My Christmas Kitchen 2011

Hmmm. What shall I make this year?

Easy.
Peanut brittle for the husband.

Caramels for the husband and kids, if he'll share!

Coconut cake on Christmas day, because I make the best one. Really. I was taught by my very Southern Gran and I've been perfecting it over the years. It is awesome and I just might eat the whole thing!

Coconut macaroons for all, including friends.

I'm done with spritz cookies this year. My cookie press is about to get hucked out the door. Note to self: just because Williams-Sonoma makes and sells it, doesn't make it the best there is. My mom's old Wilton one works WAY better than this thing. I can only get the trees to come out. Darn thing.

I'll make some more sugar cookies next week for the kids. We've got gingerbread creations set for Monday's FHE. A house, a tree and a train!

Oh, and donuts. Tomorrow night is the donut fest. Our annual Freedom Fry, to celebrate the holidays and the Bill of Rights. I'll be frying a boatload. Good times. Guess I should get the house cleaned up a bit, eh?

And then more sewing!

Because it's Monday

Because it's Monday, and my children (including Caroline) are being cooperative, I'm making cupcakes for FHE tonight. What is FHE? Find out here, if you're curious.

I've had this page bookmarked in the Flour Bakery and Cafe cookbook, the recipe for Chocolate Cupcakes with Crispy Magic Frosting. I'll admit that I was lured in by that frosting. I can't wait. I'll be sure to let y'all know how they turn out. There's an interesting process - the recipe tells you to let the batter sit for an hour at room temperature. We'll see if it makes a difference.

Have a lovely Monday. We're expecting snow again, but it keeps melting before my kids get a chance to go play in it.

Best Banana Bread EVER!

Does everyone have a tried-and-true, best banana bread recipe? I do. Nothing I learned at the CIA either. Nope. You just cannot beat Betty Crocker's recipe. Love it. And can I confess that my favorite part of the bread is the top - that kinda sticky top that you just don't get anywhere else? Aaron likes the end pieces, which is just fine with me.

By the way, do not leave out the nuts. Unless you are allergic, you should really put nuts in just about everything. We have a very short list of things that should not have nuts. Banana bread is not on that list.

Betty Crocker's Banana Bread

1 ¼ c. sugar

½ c. butter, room temp.

2 large eggs

1 ½ c mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium)

½ c. buttermilk

1 t. vanilla

2 ½ c. flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 c. chopped nuts

Now can I just say creaming method and be done? Please? Okay, okay. Cream the butter and sugar until it's light (and I mean light!) and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Dump in the bananas and vanilla. I stir together the dry ingredients, then add that whole mess after the bananas. Others will have you do it in batches, beginning and ending with blah blah blah. Just pour in the dry, pour over the buttermilk, and mix it on low until it just comes together. And don't leave out the nuts. I take it off the mixer, give it a good scrape and stir with my spatula, then pour it into the bread pans. Bake at 350 until it's done. Don't ask me how long - at least an hour-ish. Every oven is different. In Seattle, it took over an hour. Here in Moscow, it's right at an hour.

There are those who might add things like chocolate chips, but that's really not for me to judge on. I did make a banana pound cake the other day that was a dead ringer for banana bread, but you put in a layer o' hot fudge. Now that's awesomeness.

Blackberry Cobbler

Blackberry cobbler and I go way back. Growing up on the southern Oregon coast, blackberries were a way of late summer life. We spent hours picking bucket after bucket of berries that, if they actually made it home, were turned in to cobblers most days.

One summer, my Gran was visiting us. We picked a mess of berries, and brought them home to her. She turned out the best blackberry cobbler I've ever had. I should know. I ate it through my tears that time.

See, I was so excited to get it to the table, and she was letting me carry it there, that I was dancing around. The exuberance of a child and hot, syrupy berry juice do not mix well. I ended up dumping some of that cobbler onto my right arm and burning it something fierce. While everyone else enjoyed their cobbler, I was standing at the sink, crying as the cold water ran over my wrist. I don't remember if I was crying over the burn or because I had to wait to have my cobbler. Room temperature cobbler's got nothing on hot cobbler with vanilla ice cream melting into white pools around the berries.

In honor of that cobbler (and the little white scar on my arm where the burn blistered), and in honor of my Gran who passed away this spring, I made this cobbler today. And did not dump any of it on my arm.

Meme's Blackberry Cobbler (adapted from Bon Appetit, Y'All)


1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 cups fresh blackberries (which are scarce here in Northern Idaho, so I used frozen and didn't feel one bit ashamed - didn't thaw them or drain them)
1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling, if needed
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
1 cup whole milk (or 2%, which is what I had)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Whipped cream (what we used today) or ice cream, for accompaniment

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Melt the butter on the stove in a large cast-iron skillet. If you brown the butter a smidge, all the better I say.

Place the blackberries in a large bowl. Using a potato masher, mash them to release some of their juices. If the berries are tart, sprinkle over some of the sugar. I skipped this step as my berries were frozen and I'm impatient.

To make the batter, in another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the 1 cup sugar, milk and vanilla, and stir until evenly blended. Remove the skillet from the stove and add the melted butter to the batter; stir to combine. Pour the batter all at once into the skillet, then add the blackberries and juices to the center of the batter.

Bake until the top is golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the batter comes out clean, about 1 hour. Serve hot (most definitely), warm (still okay) or at room temperature (not in my house you don't) with whipped cream or ice cream. Save some for breakfast too.

My Christmas Kitchen

Corrie over at retro mummy is the inspiration for this post. So here's what will be coming out of my kitchen this Christmas - some are traditions and some will become such.

The first - peanut brittle. Aaron is not a cookie man, and we paid out quite a bit for a baking and pastry education, so let's produce some candy! He gets a tin of this every year under the tree. I'll have to make more this year though - Laurel is a fan now too!

Next: December 15th will be our family Doughnut Fry. A family friend back in Kennewick has been doing this their whole married life and we're officially adopting it this year. We love doughnuts and we like our friends and family. Aaron chose the date because it is not only part of the Christmas season but because it also celebrates Bill of Rights day. Yes, we're flag-waving Americans around here and proud of it.
This coconut cake is heavenly. I just made one for Thanksgiving and I'll be making one for our church Christmas party.
Aaron and I fell in love with these coconut macaroons this year. We have some special family members whose favorite cookies are coconut macaroons. Will be shipping some out in December!
Spritz cookies. It's all about the butter. I've been making them for years, first with my mom, now with my kids. We like the tree shapes and the stars. I don't want to think about how many pounds of butter I will use up creating gift tins for friends. I know some people like to give a variety of treats, but I like to give just a bunch of one thing. It's easy on me, they taste great and the kids don't fight over them.
Course, I have to get through my finals first before I start baking. But I'll be going to the store to stock up on butter and sugar. 'Tis the season.

A Message from my Sponsor

I can count on a few things in my little world.

1. Aaron can always make me laugh.
2. I will never know what it is like to sleep through the night.
3. Pride and Prejudice just keeps getting better (and don't get me started on Colin Firth!).
4. When I get out my sewing machine, Laurel will ask:

"When will you teach me how to sew?"

I've put it off for long enough. First, she had to be able to count and do some basic math. Then, she had to be tall enough to reach the pedal. Well, she's ready. And she wanted to start with clothes for her new chipmunk, Rainbow. Um, no. But she did agree to a pillowcase, tutorial found here.
I bought the Tweety Bird fabric a while back, knowing she was going to want it. Sure enough, it's what she went for first. Thank heaven I bought a yard!

So here's how it went down. We measured. I cut. We measured again. I cut again. Laurel talked to me about everything. Laurel picked out her ric rac color (yellow to match Tweety). I ironed. I pinned. She sewed, VERY slowly. Painfully slowly, but she wanted to be careful and I was patient.

Oh, while I pinned she organized my pin cushion by color. Because it needed to be done.
She learned that there are a lot of steps to sewing. Stopping, pressing, pinning again, trimming corners, then sewing some more. She had fun and kept saying "I'm good at this!"
The finished pillowcase!
Honestly, I did most of the work, and that's okay with me. I wanted her to get bit by the sewing bug and see how fun it is. She'll be starting a little patchwork project with some 2.5" squares I have in my stash. One of her animals, I believe Brownie Bear, has a birthday coming up.

Now, back to my HSTs!
Yes, I share a table with a big ol' box o' crayons. The life of a homeschooler. But aren't they pretty? I ironed them last night and now I'm getting started on putting them together. These are so much fun to play with!

And I'm baking off the best chocolate chip cookies. EVER. Trust me. Try them. You won't be sorry, except that you have to let the dough hang out in the fridge for a day. Resist the urge to eat the dough.

Nesting

On my list of things to do before Mr. Henry decides to arrive is complete a whole bunch of sewing projects. I've been a busy sewing bee this week, cranking out quite a few things (and dreaming up more - a not so good habit I can't seem to kick!). Here's what is finished this week -

Doll clothes for Laurel's dolls and animals - I want to get her a set of nesting suitcases like these so she can pack up all her doll clothes in them. I'm thinking the purple ones. She loves to dress all her animals up in outfits - doesn't matter to her if it's Will's sock monkey or James' teddy bear. They get clothes and hats and shoes too. I can't wait until she's old enough for an American Girl doll. In the meantime, I'm happily producing little outfits for her - I love that they are small enough I can use my scrap pile. Most of these are from scraps from a couple of aprons I just made.


Another apron for the bumble bee - this one is reversible and I just love it. I'm going to enter it at this site - they do quarterly apron themes and this one is for an apron and a pie recipe. So I'll photograph Laurel in this one with a lemon meringue pie - since this is the lemon meringue apron! She looks so sunshiney and bright in it - I love it! That photo will come soon.


A sleeping bag for Laurel's doll - she needed one of her own so she can go camping with us.

Perfecting the sticky bun recipe - these were too pretty to not photograph. The caramel was a tad too done but it made for a really pretty picture. The ones I made for Father's Day for Aaron were a disaster. You can't win for trying - I had put a cookie sheet underneath them in the oven so that the caramel wouldn't get on the bottom of the oven and burn. Well, that made the tops just doughy and icky. This time, I didn't put the cookie sheet, which meant we had burnt caramel and smoke, but they sure were tasty. I'll make another, hopefully final, perfect batch again this summer. I'm determined to get these perfect.

And I found this bag pattern and am making many versions of it - I even modified it so I can make a smaller version for Laurel - she loves to have a bag to take to church and in the car. This is the Christmas version. It's the perfect project bag size - carrying around knitting, crocheting, a book, etc. Even might make a decent diaper bag. No pockets, but then I don't like pockets all that much. Just get in the way.

As for the started but not finished projects, here's the list (off the top of my head):

• Two quilt tops - just fun, snuggly ones to have handy - both in very bright colors
• A picnic blanket - just needs some rick rack and I'll have it finished
• Two aprons - adorable ones made from the same yellow/white fabric that I made Laurel's - this one is very frou frou and all I need is some very wide ribbon for the ties and they are done
• Several other bags - so much fun and I really just need the interfacing on these ones
• More doll clothes
• Another doll sleeping bag - brown and pink
• And I'm taking part in TWD now - so I'll be baking a Perfect Party Cake this week
• And a 4th of July dessert on Saturday

I'm so glad summer is so busy and the time is going by so quickly. August will be here before you know it!