Blog Archives

December 25: Christmas Day

Posted on December 25, 2012
by

Time flew by extremely fast once again, and Christmas arrived way faster than we expected. I start to believe that time will actually speed up toward the holidays, especially when I’m planning to make handmade presents and cards.

Our Christmas was wonderful. While we both missed our families, we still had a great time together – and with the dog of course! We cooked traditional Scandinavian Christmas delicacies such as potato, carrot and pasta casseroles, Swedish Finnish meatballs, vegetable salad of onions, carrots, red beets and pickles… We also had pot roasted beef. And a variety of cookies as desserts.

Obviously we also made it to Santa’s Nice list also this year….. We got some lovely gift cards, Jason got me cadence/speed sensor that talks to my Garmin heart rate monitor, waterproof Pelican cases for CF memory cards, PhotoShop CS 6 book, tickets to a ballet. And my gifts to him included a Jambox Speaker that works over Bluetooth – now he can be jamming in his office, a new Leatherman multitool, and a Snowpeak lantern for our his backpacking adventures, in addition to some small stocking stuffers. Our trip to Boston, MA, later this week is our shared Christmas present.

christmas_presents2012 copy

 

Leave a Reply ?

December 2: More Gingerbread…

Posted on December 2, 2012
by

And Door 2 in the Christmas calendar, slightly late but better than never, right..?

The gingerbread house started to get together over the weekend but not without some challenges. After letting the dough cool over night in the refrigerator, rolling, measuring and cutting started.  And everything was perfectly fine until baking the roof pieces. Gingerbread house pieces take 6-7 minutes to be done in our oven at exactly, perfect 395F. Yeah, I am doing conversions from the Celsius for my old European recipe. Tell me about the OCD :-)

Somehow the hubby (at least I don’t remember doing something like that) managed to turn the oven off instead of starting the timer. And time went by, roof pieces didn’t look exactly right color. Eventually I gave up and thought they were probably done, maybe just had a bit excess flour on them and hence look slightly lighter than the other pieces. And who would care about the color – frosting decorations can hide the slightly mismatched shades! But oh well…. surprise, surprise! When I was lifting the roof pieces to cooling racks they were simply stuck on the parchment paper, and felt way cooler than cookie pieces out of the oven usually do. Oops. They were not done at all.

Instead of re-baking them I sacrificed a full sheet of gingerbread boys and girls for new roof pieces. If we really need more gingerbread cookies, I can always bake again… and I very well might since this year I am planning to gift homemade goodies from cookies to knitted and sewn creations.

However, now the gingerbread house is glued together, nobody got burnt with the hot, melted sugar this year! That’s unheard of! Stay tuned for the decoration activity – pictures and story to follow. The frosting is already done.

Leave a Reply ?

December 1: Gingerbread House

Posted on December 1, 2012
by

It is time to open the first door in this virtual Christmas calendar…. and countdown to Christmas has started – 23 days and calendar doors to go.

One of my – and now ours – Christmas traditions is to make a gingerbread house. When I was a little girl, I built gingerbread houses with my Mom: every year we made one for us, and one for my Grandpa. There was, and is, certain kind of magic in making the gingerbread house. At least to me. It is one of those little things that create the real Christmas feeling, in addition to watching my favorite Christmas movies such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Jiminy Cricket’s Christmas,and Frosty the Snowman.

My gingerbread cookie recipe is old, from my Grandma’s collections. It has been a family thing for a very long time, even my Grandma’s Mom used it in late 1800′s, early 1900′s. So it really is not a surprise that tasting the dough always reminds me about my childhood Christmases. Those happy memories truly put a huge smile on my face although at the same time it is bittersweet: especially this time of the year makes me to miss my Grandma who passed away six years ago. She truly loved the Christmas most of all. She started Christmas preparations early – like September early, and every single detail was perfect when the Christmas finally came. But back to the gingerbread house, I will tell more about holidays with my Grandma later in our virtual Christmas calendar.

No matter how much I may be complaining about subzero temperatures here in Alaska, tonight the -5F weather was more than useful. The butter, syrup, sugar and seasonings of gingerbread dough need to be brought to boiling, and then cooled down before adding the flour. The boiling hot mixture cooled down real quick outside on our deck. And now the dough is cooling even more in the refrigerator, waiting for baking tomorrow. I have designed the gingerbread house already and drew & cut the stencils. However, I am gonna keep the secret for a while, and you will have to wait for a couple of days to see what the house will look like :-)

Getting started with seasonings

This will become gingerbread dough…

Done! More cooling before baking…

Meanwhile, here is a picture of one of the gingerbread houses from previous years…

 

Gingerbread House

Have you ever done a gingerbread house from the scratch? Do you have Christmas baking traditions?

[ 2 Replies ]

Christmas Wish List

Posted on December 5, 2011
by

Time truly flies by …. December 5, and my task list is just growing and growing. I have tons of school tasks to do still, including three finals, one big research paper, one lab report. On top of all the work stuff, travels and meetings. And there is also the Christmas tasks: bake the gingerbread house, sew the tree skirt, new placemats and table runner, finish (and mail) the holiday cards… I think I will be out of breather sooner than later. However, I am taking a little creative break from all the craziness since it is time to have fun in Mingle Monday! Check it out, join the fun, and share what’s on your Christmas wish list.

I am having such a hard time to come up with my own Christmas wish list, as well as ideas for others. So I really look forward to reading about other’s wish lists – maybe I get some ideas, and can finish the holiday shopping sometime soon. We are traveling over the holidays, so hanging out in Chicago area will be one of the gifts, and I look forward to having a good time with the husband in the Windy City.

Otherwise, I am hoping to get a new pair of earrings or necklace (or even both). I’d absolutely love the crochet head wrap that I’ve been looking for months now, and haven’t found a color and size that I love. And the nerd in me is secretly hoping to get a microscope, so that I could build my own mini-lab. I would also appreciate new clothes – sports clothes and sweaters are always more than welcome. Most importantly, though, I hope to have a nice, relaxing holiday season and spend quality time with my husband. Gifts are fun but it’s way more important to love and be loved.

[ 2 Replies ]

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 24, 2011
by

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

As Thanksgiving Day is turning into night (and Black Friday) here in Alaska, I finally had time to sit down, and wish you, Dear Readers, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your day has been full of happiness and wonderful moments – just like ours.

Our Thanksgiving Day was spent by hanging out together and cooking. Nice and relaxing. Great times. Even though I didn’t have time to finish, or even start, a new table runner and placemats. I so wanted to be crafty and creative for this weekend but once again the school and work got the best out of me. There are days when I wish I had more hours in my day, and that I could be a creative, wonderful miniature-Martha-Stewart who always decorates home for the season, cooks and bakes the delicious creations in the kitchen. But no, I can’t do that. Not until I find out a way to stretch 24 hours at least to 36…

However, our Thanksgiving was perfect despite not having the new tablecloths. The menu included roasted turkey with homemade stuffing from the scratch, carrot casserole, green beans, corn, homemade dinner rolls, cranberry chutney, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, salad (for me), and pumpkin pie with homemade crust. It was plenty of delicious food. Actually we didn’t even make it to the pumpkin pie yet but it has to wait till tomorrow. Our dog, Tassu, got his share of delicacies too, and apparently it is good to sleep with a full belly. After dinner he parked himself on the couch, closed his eyes and hasn’t moved a whole lot. Gotta love the dog life!

That being said, this Thanksgiving I am terribly thankful for having the best husband in the world – he is my best friend, and perfect partner in crime. My better half. He makes me who I am. I am forever thankful for his endless support and encouragement. Furthermore, I am thankful for living this wonderful life of mine, and ours. Even though there are days when I am tired or frustrated, I wouldn’t change a single day. We truly are lucky and blessed. I am thankful for lovely, supportive people around us – friends and families, near and far. If we only could see them more often…

A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues.
~Cicero

 

Pumpkin Pie

 

Roasted Turkey

 

 

Overeating

 

Leave a Reply ?