"Surprisingly Refreshing"

"It's not every day that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."

That's what my friend's husband said about the cookies we baked today. 

Let me start from the beginning... no wait, that will take too long.  Let me start from a beginning.

I had a "play date" with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and friends Mara and Andrew.  We 3 women figured we'd do something fun whilst we sent the boys (well, we kept the toddler with us) off to play with their cameras.

Lois was in the middle of making some bathtub crayons (really, soap with food colouring added), and she was using Mint and Lavender to scent them.  The mint tones down the "girly-ness" of the lavender.  It was really smelling delicious, so I thought... I bet that would be a great sugar cookie flavour!

Presto, our afternoon's activity, sorted.

This was the recipe we used.

We didn't have any of the fresh stuff, though, so we just used lavender essence and peppermint oil we had on hand.  Worked great.  (Note: We decided it was a little too much cornstarch.)  Also, we didn't add the lemon flavour to the dough.  When we originally thought of it, we didn't think we wanted the Lemon flavour.

Once the cookies came out of the oven, we had a little taste, and realised, the Lemon would have been a smash hit, so we added a Lemon Drizzle topping.  Just a bit of powdered sugar mixed with lemon juice.

The results?  Andrew's assessment was the best, "Surprisingly Refreshing.  It's not everyday that you bite into a biscuit and feel refreshed."  They were a total hit!

Thanks, Andrew, for taking the photo!

Queen of the Kitchen

Every year, we're faced with the same dilemma... how does one dress for the Kitchen on Christmas Eve?  (Or Christmas Day, depending.)  Well, this year, I figured it out.  I grabbed my favourite jeans, a yummy green satin blouse, my red jumper, a red embroidered apron to keep me clean and.......




















MY TIARA!

Yep!  I dressed up in my tiara!  I'd actually planned it the previous day, but I left it at home, accidentally.  So, when Dad went over to get Grandma at lunch time (Grandma's living with me for a few months whilst she goes through knee replacement surgeries), I had him pick up the box that I'd set on my table that morning.  He didn't know what was inside.  Just brought it over.  I just put it on, and didn't say anything.  At some point, someone, either Mom or Lois, came in the kitchen and said, "Are you wearing a Tiara?!?"  I smiled and said, "Yep!  I'm Queen of the Kitchen today!" 

Here I am, reigning over my domain:

Now, I usually do a lot of the cooking for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  However, this year I did a little extra, because my nephew was demanding lots of time from my sister.  So, we had a very royal house this week:

Queen of the Kitchen (Me)
The Little Emperor (My Nephew)
The Emperor's Slave (My Sister)

The Emperor even has a "Jade Throne".  It's one of those BebePods, and it's green, so when the subject of his being the Emperor came up, I just naturally named his Pod "The Jade Throne."  I wish I could post a few photos of him in his throne (he LOVES it), but I must defer to the Emperor's wishes (or at least his slave's wishes!)

Anyway, here's some more images from the Kitchen Realm:

 The finished product (Apple Pie) was absolutely divine!  I hate to brag, but I really am justified in proclaiming myself Queen of the Kitchen.  You've never had Turkey or Apple Pie til you've had my Turkey and Apple Pie!

Non-Dairy Treats

My darling nephew is lactose intolerant.  I mean SERIOUSLY intolerant.  Rotten thing.  My sister can't even eat margarine with the tiniest HINT of milk in.  So, we've been getting creative.  Especially as the Christmas season approaches, she's been feeling the tragedy as the rest of us have started enjoying the holiday goodies.  (Oh, my nephew doesn't like my sister to eat chocolate, either!)

This evening, we went to a cookie swap, and obviously that meant we had to bring a cookie to share.  So, I thought, I know!  I'll do a sugar cookie that's dairy-free.  That way she'll be able to eat at least one of the treats.  So I did some digging.

Found out 2 things
1 - There are tons of yummy recipes out there that are dairy-free.
2 -  Coconut oil can be used to replace butter in just about anything, and it's WAY better for you than either butter, margarine or anything hydrogenated.  (But, you have to get the extruded (ie- pressed) stuff, because the heat extraction hydrogenates, at least partly, the oil.)

Anyway, we made sugar cookies using this recipe (click for a closer look):

 

Oh!  They were divine!  I'm so pleased!!! The sugar cookie recipe would be the most amazing recipe to use if you wanted to cut shapes with a cookie cutter, because they don't lose their shape.  They'll stay a crisp cut, rather than becoming a blob.  And, if you bake them til just under "done" they'll be chew inside and crisp outside.  Oh... one thing I learned.... I like the temperature a little lower than you usually find it in recipes.  So, even though this one calls for 375 F, I went with 350 F.  Just a matter of personal preference.  Also, rather than replacing the vanilla, like I suggest in the cookie recipe, with peppermint, you can add a tiny amount (I used 1/2 tsp) of peppermint to the mix w/o changing anything else, and give it a hint of peppermint!

Sieging the Castle!

Remember that Gingerbread Castle I made at my parent's house over Christmas? Well, I'm sure you're wondering what happened to it.

On Wednesday, 30 December 2009, my parents and I went back to the Hospital to collect the Castle. Then, Dad and I came home and set it up in the yard, and laid siege to it with the 2 foot catapult. So fun. Now, this thing isn't the most accurate engine in the world, so it took a while to get dialled in. Once we did, though, we got pretty good at hitting it. It helped when we switched ammunition, too. We'd been using wooden blocks, but then we found a lovely block of ice, exactly the right shape and size. Flew much better.

So, here are the photos of the projectile demolition.After a while, though, it got so dark, we were having a hard time finding our ammunition. So, we switched to firecrackers. Since I was due to fly out the next day, we decided it wasn't so prudent for me to touch the explosives, so I just stood off to the side and took photos. *sigh* So many restrictions, any more! Never mind. It was still fun to explode :D

Here're the photos from the explosions!

Gingerbread Castle

We made an enormous Gingerbread Castle this year. I really enjoy making Gingerbread anything, and since I was in Montana . . . and my Dad and Brother-in-Law had built the 2 foot tall catapult in July, I thought . . . Well, it really needs a castle to siege, doesn't it?!? So, the Castle had to be big enough to be fun to destroy. We made it 25x25" wide/long and 23" tall. Told you it was enormous! Here's the finished product (I'm holding the tiny catapult for the photo.)
We finished the castle on the 23rd, so Christmas Eve, we took it down to the Hospital to brighten the patients' holiday. Our original idea was to take it round the Childrens' Ward, but they'd manage to get all but 1 kid (who was about 1 year old, so too young to enjoy it) home for the holidays. So, we took it to Oncology (Cancer) instead. They LOVED it. We'll pick it up next week before I leave (going to Lois' for New Years) and catapult it :D

If you'd like to read the whole story, along with tips and tricks for making your own gingerbread creation, visit my ScrapBlog. If you'd like to download the plans for the castle, they can be found here. You can either leave them as is, or scale them down. The Full Plan has all the pieces, but in small size. They are in scale to themselves, though, so if you want to make a tiny version, you can. If you do make one, please leave me a note? Either here or on the Scrapblog. And a link to a photo would be awesome!

Baking Day

One of my very dearest friends in the entire world came to visit me this weekend! Jill lives up North, near Sheffield, where I used to live. We were in the same Ward (church congregation), which is how we met. She had to come down to London for a lecture (to do with her MA). Now, the trains are funny in this country. They stop running at very odd times. In this case, trains stop running from London to Sheffield around 7.00pm. That's a bit early, if you ask me, but they didn't. However, it meant that Jill couldn't get home on the Friday night, because the lecture didn't get out til after 8. Because I live just on the inside of the London commuter zone, trains run to Colchester til nearly 1.00am! So, she came to stay with me. Yeay! Friday evening we just sat and chatted. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but we've got one of those easy friendships that you can pick up again at any point, and it's like you've never been apart. Saturday, when we got up, it was raining. Rainy days, to me, are Baking Days. Cakes and cookies turn out much better when the air's humid. So, we dug out all sorts of ingredients and made: brownies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and baked bean/cheddar grilled sandwiches (for lunch). I know, the sandwiches sound odd. But they're really amazing! It's something she and I concocted together several years ago one day when I was round her house. They're really yummy, and perfect for a rainy day! It was awesome to see Jill. I really hated to drop her off at the station to go home in the afternoon. I miss hanging out with her every week.