Catching up on Christmas

 I'm so happy that the holiday season is drawing to a close! I enjoyed it, for the most part, but things were hectic at times!

Whatever possessed me to think that homemade cookies and cakes would be easy, inexpensive gifts to give? I worked my butt off, and the fruitcakes and cookies and other treats ended up costing an arm and a leg. BUT, everything turned out great....especially the fruitcakes! I still have a whole one and half of another left for our enjoyment, and the people who received one raved about them. Since I ended up winging it in regards to the actual recipe, I was certainly relieved that they ended up tasting fantastic! There were also lots (and lots!) of homemade sugar cookies.....



My favorites were the cutout snowflakes, even though they were the most time consuming to make and decorate.

 

While I'm on the subject of holiday baking, I'd like to give a shout out to Liz over at The Vintage Inn for sending me a lovely Christmas cookbook published in 1958 for my vintage secret Santa gift! I adore vintage cookbooks, and have a growing collection of them. In fact, all sorts of vintage items from the 1930's through the 1950's fascinate me, but housekeeping, cooking, and etiquette books top the items I look for whenever I'm scouring thrift stores. Thank you, Liz! The book was perfect. And thanks again to dear Jessica over at Chronically Vintage for coming up with the secret Santa idea in the first place, and then making it happen. It sure was fun!

Despite the hectic days leading up to Christmas, the actual day itself was peaceful and relaxing. It was just me, my dear husband, and our animal companions. Santa left bird toys and dog bones at our house.....

 

Messy George takes EVERYTHING
back to the dog bed, even sticky bones.

 

Ginger takes hers outside,
like the polite, mannerly girl she is!

 

 ....which kept Marco, George, and Ginger occupied for the first part of the day.

 

GB and I had lots of good food. I'd bought a nice (miniature) honey baked ham, and King's Hawaiian bread for making delicious sandwiches with it. We had raw veggies with dip, three cheeses, assorted crackers and nuts, tangerines, homemade fruitcake saturated with brandy and rum, and sugar cookies.

 

We took two long walks with the dogs in the afternoon. Several neighbors were out and about, and a few called out "Merry Christmas!" as we passed. I love that kind of neighborly interaction. The sun was out and the temperature was only cool enough for a light jacket. A great day for walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 I hope everyone had a good holiday, too. Now onward into the New Year!





  

Tipsy fruits!

After searching for weeks for the perfect traditional fruitcake recipe, I ended up feeling overwhelmed with all the possible variations in methods and ingredients.  Since no one recipe seemed just right, I finally decided to wing it and come up with my own version, with a little help from my vintage (40's and 50's era) cookbooks. I don't know yet how it's all going to pan out (pan out! ha!) but I've got about 6 pounds of good quality dried fruits and nuts marinating in brandy. I'll be baking the cakes tomorrow, and I sure hope they're not failures. If they are, they'll be expensive failures.

Soaking up the holiday spirit!

The dried fruits and nuts I chose:

Tart cherries, golden raisins, cranberries, apricots, dates, pineapple, candied lemon peel, figs, pecans, and walnuts.