[BakerAunt]

Wow! That's quite a project, Skeptic. Have you tried a small pair of tongs for getting your pecans right side up in the chocolate? You could drop it right over the chocolate.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, yes, Ewell Gibbons and Grape Nuts. My high school German class had a project in which we videotaped commercials in German, and being teenagers, of course we did parody commercials. One student took on the persona of Gibbons, and as he ate a pine branch at the end, the rest of the students sang O Tannenebaum off camera. These videos were still being shown to German classes when my sister, who is thirteen years younger than I, studied German in high school. (In mine, I was an interviewer asking my petite friend about her box--back when it came in boxes!--of Tide, and her response was that as a player for the Wupertal Wupperwinds--don't ask me where we got that name--she needed to keep her soccer jersey clean.)

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I revisited a recipe from a Pillsbury Classic booklet, Feelin’ Good (#51) for Smashing Herb Cheese Pretzels. These are a baked, bread pretzel. Long ago, I made them with half whole wheat. This time I also cut the salt by 25% , reduced the yeast form 2 ¼ to 2 tsp., and added 1 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. I used 2% pre-grated cheese, which is the only way I can get 2% cheese. I had forgotten how to shape them properly, so I ended up with pretzel buns. They taste ok, but next time, I will delete the special dried milk and use 1 cup of buttermilk in place of that much water, as they seemed slightly dry to me. I wish that I could find a block of 2 % cheese as well, since I think the additives in the pre-grated affect the outcome.

[BakerAunt]

I made a pot of pea soup with ham for dinner on Monday night. It should last us a couple more days.

[BakerAunt]

I will pass on this idea!

I looked at the overview of the book. There are better ways to be sustainable, and frankly, no one is going to eat the wood, unless the baker who was putting sawdust in cookies (see Aaron's earlier post) is looking for more ingredients.

The book strikes me as a convoluted way of approaching a possible problem with a much simpler solution.

We bought our tree from a Christmas tree farm in our area, thereby supporting a local producer. Such farms protect land that might be gobbled up for development, and the trees have a positive effect on the environment as they grow.

As for after the holidays, when I lived in Lubbock, the Boy Scouts would pick up trees for a small donation after the holidays, and the trees would then be mulched. People could also drop off trees at a site where they would be mulched. Here, once we take the tree down, my husband ties it to our light post, and it looks like another tree until about May or June, depending on the weather. He then takes it over to the shed and it eventually becomes firewood. My husband's cousins remember their mother sending them out to bring home discarded neighborhood trees, which she would put in the back yard as a refuge for the birds in the winter.

We actually have two trees this year. The second one came from our woodlands, after we had bought the first, where my husband discovered that in the autumn a male deer had girdled one of his 18-foot tall trees, effectively killing it. So, he took the tree down, and the top 7 feet are now a second Christmas tree.

[BakerAunt]

I added 1 tsp. Bob's Red Mill milk powder to the dry ingredients before mixing the pie crust for the Christmas 2020 pumpkin pie. My husband complimented me on a particularly good pie crust, so I shall add it going forward.

[BakerAunt]

We are in leftover mode for one more night.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes, accompanied by frozen broccoli that we microwaved. I keep frozen broccoli around to put with cooked noodles, etc. I do not really like the taste of cooked frozen broccoli alone, but we are low on vegetables.

[BakerAunt]

Note: I've adjusted the recipe by reducing the butter from 2 Tbs. to 1 Tbs. and reducing the salt from 1 tsp. to 3/4 tsp. The pie is just as delicious.

[BakerAunt]

For Christmas dinner, I made maple-glazed pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes, which we had with some of the applesauce I made earlier this week. We also had microwaved frozen peas and carrots. Dessert was pumpkin pie.

[BakerAunt]

Two more unique houses and a video that shows them coming together:

I won't be trying any of these at home....

[BakerAunt]

Here's another take on the gingerbread house, but this one is made with a cardamom sugar cookie dough:

https://www.epicurious.com/holidays-events/gingerbread-house-photos-article?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=epi&utm_mailing=EPI_CTN_121820&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c93032824c17c329bff212e&cndid=44882808&hasha=c2ffcf78ce760c4feca3d04b80fdc8a1&hashb=49db56dcba01e22b107c77e00688acfb4b3bc6a1&hashc=de8fbe22000936c873a799e64bdffb7057fa75c752903b68fb57e805557c1914&esrc=bounceX&utm_content=Final&utm_term=EPI_CTN

I wish that I'd had this recipe before I had to give up most butter.

[BakerAunt]

Merry Christmas everyone! We awoke to a light dusting of snow and some patches of ice beginning to form on the lake. Midmorning there is light snowfall here. We have not had a white Christmas for several years. It is 12F here, so I'm not sure there will be a Christmas walk. We have Zoom plans with the three kids in our early evening, and plans to Zoom with my husband's cousins this weekend.

[BakerAunt]

By special request from Scott, I made Cornmeal Rye Waffles (King Arthur Flour’s Whole Grain Baking) for Christmas breakfast. I used 4 Tbs. oil in place of the butter, and I wait to mix it in until all the other ingredients are combined. I replaced ¼ cup of the BRM fine ground cornmeal with ¼ cup of their medium grind, which gave a pleasant, subtle crunch. I cut the salt from 2 tsp. to 1 tsp. Our dog parked herself next to the table and made sure that she got her share of waffles. I made the full recipe, so I have six Belgium waffle squares to wrap and freeze.

I had to give up butter crusts, but I like my oil crusts, and their advantage is that they are much faster to make than butter crusts, which is good as they cannot be frozen.

[BakerAunt]

Christmas Eve was a busy day in the kitchen. I baked another batch of maple granola. I baked the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made last week.

I am about to bake a pumpkin pie to serve for dessert on Christmas Day.

The temperature has been in the teens all day, going down rather than the predicted gaining of a few degrees. There have been little spits of snow. Possibly we may have some overnight.

[Author]

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