homemade oreos

After the huge Christmas photo extravaganza from yesterday's post, I thought I would go in a completely different direction. Namely, something that is totally not Christmasy what so ever. I don't know about you, but I do not pair Oreo cookies and Christmas together. I do however pair a good oreo with a cold glass of milk. There really is no other way to enjoy an oreo in my book. And like many recipes that I have posted here on my blog, this one has been on my list to try for a while. And again, a dinner at friends' was a great excuse to make them. When I do make them again, I will flatten them a bit more before baking. And I realize that buying a bag of Oreos is so much faster and cheaper, but come on, think of all the oohs and aahs you'll receive when you present them at your next get together.

And look for another entirely different Oreo recipe soon. I just made a batch of the yummiest Oreo treats for tonight's New Year's Eve party. See you in 2010!

And here is a link to a gluten free version of this cookie. I have not tested it though.

Homemade Oreos – from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.

2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.

3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.

4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.

5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.

joy

How do I possibly choose just a few pictures to highlight from so many wonderful memories? As I sat looking through all of our Christmas pictures, I thought that I needed a theme. What better than pictures that exude the joy of the season. Having children around makes this task much easier. Unfortunately some of our attempts at capturing these excited moments just came out too blurry. If only we could contain our excitement long enough to get a picture in focus. Anyways...here are some of my picks that capture our Christmas of 2009.

Christmas Eve - so much anticipation

Tracking Santa through NORAD. The kids were totally into this. We will definitely have to do this next year.

Christmas morning. Nathaniel was very excited to get painting his firetruck.

Abigail - the queen of excited expressions.

A new electric shaver for Andrew. I was totally not thinking when he opened the container of shaving cream in his stocking.

This was the year of the truck for our boys. They are playing with them every day.

Enjoying Abigail's new MP3 player.

Pictures from Boxing Day with Andrew's side.

Sharing Christmas secrets. I love this photo. It doesn't exactly fall under the joy category, but it tells a great story of sharing between cousins.

I love when the adults get into the joy and excitement of present opening right along with the children.

What a beautiful picture of joy.

Needing a break between opening gifts.

The joy of giving thanks.

There is subdued joy...

and exuberant joy. They are both wonderful.

Surprises are a wonderful thing.

We celebrated with my family on the 27th.

A new tradition began this year. Doing eeny meeny to decide which child gets to open first. Oh, the anticipation to be chosen next!

I think this lollipop was the most exciting for Jesse.

Sharing the excitement of Christmas with cousins and family can't be beat.

His own fishing rod. What joy!

Needing some time outside of the house. This is a special joy for those parents left inside.

The joy of sharing a job together. What a joyous Christmas!

merry christmas

our morning

The excitement is building. It is the last day before Christmas. Andrew headed to work this morning and I have a list of things that need to get done before this evening's Christmas Eve service at church (Of course there was some time for blogging). Our morning started out with Jesse wanting to be the angel in the Christmas story. Shortly after this shot was taken, Nathaniel was showing him how to flap his wings. I love how the nativity story is being acted out and talked about way more than Santa arriving with his reindeer.

The first thing on my list was to buy some bread for our Christmas morning baked french toast. The kids and I walked to a local bakery yesterday only to find them sold out of their yummy sourdough bread. So, we got all dressed this morning, walked down with the sled, AGAIN, only to find that they had sold out in about 15 minutes an hour earlier. We headed back home as I tried to remember if there was some frozen bread I could use. I do not want to go close to the grocery store today. After arriving home, I searched the freezer to find an acceptable replacement.

Since we were already bundled up, we played outside the rest of the morning. The neighbour girls came over to toboggan down our small hill.

Jesse headed for the playcentre. At times, I have difficulty understanding Jesse. Even as his mother. This was one such occasion. He was calling me over to the playcentre to play with him, however I was hearing something completely different. And very unChristmas like I might add. Thanks to Abigail for translating for me. So, what was the misunderstanding. He was calling "You shark!", meaning he wanted me to pretend I was a shark circling around him. But I thought he was saying "You suck!" Let's just say I was very relieved. That is thankfully not a word that has been heard in this house.

Back to the outdoor fun.

Jesse desperately wanted to play in the sandbox. He was happy playing with his trucks and shovels in the snow, but that sandbox was just calling his name.

And have I mentioned how much I'm loving my new camera lens. While Jesse brushed off the sandbox, I took a few quick pics around our yard. So much fun.

A cobweb in the corner of our playcentre.

the house

I purchased our gingerbread house weeks ago and was waiting for the perfect day to decorate. Now that the Christmas holidays have started, yesterday felt like the perfect day. The kids and I were at my parents for the day and took on the decorating after lunch. All 3 kids were so excited and impatient to get started. The cookies were decorated first.

Jesse was very focused on getting the candy placement just right.

Here's the house, pre icing and candy. (I must note that I am having so much fun playing with my early Christmas present. Andrew gave me a new camera lens that I have been wanting for months. It is a beautiful macro lens that takes a bit of getting used to - no zoom, I actually have to move; larger aperture settings = greater depth of field = more area out of focus. Note how in focus the house is and the rest of the picture is out of focus. If all of this photo talk is confusing and you are actually interested in learning about aperture and shutter speed, you can go here to get more info.)

Nathaniel really was enjoying himself. He had to make sure that everyone had preassigned duties. Abigail was in charge of icing, he and Jesse were in charge of the candy. Thankfully this all went very smoothly.

Abigail, chief icing officer.

Everyone helped put on the candy. Again, there were no arguments.

I must say that my kids made one beautiful gingerbread house. They were all pretending to take a bite.

Nathaniel was getting a bit too close for Abigail. This was the only part that she did not enjoy.

done

Cards are addressed and mailed. Presents are bought. Baking for all the teachers have been packaged and distributed. The tree is lit and covered in decorations from my past and my children's. It feels good to have so much done.

happy girl

Abigail was one happy girl last night. Andrew and I spontaneously decided over supper last night that we would switch the kids' bedrooms. We were both home and not needing to go out in the evening, so we thought we would go for it. Abigail couldn't have been happier. She has been waiting to have her own room for months. We kept telling her that we wanted Jesse to sleep better before putting him in the same room as Nathaniel. Ironically, my reasoning for moving them was because he was NOT sleeping well. Jesse has been waking up at 5:30 on the button for weeks. I figured that when the boiler kicks in in the morning, he is getting woken up by the sound. (The boiler is right underneath his crib.) It took us about 2 hours last night to switch Abigail into Jesse's room and Jesse into Nathaniel and Abigail's room. I think Nathaniel was going through a bit of mourning last night. He was quite hurt when Abigail wouldn't let him into her room. (She needed to organize!) He got some extra cuddles last night to help ease the transition. And guess who didn't wake up at 5:30 this morning, Jesse. And who did, ME! AHHHH! Now I need to break the routine of this too early wake up call. Jesse made it all the way to 6:00 and was quite happy with his new sleeping arrangements.

Another reason for splitting up the 2 older kids was the almost daily conflict in the morning when they both were getting dressed for school. Nathaniel would usually get sent into our bedroom so they could get dressed without pushing and hitting each other. As Nathaniel was getting dressed this morning I heard him ask Andrew "I want to get dressed in Abigail's room." I just had to chuckle.

snow plow

The only way we were making it to school on time this morning was if Jesse could bring his shovel. He held it up in the air most of the way to school. After dropping off A & N, we made our way to Kindermusik class. I was hoping to get some pictures of our last class before the holidays, but Jesse wouldn't leave my lap long enough to get a decent shot. So, I made up for it after our class. Jesse was happy to scoop up any snow as we walked home. Whenever his shovel caught the snowbank he yelled out "Fun!"

After a while he wanted to walk and shovel up snow from the snowbanks. He was happy to make "holes" in the ice and snow as I clicked away.

He was actually liking me taking his picture. When I took a break he demanded "Take picture ME!" Sure thing!