Merry Christmas

See you in 2013!

Katy xo

photos by Sullivan Hester

Christmas Cookie Line-up

  Sugar cookies

 

Thumbprints

 

Chocolate Mint Snowballs

 

Bourbon Balls

  Peppermint Cookie Bark

Gingerbread Line-up

The girls and I went Christmas cookie crazy this year.  So much so that I'm going to break my usual Christmas cookie line-up post into two.  Today is the gingerbread portion.  I did the cutting out and baking and my little helpers did (most of ) the decorating.  I cut out gingerbread men for the girls to decorate and went with a woodland theme for myself.  The woodland theme consisted of owls, trees, 2 sizes of mushrooms and some acorns.  I love decorating gingerbread.  I went crazy with the shimmering sugar this year. 

See for yourself:

 

of Christmas Past . . .

Here is a list of some Christmas crafts, recipes and ideas I've posted in the past. 


Photo Ornaments

Photo Ornaments #2 


Child Drawn Christmas Ornaments


 Cinnamon Ornaments

Feathery Angel Ornaments


Doily Snowflake Ornaments

Doily Angels

Egg Yolk Cookie Paint

Foam Christmas Trees


White Chocolate Lollipops

Thank you notes

The girls and I finished up their thank you notes this weekend. Whew. It always feels like a big job. Last year I think I dropped the ball on notes so it was very important to me to bring this routine back into practice. I stole this thank you note idea from my SIL who did something similar a few years ago.

We attached these pictures to cards and then each girl got to write a message inside. To prevent any "space" arguments, one girl wrote on the top portion of the card, the other got the bottom. Eva was completely self sufficient this year and wrote really great thank you messages. For Audrey, I just wrote down what she said and she signed her name. Before she lost energy, though, she added - I really do like you in her own writing. So cute. And so Audrey.

How do you handle thank you notes? Please leave a comment.

A Cake Deconstructed

I pulled it off. I made a buche de noel for Christmas dinner. It was tasty and looked alright. It wasn't as challenging as I anticipated although something did go wrong at every stage. In the end it surprisingly came together. If you'll indulge me, I'll break down this project for you (and me.)

I ended up going with the Martha Stewart recipe. My biggest mistake was not reading the directions thoroughly enough. I didn't allow time for all the chilling required to make this dessert. This caused me to rush through the frosting and decorating part.

I also didn't make meringue mushrooms; I used marzipan instead which easily molded into mushrooms.

The first step was to make the cake. This part gave me the most anxiety - I was worried the cake would break when I tried to roll it. Luckily it didn't. I made this a day in advance and left it in the fridge, rolled. The directions said to roll the "long end." I couldn't decide what was meant by that. I rolled it the way that made it long and thin, but this only gave me 1 roll. Most buche de noels have more rolls which lead me to believe I should have rolled it the other way . . . whatever.

Step 2 was the chocolate mousse. I didn't account for chilling time. I also had whipping issues both with my egg whites and whipping cream. I think my hand mixer doesn't go fast enough.

Next I spread the mousse on the cake and rolled it up. This was tricky as the cake didn't want to unroll. When rolled up I didn't have much of a spiral effect due to the way I rolled up the cake in the first place.

Making the ganache icing for the outside of the cake came next. The directions said to whip the ganache until it had the consistency of soft butter. Mine never transformed even after some intense mixing and remained the consistency of icing. I decided to pour/drizzle it on and let it set in the fridge (only I didn't account for chilling time) but I did it anyway.

Finally I decorated the cake; making faux bois lines with a knife, scattering chocolate shards, placing mushrooms and sprinkling with powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

My family was enthusiastic and supportive of the cake. They even threw out hints suggesting this may become an annual tradition. That makes me so happy. I'm up for the task!

Happy, Merry to you!

Wishing you all the comforts of home!
Merry Christmas!
Katy xo

Yule Log Challenge

image here

Friends, I've assigned myself a challenge this Christmas; to make a Buche de Noel for Christmas dinner. Since I'm not hosting and am only responsible for the dessert, I'll have energy (fingers crossed) to make something very special.

As you know this is the Christmas dessert in Luxembourg. Since we're home now, where this classic French dessert is virtually non existent, I thought it would be fun (in a challenging, potentially frustrating, possibly hair pulling way) to make one.

image here

image here

So, I'm looking for advice. Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling? Yellow cake with chocolate butter cream filling? Chocolate coating? Meringue mushrooms? (wishing I had a pack of the red fairy sugar mushrooms that they sell at the grocery stores in Lux. They are on every buche over there!) What do you think?

I looked at Martha Stewart's recipe and it looks a bit complicated. The directions on the Youtube tutorial look pretty good, but I'm sort of settling on the recipe I found at Saveur - unless you have a fail proof one for me to try!

This Year's Christmas Cookies

2011 Christmas Cookies

Peppermint Bark by Orangette

Peppermint Cookie Bark

Gingerbread Trees (there is still dough in the fridge waiting for the girls)

Thumbprints (Audrey has stopped calling them Fingerprints. That was so cute.)

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (first year making these. They are like little brownies. A friend told me about adding peppermint or espresso powder to these. yes, please.)

What did you bake this year? Leave a comment!

A Christmas Spirit

Looking for a special aperitif (or grown-up drink) to serve your guests this year? I must share one with you that I had at a friend's party. It is called a Barney and is made with BroVo Spirit's Ginger liqueur. Now, let me assure you this isn't your Grandma's liqueur, not that there is anything wrong with your Grandma or her liqueur. I'm just saying this one is different.

BroVo Spirits are made with with fresh, local (WA state) ingredients and produced in small craft distilleries; in true artisanal style. They are not sickly sweet and syrupy. And they are lady made! To find out where they are sold, click the Find Us tab on their website. For you locals, I bought a bottle at the liquor store on 15th in Crown Hill. BroVo is also served at Tom Douglas restaurants.Barney
4 oz sparkling wine
1.5 oz BroVo Ginger Liqueur (about a shot)

For a festive touch, serve with a twist or a single cranberry.

These are delicious! They have just enough ginger flavor to make the sparkling wine more interesting, but not enough to overpower.

Look for other interesting BroVo flavors - Douglas Fir, Lemon Balm, Rose Geranium, and Lavender. Look for Rhubarb in the spring.

A Crafty Afternoon

I didn't pull it together this year to host an ornament making party for the girls and their friends. Instead we had a mellow crafting afternoon with a close friend. We organized 3 crafts but due to time constraints we only got to two of them (the girls did the 3rd on later on.)

We made tissue paper votive holders

Apple Santas (these are so adorable! love this craft.)

Candy cane mice. This was a great craft and would also be a nice gift for kids to give to their friends.