to the movies

Procrastinating all of my Christmas pictures.  Instead, I'll share a few quick shots from our first all family movie outting.  We took the kids to see Tangled.  The older two loved it.  Jesse was apprehensive to go in the first place and shared these thoughts a couple times during the movie.  We have decided that we'll try another movie when he is bigger.

Happy New Year!

the one

There are so many Christmas pictures to sift through and edit.  For now I am sharing this picture.  I have named it "the one".  Three days before Christmas I gathered the kids to take a surprise photo for Andrew.  It would be part of his Christmas present.  I have never done a "photo shoot" with my own kids and I'm not sure how many more I will do without some backup help.  Without pointing fingers, two of my kids were willing participants.  One was not.  Thankfully they were all willing at the very beginning of our shoot.  This was the only one where they all looked relatively happy.  It was the one.

merry christmas 2010

advent 2010

So many wonderful memories of our Advent activities in 2010.  I am thankful to have captured many of them with my camera.  Registering for Finding the Holiday Joy was a wonderful pre-Christmas gift to myself and my family.  It was a gentle reminder to not forget all these important details. 

the gingerbread house

The building and decorating of the gingerbread house is always a highlight for my kids.  I purposefully leave it for the first week of holidays so there is some excitement as we countdown to the 25th.  This year we continued the tradition of decorating at my parent's house.  You can check out last year's pictures here.  This year there was no documenting of the process.  Just the end result.  I spent today taking pictures of a sweet little 4 day old boy.  My kids were in good hands though.  But I do have to say that they probably got away with eating way more of the decorations with Grandpa than they would have if I supervised.  They were happy but there were a few complaints of tummy aches.

raspberry rugelach

My cookie baking is officially finished for 2010.  The five of us worked as a team to finish up our Christmas cutout cookies after supper and they will be nicely stored in the fruit cellar with the other 11 kinds I've made in the past couples weeks.  I tried to include the traditional cookies I loved growing up, as well as experimenting with some new recipes.  I remember making rugelach in university but couldn't find that recipe. So, after some searching online, this recipe was perfect.  It's not too sweet and looks so pretty on a tray of cookies.  Don't have time this week for baking.  No worries, this cookie would be great any time of year.

Here are some step by step photos to help you along the way.

Raspberry Rugelach - recipe adapted from Doris Greenspan
makes 32 (I doubled the recipe)

Ingredients for the dough:

4 oz. cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for the filling:

2/3 cup of raspberry jam (or use your favorite)
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Ingredients for the glaze:
1 egg
1 teaspoon cold water
2 Tablespoons sugar (preferably coarse sugar - I used regular granulated sugar)

Make the dough:  Allow the cream cheese and butter to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes until they are slightly soft but still cool.
Put the flour and salt into a food processor.  Scatter the cream cheese and butter pieces over the flour and pulse 6 to 10 times.  While periodically scrapping down the sides, continue processing until the batter just forms large curds.  Do not over mix the dough.  You do not want the dough to form a ball on the blade.

Turn the dough out and gather it into a ball.  Divide it in half and shape into a disc.Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to one day.

Making the filling:  Heat the jam in a small saucepan over low heat and warm until the jam liquefies.  In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the cookies:  Remove one dough disc from the fridge.  Let sit for several minutes if it is too hard to roll.    On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 11-12 inch circle.  Brush the jam over the surface and sprinkle on the cinnamon/sugar mixture.  Scatter over half the nuts and chocolate chips.  With a piece of extra parchment paper, place the paper over the filling and gently press the nuts/chocolate chips into the dough.  Remove the paper and set aside to use on the next half.

Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 wedges or triangles.  An easy way to do this is to cut the dough into quarters, then cut into quarter into 4 triangles.  Starting at the base of each triangle, roll the dough so each cookie is shaped like a crescent.  Making sure the points are tucked under the cookies, arrange them on a cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Prepare the glaze:  Stir the egg and water together and brush over each rugelach.  Lightly sprinkle with sugar.

Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes, or until puffed and golden.  Transfer to cooling racks.

santa train

Last Saturday afternoon we boarded the Santa Train.  It wasn't anything planned but was something the boys and I noticed the day before as we walked past the Waterloo train station.  We booked our tickets and got ready to meet Santa.

We have never pushed the tradition of Santa.  Our kids have no pictures of their younger selves crying as they sit on the lap of the mall Santa.  So this was a first for our whole family.  We left the station and enjoyed looking out the window, hearing the violin player sing Christmas songs and anticipate when our car would have a visit from Santa.

Then we spotted him.  Jesse was quite excited.

We had to wait for him to walk down the entire car to get to us in the back.

When he had greeted all the children, he made himself comfortable in the row of seats behind us and waited for any child who wanted to come and talk to him.  Abigail was the first from our family.

She shared that she wanted craft supplies for Christmas.

As the other children had their turn, Jesse watched, sizing up this strange man.

Soon, he was ready to share that his Christmas list included a firetruck, fishing boat and digger.

Nathaniel also held back watching and contemplating.  He decided that he didn't want to sit on Santa's knee or tell him what he was hoping for at Christmas.

He wanted to show Santa his cool do from yesterday's trip to the hair salon.  Santa was pretty impressed.

After Santa left our train car, we could relax, enjoy some candy canes and wait for our stop at the engine house.

We got cookies, hot chocolate and played a game of beanbag toss.  Then it was back on the train for the ride home.

Jesse is now wondering when we can have a ride on the dinosaur train.

brown sugar ginger crisps

It is baking central around here.  I knocked off 4 more cookie recipes yesterday and today.  Planning on five more.  But the list seems to be getting longer, not shorter.  For now I will share these lovely, crispy cookies.  I am not a huge gingerbread fan but absolutely love this take on the traditional ginger cookie.   

The fact that the recipe has crystallized ginger totally sold me.  I had just enough left over from this recipe.

Jesse was my assistant, adding the sugar and flour.

Now this would be a recipe where I totally would have used cookie scoops (see previous post.)

Brown Sugar Ginger Crisps - from Gourmet magazine

makes 5 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Using a stand mixer, beat together butter and brown sugar at moderate speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in yolk, vanilla and gingers.  Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined.
Drop heaping teaspoons of dough about 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.  Bake until golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes.  Cool cookies on sheets on racks for 5 minutes, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely.

some gift ideas

Before I get into some ideas for gift giving this Christmas, I need to share this picture.  The boys and I got haircuts yesterday morning.  And instead of walking out of the salon with a neatly combed hairdo, this guy decided to try something a bit festive.  I think his head looks like a bunch of Christmas lights.  It was so hard to take him seriously yesterday when I'd see his spiky do.  It's all washed out now but thankfully he was willing to take a few pictures to remember it.  I think he even wants to take a picture in to show his classmates.  Love it!

So, onto gift ideas.  These might very well be gifts that you want for yourself.  But maybe someone will see something that they could get a loved one.  And don't feel shy if you need to pass on my blog to give someone a bit of inspiration.

I just came across this list of top cookbooks for 2010.  Perhaps an idea for the food lover in your life.

Found this cute necklace on one of my favorite online clothing sites.  It's called "a million ways to say i love indie necklace".  It's a dark gold heart engraved with the words "i love you" in fifteen different languages.  Not sure if it would make it here to Canada by Christmas.  But guys out there, I might have just scored you the cutest Valentine's gift.  But don't delay.  Their stuff can sell out fast.

For the photography freaks out there that are learning about the big SLR cameras and want to push themselves to shoot in manual mode, this book is the best.  I recently bought Bryan Peterson's 'Understanding  Exposure' and highly recommend it.  I have read so many great reviews about this book and agree with everything that I have read.

And any serious cook needs a microplane.  I talked about mine ages ago in this post.  I still love it.  If you ever use grated ginger, this is the best tool I have found.  Parmesan cheese and citrus zest also love this tool.

And I know you can definitely have too many kitchen gadgets, but this is one I've often wished for when I'm making cookies.

The cookie scoop.  This is how you get all your cookies looking so nice and uniform.  I'm sure you've seen a certain someone use these on her old cooking shows.  Let's just say it's a good thing.

thumbprint cookies

It's been years since I've done lots of Christmas baking.  I took over my family's baking in university, making 10+ different kinds for the cookie trays.  Lately I've been choosing one cookie and getting the kids to help out.  I'd been contemplating getting back into the big production of cookie baking and got a gentle push from a neighbour last Sunday.  After tasting her yummy creations, I realized how much I missed this tradition.  So, yesterday the boys and I started.  We made 2 different kinds (I'll share the second kind another day).  They loved helping and this was the perfect recipe to include little hands.

This recipe is my mom's and actually called thimble cookies.  Since I don't own a thimble, we used our thumbs (Jesse felt more comfortable with his pinky).  Use whatever jam you have.  I think these colours look nice on a cookie tray.  My neighbour suggested using Nutella.  I love this idea, but didn't have any in the house yesterday.

Thumbprint Cookies - makes 3 dozen
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg, separated
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped nuts (I used pecans)
Jam (I used strawberry and peach)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until creamy, approximately 3 minutes.  Add the egg yolk and the vanilla, mixing until combined.  Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.  Make the dough into small balls (don't make them too big - they rise) and dip into the slightly beaten egg white.  Then roll in the chopped nuts.  Put on a greased cookie sheet and press into the middle of each cookie with your thumb.

Bake for 6 minutes then remove from oven and reindent the depression with your thumb.  Continue baking for a further 6 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on the tray for 5 minutes.  Transfer to a cooling rack and fill indentations with jam while still warm.

christmas tree hunting

This is the first year since children that we've cut down our own Christmas tree.  Everyone was so excited.  Conditions were a bit muddy and cold but we all had lots of patience while searching the many rows of trees. There was lots of pointing and asking "How about this tree?"  (Especially from Jesse.)  No one complained as we continued our search for the best tree.

 

Finally, we decided on the one.

Abigail figures it is 14 years old.

It looks great inside our home.