bought locally and it's just a matter of figuring out where to go to get these things.

Check this out:

http://100milemanitoba.org/