Category: Holidays

So It’s Mothers Day

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I always face Mothers Days with sadness and some dread.It’s hard to watch everyone while out and about celebrating with their Mother or Mother figures at brunch. I wish mine was still here with me.I lost my mother in 2000 from Ovarian Cancer, and it still feels like yesterday.We were pretty low key and if she was alive we would probably be side by side in the kitchen this Sunday making some sort of feast . She was my best friend and confidant. While she’s no longer physically here on this earth , I know she’s with me in my heart. That’s what she promised  me before she died and I feel it everyday. In a way she lives on through this blog. You see, she was the extraordinary writer and baker, things I never had much interest in before, .It was my mother that encouraged me to dream, dare, and  just be me. She was self sacrificing, nurturing, and full of love . As I grow older I see and understand her more  through my looks, mannerisms, experiences, and journeys . I am her, Little Jackie , as the family likes to say. I’m grateful to all my great aunts and aunts who are still there for me and promised my Mother that they would watch over me. Their support has made these past years more bearable.To all  the mothers and mother figures everywhere, whether here physically or in our hearts. You are loved.


Daring Bakers Make Gingerbread Houses… Home For The Holidays

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.


For someone who’s into cake decorating , I can say Ive never made a Gingerbread house. It was always on my list. I’m amazed I even got it done with the craziness of December, I can think of no challenge more apropos than this.Linda of Make Life Sweeter, who I meet in Vienna last week insisted I do it as we dined over Wiener Schnitzel in the Nachtsmarket.

Certain Someone is finally home and the holidays will be as they should, warm and comfy in the confines of our home. I don’t want much for Christmas , really….

I remember last Christmas in Germany and hearing the news the late great Eartha Kitt had died. They don’t make stars like that anymore.
Back to the Gingerbread. I had the same issues as everyone else with a very dry dough. I used Ana’s Good Housekeeping recipe and added more cream. After chilling overnight, the moisture expanded and the dough became manageable. Still a dry one compared to to other recipes, but it worked. I m glad I used cheap Flour for this as 9 1/2 cups of flour were used. I still have plenty to make another house if I wish! Here is the template I used.
I had wanted to shingle the roof with some sliced black licorice fudge I had from Denmark. Unfortunately when I was satisfied and turned my back to wash my hands, the roof caved in. I had to scrape the roof and rebuild. Thankfully I had enough powdered sugar to make more royal icing to salvage a messy situation.
My decorations are just piped and painted royal icing (food color gels), pecan pralines I made, some coconut flakes for snow, and edible glitter. I broke some cinnamon sticks to make a wood pile. Certain Someone was impressed and we are bringing this to his bosses house for Christmas later. Although next year he challenged me to make a house like the White House’s Gingerbread House.

Please Check out my fellow bakers. You can find the hostesses recipes and instructions on their sites which I have linked at the beginning.

Certain Someone and I wish you Happy Holidays, Peace, Health and Prosperity.

Rillettes De Paris …Holiday Spreads

Yummy Rillettes. When I was a stupid teenager I would look at this type as food as gross. I wish people would get over this misconception and actually taste something first. Granted this is not an everyday food, or very healthy for that matter, but why not for the holidays. Rillettes are any sort of meat or fish cooked down in fat. There are delicious salmon versions, duck, rabbit, and of course Pork. The French call it brown jam as its so spreadable . Serve Rillettes with crusty bread, cornichons,perhaps a tad of mustard and enjoy. A few weeks ago I promised my buddy Terry that I would make some after we had some at a party. Compared to other other pate spreads this is pretty cheap and simple to make . The only thing required is time. After comparing various recipes on the Internet, I decided to go for what seemed the easiest, but just as effective. A slow cooker version. Once the hard work of skinning and cutting the pork belly up in one inch pieces was achieved. I just seasoned and put the slow to cooker to work while I slept. A few turns over 10 hours and draining of the fat to reserve to seal later and by morning I had buttery soft brown pieces of slow cooked pork seasoned by Bay Leaf, salt, peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, and mace. I could and should have added a little garlic as some recipe call for it and some don’t , but why not? Don’t let copious amounts of fat deter you. That helps preserve the Rillettes for a few week in the fridge if well sealed. And it just adds to the richness.
I plan on bringing to these to friends and family over the weekend. Once I potted the meat in the cute containers from World Market, I put them in a Bain Marie to insure more fat rose to the top after pouring some on top to seal. You want a good cover. Some say at least 1/4 of an inch if you want to preserve up to one month in the fridge. I’m sure ours will be finished by New Years.

Use your own taste for seasoning. You will find Rilletttes vary by region. Some just call for salt and pepper with Bay and some call for more. Think of what you like with Pork. Serve with loaves of Crusty bread and enjoy. For the recipe for Rilletes De Paris, I used click here. The author Jane Grigson advocates using a mortar and Pestle. I used my handy immersion blender for the task. Just be careful to the final texture. You want it smooth but not mushy. Most important serve at room temperature, not straight out of fridge.On New Years you can start your diet.

We Bake Bon Appetit…Day 9 Tea Cake Sandwich Cookies

This was one of the first cookies that caught my eye for We Bake Bon Appetite.The Tea Cake Sandwich Cookie looked so simple and perfect. I kept putting this recipe off as I was trying to knock out the easy, no chill cookies first. This recipe contains no eggs and at first seems dry, but comes together nicely as you blend.The process and chilling times in this recipe can be a little tedious, and I readily admit I skipped over some steps in the rolling out. If you are an experienced baker you know the key is to keep the dough well chilled.

I used a scalloped cutter for these. I am trying to avoid royal icing this year and just stick to sugar sprinkles. I embellished my cookies with various sugars I had laying around. I even made my own sanding sugar with some powdered food color and raw sugar. I plan to play around with that more and more. I found some red glittery edible dust and made a few dabs here and there. All in all a festive platter of cookies. The fillings are Goya’s Strawberry and Passion Fruit jams. The beauty of these is that you can dress them up or down.
You can find the recipe here.

Be sure to visit the other bakers:

Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes (honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen
Courtney of Coco Cooks
Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook
Judy of No Fear Entertaining
Kelly of Sass & Veracity
Michelle of Big Black Dog
RJ of Flamingo Musings
Sandy of At the Baker’s Bench
Tiffany of The Nesting Project


Also this may be of interest to some of you if you like contests.
Enter to win a 12 Place Table Setting For the Holidays!

We Bake Bon Appetit …Day 7 Stained Glass Lemon Cookies

For a few years I have been seeing these Stained Glass Holiday Cookies. Ground hard candies are inserted into the cookies cutouts for a stained glass effect. I used Jolly Ranchers. The recipe called for red and green candies, but I took artistic licensee and used the assorted colors. I love the zesty lemon bite to these buttery cookies. My only problem with them is sometimes the candy oozed out of the lines. But no biggie. Once hardened its like two treats in one, the cookie and the candy. Be creative with this. I tried to mix two colors but they all ran together.
You can find the recipe here.

Be sure to visit the other bakers:

Also this may be of interest to some of you if you like contests.
Enter to win a 12 Place Table Setting For the Holidays!