Our annual gingerbread building day was absolutely wonderful! Early in the morning I whipped up the royal icing
and then I assembled the houses.
putting the chimneys on last
The troups showed up with their bags and bags of candy and started to work.
Here they are about half way through.
And here are the finished homes.
I love this yearly tradition. This year we wrapped up with home made pizza courtesy of the DH
Nothing says Christmas like whipped shortbread.
but sometimes when you need a good cookie for your tea an almond and craberry biscotti, dipped in chocolate, can be just the right thing.
are very important to me. Perhaps the most important thing is that every kid who ever made one will tell you about it. The memory of making gingerbread houses totally justifies the huge amount of time that you need to devote. Baking your own gingerbread leaves that spectacular aroma in your house for days.
I try my best not to orchestrate the appearance of the house. I should probably make my own next time
each house is unique and they are getting more and more elaborate as the kids’ fine motor skills become more developed. They last just til someone starts breaking pieces off of the roof and then that’s it they’re gone.
of this incredibly snowy weather. It’s times like this when I really don’t want to go out and grocery shop, that I regale in my stocked freezer. This week we’ll be cooking up some favourites and some new dishes. Next week my son and I are taking off to do a little skiing. I figured that we might as well take advantage of this crazy snow.
Thank you, my dear husband, for doing the shovelling.
There is nothing I enjoy more than slow food. Tender, juicy, warm, filling and flavourful, it epitomizes winter cooking and comfort food.
There is nothing that shows that you love your family more than tantelizing aromas wafting through your house all day (from a chef’s perspective anyways).
I love rouladen. It’s a great way to make outside round tender. First a filling. While I know a ton of people who stuff their rouladen with pickles, ham and Eastern European delicacies I prefer Spinach, Romano Cheese, Sauteed Onion and garlic and Pine Nuts.
I lay out my slice of outside round and pound it thin if it’s too thick. I place my filling down then centre, then roll it up.
Sometimes I skewer them shut with toothpicks but today I just handled them carefully. I seared then in a hot frying pan.
Then I made a nice simmering sauce for them.
In the frying pan I sauteed some garlic, onion, deglazed the pine with white wine and some home made tomato sauce. Then I added chopped black olives and poured the whole mixture over top of the rouladen which I had neatly laid out in an oven safe dish.
Now we just cover and pop the whole thing into a slow oven (300) for about an hour and a half. This dish is ideal for the freezer. It could also be made in a slow cooker. My slow cooker was too narrow and I would have had to pile the rouladen ontop of each other and given that I didn’t secure them I didn’t want them to fall apart.
My whole family comes over today and we celebrate Chanukah! Julius (my dear husband) fried the latkes for me:
Here are the latkes from our dinner table:
Here is our salmon wellington:
Here is my family enjoying our buffet:
and here we are having some coffee and watching our menorahs flicker and remind us of how the Maccabees seized control of their own lives and that we also have control over ours.
Sometimes when we really get cooking in the kitchen, we forget about the camera all together. Today was one of those days.
We were prepping for a giant Christmas tea for 175 on Thursday and we chopped, shredded, sauteed, mixed, roasted, whipped and otherwise stayed in a cookin’ frenzy all day.
As we get close to the event we’ll cut, fry, slice, plate and take photos.
On the homefront I’m getting ready for my annual Latke Fest. Every year the Wolfson side of the family gathers for a family candle lighting (bring your own menorah). We fry latkes (potato pancakes) and have fun celebrating each other’s company. We catch up on our accomplishments and challenges. We lament that we don’t get together often enough. This year there is Salmon Wellington on the menu.
I love this opportunity to connect with my family for too often we see each other only at weddings and funerals. If I were to die tomorrow, I’d be happy to be remembered only for my Hanukah parties.
Halloween is a fun time at our house. Julius and I get dressed up, we decorate the front room of our house with cobwebs, spiders and candles and we invite the neighbourhood kids in for their treat. We reward the adults with the witch’s finger cookies which have been recently severed.
My Transylvanian accent really needs work!
It was a very emotional day for me. I was devastated to find out that the great employee that we hired decided that our operation was not for him. Panic set in, I caved, I cried, I called my friend Mia who volunteered to come and give me a hand in the kitchen.
So, I deep fried for 5 hours and you know what? It wasn’t that bad. The members were friendly and gave me lots of ideas and suggestions and the work was dead easy.
I also go the loot bags made for my son’s birthday party and I finished his cake.
Well day 2 at the new restaurant and again it went well. I hate shopping for forgotten items and it’s late and I’m tired. I need to bake a cake for my son’s birthday party tomorrow. He has asked for an alligator cake.