[BakerAunt]

For Christmas dinner, I made Pork Loin Roast with Barley, Butternut Squash, and Kale. We also had homemade applesauce. The roast came from a regular farmers' market vendor, and while it was more expensive, the quality impressed me. The kale also came from our farmers' market, as did the garlic I used. The butternut squash was one of the odd big ones that grew from a seed that was supposed to be honey nut. It had a very long, thick neck--about 12 inches, and a smaller bulb at the bottom where the seeds were. It cooked deliciously. If we had room, I'd be tempted to save some seed and plant it again.

Dessert was a pfeffernus for me, as we decided to cut the pumpkin pie at lunch.

[BakerAunt]

I think that the non-melting sugar I used on my Pfeffernusse was 2019, and it was fine. My sparkling sugar is probably as old as yours, but I bought it in a bag, then moved it to two empty sparkling sugar containers I had saved, so I have no idea how old it is, only that it works! We shall see if the pearl sugar, which is at least six years old works when I try it on a recipe this weekend.

The rum balls sound delicious.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--I will post the pumpkin puree recipe in the next couple of days. Once you see how easy it is, you will wonder why you never did it before! Violet will need your help to cut the pumpkin in half horizontally. After that, she can probably handle it herself with a little supervision.

[BakerAunt]

Merry Christmas, everyone! We have our first white Christmas since moving here in 2017--about two inches on the ground, enough to be decorative, and the cold weather keeps it intact.

[BakerAunt]

I baked a pumpkin pie on Saturday for Christmas dinner tomorrow..

[BakerAunt]

Christmas Eve dinner was Salmon and Couscous with Greek Seasoning and microwaved frozen peas. For dessert, we had an array of cookies and little cakes from which to choose.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked Cranberry Pistachio biscotti and sprinkled it with red, green, and a bit of white decorating sugar.

On Friday evening, I baked a half recipe of my beloved Pfeffernusse. It is not Christmas for me without that cookie. It is the one cookie that I still bake with butter. They last well, so I spread out eating them over a longer span of time. A special thanks to Italian Cook for recommending Frank and Sal as a source for candied citron!

It was good to stay inside and bake cookies today. We only got about two inches of snow, but the temperature was -10F to -2F today.

[BakerAunt]

Enjoy your free time, CWCdesign.

I made yogurt on Friday. We had leftover pizza for dinner because I forgot to thaw the salmon. I moved it to the refrigerator tonight after dinner, so it will be ready for tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

Ok--this is the one I was thinking about. It uses cardamom cookies. I remember regretting that I cannot bake these butter-rich cookies:

https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/mid-century-modern-cookie-house

It's at Epicurious, so there may be a paywall when you go to the site after two or three visits.

[BakerAunt]

I must not have posted the link. I did some googling and found a cookie house. It has some tips that might also help with building gingerbread houses:

[BakerAunt]

I'm thinking that I posted an alternative gingerbread house recipe link a year or two ago that used some kind of Swedish cookie instead of gingerbread. I'll have to see if I can find it by searching the site.

[BakerAunt]

My husband used the last of the bread for lunch on Thursday. I had anticipated it would run out, so I began a levain last night and today baked Rustic Wholegrain Sourdough Bread, using the Romertopf glazed bowl and the cloche top from the set I bought last year from Skeptik. (The bottom only fits bread loaves of about 3 cups flour; this recipe is 5-cups of grains.) I played with the recipe, which I had only baked this way once, by adding a tablespoon of flax meal and half a cup of the King Arthur 6-grains flakes. Although I deleted a half cup more of the bread flour, the dough needed another ¼ cup of water, and possibly could have used a little more. As I was shaping it, I sprayed it with water after each fold, I sprayed it before the second rise, and I sprayed it after I slashed it, put the cloche on, set it in the cold oven, then turned on the oven. I checked at 50 minutes, but it was only 190F, so I gave it another 3 minutes uncovered. I think that the second rise should have been a little longer, given the coolness of the house, but the rise in the oven was good, and it certainly looks rustic. I look forward sampling it at lunch tomorrow.

I am making my sourdough pan pizza for Thursday night's dinner. My plan is that we eat half tonight and the leftovers for Christmas Eve dinner. That, of course, depends on not having any power outages tonight or tomorrow. So far, the wind has not picked up, but it likely will later this evening.

[BakerAunt]

They are running around $4.25 here.

[BakerAunt]

We spent most of Thursday morning preparing for the predicted "Snowpocolyse," which started in our area shortly after 4 p.m. So far, we have ice pellets and light snow, which is reducing visibility. Among the chores, such as bringing in more wood for the woodstove and s couple of buckets of water, just in case we lose power, we took all the apples out of the garage. It is heated, but we wanted to protect them, so I stowed them in our Annex. In doing so, I noticed that one of the Ida Red seconds had gone bad and another was half gone. I decided that I needed to use them up and I was glad that I did, as I found another bad one. I had about 9 ½ lbs., so I used two pots to cook them, then my food mill to make applesauce. I got three quarts, and about 1/3 of a cup for my husband to sample. I managed to cram them into the freezer. I had hoped to hold off on the remaining applesauce until after Christmas, when we will pull out the turkey we plan to roast for New Year's Day, thereby resulting in more freezer space.

I hope we all stay warm, and all keep our power, Chocomouse.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked my Pumpkin Pecan Loaf recipe (6 cups) in a Nordic Ware mini-holiday loaf pan that has 8 wells. It was a perfect fit. I shortened the baking time to 25 minutes, which was just right.

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