December's full moon lived up to its name. The temps plummeted back to -20 C and brought a little bit of snow along with the biting south wind .
The mares were wearing their blankets of snow and eagerly awaiting their breakfast.... although they have hay 24/7 so no fasting involved!
The moon was still hanging in the north western sky as I donned my winter layers- note to self, time to bring out the down chore parka- and I took a photo from the warmth of the house; nice to have those new clear windows!
The barn cats are faring well, they too eagerly await their milk and the kibble that I mix canned meat into. Little Timbits is always the first to chow down, and seems to like being petted.
Meanwhile, it is Christmas baking time! I made my sister's recipe for Old English Fruit Cake again this year. I like that it has orange juice, cocoa and coffee in it.
I used the remainder of the oranges after squeezing their juice to make a healthy Christmas tea, with ginger, whole cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom seeds. The place smells great!
Since it is too cold to do much outside, more baking is on the agenda. Viennese Crescents are my go to Christmas cookie, and if I can find candied peel I will make Florentines too. Apparently the big chain stores think nobody does Christmas baking any more. They may be right, it seems to be beginning to be a lost art.
12 comments:
i wish i could eat Christmas cake without nuts in it! bad nut allergies! :( but i do like the smells of Christmas cooking!
Yum Christmas cake. You can always make your own candied peel.
It’s very cozy at your place. I can almost smell it from here.
That is very cold though. Yikes. It is not as cold here, but it is muddy. I’d almost prefer the cold.
I thought about that but its a bit late to do. May have to google it!
I still bake. It is a good thing to do when it's cold outside. A family fav are my thick butter cut out cookies, with cream cheese frosting. The past few years my grand kids decorate the cut-outs on Christmas Eve. Well, some of the cookies. They cover them thick with colored sprinkles, sugar and more sugar. They are learning less is more lol. I reserve cookies the preferred way, with plain frosting.
The oversized baked goods so many scoop up from big box stores are a quick fix, but don't taste anything like homemade.
Your Christmas tea sounds sooo wonderful!! Great moon shot, and through a window.
Homemade is always best, at least we can control the ingredients!
Your cookies sound yummy, love cream cheese frosting.... sprinkles not so much
shirley, what's in the canned jars? 😊
The tea
ah! thanks! 👍❤️
We did baking/making here yesterday. I think you can make your own peel...! Great photo of the moon!
Our annual baking weekend is coming up this weekend, and I'm so excited! It does seem as thought fewer people are baking in favor of the nasty store-bought stuff. Two years ago, while I was looking for a job, my hubby and I opened a little cottage bakery specializing in the types of cookies that you'd get from your grandma - nothing fancy, just homemade, honest cookies. They sold okay, but not as well as I thought they would.
It seems that there are too many people raised on store-bought stuff, so the good stuff is foreign to them. Or, they expect the fancy iced ones that are all over Pinterest, but have no flavor. They sell because they're pretty, not because they taste good.
One of the things that we offered were gingerbread house kits that were actually edible, not the mass produced stuff from WalMart, and they sold okay, but not as well as I'd expected.
I didn't even bother polishing off the old bakery for this holiday season. I'll bake for the usual people, who appreciate homemade goodies, and know that they'll enjoy every bite.
Happy baking !
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