OT: What are you making for your winter solstice holiday celebration?
I am thinking salmon en papillote, possibly with latkes since I missed Chanukkah completely.
What about you? Inspiration?
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Do you mean literally the solstice or Christmas/winter celebration of choice? Cuz I’m not doing anything for the solstice, but I do have quite a list for Christmas: great grandma’s shortbread cookies, cardamom/walnut cookies, Finnish almond cookie bars, steamed gingerbread pudding with orange sauce, cranberry glaze for the ham my mom does for Christmas dinner, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato cornbread…I think that’s it…I usually go overboard…!
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mmmm — that sounds fantastic. I’ll send dad over 🙂
I stopped and got a cardamom roll from the Norwegian bakery on St Lucia. I need more cardamom in my life.
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Cardamom is a highly underappreciated spice. It’s one of my faves. I use it in my Swedish Meatloaf recipe that I adapted from a Swedish meatball recipe I tried years ago. I love that it can be used for sweets or savories.
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Here’s a cute cardamom story for you: https://jenniferguerrero.com/2018/12/11/trine-hahnemanns-recipe-for-kringle-with-rosehip-jam-and-cookbook-review-scandinavian-baking/
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Accuracy in all things is very important! Especially with spices.
Well, we’ll see if I can manage the huge workload I had planned originally. My life took a quick turn in another direction on Friday when I did not get the job I applied for, which means I will be unemployed come New Year’s Day. It’s for the best, the job I applied for was a bad match for me, but would have been a paycheck. I just need to keep looking around for a better match. But I’ve been under so much stress and strain during these last couple months dealing with all of this, that the stress is making its way through my body. I immediately came down with a mild cold, and now I have a lovely pinched nerve situation in my shoulder blade. It’s not quite conducive to large amounts of baking. But I’m still gonna try to do some of it. I already bought all the ingredients and I don’t want them to go to waste, after all…I did manage to finish the shortbreads yesterday so I have at least one thing done!
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That’s wretched news. I am really sorry to read that — and what short notice. I’ll be wishing your job search well.
Maybe you can drown your sorrows in the shortbread?
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Have you tried the cardamom latte at SB? Yum. I love cardamom.
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That is unfortunately not an option in our market. We have the juniper latte, though. I like it a lot — tastes a bit like a pine tree.
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Too bad. I tried the juniper latte, but the smell put me off. I can’t get past the idea that it smells like Pine-Sol! I’m always up for trying the new flavours, though.
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I like that they’re trying to come up with some holiday options that aren’t so sweet, i.e., more than a regular latte but not the sugar bomb of most of their creations.
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Wow, I’m envious of your commitment; I’m struggling through the second layer of the Nanaimo bar for the office potluck tomorrow.
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I’d never heard of that before but it looks tasty!
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Nanaimo bars? Is that what you’ve never heard of?
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yeah, I had to look it up.
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They’re incredibly sweet and incredibly delicious and are so good I only make them at Christmas because they will probably kill you. Graham wafer crumbs are a must for the bottom layer.
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There was a news report in the US today that the point at which anyone in the US is most likely to die of a heart attack is 10 pm on Christmas Eve. So just have your party on a different day and you should be fine.
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lol – that’s funny (and kind of sad), hopefully the office will eat them all up so I’ll live through another Christmas Eve!
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It’s a significantly higher risk — like 30 percent higher or something. They hypothesized that it’s a combination of heavy food, stress / excitement, and possibly unusual activity levels (if playing with kids, for example).
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That’s terrible. Makes sense though. A lot more alcohol is consumed too. New rule – no Nanaimo bars to be served on Christmas Eve.
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good point about the alcohol.
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lol – i’m the one usually looking things up reading your blog
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everyone including me has gaps in her education. I see that the second layer does sound a bit tricky.
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Actually they’re very simple to make – I’m just a lazy cook. I made a layer, read my book, made the other layer, had a bath, made the final layer….the kitchen is a disaster. I’m a terrible cook.
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This was the recipe I was looking at and it seems to want the cook to beat the custard until it’s light. I always dread that step. I’m always afraid the custard won’t lighten. https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/nanaimo-bars-92028
You’re probably a great cook. But even good cooks have to clean up afterwards. I gave the kitchen a really thorough clean this afternoon and then I made two things — hot pork sandwiches for dad and a pot of kimchi stew for me (by the way, this is vegan and it’s really good: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/09/dinner-tonight-squash-shiitake-kale-kimchi-stew-recipe.html?fbclid=IwAR0BleiJ4P1UmktBs8YKqAGfvA8UfG3KBjeuxlbnXgW6Q1Dk1CL_mPv2bv0 ) and I thought afterwards, shit, you need to clean AGAIN. Oh well, time enough tomorrow.
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What? Cook and beat the custard?! Must not be Nanaimo bars you’re looking at. OK, just read the link. They are Nanaimo bars – but you don’t cook the middle. The custard powder just goes in raw. That’s why they’re a pretty easy dessert really. And they’re a total sugar bomb. And definitely not vegan (a LOT of butter in there)….sometimes the commitment wavers I’m afraid. The only cooking you do is just ‘melting’. I’ll take a look at your vegan stew (thanks! very considerate of you!) over the holidays….eleven consecutive days off not have to get up a 6am – pure bliss.
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Oooh, Nanaimo Bars! I don’t do chocolate but I have a friend who’s wild for them. We get them here in Seattle cuz we’re so close to Vancouver, where they were invented. I love being in a border state!
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Well, probably invented in Nanaimo, BC, which is a ferry ride away on Vancouver Island. Whenever my hubby goes there, I always have to say, “Stay away from the bars!” Lol.
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arf, arf!
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My kids hate our love for puns. Ah well. We enjoy them.
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I was confronted with, purchased, and ate a Nanaimo bar this week and remembered this conversation. Best of thoughts to you all.
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well, I’m genuinely tempted to just do Ikea meatballs and mash with their gravy for Christmas day! i think it’ll just be me and my chap this year (though we’ve been invited round for Xmas breakfast at a local friends house)
I’m usually happy for this time of year and even though I’ve tried (and seem cheery online no doubt) I’m really not in the mood this year for various (family mostly) reasons
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Simpler is better in the end, I always think. I hate making a huge meal and then being so frazzled I can’t enjoy it myself.
I think there’s just too much political crap going on to feel holidayish, at least for me. I assume it’s worse in the UK, and if family stuff is weighing you down — well, maybe you can drink?
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Hehe, I’m not much of a drinker tbh! But we’ll definitely crack open some mulled wine…Maybe some mead too? Brexit stuff Family stuff. ..well it is what it is! Probably part of my I’ve dug my head into fandom as it’s a great distraction from reality!
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Mead is also a fantastic distraction from reality. No wonder Beowulf drank so much of it.
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Ooh mulled wine…. I do miss mulled wine.
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ooh can’t you have any?
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It’s not a big thing here in Australia Rachel. It’s also mid summer so we tend to go for chilled drinks. Twenty years in I still miss being snuggled up in a big sweater, with a roaring fire and a glass of mulled wine on Christmas Eve.
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still struggling to imagine Christmas in shorts. Even in Florida and Texas it did get a little cold in the winter.
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Ah didn’t know where you lived so makes sense 😊
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Do you have them with the lingonberry sauce too? I’m getting hungry reading all these ideas!
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i’ve bought the sauce but not the lingonberry jam-i think we’ve decided to have just a load of roasties (and maybe red cabbage cooked properly) on xmas day and the ikea meatballs (veggie for OH)on boxing day
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Saturday 22nd December is the longest day of the year for us. No doubt we will make sure we walk at leat 5kms or more … depends on how hot it is. If we walk in the evening, it may be cooler (hopefully) and we will have more light. Dinner will be a curry with turkish sea salt roll (from local bakery) followed by ice-cream (and maybe a snack sized Kitkat if I’m honest). If not too tired, we will watch a program on TV … might even be Oceans 8. 🙂
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Not ice cream + jelly? (just kidding)
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No idea what we will be eating on the 22nd (thanks Mulubinba!) because I’ve been totally focussed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. On Christmas Day we will have my fabulous nut roast that even the carnivores love, with lots of roast veggies, bread sauce and gravy, and then Christmas pudding, despite a predicted temperature in Sydney of 27C/80F. On Boxing Day we will have quiche and salads, followed by trifle, with sons girlfriends family. On the 27th we have a barbecue at a friends house and on the 28th we are meeting some US based friends at a fish restaurant on the harbour. And then we will quite likely fall into a food induced coma and I will wonder why my shorts no longer fit.
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80F on Christmas!
OK, nut roast — how do you make that? Is it like a nut meatloaf?
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Kind of. It’s very moist and tastes ‘meaty’. I had to make it with gluten free breadcrumbs last weekend for a coeliac and my son ( the carnivore) thought the resulting increased sloppiness made it even more like meatloaf.
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I’m thinking finger-foods for lunch – little ham sandwiches made with Hawaiian sweet rolls & honey mustard, potato salad, chips – that sort of thing. Or maybe chicken quesadillas with tortilla chips and guacamole. Whichever my boys want is fine with me.
Dinner that night will be steak (either ribeyes or filet mignon), potatoes in some form, steamed broccoli, glazed carrots, & green salad. Dessert is chocolate mousse (a tradition for us). I’ll probably only eat half of my steak & save the other half to slice thin & put on salad with good Bleu cheese the next day.
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I think that the “all appetizer” meal is becoming really popular in the US at the moment. It makes me think back to when I was a kid and my mom would say “don’t eat too many appetizers before dinner” but of course we did and then dinner was kind of wasted.
Mmm, steak. (Sorry vegans.) I am not making a backstrap of venison this year — I’ve decided for me that the disease risk has risen past where I want to go (chronic wasting disease) but there is something about that thought of steak. Mmmm.
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I was just being PC / ironic. My winter solstice holiday is Chanukkah, but i missed it, and I am making Christmas dinner for us but I’m not really celebrating Xmas. “Winter solstice holiday” covers everything that happens in December. Although I suppose in the southern hemisphere you’re having the summer solstice instead? (I try really hard to wrap my head around the idea that it’s boiling hot on Christmas. I know it in my mind but it’s hard to image).
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We will be having lamb crown roast on Christmas Evening…AND lots of appetizers 😉 And I still need to bake more gingerbread and vanilla crescents because the batch I made about 2 weeks ago is already all eaten up…as for steak (yum! 😛 steak!) and CWD – I had to look that up, never heard of it. We eat a lot of venison, but I don’t think this disease is a thing here in the region.
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Vanilla crescents. I may not bake this year but if I bake one cookie that’s the one.
CWD: it’s making its way north. I wonder if one reason for it is the huge deer overpopulation. The hunt isn’t really putting a dent in the population anymore. My brother had permits for nine deer and filled them all (for example) but the population is not down at all, I guess.
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Polish husband = wigilia here. I have to start thinking about what we will make, although we really abbreviate it as the kids don’t like so many of the traditional things. Sigh. I gave up on baking last year as it was an added stress when I have so little time on weekends to get it all done. I used to make at least four kinds of cookies every year. We have an excellent Italian bakery nearby if we need sweet things!
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it’s a bit of vicious circle that I sense myself — I don’t have time, so I buy it, so I get out of practice, so doing it seems like more work … but wigilia is always a winner.
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Give the stress of cooking any day of the week over the stress of school. I spend over 10 hours hopefully getting my butt out of tiny jam. I had 50 references and over 16 pages in the written work I had to turn in today. Came home when shopping, decorated the tree and now chilling for a bit before bed. Tomorrow I will start baking and getting ready for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Turkey( the cat wants bird) for Christmas dinner and Christmas Eve supper something like lasagna. When the holiday is over then we start getting ready for the youngest birthday party on the 29th. He was 18 on Wednesday.
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Well, I’m extremely impressed by your bibliography. I hope your instructor appreciates your effort!
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Many dairy products will be cooked at home. Because my son will bring us back for 50 euros Auvergnat’s cheeses. For example, as a starter, I shall prepare a hot goat’s cheese receipe for Xmas.
https://www.marieclaire.fr/cuisine/aumonieres-croustillantes-de-figues-au-chevre-frais,1194018.asp
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I’d never heard of that and it looks FANTASTIC. Baked goat cheese is always promising.
i bought a huge stack of cheese today myself, including brunost which I practicallly never by. A moment of loss of self-control, I guess.
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🙂 For sure, there could not be vegan receipe if you use cheese in it. But sorry, living in the country of 2400 cheese receipes and 1200 different types of cheeses, I should actually say that according to wikipedia: “Brunost is a generic term for a type of Norwegian brown cheese with a caramel flavor. It is not a cheese in the strict sense of the term, but a reduction of whey, with added milk or cream depending on the variety”. Do not cook this Brunost because caramel colouring: E150b, c or d are bad for health.
Thanks to you, this morning, I’ve learned something new. But just kidding, I write you back: “everyone including me has gaps in her education”.
https://www.lamontagne.fr/clermont-ferrand/vie-pratique-consommation/gastronomie/2017/04/03/dix-fromages-d-auvergne-irresistibles_12339470.html
I take risks with this recipe, brick sheets must not be too wet with cheese.
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brunost shows up briefly in Berlin Station 2, in the episode where they go to Scandinavia to go canoeing. We have it in the grocery store here due to the descendants of the Norwegians who eat it.
That cheese looks spectacular and I thnk St Nectaire is the only one I’ve tried.
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🙂
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My contribution will be glazed walnuts with cinnamon and etc. I love those things!
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And freshly made. Yum!
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We are having kaiserscharm pancakes, which have become a Christmas tradition, partly because they are too unhealthy to have more than once a year. Dear Servetus, I hope you have resolved your festive dilemma and that you have a happy day tomorrow. Thank you so much for your entertaining and thought-provoking blogs, in what has been a difficult year for you. I hope 2019 will be a better one – and one with more visual Armitage
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Wow — now THAT is a Christmas tradition to be envied. Maybe I’ll make those for new year. Thanks for the good wishes — I hope you have delightful Kaiserschmarrn and thanks for continuing to read.
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We have my Quebec traditions on Christmas Eve (tourtiere and sugar pie, both brought in by a local Quebec diner) and the the traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Day. We like to do lots of hors d’oeuvres, too. My older son and I like cambozola cheese, which strangely is really good with a smoked oyster and a bread-and-butter pickle slice, stacked on a cracker. I have some mixed mixed olives, too, and a shrimp ring, as well as a few other cheeses. Plum pudding for dessert, but not flaming.
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Welcome for all sorts of cheeses, I very much approve this choise.
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I’m definitely trying that appetizer!
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