Christmas 2010

Between trying to finish my last few papers for my Master’s program, a vacation in Florida, working full time, and all the Christmas-related activity this year, it’s no trouble to see why I haven’t posted since September, but I did spend some time trying new recipes and crafting for the holidays this year.

I finally tried my hand at making decorated sugar cookies, and I made some to give away to my coworkers for Christmas:

I just put a few on a snowflake-decorated paper plate and enclosed each one in a holiday Ziploc bag to keep them fresh.

All the sugar cookies are decorated with royal icing with the exception of the stars and the flower. In the photo above, clockwise from left are the following: Vanilla-flavoured snowflake sugar cookies with silver dragees; vanilla people cookies with coloured sprinkles; vanilla stars with chocolate drizzle and crystallized ginger; an orange flower (flavoured with real orange zest) with chocolate drizzle and snowflake sprinkles; orange mittens; and in the center is an orange dove.

A close-up of my snowflake cookies.

I made the following pinecone elves based on a Martha Stewart idea. I didn’t put strings in their hats so that they could be hung as ornaments because I think that would have ruined them. They actually looked much cuter just sitting on the branches of my Christmas tree, which is how I displayed them.

For photos of the individual elves, you can click on the photo above to see them in my Flickr photostream. For some of the elves I free-hand embroidered their little scarves with flowers.

I also made felt Christmas candy-cane mice based on another Martha Stewart idea, and tried my hand at making felt stockings using a template that I’ve had around for years but just never used. Those felt stickers you can get at craft stores like Michaels made cute embellishments for the stockings. I used snowflakes on some stockings and Santa hat stickers on others (they aren't shown in the photos below)—I just peeled off the backing from the stickers, applied a little glue with the glue gun, and pressed them on. I gave some of the mice and stockings filled with little candy canes to coworkers and family members.

Of course, the Christmas Eve festivities at my house wouldn’t have been complete without the Penguin cheese tray (like last year), featuring olive penguin hors d’oeuvres and a cheeseball igloo. This year I made a Christmas tree cheeseball, too.

In case you’re curious about the flavor of the cheeseballs, the igloo is made with one container of Philadelphia Herb and Garlic cream cheese, finely grated fresh garlic (one or two cloves, or to taste), toasted chopped pecans, real bacon bits, grated cheddar cheese, and freshly ground black pepper. The Christmas tree is made with about half a block of plain cream cheese (light, I think), some finely grated fresh garlic (one or two cloves, or to taste), a pinch of Italian seasoning, a few pinches of dried dill, freshly ground black pepper, and parmesan and grated mozzarella cheeses. Once I formed the Christmas tree into a conical tree shape, I rolled it in dried dill, pressing it in to make it stay, and added thin rings from a red pepper for garland, some bits of carrot (left over from cutting the beaks and feet for the penguins--waste not, want not!)  for tree ornaments, and I cut a star out of a carrot slice for the tree topper.

And the pièce de résistance was my chocolate Bûche de Noël, or yule log cake, that I served on Christmas Eve. Made with a chocolate genoise cake and filled with a layer of Nutella and chocolate mousse, and frosted with my chocolate-hazelnut (Nutella) buttercream frosting, it was absolutely delicious, even though I only used half of the recipe for the genoise resulting in a tinier log. But it was the addition of my handmade marzipan elves that really put this creation over the top:

In addition to the elves, I made a marzipan snowman, marzipan mushrooms, and marzipan acorns. The "snow" around the cake is coconut, and those are chocolate rocks outlining the perimeter of the tray. The "bells" on the elf hats of the baby elf and the snowman are silver dragees. It's the first time that I've ever made a Bûche de Noël. It was challenging but worth it.

And finally, a picture of my pretty Christmas tree at night:

It’s become abundantly clear that I need to invest in a new digital camera. The one I used for my photos above was just an inexpensive little Olympus one that I bought in 2004. Hopefully, my next post won't take me over three months to get around to writing like this one, but perhaps by next time I'll have better photos to share.

Christmas 2009

Merry, Merry Christmas, Internet! As much as I love Christmas, there`s a part of me that`s glad it`s over. All the truffles and fudge that I made (which I have taken to calling "fuffles and trudge")...

(Note: This is only a small fraction of the chocolates that I made, and there`s also some of my chocolate marble pretzel bark in there, too)

... not to mention the Top Secret Cheese Tray featuring olive penguin hors d`oeuvres and a cheeseball igloo (both of which I originally saw in a Kraft Canada magazine) that I painstakingly fashioned with my own two hands and served during Christmas Eve dinner...

....all this frantic treat-making and joyfully gluttonous face-stuffing and gift unwrapping has made me tired, bloated and cranky. But that's Christmas.

Santa did bring me a lot of nice gifts, and two in particular (aside from my shiny white BlackBerry Bold 9000) are worthy of note:

1. A book called The Lost Art of Towel Origami, with instructions and photographs on how to arrange towels into various shapes like a monkey or a basket. Now I'll be able to impress potential houseguests with my fancy towel-folding skills;

2. A can of Wonderland Tea with a picture of Alice and the Mad Hatter on the front called "The Official Unbirthday Tea", and in smaller lettering underneath, "Also authorized for real birthdays." I collect interesting tea tins, by the way, but this one takes the cake and will make a nice addition to my collection. My favourite part is the instructions for making tea from the Mad Hatter on the back: "Start at the beginning (and when you come to the end…stop). Pour hot water over one tea bag in your cup and steep for 2 to 3 minutes (we recommend your clock be two days slow). Move down the table to get a clean cup."

For your enjoyment, here is a blurry picture of my Christmas tree:

You can`t see them, but there are character ornaments from two holiday stop-motion animation classics on there: The Nightmare Before Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. You can probably just barely make out the little leopard-print stockings that I made a few years ago hanging there on the front.

And if you`re thinking, “Gee, that sure looks like a snowman playing a piano there in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture,” then you are correct.

He used to bob up and down and actually look like he was playing that piano at the flip of a switch, but he doesn`t bob anymore. He just sits there, singing and smiling, motionless while the music plays and the little Christmas lights blink on the side of the piano. Oh well. I still love him to pieces.

God bless us, every one!

P.S. In case you`re curious about the types of fuffles and trudge, they are as follows, clockwise from top left: Chocolate Raspberry Pecan truffles (flavoured with Chambord liqueur), White Chocolate Coconut truffles, Cookies and Cream fudge (with Oreos), Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough truffles, and the Chocolate Pretzel Bark.

P.P.S. In case you`re curious about the types of cheese on my cheese tray, they are as follows, clockwise from top left: St. Paulin, Spiced Gouda, Smoked Gouda, Port Salut, Old Cheddar, Vegetable Havarti, and the Cheeseball Igloo.