Bits of Christmas

Yes, I cheated with the date... my laptop has been having power issues - I think now resolved - making it hard to get to the photos stored on it, hence the long gap between posts... things should be better now. Maybe...

Happiness in the new year

A Happy New Year to all! Those for whom 2011 has already started, and those who are still waiting to celebrate :)

I've been looking for an excuse to post this video - both the song and the visuals just make me happy. I hope they make you happy too.

May all of us, in this coming year, end up with our own spiritual equivalent of a cool platform (with a piano and sofas), and good friends, dancing, music and laughter, in the middle of a lake!!

Giving thanks

Last Thursday was my third Thanksgiving, living in the States! While in some ways I feel more familiar here, at other times I am brought up short by something trivial or inconsequential - like a license plate, or someone's address, with the mental exclamation: 'I live in TEXAS?!' I used to say 'I live in London!' to myself pretty regularly while I was there, with an air of delighted, disbelieving satisfaction; here, the disbelief is at least as great, but the delight - well, maybe not QUITE as much ;)

Anyway, one thing I DO like is setting aside a day to be thankful - and whichever way you look at it, we do all have a great deal to be thankful for. Dave and I support a number of charities - among them Médecins Sans Frontières, Water Aid and Help the Afghan Children - and while I love reading about the success stories those wonderful organisations achieve with so many people around the world, I am always very aware that we have, in comparison, so very much.

So we celebrated Thanksgiving this year with grateful hearts.




Those flowers came out of our garden - they've lasted in the vase for two weeks already and are still looking perfect!




Those last photos are from a new recipe I tried - pumpkin cheesecake - they were fabulous! I made individual ones in my beloved mini tart pans (I found them in a New York City restaurant supply store, after hours of searching on the internet - they're deeper than any others I was able to find with that same diameter) but you can easily make a standard sized cheesecake using this recipe. You could also swap the pumpkin for something else - I'm thinking of trying passionfruit some time soon...

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients - base
1 1/4 cups biscuit crumbs (Graham crackers are common here)
3 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
Spices to taste (I added some ginger, and some of my fabulous baking spice blend - a mixture of cinnamon, cassia, mace, anise, allspice and cardamom)

Ingredients - filling
2 8oz packets of cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
Spices to taste (I used the baking blend again, but no more ginger)

Directions
- Mix biscuit crumbs, sugar and spices; add melted butter and mix well
- Spoon crumb mixture into pan(s); press down firmly (I used a shot glass for the small pans; a normal drinking glass would probably work well for a larger pan)
- Bake at 350F for 6 - 8 minutes, until lightly browned
- Cool for at least 30 minutes

- Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth
- Add eggs one at a time; blend
- Spoon approximately half of this mixture into pan(s); chill
- Add pumpkin puree to remaining mixture, along with any spices you're using
- Carefully add to pan(s); smooth
- Bake at 325F for 25 - 35 minutes, or until centre is almost set
- Allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight

- Serve with whipped cream and a dusting of spice and/or vanilla sugar

BYOP

We were invited to a Pumpkin Carving Party shortly before Halloween - the first time I've ever carved a pumpkin! So for those who have likewise been sadly denied, here's a step-by-step guide...

1. Choose your pumpkin. Make sure it is not bigger than you.



2. Cut out the top (or the base, if you're tricksy, preciousss)



3. Remove the gunky plug of pumpkin...



4. ...and place in a tub (along with all the other innards) so that the seeds can later be roasted and eaten.



5. Mark your design in crayon



6. - or by using a template -



7. and carve away!



8. You might choose a traditional design...



9. ...or something slightly more avant-garde.



10. But with the candles in, they'll all look suitably spooky. (Prizes* for those who can guess which is mine and which is Dave's).

* Some prizes - like esteem, and kudos - are less tangible than others. ;)

Happy Easter!

Christmas Decorations

It's a little late to be posting about Christmas, but - well - Mum's been asking, and she's my most dedicated reader, so I need to keep her happy!

If you look carefully, you can just see the God Jul
made by beautiful Johanna, hanging in the entranceway...

This branch obligingly fell down in the garden some months ago;
I liked its windswept look so kept it in the garage until I was ready to use it...

All the wooden ornaments were bought in Prague, many years ago!

The candleholder came from this year's Norwegian Christmas market;
so did the little wreath of mistletoe wound through it...
the Advent candles were made by my mother!

Our table set for Christmas dinner, which this year we shared with Anna and Dimitry
(as we'd had turkey so recently, at Thanksgiving, we broke with tradition and had a
leg of lamb... but as I was VERY busy cooking there are no photos of the meal!)

The lounge room ready for Christmas Eve guests

The house that Kat built

A couple of weeks ago, I was most excited to receive an invitation to my friend Kristina's annual Graham Cracker House building day. Having never built a graham cracker house before, I wasn't QUITE sure what to expect, but nevertheless looked forward to it... so Sunday saw us gather around the most bountiful table imaginable:


There were the sorts of things you might expect, to build a confectionery house - the graham crackers, obviously, and a bag of icing mixture for everyone to glue everything together; jelly beans and M&Ms and other sweets for decorating; marshmallows and candy corn and pretzels... but Kristina, being the creative type, had also supplied things like plastic army men, bugs and dinosaurs; feathers, scraps of fabric (see what else you can spot!).


What was fascinating was how different everyone's structures ended up:






As for me - I started conservatively enough:

- but quickly put Hansel and Gretel's witch to shame...




So much fun! (And no, I haven't been able to bring myself to eat the house yet; it's still wrapped in plastic on the kitchen table).