The Secret

I volunteered to bring cookies for our hospital volunteer appreciation coffee and baked peanut butter blossoms this morning.  I haven't made these since last Christmas season I think.  The secret to these cookies is to not freeze them once they are baked.  If you look at the photo, the kisses in the bowl are dull but the kisses on the cookies are glossy and shiny.  If you took a knife to the kisses on the cookies, that chocolate would spread like soft butter.  The candies are placed on the hot cookies once they are taken out of the oven and they soften up and almost melt.  Once the chocolate firms up again, they remain a little glossy and softer to the teeth than they'd be right out of the bag.  Essentially you are tempering the chocolate and if you freeze these to store them, the chocolate loses it's temper and becomes dull and hard again.  The same thing happens with chocolate chip cookies.  I love a soft cookie and there's nothing worse than a soft cookie with a hard wad of chocolate that you have to gnaw and shave with your teeth.  The only trouble though...I started baking a little late this morning and now I'm worried they won't be firm/set enough to stack in a container.  I might have to bring them all spread out in my covered sheet pan.  I'll keep the ones for the volunteers looking nice, but if the extras I baked to fortify myself and my coworkers get a little smeared, they'll taste just as good!  ;)

Homemade Granola

I've been eating a lot of granola lately for the health benefits of oatmeal.  I have a glucose tolerance test coming up and I'm trying to watch my weight in general so I don't have a ginormous baby.  I find granola to be tasty and filling and I get the fibery goodness of the oats.  Martin Luther was always talking about his bowels and the gruel and oats he'd eat so I think of him when I make this!

I can't take credit for this recipe.  It came from the weekly American Profile insert Dad included in his local newspaper.  I don't remember the name of the reader who submitted it but I thank her every time I make this.

8 c. rolled oats (Old Fashioned--not instant or quick oats)
1/2c. + 1 Tbsp. honey
1/2c. + 1 Tbsp. oil  (I use walnut oil from Spectrum Organics but any vegetable oil is fine)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. pecan halves
1 c. slivered almonds
1 c. sliced almonds
2 c. dried fruit (I use a bag of dried cherries and a bag of dried berries from Aldi)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place oats in a large bowl.  Mix together oil, honey and vanilla and pour over oats.  Toss mixture together thoroughly to coat oats.  Pour into a large oiled pan and bake 40 minutes, stopping to stir every 10.  Add nuts after the first 10 minutes.  Add dried fruit after baking but when oats are still warm.  Store in an airtight container up to a month.

You can adjust this recipe however you want as far as nuts and fruit.  I've cleaned out my freezer before using up all kinds of nuts I had in there and I have a big bag of Craisins downstairs I need to get used up.   I use walnut oil because I got a super great deal on it between Cartwheel and coupons and nut oils are supposed to be very good for you.  I like using it this way versus sauteing something in it.  I also use walnut oil in my salad dressings.  Spectrum Organics makes a non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening which I am enjoying baking with.  I questioned how that would even work if it is non-hydrogenated but I am very pleased and impressed with it.

I made a batch of this and vacuum sealed it with my FoodSaver and took it in my suitcase to Norway this trip and to England two years ago.  It traveled well and filled me up for breakfast every morning.  Also, it is DELICIOUS and is a treat.  You can eat it with milk as a cereal, with yogurt as a muesli, or my favorite...

...with kefir!  I like to think the high fiber in the oats and fruit and the probiotics and high protein in the kefir as well as the nuts is sticking to my ribs and is good for me.  Num num!  This smells so good baking in the oven and warms up the house on these cold winter days!  Also, Aldi is now producing their own store brand of kefir which is the best news I've heard in a while.  Hitherto I've always bought Lifeway Kefir at Aldi.

Tree Finally Trimmed

I finally put the tree up last weekend.  Once again my family will not be able to get together for our Christmas until January so I had plenty of time to put up decorations, but I just LOVE having all the trimmings up during this cold and snowy season.  I love picking up tree ornaments on travels and trips because they are a small souvenir that will be showcased and treasured every Christmas and carefully kept the rest of the year.

These first two olive wood ornaments were brought from The Holy Land by my parents this spring.  They also brought home water from the Jordan River and our baby will be baptized with it.  :)

This domestic ornament came from The Neon Museum in Las Vegas when Dave and I were in town for his bowling tournament.  You can't see it very well in the picture but there are dangling chains of stars hanging from it.  I just love it!  Dave scoffed at the price at the time.  I told him I'd paid way more for ornaments in London and quickly made my way to the check out before he could stop me.

My sister bought me this one in Stillwater at the German Christmas Shop.  It is a German carousel like the carousel she bought me at a garage sale when we moved into the house.  My mother has the same carousel that my Grandpa Maynerd bought for her and is a favorite decoration.  This was given as kind of a pregnancy gift and I love it.

She also got this squirrel ornament more for the baby because we love squirrels and bunnies and critters for the kids in the family.  He is sitting next to a pewter viking ship ornament purchased and the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo in October.

 Here are two more pewter viking ship ornaments.

Here is a simple little Father Christmas ornament from the Audhild Viken shop behind Oslo's City Hall.  It was a large gift shop with knitwear, housewares and souvenirs and a Christmas shop in the basement.  We found some nice souvenir places/tourist traps in that neighborhood that were a little cheaper than shopping on Karl Johans Gate. It seemed very familiar and I was pretty sure I'd been there with my host family years ago.

Here are two different Scandinavian heart ornaments.  The wooden one was kind of a modern stylized version and reminded me of Louet spinning wheels!  The one on the right is a pewter traditional version of the heart.  I've always known these as Danish hearts but they are so Christmas-y!

This was just a cute wooden gingerbread-y/German carousel-y ornament.  The wooden figure just reminded me of decorations we had growing up.

This last one is probably my favorite.  If you want a symbol of Norway it is this building--a stabbur.  It is the winter storehouse of peasants and was basically rodent-proof.  The house itself is built on stilts with large slate discs between the stilt and the building which made jumping around/over the disc impossible for rodents--think of  squirrel-proof bird feeder technology.  The steps were also built a distance away and lower from the door so rodents couldn't jump from the stairs.  They are wooden rustic buildings with grass roofs and absolutely charming.  Every year we add a few more ornaments to the collection and each one comes from somewhere special or has a story.  Enjoy the season!