There are a lot of really good shows out there. What I enjoy about them is that they are recipes which are easy to make and most ingredients you can find in your own kitchen. From time to time we’ll see a recipe that catches our eye. It’s usually something we’ve never tried to make before. We spent a lot of time cooking/baking when we were living in Alberta. I find, now that we’re up here, that we spend even more time in the kitchen. It is a really nice way to spend a day that is too miserable to go outside, or when we’re having a lazy day. The only downfall is the amount of dishes we are left with after a day of cooking! lol Some of these recipes have been absolute winners that we now make regularly, but some have also been major flops. I attempted to make bagels one day….Lets just say I probably won’t attempt that recipe again! Today Etienne was watching “Chuck’s Day Off” on Food Network and he was making Pretzels with a cheese sauce. Well next thing I know, we are elbows deep in dough and cheese. They were a little labor intensive, but definitely worth it. They turned out really good. Whenever we go to a concert, hockey game, or any event that takes place in a venue that sells those yummy, chewy pretzels, I always have to have 1 or 2. They are just so salty and yummy that I can’t resist. I have to admit these are pretty close.

Salty, chewy goodness!!!

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My posts are shorter than Carly’s! LOL That’s it for now…

A lovely heart shaped pancake graciously prepared by Ana

Thanks Mike for the photo!

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I spent a lot of time online trying to find easy ideas for Christmas baking. I’ve never really been crafty with baking stuff before, so I really didn’t even know where to start.  The first thing I found was a cookie tree kit from Golda’s Kitchen. It is a wonderful idea. I made a Rice Krispies tree with it. It was so easy and looked great. We went over to a neighbors for dinner last week, so I thought it was a great opportunity to try it out. It went over great. Everyone thought I had slaved over it for hours. Little did they know, it only took me half an hour from start to finish. I can’t wait to make a gingerbread tree next year.  I will need to practice that one a few times before i’m comfortable enough showing others.

The second item I found was a Candy Kit from Golda’s. This kit was awesome. It comes with everything you need. They were really easy to make. I still need (lots) of practice with making it look less like a 5 year old did it! lol. Etienne enjoyed helping me with this treat as well.

I also decided to make the classic shortbread cookies as well as sour cream cookies and chocolate snowdrop cookies. I bought boxes from Golda’s, and put all the goodies in them. Overall, I think they turned out really well. All the kits are reusable, so I can make them for many more Christmases to come.

This was the first year that I have gotten my butt organized enough to send out Christmas cards. I really wanted something personal from here, so we took a picture of us with the dog in front of an Inukshuk. We then made them into a Christmas card and ordered them through Kodak. They did a wonderful job, and shipping was pretty quick.

I have included a few pictures of our treats.

Rice Krispies Xmas Tree

Another view!

Chocolate lollipops

Looking good!

That looks delicious!

Shortbread all done

Piping the sour cream cookies

Sour cream cookies

Sour cream cookies, iced and ready to be boxed up

Chocolate Snowdrops ready to go in the oven

All done and dusted with icing sugar

All done....ready to be given out

Update:

Since we’ve had a request for the sour cream and shortbread cookies recipe, you can find them below.

Mom’s Sour Cream and Nuts Cookies

Ingredients :

• 2 3/4 cups of flour
• 1 1⁄2 cups of brown sugar
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil or butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup of walnuts

 Directions :

1-     Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2-     Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate the mixture to cool it down.

3-     Place small spoonfuls (or pipe them with the tip of your choice) on a non-greased baking sheet. (We use silpats to prevent the bottom of the cookies from browning too much)

4-    Bake 10 minutes or until the indent of a finger pressed on the cookie disappears almost completely.

Icing :

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 2 cups of icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-4 tbsp of hot water

 Directions :

1-     Melt the butter.

2-     Add the vanilla and the sugar.

3-     Add the water until the desired texture has been reached.

4-     Ice the cookies while they are still warm.

Carly’s Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients :

• 1 lb of room temperature butter
• 1 cup of icing sugar
• 1/2 cup of corn starch
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 3 cups of flour

Directions :

1-     Preheat the oven to 350°F

2-     Combine the butter, icing sugar, corn starch and vanilla. Slowly beat the flour until the mixture is well mixed.

3-     Drop spoonfuls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Happy baking!

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Well we got word that our stuff isn’t due to arrive this weekend as we were hoping. We decided to splurge and buy some baking items (flour, yeast, eggs). For dinner tonight, we decided to give some home made pasta, sauce and bread a try. We were brave (or stupid) to actually invite our neighbor over for dinner! Since we were short on a lot of supplies, I decided to just make a garlic and oil sauce for the pasta. Something simple and nothing that would over power the pasta. All in all, it turned out pretty good. It took a few times through the pasta machine for us to figure it out. It is definitely not perfect but I am excited to try different variations and see what happens.

Some of the cut pasta...I forgot to take a picture of it all complete before we cooked it.

The finished product, sauce and all....

Just to update on our Aerogarden….Almost everything has started to grow. Our Basil and Thyme are doing really well…… I still can’t believe how quickly it grows!!

Basil

Thyme

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