Christmas 2007

My nephew, Matthew. (He's watching Rudolph on TV and pretending he's the Elf that's directing the Elf Choir!) -->













<-- Haylie and my niece, Gina


<-- Justin and me!



My father-in-law playing Christmas Carols! -->

Everyone enjoying Christmas Carols -->

A few of the goodies I made for Christmas Eve. Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Biscotti, Peanut butter Temptations, Snickerdoodles, and a Kentucky Butter Cake.

It was a marathon baking/cooking week for me. I was so busy that I really forgot to take pictures of the finished products. Oh well...I did snap a quick picture of some of the treats before everyone arrived.

I sent my guests home with a pan of (unbaked) cinnamon rolls with instructions for baking on Christmas morning. Everyone loved them and appreciated having something sweet and gooey on Christmas morning.

I always make Monkey Bread for my kids on Christmas Eve Morning. This year I saved some of the cinnamon roll dough to use in my monkey bread. This made it so much better than the canned biscuit dough that the recipe calls for. I will definitely make it that way from now on.

For Christmas Dinner our tradition is beef tenderloin. I served it with fresh green beans, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes (everyone likes their potatoes cooked different ways), canned green peas (for my father-in-law) and homemade bread. The meat was very good and we all enjoyed it thoroughly. Of course, the cleanup is always the worst part!

The day after Christmas I stayed in my pj's and did NOTHING! I was so tired, but it's all worth it. I try really hard to provide memorable Holiday's for my family. In my mind, food is always an important part of our traditions.

A Daring Baker is born...

Well, here we go again. I snapped this picture from my office window this morning. Looks like we got another 4-5" today. No one is too happy to see it. Especially my father-in-law who spun out on 128 this morning on the way to work. He ended up stuck in a snow bank and had to be towed home. I think he wanted to go back to bed and start all over!

I do have some good news to report today. I am going to be a Daring Baker! What does this mean? Well, the Daring Bakers is a group of bakers (professional and home bakers) that challenge themselves each month with a new baking endeavor. The challenges are generally something that one normally wouldn't bake on a regular basis (thus the challenge). Each Daring Baker then does a write up on their personal blogs and posts their results and pictures. I can't wait to find out what January's challenge will be.

You can check out the Daring Bakers here.

http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/2007/07/welcome.html

Sunday's Baking

It was a great snowy day to stay in and do some baking. I made a plate of peanut butter cookies for the Patriots game snacking. (GO PATS! 14-0). I also tested out a new cinnamon roll recipe. I always my co-workers baked goodies for Christmas. I wanted to test this one out before handing out as gifts. They were FABULOUS if I do say so myself! ;) The recipe was tauted as a Cinnabon Clone. The recipe lived up to it's name. They were every bit as good as those over-priced rolls you get in the Mall. So, I'll be baking several more batches this week.

This is the week where I go into Hyper Baking Mode! I bake for co-workers but I also do a lot of baking for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We always have a Christmas Eve party with friends and family. We usually have about 15-16 people in all and more food than you could ever imagine! Then on Christmas day I cook a tenderloin for the immediate family and my in-laws. It's a lot of work but I enjoy every minute of it.

Saturday Night Doo Wop

We took my in-laws to a "Holiday Doo Wop Concert" at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston on Saturday. It was an early Christmas gift for my father-in-law as he LOVES Doo Wop.

Even though this genre of music is way before my time, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. The headliner was Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge. I'll tell you. Even at 68 years old that man has some of the best pipes I have every heard! I snapped a couple of pictures from my cell phone. As you can see, the quality is not to great but there's Johnny singing his heart out. He is know for hits like, "Sixteen Candles", "The Worst That Could Happen", and "Blessed is the Rain", etc.

Others performing were, Emil Stucchio and the Classics. (Claim to fame, "'Til Then"), Speedo and The Cadillacs ("Gloria" and "Speedo"), The Chantels ("Maybe", "Look In My Eyes"), and Frankie Ford the New Orleans Dynamo ("Sea Cruise"). My hats off to all these performers. They all still sound great and put on a fabulous show. These groups don't just stand there and sing. They most definitely PERFORM!

Joe and I hope the kids takes us to a 80's concert when we're 60. Maybe Jon Bon Jovi will still be belting out "Livin' on a Prayer" and Def Leppard will be there with gray hair and false teeth!

Let it Snow!

It was a very snowy weekend here in New England. Thursday was a complete zoo. Luckily I got out of work before 1:00 and only have a 5 minute commute (which was 45 minutes that day). Many of my co-workers were on the road 4 and 5 hours trying to get home. Below are some pictures of the snow on Thursday. We probably got around 10 inches. Sunday's storm brought even more along with some sleet and rain. Our Christmas decorations are buried in the snow. We may not find our little inflatable Santa until Spring!

Sunday's Baking

First up were some Roasted Pecans coated with sugar and cinnamon. This was for my husband. He loves pecans. My Dad sends me some every year, fresh off his pecan trees in East Texas. They always come in handy for holiday baking.

Next up was some home-made soft pretzels. Everyone begs for these on Sunday's. They don't always come out too attract (kind of gnarly looking actually), but they are so tasty. Half of them were plain and the other half is cinnamon and sugar. They all went in minutes!

Lastly, a batch of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. These are always a crowd-pleaser. They smell so wonderful when they're baking.

It was a nice day of a little relaxing, a little baking, a little football and of course a few loads of laundry. Not a bad Sunday.

The icing on the proverbial cake is the Patriots are 13-0 baby! Woo Hoo! Go Pats!

I Survived the Sleepover

Well, Haylie turned 11 yesterday. She requested a "Slumber Party" this year. I reluctantly agreed. Because I was once an 11-year-old girl, I understand that there is not much slumber involved in a slumber party. We kept the number of invitees to six. All but one was able to make it, so Haylie was happy.

The girls did actually go to sleep somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. They woke up full of energy at around 7:30 a.m. I fed them some cinnamon rolls for breakfast and they went down to run around and scream a little more until around 11:00 a.m. All in all it was a good time and the girls were all sweet and well-behaved. Haylie took a little nap around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. I think she was pretty wiped.

I needed a nap myself. Slumber Parties are a lot of work, but I survived!

Sunday's Results...

I thought I'd share the final results from 'baking day'. I did make Paula Deen's Monster cookies. Kudos to Paula. They are delicious. They are loaded with peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chips, M&M's, and raisins! Everyone thought they were yummy.

My next endeavor was to make bagels. I have never attempted before so I started with a small batch. Lo and behold, they came out pretty good. The shapes are pretty 'rustic', but overall they look pretty good. I will definitely attempt again. I made 4 plain ones, 2 sugar & cinnamon, and 2 "everything" bagels. My husband and I shared a sugar & cinnamon one. Tasty! Nice texture, too. It was much easier than I expected.

Well, time to fold that last load over laundry. (Sigh...Sunday is also 'laundry day')

Cyndi

Sunday Baking

When the weather starts to turn cold and my husband is downstairs watching football all day, Sunday's are usually my "baking day". I keep the cookies and football fare flowing for them. He thinks it's because I'm such a thoughtful wife. Of course, I am! (wink, wink) However, I also do it because it is therapeutic. I can just putter around in the kitchen all day and forget about the trials and tribulations of day-to-day life. Not to mention the fact that there's no better stress relief than taking your frustrations out on some bread dough.

I love to cook, but my passion is definitely baking. I've loved being in the kitchen since I was old enough to stir. Some of my favorite childhood memories are helping my mother with the holiday baking. I'm originally from Texas and my Mom is a fabulous southern cook. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to baking and I have Mom to thank for that. She always thought it a sacrilege to show up at a family gathering with a store-bought confection. No desserts from a box either! It's just as easy to make it from 'scratch'. I have certainly adopted that philosophy.

Today I think I'm going to make some of Paula's Deen's Monster Cookies. I saw her make them yesterday and they sure do look tasty. I'll probably make a batch of chocolate chip cookies as well. Maybe oatmeal raisin as well. Who knows? I start with an idea of what I want to make. Sometimes I make more than I originally planned and sometimes less. It all depends on how the day goes.

The day is bitter cold and perfect for baking. We are supposed to get our first real snow of the season tonight. Winter is indeed upon us. We have all the Christmas decorations up and even some presents ready to be wrapped and put under the tree. (Another thing I need to do today while cookies are in the oven!)

I'm off to bring my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer upstairs. (My kitchen is far too small to keep it up here.) I'll tell you. That mixer is worth it's weight in gold. I would never make cookies again without it. Time to preheat the oven and get started.