(120) Busy Days

Whew. 

I got ALL of the Christmas baking out and in bags.

Bags for local church kept out and ready for this week.

The rest of the bags (the majority of them) are bagged up in 

gallon freezer bags and back in the freezer before the cookies were fully 

thawed out!  That was a lot of work... 

And then other gifts were delivered and I bagged up gifts for both a few

local church friends and then our main far-away church friends... 

So I was super busy with that today.

Tomorrow begins liturgies at our local church. 

We will be there this year for them, though when they have their

Christmas liturgy we will keep fasting, as we began the fast

with the Julian "old" calendar and will celebrate Christmas DV in full

on January 7th! This will be really nice...I am looking forward to that!

But before this second Christmas we have family visits coming up

and I won't be blogging much 

so don't worry if I don't write here every day!  :) 

I wish everyone a blessed Christmas.

I know the Christmas holidays can be difficult for many. 

May Christ, the one who came on Christmas day to save us, 

comfort each of us regardless of our current life circumstances.

God bless you, each and everyone! 

My Christmas (Jan 7) baking is done!!!

Above is the recipe for the 'coon bars' with my additions that I made yesterday.

From a Church Cookbook in MI (that I thought my sister gave me but now it 

looks like my cousin A. gave it to me in 2005; I had 2 stickers in it from

that Christmas with my name on both, :) )... 

Made the Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Cookies! (the non-vegan regular recipe) 

I burnt one tray of them, note to self, have that darkest tray on top only... 

this rarely happens...thankfully... 

The parchment paper really helped me have less to clean up between batches...

I also made a double batch of orange snowball cookies! Now that was hard to

not just eat all at once, LOL!

Christmas is coming though and I saved a small bag for our Christmas...

in a lovely Dutch tin that my Mom gave my Husband for Christmas,

with a cute ornament (Rocky and Bullwinkle! was so sweet of my Mom to do so

as our main gifts were already delivered here as both my and my Husband's gift

had glass involved and better to just ship directly to NJ! She finds the 

neatest stuff at the GR thrift stores :) )...

It was my Husband's first day back on the job after our Christmas MI holidays

and he worked late as he lost track of time... but that was fine... I made myself pasta...

and ate half a box of this vermicelli pasta... I had not had much for lunch so I was 

extra hungry! I had grocery delivered today but they did not come until 9:30 tonight

so the spinach salad will have to wait until tomorrow! 

(The delivery as between 8 and 10 PM so not a problem)...

I had to realize / tell myself that today I am DONE baking.

Tomorrow cleanup day, wrap the remaining presents, get the house in order

and prepare the tea gifts (not much this year as I did not have time)...

Friday is prepare all food gifts. 

Saturday we will already be doing vigil for the eve of Christmas EVE!

CHRISTMAS is coming!!!

(this coming Monday for us, Jan 7th)...

I could do a happy dance, I am so EXCITED... 

I am tired though, LOL... I woke up about 5 AM this morning... not intentional...

but I made it work... ambient morning light, beautiful icons in light... reading...

early breakfast...cleaning a bit... seeing Mr Husband off... and then...

well... I went back for a nap! Yep. Then I got up again later (9 AM-ish) and had

a second breakfast and got to baking...

Given how much we did over MI Christmas holidays,

it is no surprise that I am a bit tired... but trying to be careful to not have sugar

(ironic as I am baking with LOTS of sugar) and doing my best to not get sick...

So I *Will* rest soon! I think I will have next week Wednesday off (thank God)...

there was a possibility I would go to NYC but I think that's not a go, which is just fine....

***

For some rest I did, however, write some letters with my 'new' VNA stationary...

so fun... now I just have to get them ready for mailing...we will see when I can do that...

I am so happy to have more presents to wrap but also that the 'end is in sight' 

and soon all shall be ready, God willing of course. 

I redid my fridge this AM and took this picture of my Godson SG's drawing...

funny, esp as it was to 'thank me' for my gifts... 6 year old boys! Go figure :) 

***

So I ordered a book of Miss Read stories (short stories I think) today

and a vintage William-Sonoma cookbook and a book that I saw on 

Mat Emily's book list from last year,

The Family with Two Front Doors 

as the title intrigued me as well as the blurb via amazon.

(and I got it for free with a 5 $ credit that I had!)

I do love books... always have, since I was a child...

btw, the Letters of JRR Tolkien that I am reading to my Husband

out loud at night (just began year 1945 in it!) is this one.

We are just loving it and they are really fun to read out loud, also! 

Speaking of books, DE Stevenson's books ... there are 5 more that are being 

republished, pre-pub buying on amazon now

(see here, the Mrs Tim books are being republished!!! They can be 

quite pricey for the vintage copies so this is quite exciting!

Amazon says they are to be released on Christmas Jan 7th (that is!)

so if you order them before Jan 7th, you will get the pre-publication price

(which is often cheaper but not always any cheaper).

But they will come DV during the 12 days of Christmas and I am quite

looking forward to some rest time to just read...

I have not had a real 'rest' day in a few months... and know that this is needed...

so I will have a lot of books to look forward to ...

and various Christmas plans (including 2 dinners in January) are already on the books,

and I also want to have 2 local quilt friends over for lunch... 

I really like having all of these plans, helps me not worry about that which

does nothing to worry about... just trusting God everyday with our

unbloggable... and being thankful... 

***

Well, I am thankful now for the baking I was able to do 

and that I have hopes for another day tomorrow to prepare for Christmas...

praying that I make it to Christmas still in good health...

***

God bless, protect and save us all!

Christmas Preparations and a cake!

Cake I made while with Mr Husband's family,

for my birthday, Mr. Husband's name's day and a niece's birthday! 

A lot of wrapping and stamping was done in the quiet days of 

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day!

Christmas is this Thursday for us!!!

I baked cookies with butter, eggs,

 chocolate covered dried cherries + chocolate chips!

Recipe here (in cookbook picture, made with eggs, butter).

I also made sugar cookies,

which I still think of as butter cookies!

I baked two pans of apricot bars,

note to self: next time do one batch of the filling at a time,

as it overflowed your small food processor and 

clean up took a while!!! 

*

At some point I hope to put up the steps and recipe for this!

The cookbook I used for the apricot bars said they are quite sweet,

so cut them in small squares; I did and they are so delicate, soft and wonderful looking.

I wrapped them up, 6 to 8 pieces in two layers with wax paper, 

taped it shut and wrote that they are homemade apricot bars,

and put them in the Christmas tree cello bags that I have.

*

Next year I hope to make for Christmas the orange scented Christmas cookies.

I ran out of time and energy for them this year!

Earlier I had made turtle bars,

and lemon bars, and I made up two cute Christmas containers full!

Turtle Bars ~ eat one and you will want another

First time I made my Mom's *wonderful* *decadent* *gooey caramel goodness*

I read the recipe wrong and put the chocolate chips in the batter.

*

Note, this recipe does have nuts in it, so don't bake it for those

with nut allergies!

*

Here's how it is really done and the recipe, too: 

60 caramels or 14-21 oz package (we're talking Kraft Caramels here,

nothing mind blowing!)

half cup evaporated milk

melt it in microwave, 5 minutes cook level 8

batter is as follows:

box German chocolate cake mix (or any chocolate cake mix,

goal here is chocolate)

3 quarter cup melted butter

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts)

1 cup chocolate chips

set melted milk and caramel aside

grease and flour a 9x13 pan 

mixing bowl combine cake mix, melted butter, 1/3 cup e. milk and nuts 

then spread half of that mixture into 9x13 pan

bake at 350 for 8 minutes

take out and sprinkle chocolate chips over baked crust

then spread caramel mixture over chocolate chips

then rest of cake mixture crumble over caramel layer 

bake another 18 to 20 minutes

Take out of oven and let cool.

Don't try to slice it until fully cool.

Steps in a nutshell:

Melt caramel with evaporated milk, mix batter up, bake half for 8 minutes, put chocolate chips on top, then pour melted caramel on top and add rest of batter and bake! 

*

I have made two batches of these this week

while Mr. Husband is away.

Once they were fully cooled, 

I left them out overnight, covered only after cool,

and slice next day, ladling them out with a strong flat 

pancake flipper onto tin foil,

which then I wrapped loosely over the top (about 4 or so bars per tin foil

and put them in a freezer bag and 

stored until Christmas!

*

Three TIPS:

Don't confuse the NEEDED evaporated milk

with the NOT needed sweetened condensed milk.

I almost did and my neighbour actually gave me 

the evaporated milk to make this!

When you cook the caramels in the microwave with the

evaporated milk, if they are not fully melted,

like in my picture above, take a fork or spoon

and stir it.  The first time I did this

it was still just a tad lumpy.

Both times I microwaved it in a *covered* bowl,

a glass pot with glass lid to be precise,

and when it was still lumpy,

I microwaved it on power level 8 for 30 SECONDS more

uncovered and stirred and it was fully smooth, liquid.

The second time I stirred and did not need to do anymore heating.

Also, my Mom said to save time, 

unwrapping all the caramels and putting them in a covered container

until you bake them will save time.

I did it this way and it was super helpful!

Thanks Mom! 

{Christmas Baking} ~ Cookies for Christmas: New England Sour Cream Cakes

I found this vintage cookbook some years ago...

I made cookies with cranberries and chocolate chips for Christmas,

with a milk, vanilla and powdered sugar glaze!

Recipe is with eggs, butter & sour cream!

They are in the freezer waiting for Christmas!

Will try to remember to show them to you then!