Wordless Wednesday- No no no no! Merry Christmas, though!

The children had a chat with Santa last weekend. One was uber excited, the other uber reluctant, and the other wanted no parts of it.

My daughter never lets me down!


a smile!


ok i'll smile, just don't touch me again; i'm still a bit freaked out by this. deal?



my son loved Santa and wifey!!!


My holiday baking prep is in full speed! I can not wait to share and read about everyone's holiday!! Thanks for stopping by! And happy holidays!

Cookies and Randomness Christmas-Style

Everyone in the Christmas spirit yet?  I'm not really yet. I usually start feeling a bit festive after my husband's taken some time off. The whole time he's on leave I am usually in the kitchen, and I do not have a problem with that. So far our tree hasn't felt the wrath of our ninja baby. About 3 times a day we go through all of his favorite ornaments so he can play and get all giddy. EVERYDAY. This is the first year none of our children broke any ornaments (knock on wood!).

This Christmas we plan to finally visit some Christmas Markets hoping to get into the spirit. Not just Christmas Market hopping, I plan on tackling the ever so daunting task of Christmas crafts. I've been on Pinterest a lot lately looking for Christmas Crafts and Christmas Goose recipes. 

Oh, did I mention I am tackling goose this year? 

 Not that one- the mean honking bird! My random husband asked me to make goose last year  for this Christmas and then reminded me when I was making our Christmas menu. I am excited, nervous, and very ready for the challenge. I've been researching a lot and I've found a lot of helpful info! I plan on taking elements of 5 different recipes I found and hope it yields delicious results!

Oh, back to the crafts. I wanted to do Thanksgiving crafts, but couldn't so I am hoping to tackle some Christmas Crafts with the children Christmas Style. I am hoping they will be things the children and I won't get bored with after 10 minutes. I will definitely share with you all the results!

The closest I got to doing crafts with my children last year was when we baked cookies and wrote letters to Santa.

 It was SOOO fun and the children enjoyed every bit of it as I did as well. I particularly enjoyed the royal icing soooo much better than store bought and very easy! recipe below!

Food and Wine's Roll and Cut Out Sugar Cookies
 

Floury fun!
2 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup(s) sugar
1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
2 stick(s) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large egg yolks
2 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup(s) seedless raspberry or apricot jam, for jam-filled cookies
Royal Icing, (recipe below) for decorating
Sprinkles, sparkles, and dragées, for decorating

Directions
In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle, mix the flour with the sugar and salt. Add the butter and mix at low speed until the butter is broken up into small pieces, about 2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the flour and butter form small clumps, about 1 minute. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and mix at low speed until the dough comes together in a few large clumps. Pat the cookie dough into two 1/2-inch-thick disks, wrap them in plastic, and refrigerate until chilled but not firm, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, working with 1 disk at a time, roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. Using 3- to 4-inch cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes and transfer to the prepared baking sheets. Reroll the scraps and cut out more cookies. (Alternatively, cut the dough into 3- to 4-inch shapes and, using a smaller cutter, stamp out the center of half of the cookies.) Refrigerate the cutout cookies until chilled, about 30 minutes.

Bake the cookies for about 13 minutes, until they are lightly golden around the edges; shift the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through for even baking. Let the sugar cookies cool on the baking sheets for about 5 minutes, then, using a metal spatula, carefully transfer them to a rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes.
For sandwich cookies, spread a thin layer of raspberry or apricot jam on the solid cookies and top with the corresponding cutout cookies to expose the jam. Otherwise, decorate as desired with the Royal Icing, sprinkles, sparkles, and dragées.

Food and Wine's Royal Icing

 

My husband thinks he's fancy. He nearly preserved that cookie for decoration!

Ingredients
1 egg white
1/2 pound(s) (2 1/4 cups) confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon(s) water

Directions
In a medium bowl, beat the egg white at medium speed until foamy. Add the confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating between additions, until the sugar is completely incorporated. Add the water and beat at high speed until the icing holds its shape, about 5 minutes.
Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and use at once; thin with water if necessary.

Thank you for reading!!!

Jam Crostata

Randomly I will post some foods I made this summer. I cooked a lot with intentions on blogging, but I just never had time to.

Here's a great recipe for Crostata which I got from the ever so awesome website Cook's Illustrated. Their recipes are pretty much foolproof, and you can follow it to a T or use it as a guide. I am a die hard fan! As it's the season to be merry, fill it with cranberry jam or even mincemeat! The delicious, buttery, fragrant, Pasta Frolla (pastry) is not hard to whip up and will surely impress with it's beautiful lattice top. I am a lattice-phobe and mine came out better than expected.  Try this and look for the mincemeat recipe here!



Raspberry Jam Crostata
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

INGREDIENTS
Pasta Frolla
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
2 - 3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (11 3/4 ounces), plus more for dusting work surface
1/2 cup sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Grated zest of 1 lemon
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup raspberry jam or mincemeat
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 large egg white, beaten with 2 tablespoons water

INSTRUCTIONS
For the Pasta Frolla: 

1. Whisk egg, 2 tablespoons water, and vanilla together in small bowl and set aside. Place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest in food processor and pulse to combine. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture and process to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about seven 1-second pulses. With machine running, add egg mixture and process until liquid ingredients are incorporated. Squeeze handful of dough; if it forms moist ball, no more water is necessary. If mixture is crumbly and dry, add 1 more tablespoon water and process just until incorporated.


2. Remove dough from food processor and transfer it to large bowl. Gently knead until cohesive, about 30 seconds. Divide dough into 2 equal pieces. Shape one piece into 5-inch disk and other piece into 5-inch square. Wrap both pieces in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.


3. To Assemble and Bake: Mix jam and lemon juice in small bowl.


4. Remove both pieces of dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). Roll round dough disk between 2 large sheets of lightly floured parchment paper to 11-inch circle about 1/4 inch thick. Peel off top sheet of parchment and discard. Using 11-inch pot lid or cardboard round as guide, trim first piece of dough to perfect 11-inch circle with pizza wheel or paring knife. Reserve scraps. Slide dough, still on parchment, onto baking sheet. Spread jam on dough, leaving 1-inch border around edge.


5. Roll square piece of dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper to 11-inch square. Peel off parchment. With pizza wheel or paring knife, straighten edges of dough (reserve scraps), then cut dough into ten 1-inch-wide strips (illustration 3). Brush strips with egg wash and place them over filling, 5 in each direction in diagonal lattice, using spatula to help move and position strips. Combine scraps and knead them together slightly. Roll this dough into 3/4-inch-thick rope about 30 inches long. Brush rim of pastry with egg wash, then press dough rope into rim. Brush border with remaining egg wash. Refrigerate crostata on baking sheet for 1 hour.


6. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Slide crostata (still on parchment paper) onto wire rack and cool to room temperature. Cut into slices and serve

Wordy/Wordless Wednesday. Dedicated to my Daughter

Last month my younger brother died. It was devastating for me. It still is. I am a lucky woman to have the family I do. While everyone in my home were fantastic, my daughter sticks out. When I made the decision to go back to the states- with much urging from my older brother- I decided to take my daughter. Why? She's funny and honest.

When we boarded the airplane, she was so excited. Not nervous about anything. She's 4, and never flew so I am not that surprised. However, as soon as the plane took off, taxied the runway preparing for take-off she was ecstatic! When were wheels up, she was screaming excitedly like she was on a roller coaster. It made me feel more at ease, because I was laughing so hard!

As most of you may know, my husband is white and I am black. Doesn't matter yeah? Well, I told her we were meeting her grandparents at the airport in Baltimore. So once we landed there from New York, she was asking every white elderly man if they were her grandfather. I didn't think much of it until she met my father. I told her who he was and she was silent for a few minutes. Then she finally said, "you're black?' Too funny. I told her that I am black so my parents will be, too. She might have thought since she's black and has a white father, she maybe thought my father would be white, who knows. Her brain is a funny one!

She took to her family like she's  known them all of her life. Everyone loved her because she genuinely loved everyone from first sight. It was a joy and helped us not think about why exactly we were all there for.

Mawa and Grandpa


4 generations


Amara and grandma


Being home for me was very emotional. I was reunited with my brothers and sister after nearly a decade of being apart. I wanted this, but not like this. But I am not going to go there, maybe in another post. Right now it's about my lil curly sue.

The day before the funeral, my daughter asked to go to Chuckee Cheese's. I told her that we couldn't because we had to say goodbye to her uncle. She went over the process, and thought he'd come back and dance with us like the zombies did in the Thriller video from Michael Jackson. It was so random it made laugh out loud in Walmart.

My daughter dancing to the music in her head....lol




After we've been home in Germany for a week or more, I had a huge breakdown.
She looked at me kind of like she was annoyed and said, "Are you still sad about your bruhvah (brother)"
I said, "yes, I am."
She said, "don't worry mom, I'm yo best fwiend." And gave me a big hug and kiss. It really helped me feel better almost instantly. Like my brother had her be there for me right at that moment.

I miss him immensely and I don't know if or when I will be OK. But with my babygirl and my family around. I know I will not be down for long.


Yesterday we watched the A Christmas Story. As soon as we saw a pole on our walk, this is what she does. I love her randomness....it's disgusting sometimes, but mostly funny!



Kiss your family and squash any unnecessary drama you have between family members NOW. Life is way too short.

Thank you for reading!