Nutcracker Sweet

Sis and Bud saw a live performance of The Nutcracker in school last week, danced by a local ballet school. We had discussed the story in advance and, as I mentioned earlier, had watched Pacific Northwest's odd, almost Freudian version (the implied tension between Drosselmeyer and Clara creeped both Mama and I out), though we all preferred the Rockettes' teddy bear version.

Bud loved it and, as is his way, has been reliving the experience since then, through his own versions of the dance. He dons his tutu, requests the suite on the iPod, and cradles our own big red wooden Nutcracker in his arms as he dances his amalgam of kung-fu ballet. The boy loves to feel his body move.

And we love to watch.

Advent Activities: Prep Time

Because of the birthday bonanza weekend, we didn't hew too closely to our Advent activity schedule. We did do sugar cookies and decorated more gingerbread houses, but much of the activity was prep work. We picked up materials for Secret Santa packages and fleece for scarves for gifts. And so tonight, we'll take a break and do a carol sing via telephone. It should be fun.

Advent Activities: Sugar Cookies!!!!

Yesterday was cookie-baking day! It was a perfect rainy-weather day, with gusts and downpours. And so I made "Creamsicle" Sugar Cookies using my new fiori di sicilia from King Arthur Flour, an Italian vanilla-citrus extract used in panettone. Yum! The scent alone was fantastic. And they tasted good too.

And they looked great because Sis and Bud did Star Wars cut-outs using sets I bought from William-Sonoma. Yoda and Darth, X-Wings and Tie Fighters. Sure, not your usual Christmas cookie shapes; perhaps even better.

Until I burned the first batch. I haven't burned a tray of cookies in years. But with all the distractions, and perhaps rolling them too thin, it happened. Much to Sis's (and my) devastation. Luckily, we hadn't used the whole batch of dough and so we can make more today, when a little friend comes over for a drop-off playdate.

In searching for a cookie recipe to add my extract to, I realized I have several to choose from. Below are all the sugar cookies--cut-out, spritz, drop, brown--that I've made. We used Alton Brown's recipe, with a teaspoon of fiori di sicilia.

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Sugar Cookies (with Creamsicle Variation)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Creamsicle variation: 1 scant teaspoon fiori di sicilia

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

Alton Brown

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Aunt J's Spritz Sugar Cookies

1 ¾ cups sugar
1 cup crisco, butter flavoring optional
2 eggs
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream sugar and crisco—add eggs and vanilla and butter flavoring. Add flour, etc. Press out. Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes.

Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
milk to consistency
dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Rainbow sprinkles
Combine and then spread over warm cookies. Add sprinkles.

Aunt J

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Sugar Cookie Cut-Outs

½ cup oleo

1 cup sugar

1 egg

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon vanilla

Cream together oleo, sugar, and egg. Add salt, baking powder, flour, and vanilla.

**My additions: divide dough into 2 balls, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Roll out ½ of 1 ball at a time, approximately ¼” thick. Tania suggests refrigerate the baking sheet or silpat as well. Cut cookies.

Bake at 400F for 8-10 minutes on greased cookie sheet. (let cool 4-5 minutes)

Miss T C

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No-Fail Sugar Cookies

Miss T loves and swears by this recipe. She usually cuts it in half. I made it all and froze half--the kids ate so much dough, we needed the whole batch for the party.

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like
almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours (or see Hint below)

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

HINT: Rolling Out Dough Without the Mess – Rather than wait for your cookie dough to chill, take the freshly made dough and place a glob between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to the desired thickness then place the dough and paper on a cookie sheet and pop it into the
refrigerator. Continue rolling out your dough between sheets of paper until you have used it all. By the time you are finished, the first batch will be completely chilled and ready to cut. Reroll leftover dough and repeat the process! An added bonus is that you are not adding any additional flour to your cookies.

**my note: this dough can be frozen in disks and thawed later.


http://kitchengifts.com/


T's Royal Icing
4 tablespoons merengue powder
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon shortening (to make it soft and shiny, optional)
1 teaspoon lemon extract
5 cups powdered sugar
colos

Mix ingredients. Add water if too thick. It should be the consistency of glue. Separate into bowls. Add colors with toothpicks. Stir with little spatulas.

T outlines with a #3 tip and then floods the inside when the outline dries (to make flooding consistency, add more water--really just a few drops). You can use a bag with tip or a spoon to flood, and toothpicks or decorating brushes to spread it into the cracks.

She recommends the following schedule:
Day 1--baking
Day 2--icing
Day 4--packaging (too soon and the icing will be damaged)
Because of the icing, the cookies will stay fresh for about a week.

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Brown Sugar Cookies

Dough:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 egg yolk

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Topping:

1 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

colored jimmies, colored nonpareils, finely chopped nuts, or other sugar decorations

To make the dough: In a large bowl, beat together the butter, egg yolk, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Mix in the flour. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets (I needed three).

Break off teaspoonfuls of dough and form them into balls. Place on the prepared baking sheets and flatten to 1/4 inch thick with the bottom of a glass dipped in granulated sugar (it helps to moisten the glass the very first time. We also used colored sugar for fun, but won't top those with chocolate).

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until they're lightly browned. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.

To make the topping: In a small bowl in the microwave, or in a small saucepan set over very low heat, melt the chocolate chips and butter together, stirring until smooth. Stir in the corn syrup.

When the cookies are cool, use a flat butter knife or small icing spatula to cover half of each cookie with the topping, so you're looking at a cookie that's half iced, half bare. The make small piles of whatever garnishes you use--it's fun to mix and match--and dip the chocolate-coated side into the decorations. Nonpareils and colored jimmies are fun. Toasted, finely chopped nuts are tasty. Refrigerate the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet until the chocolate sets, about 1 hour.

The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

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Mama Teacher's No-Roll Sugar Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. salt
Colored Sugar

In a large bowl with electric mixer, beat sugars and butter on medium speed unti light and fluffy. Beat in oil, vanilla and eggs until well blended. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt until dough forms.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight for easier handling.

Heat oven to 375. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten each with a "cut-glass" tumbler dipped in colored sugar. Bake 5 - 8 minutes or until set.

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Frosted Cookie Cut-Outs

2 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

2/3 cup superfine sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature

Sift together flour, soda, and salt. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Add buttermilk alternating with flour mixture.

Chill for 2 hours. Roll out to 1/8" thick.

Bake at 375F for 14 minutes (which seems tooo hot and too long to me)

Icing

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

pinch salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

2 tablespoons milk or cream

2-3 drops food coloring

Mix together.

adapted from Hannukah cookies recipes in Holiday Baking by Sara Perry

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Sugar Cookies

1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream the softened butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.

Add the egg and vanilla to the creamed butter and sugar. Blend the ingredients well.

Mix the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture. Blend it well. You have dough!

Chil the dough for (at least) 15 minutes, and then rool and cut the dough. Place the dough on the greased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Allow the baked cookies to cool before decorating or eating them.

Rose Dunnington, The Greatest Cookie Book Ever

Birthday Bonanza: Thanks, Everybody!

It was a great three-day birthday extravaganza! (And I promise to tell you all about it very soon.) I feel blessed and thankful, relaxed and re-energized, loved and lucky. With all that, older just gets better!

Birthday Bonanza: Continued . . . .

Early-morning calls. Gingerbread houses. Creamsicle sugar cookies. Church. Lunch. Shopping. Movie. Rain. Whatever we dream up.

It's another busy birthday day!

Birthday Bonanza: I'm the Birthday Jedi!

Late and lots to tell: the celebrations have continued into a second day, with a Star Wars party with Mama and the kids this afternoon and a birthday dinner with my adult friends at Bloodroot this evening.

Tomorrow promises more fun (and some rain), though probably of the low-key family kind.

Birthday Bonanza: Busy Day

We left home around 1:30 to spend the afternoon and evening at Old Sturbridge Village for their Candlelight Christmas festivities. We've just gotten home, at 10:30 p.m., having driven through a snow globe the whole way. Yep, our first real, though light, snow of the season. A double happy birthday to me! More tomorrow . . . .

Birthday Bonanza: Let the Festivities Begin!

The fun for my birthday has started with Mama taking the day off . . . .

Advent Activities: Gingerbread Houses

'Tis the season for making gingerbread houses, real or graham cracker. And yesterday the kids made both. Sis went to her second gingerbread house tea party, the event that occasioned so much sadness for Bud last year, this time for her Daisy troop. But I was prepared this time and supplied Bud, his friend, and their babysitter with gingerbread house kits and the same snacks the Daisies would have for their own party. Both were a success. I mean, how can you go wrong with candy, frosting, and rice krispie treats??

Advent Activities: Bonus Track

One of our activities, though not one we've selected yet, is carol singing by telephone to family and friends. Turns out, the kids are really excited about this one and have been practicing nightly. Right before bedtime, with the tree lit, we sing Christmas carols. Mama plays at the piano, I lead the singing, and the kids dance around with a selection of instruments. Sis prefers songs that mention Baby Jesus, as her enthrallment to him continues unabated (though, so she understands, we've been talking about our brand of Unitarian vs. Christianity, in the sense of all babies are special vs. Jesus was divine, humanity not needing salvation vs. Christ as savior, the inherent worth and dignity of people vs. Original Sin). Bud likes things with a beat. So they both like "Little Drummer Boy." I like soaring hymns ("O Holy Night" and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," a UU carol) and catchy tunes ("Winter Wonderland"), singing them both in what I call my campfire singing. Mama is trying to fancy up her piano playing by adding flourishes. We're not the von Trapps, or even the Brady Bunch, but it's fun. And we'll be ready for those caroling calls later this month.

Advent Activities: Reuse, Part 2

I forgot to mention earlier in my post on our "reuse" theme for today that we are also now reusing the empty clothespins on our Advent activity string: to hold all the holiday cards we get! It looks much more festive than blank areas on a string in the center of our mantle.

That Elf

We are the hosts of an Elf on the Shelf, which the kiddos remembered vividly from last year (thanks, Gommie!). But we're not so interested in the spying-to-report-back-to-Santa narrative. Instead, our Elf's job is to renew our Christmas spirit, which can sometimes lag in the chaos of preparations and flagging patience. So, each day, it moves. Not at night, as that occasions very early rising to search the house for its new position. Instead, it moves throughout the day, usually during school but sometimes during rest. A clue: the cat always seems to meow when the elf is about. And it is that which occasions the mad dash in search of the new hiding place. "It" because last year it was "Amy Tango" something; this year, it's "Shaun," after the sheep, a funny British claymation import. Of course, other people warn the kids that the Elf will tell Santa how they behave. But, I tell them that Santa knows and, because no one is perfect, he doesn't expect perfect: good is good enough.

B-I-N-G-O

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. It was Family Game Night at school.

And even though we have been hosting our own family game night at home for weeks now, with a particular focus on bonhommie and good sportsmanship, it didn't go particularly well.

Sis was bored silly and gave up playing halfway through the first game. Instead, we visited the bake sale four times and made snowflake ornaments and bell bracelets at the activity table.

Just the opposite was Bud, so intent on playing that he would try to will numbers to transform so he could cross off another one. But he didn't win game one or game two or game three. Nor did we win any of the raffles announced in between, though his little classmate across from us did. He was deep into game four, ignoring baked good and craft enticements, trying to fill out the entire card in a blackout game.

And he didn't win that either, though he was only 3 numbers off when 5 winners shouted "Bingo!" He was devastated. He wanted it so badly. He tried so hard, as hard as you can at bingo. And he wanted something to make him feel better. "May I have a treat because I didn't win please?" he begged as we left to meet our babysitter (for it was office-party night). I knew that a treat wouldn't actually make it better, really.

But we gave him one anyway, in a way, the next morning, by giving in to repeated requests to be allowed to watch How to Train Your Dragon. Sis and particularly Bud were thrilled and crawled into bed with us to watch what is now their second favorite film, after the original Star Wars trilogy (which I'll count as one film because they see them as a continuum), but before Brother Bear, Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, etc.

And so How to Train Your Dragon--with its hero's tale (Sis really likes heroes right now), it's endearing dragons (Toothless is just a big flying black cat!), and action sequences that make you feel like you are flying--made it all better.

Bingo.

Advent Activities: Reuse!

Today is reuse day in our Advent cycle: we started making a whole holiday village out of discarded boxes--happy meal, drink cartons, tea bag boxes, a box of Belgian chocolates, whatever I had in the house (yes, I know, this option wasn't on my original list; we're adapting it as we go). I made a New England salt box, complete with wreath on the door and candles in the window, out of an empty coffee pod box. Bud decorated the chocolate candy box as a gingerbread house. Sis is still working on how to decorate her happy-meal-turned-church. Still to come, we're hoping Mama takes her turn at turning a creamer cartoon into a lighthouse!

New and Improved

I'm trying a new recipe today, one that I'm sorta making up as I go along: Curried Apple Lentil Soup. The idea came from one of those gift jar mixes featured in a Christmas magazine. I was going to get dried apple and onion until Mama gently suggested I just use fresh. Ah, right. Since it's not a gift, I can. And I'm also making it in the slow cooker to make it that much easier. So, while the kids eat meatloaf with the babysitter tonight, here's what I'll be having (I'll update you on how it is):

Update: I added 2 cups of water and probably 1+ teaspoon more salt. I thought it was delicious.

Curried Apple Lentil Soup

5 cups water

1 cup brown lentils

1 cup red lentils

1 apple, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 tablespoon sweet curry powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

Combine in 3-4 quart slow cooker and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours.

Mommy Hungry

Advent Activities: Guess Who's Coming For Dinner

You might think we might take today to catch up with some abandoned activities, to make cat treats or teacher treats. But no, we're having a dinner guest: new babysitter neighbor MJ (yes, all our babysitters are named M! So I've added a J for clarity). The kids have wanted her to stay every Tuesday for weeks and I understand from her mom that she would love to stay. Especially when we have meatloaf. So, we're having meatloaf and potatoes and vegetables and maybe rolls and dessert, the last that she helps make with the kids. We might make woven paper placemats or napkin rings, too.

And, if there's time, we'll do some of those abandoned activities.

Advent Activities: A Jedi Christmas

Monday's Advent activity didn't go as planned. We were supposed to "make treats for teachers and others," for which I'd bought tins, pans, bags, and ingredients. But the kids never got into it.

Instead, we had a Jedi Christmas.

The kids spent the better part of the afternoon wrapping existing toys and books in blankets and such to stash under the tree. For Wicket and Obi-Wan, Luke and Leia, even Jabba and Vader. There was a new bow for Wicket, a belt and sword for Obi,"a ring of force for Luke," books on the galaxy for Leia, etc etc etc. And when all the presents were unwrapped, we started all over again.

So, I took the opportunity to practice another thing on our Advent list: how to receive a gift gracefully and gratefully, even one you might have or not like. All it takes is "thank you."

I imagine that Vader would have a different response, though.

Advent Activities: Twofer

On Sunday, we got two Advent activities for the price of one because we actually did one of the activities on our list before we even checked, "watch a holiday special like The Nutcracker, Emmett Otter, etc." We watched The Nutcracker on tv, Pacific Northwest's original dream-oriented interpretation. Mama had actually never seen the ballet, even though she grew up in the city of Balanchine's famous version. I'd seen it once, at the enormous Jones Hall in Houston, with Miss B, son C, and other friends. I think I still have the mini Nutcracker ornament to remember the magical day. This tv Nutcracker wasn't too magical, with settings and story so abstract that it needed voice-overs to explain it, not your typical beginner's ballet. And so the kids were turned off and instead begged to watch the Rockettes' version, with giant bear characters and dancing pandas. I liked it better too.

Then, our official Advent activity was "make treats for animal friends." I had a box mix and fish cookie cutter to make treats for our cats but we got too busy. Luckily, the church kids' sale had bird seed ornaments for sale. We bought one for each of us to hang in the yard. Though, truth be told, these were more for the squirrels, who were chomping on them in minutes.

And if the old wives' tale about fat squirrels presaging a hard winter, it's going to be very cold and snowy this year.

Going Bananas

I think you might have to be one of the 1.75 million people currently enrolled (in meetings or online) with Weight Watchers, or be an alum, to appreciate this near headline-making news: bananas are free!

Yep, as one blogger noted, it's "Weight Watchers meets Michael Pollan," with a new plan focused on--imagine this, from a company renowned for hawking its prepackaged food and for selling its copyrighted Points label to other food manufacturers--fresh fruits and vegetables, most of which are now "free."

This might sound simple or obvious or stupid to non-members (and most of the snarky and righteous commenters on the NYTimes article above), but previously one banana had the same value as a 100-calorie pack of Oreos. Now, for those of us interested in whole, local, seasonal, and/or organic real food, that was an easy choice most of the time, but Oreos call and bananas don't.

Except now, because I've been craving them. And oranges. And snap peas. Sure, these were "cheap" foods before, and a better choice than chocolate or whatever, but I didn't get into this mess by always making sensible food choices, even as a vegetarian (in fact, it's easier to eat crap as a vegetarian sometimes. I mean, Fritos are meat-free!)

But now that my chocolate, pizza, hummus, peanut butter, whole Greek yogurt, homemade bread, etc. "cost" more than they used to, the rules of the psychological game (and isn't that the biggest piece?) have changed entirely.

Wish me (and those 1.75 million other people) luck! And be prepared for a national banana shortage . . . .

Advent Activity: Festival of No Lights

"Dinner by candlelight" was today's Advent activity. And it was a perfect one after a long, hectic day of multiple activities, including pulling out the decorations and putting up the tree. The kids ran back and forth placing and replacing all manner of holiday items, while Mama diligently worked on the tree (a new, pre-lit artificial one, a surprise purchase this year; our old one was about 13 years old and sloughing lead apparently and the cats can't have a real tree). Instrumental Christmas carols recorded by the musicians of Old Sturbridge Village played in the background.

In one of the holiday tubs was our punched tin lantern, also from Sturbridge Village, and it was this we lit for dinner. Sure, the microwave and stove lights glowed, as did the fridge when we opened it, but the overall effect was still a powerful one. The kids were mesmerized by the light flickering through the little holes and learned all new vocabulary for it--wick, flickering, embers. At first they couldn't see their food, non-traditional leftover Chinese for them, Italian pasta e lenticchie for me, all for Mama. But their eyes soon adjusted. And we talked the whole meal about what life would have been like a long time ago, for pilgrims and pioneers, from morning chores to midday suppers to stories by candlelight.

So, for bedtime stories, I dug up three books we happen to have about winter or Christmas in the olden days, Tomie DePaolo's Early American Christmas and two beginning readers based on Little House in the Big Woods. The first describes the bringing of Christmas traditions to a New England village by the newly-arrived German "Christmas Family," who make bayberry candles, bake gingerbread cookies, and decorate a tree. The second two relate Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood in Wisconsin with big pictures and short text, specifically a party at her grandpa's house with food and fiddle music. I didn't have time to track down the chapter in Little House on the Prairie, I think, which relates how Mr. Edwards meets Santa on his trek to the Ingalls' and brings shiny tin cups, a candy stick, sugared cakes, and penny. That, along with the opening chapter of Little Women ("'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents!'") are my most vivid literary childhood memories of Christmas.

Maybe we can read those tomorrow night.