Merry Christmas everybody! I hope Santa is good to every one of you!

My mother used to make the most delicious fruitcake for Christmas. When I was a little kid I remember her spending the best part of a day making it. She would make it weeks ahead of time and then wrap it up and pull it out about once a week to give it a shot of brandy. When Christmas came, she would serve it. I can still taste it. I wish I had her recipe, but I don't think anybody saved it. So, I started looking for fruitcake recipes. I didn't find any that tickled my fancy but I also looked at stollen recipes as that uses many of the same dried fruits and nuts as fruitcake. I figure the bread part won't taste like fruitcake, but the fruit part should be similar, especially if I get the dried fruits and nuts drunk first. So after much searching I settled on a recipe and proceded to gather the ingredients and review the procedure. I started soaking the fruits and nuts in rum the other day and having inspected it earlier I decided it was ready today. Here is the result.



I have never had stollen before so I don't know how mine compares to any other, but I did taste it and it's great. It's not as fruity as fruit cake but as I suspected the flavors of the fruits and nuts is similar. The bread is a rich bread so it's not just a bread loaf with fruit and nuts. What I made today won't last until Christmas, so I will be making it again.

Juicy's Christmas blog got me thinking about what I want for myself. What I want will give me pleasure too, but in a much different way than Ju's Christmas wish, lol.

I really enjoy making bread. Most store bought breads lack flavor and character, so I usually make my own. Plus I like the aroma it fills the house with as it bakes. Lately I've been honing my skills and have come to realize the standard kitchen oven has it's shortcomings when it comes to making the classic artisan loafs (a brick oven provides the best results). Well, there is a company out there that has heard the wishes of home bread makers and has come up with a solution. Here it is, [url]http://www.hearthkitchen.com/store/[/url]. I'm just not sure it's worth the price, but if Santa left it under my tree I would sure be happy.

I usually cook on Thanksgiving. This year was no exception, actually, I enjoy it. I watched all the turkey cooking shows on the Food Network for the last 30 days or so looking for some fresh ideas on how to spice up the bird a little. After much thought I decided to give the bird a good shot of herbs.

I made an herb butter that I inserted between the skin and the breast meat. Rubbed the outside with olive oil and gave that a good shot of herbs.
I made fresh cranberries (what is turkey without cranberries?), stuffing, homemade buttermilk rolls, mushroom gravy and roasted vegatables which consisted of potatoes, butternut squash, carrots and peppers. Not pictured was a (store bought) cherry pie. I'll make a pumpkin pie when I have the leftovers.

This Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada. As far as I can tell, this is as big a holiday in Canada as it is in the U.S. It's my understanding the festivities start on Saturday and run through Monday, although I suspect by the time Monday rolls around many ppl will have had their fill already.

Turkey, pies and beer!

As the title says, Happy Thanksgiving to all Canadians.

My puter was freezing up, so bad I couldn't even play a decent game of scrabble, do any perving or chat. It started Monday afternoon (while playing scrabble). After 2 days of trying homemade solutions, I decided to call Dell support. I should have had lunch first. I spent more than 5 hours on the phone with them. The problem is fixed. They fixed a couple of minor issues as well. Turns out the problem was my spyware program. It was bundled with virus protection, however I was also running another virus protection. So, after many months of running both, a conflict occured.

The moral of the story, it's ok and desirable to run more than one spyware program, but only one virus program should be run.

I had a taste for apple donuts for a few weeks now. I couldn't find them at the store so I googled for a recipe. I made them today. Problem is I have too many. Come over and have some will you? They taste great with tea.

Here's one more pic of the butterfly. Catching one on cam with its wings open makes a good pic.

I had pizza. I love making pizza as much as I enjoy eating it. This one has a pesto sauce, topped with chicken breast, fresh tomato, red pepper and red onion. But I have too much. Who wants a slice?

Most of the flowers in my garden are supposed to attract butterflies. I've seen a few fluttering about, but not as many as I hoped for. I did catch this gal feasting on one of my Mexican sunflowers.




The next flower is a Picotee Cosmos


Afterwards, I wanted a drink, so I cut a fresh lime.