Felted wall hangings

I am participating in an art fair this December. It's the second time I've done this fair and I really enjoyed doing it last year. Since it's in a gallery they make you go through the whole application procedure. I think it's worthwhile just to keep up practice jumping through gallery hoops. I re-wrote my bio and justified my practices on paper. Being forced to think that way about what you make is dull but usefull.
This is one of the felted wall hangings I made for the show. I used some of the new techniques I learned this summer from Jessica at her excellent felting workshop. I also went out and invested in a darning foot for my sewing machine and spent two afternoons trying to make the thing work (it came with no instructions and my sewing machine manual was no help at all). It was worth it though. That is a fun attatchment. I can burn through the thread in no time.
My mom and dad were up for a visit and Bad Babs photographed nearly the whole procedure on her camera from roving to rolling and cutting. She had to leave before it was dry so she missed the sewing machine part but it looks like she has the makings of an excellent documentary on the fabulous skills of her daughter. I expect nothing could be more rivetting than an expose on felting.

Heaven

Salted caramels are nothing new. And dipped caramels are the first chocolates to disappear from any box entering my house. But seriously, someone should have warned me what would happen if I made them myself. Sigh, I am in love...

Boss Hog and I make dipped chocolates every Christmas for our friends and family. This year (after the mad rush of the holidays was well past) I decided to take on caramels and perfect them for next years giving. And now I have to stop perfecting them or I will surely be twice my natural size by the end of this year.

They are pure love. Soft, creamy caramels dipped in dark chocolate and sprinkled lightly with salt. My husband realized when he saw me slumped in a kitchen chair with chocolate smeared on my mouth that I might trade him in for more sweet, sweet caramel. Yup.

There is something totally reassuring in knowing only the best ingredients went into these chocolates. All natural. No weird, hard to pronounce stabilizers. And yet there is something so dangerous in knowing that most of these ingredients are totally ordinary and rather close to hand every single day in my kitchen. I am not even going to post my recipe. It is too dangerous. It is out there and I will give it to you if you NEED it. But be warned, it is both a blessing and a curse.

First (and last) Christmas dresses

I misguidedly decided to sew the girls Christmas dresses this year with little matchy shrugs. My parents were coming up to visit and the girls are already so adored, no matter what wretched trouble they are making, that I thought I would throw the family into saccharine overdrive with some sweet holiday sewing.

Somewhere, some little devils were laughing their wee horned heads off.

I found beautiful fabric with little cardinals and chickadees on it in two different colourways, and (pat on the back) some co-ordinating shiny red and red wine coloured shiny fabrics in the bargain bin. Oh yes, I am thrifty too. Did I mention the shiny fabric that was large enough for Eden's dress matched the bird fabric in the green colourway?
Eden here hates green. And Arlo of course hates dresses (I could not even find one photo of her not trying to tear her dress off). Yet through this I soldiered on, determined to get two lovely dresses ready for Christmas day. I cut out Eden's entire dress in the green birds fabric with assurances from Boss Hog that she would warm to it regardless of it's greenness. Silly silly mom. Not a chance. So back to the dress once again and cut it out of the shiny wine coloured fabric. She does love it, but she looks a bit as though she's wearing a negligee. We did manage to get one picture of her wearing both the dress and the abominable green birds shrug. Click. The birds will lay in a heap until Halloween and maybe then Arlo will be some kind of pants wearing forest sprite.

Hallelujah!! cheese bread

It's official. This bread will henceforth appear at every Christmas dinner that I ever make until we all become lactose intolerant. It is stuffed with a mixture of feta, mozza and ricotta (to approximate the original regional cheese totally unavailable in Canada).I have to thank the ever over-the-top Nigella Lawson for adapting this Hachapuri, a traditional Georgian bread, for her readers in Feast. It is divine in many ways. The absolute simplicity of the recipe, the fabulous reheating, the totally easy to deal with dough and, of course, the fact that when Ms. Lawson suggests that this quantity will do nicely for eight people, what she really means is eighteen people. I have kids though and I love a left over probably more than most, especially when it is this good.

But wait, there is more divinity here!! The dough is not yeasted, and while I am not averse to yeasted bread I also know that making it while wrestling a turkey and several side dishes would simply not work in my house due to lack of space alone. And it can be made 2-3 days ahead. And though basic and essential in it's construction, it is pure, glorious indulgence to eat.

* photo credits to my mom who, along with Boss Hog, suddenly got really excited for this to be blogged about and staged virtually every dish I made.

Peppernuts

For the past few years I have been getting together with about a dozen friends in early December for a cookie exchange. If you haven't done one before it works something like this:
step 1. organize your group and finalise the number who will be participating.
step 2. pick your top 2-3 recipes and call everyone to make sure all of you are
not making the same chocolate chip recipe off the bag of chips.
step 3. bake like mad until you have 1 doz. cookies for each person in the group
including yourself.
step 4. get everyone together for a cup of hot chocolate, glass of wine etc. and
at the end of the night you go home with x dozen different cookies all
ready to be plated at a moments notice when holiday guests stop by
unexpectedly.
step 5. glow and blush when everyone notices how organized you have been and
gobbles down the beautiful selection of treats you have set out.

This year I (with much help from Eden and Arlo) am making the most delicious Peppernuts. The recipe I will not give out as it is a family one from Postmodern Hausfrau and I don't want to infringe or start a family feud. But, it must be said, is the greatest slice and bake cookie ever. In part of course this is due to the absolutely tiny size of the cookies, totally irresistible, but the spices make it. I have had my nose stuck in Baking in America by Greg Patent for a while and I suddenly realized how limited my repertoire has become. Everything doesn't have to be chocolate? Heresy! But it's true and these cookies are proof.
**Notice the pan I forgot in the oven when we went out to see our small town's Christmas Light-Up. I am sooooo lucky I did not burn down our house in pursuit of Christmas cheer.