A Quick Test

A quick test of the Blogger Iphone app.

Also some cookies.

It's beginning to look a lot like...something

Maybe it is the lack of the white stuff but I haven't really been feeling the Christmas spirit this year. Oh, we have our decorations up and have been to a few holiday parties but something feels not quite there yet. All this is quite strange since for the first time ever I have finished my Christmas shopping well in advance of the mad holiday rush.

While I am not one of those virtuous souls who buys only handmade or gives only gifts they have made themselves I thought I might put forward just a few things that have caught my eye over the last week or so.

Over at a blog I really like called Orangette there is a pretty tasty looking recipe for caramel corn. While it doesn't keep forever and ever perhaps it would work for a holiday party hostess gift.

On another Canadian food blog called Everybody Like Sandwiches there is a mass listing of all her favourite recipes to make as gifts along with printable gift tags to attach. I used said gift cards to attach to gifts I am giving to my co-workers this year, homemade chutney.

Going into this I know that I am the only person in the office who will give everyone a gift (I was the only person last year as well). It is less because I am a nice person and more because I am a bit of show off (see how together I am! I made everyone a present! I have it all together!), and because damn if this isn't the easiest recipe ever. It comes from the gorgeous book Nigella Christmas which I got as a lovely birthday gift last year. Since many of the recipes are for 8-10 I really haven't had call to use it but then I remembered the section on handmade gifts and pulled it out for this office round.

I recommend the book particularly if you are hosting Christmas for the first time or starting your own new family traditions. It provides a step by step guide to the big day, along with a dessert section to be reckoned with.

In the meantime here is the chutney recipe found easily online or in her wonderful book.

It is hard to know where to start after being away for so long. People who read this blog sort of know where I have been and what I have been up to. For the most part it was work, but really just the last month and half or so.

During that time the cooking momentum stopped and I was basically eating things that could be defrosted or thrown together very quickly.

There were a few successes over the last few months. Notably in the area of croissant making and pizza dough making (I do love my carbs).

I also baked up some tasty gingerbread cookies, roasted a whole chicken so as you can see it wasn't all work and no play (as evidence by the photo below) but it felt like it sometimes.

The coming months are going to be even more interesting both personally and professionally as I head off to Whistler for about 2 months starting February 2. I am going to work on the Olympics taking a sort of leave from my normal job. I hope to keep up the blog during that time as well, though it will have decidedly different tone.

Instead of posting a recipe I thought I might just point you in the direction of a good book I picked up at the library called The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger.

Krieger has a show on the food network that I have enjoyed, which focuses on healthy revisioning of comfort food and classic dishes. I found her book really great with nice photos, easy recipes and full nutritional information on each one (something I find is missing in the GI diet books I have)

I don't have any photos yet of recipes I have made (the Bittman calzones above while tasty are not exactly figure friendly), they have all turned out quite well and I look forward to trying a few more before it has to go back.