Making Room For Christmas

There may be less baked items than usual featured on my blog in the upcoming weeks. This is because we are trying to use up all of the baked items we have stored in the freezer to make room for all of the goodies we will be making for Christmas. Right now we have the usual meats, leftovers, breads and fruits in the freezer, which we aren't too worried about. We are more concerned about eating the excess baked goods we have in there. We have some muffins, loaves, cookies, squares and other desserts. So instead of baking new things, we have been trying to eat what we already have to make room and avoid spoilage. We also want to get all of our treats eaten up before the Christmas goodies begin to pile on. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, as all of these items freeze very well and you can hardly tell the difference. We also tend to freeze items we like a lot, because we bake a lot of them. The problem is, I also keep adding to the freezer, as the stuff I am baking isn't being eaten as fast because we are also eating from the freezer. Also, I won't get to bake as much between now and the time before Christmas baking starts, and I will have less to write about. Oh well, it will get emptied out, at least for the majority, before we start our Christmas baking, which isn't too far off! At least we do not have a huge tub of ice cream taking up room in the freezer like we did the past two years. Once the summer ends, no one seems very interested in eating ice cream anymore, and what wasn't eaten in the summer takes up a lot of room. Here's to the start of the Christmas baking season!

Nonna's Tea Biscuits

These are the absolute delicious and irreplaceable tea biscuits my grandmother is famous for making. I don't know how she can make them so perfect each time, but she does. I have tried making them myself using her recipe, and they were good, just not the same (maybe she held back on a secret ingredient). Every time I visit her or she visits me, my grandmother always has a stash of these tea biscuits. She also seems to have an endless supply of them stored in her freezer for when she doesn't have time to make them fresh. Typically, everyone in the family loves to have them for breakfast. Most of us heat them up in the microwave and enjoy them warm with a little butter, but they are also good with jam, honey, and peanut butter. They are also good as a snack, as a side to a meal (like soup), or even as dessert. I have enjoyed them with chocolate pudding and strawberries, or yogurt and fruit, or even whipped cream and fruit.  They are pretty much good any way. They are light, tender, fluffy, soft, and buttery. I don't think I will ever get tired of these tea biscuits. 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Countdown until Christmas: 29 days! What other sentence could bring so much excitement, worry, anxiety, and nerves? Shopping days are crawling to an end, Christmas cards need to be mailed soon, and goodies need to be baked. Everywhere you shop, you can find candy canes, chocolates, gumdrops, peppermints, fudge, bark, cookies, toffee, truffles, brittles, marzipan, fruitcakes, and gingerbread.  There are just so many different Christmas goodies to name, where do I even start?


There are cookies: shortbread, sugar, gingerbread, cherry, Santa's whiskers, gingersnaps, butterballs, and melting moments. 
There are cakes: fruit cakes, yule logs, buches de noel, and figgy puddings.
There are breads: Christmas tree bread, panettone, and stollen.
Then there is dinner: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, turnips, peas, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, ham, cranberry sauce, fresh bread, green beans, and gravy.
There is also: mincemeat pie, eggnog, bread pudding, and ciders.

Mmm, mmm! The holidays are here, enjoy!

PHOTO CREDIT:"PPN2-3x_christmas_candy_party_plate" http://www.bonbonsconnexion.com/en/home.html.Bonbons Connexion Candy, n.d. Saturday, November 26, 2011