This poor little blog. So behind. Fortunately I'm almost caught up on everything else. Last weekend arrived with the first of our Christmas activities and I woke up Monday morning and realized that I needed to get stuff into the mail now and it wasn't even finished yet! A busy week followed and I just never had enough slow time where I was awake enough to write.

But this morning is slow ... we've had coffee and I might even have a second cup, we're smelling brioche filled with pear jam cooking in the oven, it's warm (in a relative sense) outside and pretty, fluffy "ptarmigan feather" snow is falling, and I've got time and energy for sharing.

I've been procrastinating on putting up decorations this year (we've been waiting to have a new front door installed: it's been hanging out in the living room in the mean time) so the Christmas season didn't really arrive in our house until last Sunday when a few of our friends came over to socialize and eat cookies before all the travelling began. My favourite, quick Christmas cookie is gingerbread. My mum calls this recipe Edible Playdough, because there are no eggs, and used to make it every year as one of the activity stations at any children's Christmas do she was involved in. It can take a lot of handling and still come out okay and, while it might ruin your dinner, won't make you sick.

Edible Playdough

1/2 cup shortening
2/3 mollasses
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinammon
3 tsp ginger
2 cups flour

Cream the shortening and molasses together. Stir in the baking soda and spices and then the flour. Shape as desired. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes depending on cookie thickness.


When I was little I was really fond of making igloos and turtles out of this stuff. Now a days I'm more likely to roll it out very thin for a wafer like texture (this is not a chewy cookies). They're good for hanging on trees since they don't go noticeably stale for quite a while ... oh, and it's great for houses.

Since one of our party on Sunday was Renee's daughter I felt that was amble excuse for us to spend our time decorating little houses. I did all the assembling before hand and put a variety of dishes of candy and a bunch of bags of icing with different tips on the table. We had a great time.


I spent my evenings this week getting presents finished up and cards made and then making my trip to the post office. The ladies in our post office are awesome: I know they must be worked off their feet this time of year but they are still always cheerful and they keep the line moving quickly.




Our new door went in on Friday. It's been taking up space in our living room since the beginning of September and I just couldn't get into decorating with it there. Now that it's in the wall (and I've finally shortened our much-too-long curtains) our living room feels big and bright and very empty. I've got all the boxes of decorations pulled out and am looking forward to hanging up lights and ornaments and maybe even watching White Christmas this evening.

I forgot my camera on my desk at work today so of course what I most want to do is take pictures and blog. Picture taking is pretty much a no go without the camera (it's too grey outside to even try out my sunprint kit) but blogging I can do. This is a cake I made on Sunday.

We got a basket of BC peaches at the grocery store on Saturday and I decided to use a few of them for an upside down peach cake. I used this recipe but added cinnamon and nutmeg to the topping (about 1/4 tsp each) and some more nutmeg to the cake (I was aiming for a teaspoon but since it was grated in I don't really know what it was). I like nutmeg. The cake was delicious and moist and not too sweet, except for the topping which was very sweet, but that was perfect with the cake.

I got to eat several pieces of peach while I was cutting slices. So good. I think fruit tastes better when I comes in a basket - even if it's a cardboard one. We've got lots of peaches left. I'm thinking of crumble or maybe fool or maybe just over the sink (because they are that juicy).

I'll try to remember my camera tomorrow; I've got some fun mail to share.

I got this recipe from my sister a while ago and finally made it today. So good. I just left the cakes in the mugs for eating and sprinkled a few mini-marshmallows on top for artistic effect. The texture was a little on the "dry and spongy" side so I think next time I'll try cooking them for only two minutes and see if things improve. The flavour is very good; not too sweet. I added the chocolate chips but they all sank to the bottom; next time I might add them half way or sprinkle them on top instead of the marshmallows.

Here's the recipe:

DANGEROUS CHOCOLATE CAKE-IN-A-MUG
 
1 coffee mug
4 Tbsp. cake flour (plain, not self-rising)
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk
3 Tbsp. oil
Small splash of vanilla
3 Tbsp. chocolate chips, optional
 
Add dry ingredients to mug, mix well with a fork.
Add egg, mix thoroughly.
Pour in milk and oil and vanilla, mix well.
Add chips, if using.
Put mug in microwave, and cook for three minutes on 1000 watts.
Cake will rise over top of mug--do not be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little; tip onto a plate if desired.
Eat!
 
(This can serve two if you want to feel slightly more virtuous.)
 
***And WHY is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world?
Because now we are all only five minutes away from chocolate cake any time of the day or night!!!***

ps. It's lots of fun to watch them cook.