My Favorite Christmas Cookies (in case you still feel like baking. or haven't done any yet.)

I love to bake.
Anytime, and especially at Christmas time.
Want to know how much baking I've gotten done this year?
One batch of cookies.


And I have to be honest with you, I am trying very hard not to give in to feelings of Christmas blues as I sit here. Christmas is 3 days away and there is still so much I'd like to do and I know that it just isn't going to happen.


Being gone for almost all of last week was fantastic, but not super helpful in the getting things done department.  Also not helpful: sick kids over the weekend, endless ant invasions this week, a very sick husband, endless rain, trying to keep the kids out of the house or quiet in the house so very sick husband can rest, and ending each day so exhausted that I fall asleep on the couch at 8 pm.


None of that is very conducive to getting things done.
Deep down I know that none of the things I want to get done are that big a deal.
So what if no one gets fudge?
And so what if I can't find the wrapping paper because I have no idea where Aaron stored it in the garage and he is way too sick for me to ask him about it?
So what if I never made that wreath I was going to make?  (my one Christmas craft.)
So what if I am going to sit in my living room, alone, tonight and watch Holiday Inn, not wrapping presents or being productive?


At least the tree smells good and its lights make me happy.
At least there are presents to wrap.
At least everyone is not sick at the same time. (as has happened in the past)
At least no one is throwing up. (as has happened way too much in the past)
At least I made these cookies.

I know, they don't look very special.
Partly because there has been no good light this week due to the endless rain, partly because I ran out of sanding sugar and regular sugar doesn't sparkle like sanding sugar does, and partly because these were the ugliest cookies left in the batch that the kids and I made for their swimming teacher today.
We set them aside for ourselves.


But really, even if they all looked this unimpressive, it would not matter one bit once you tasted them.
They are butter cookies.
And they melt in your mouth.


Really.  They do.
They are my favorite cookie.
They are wonderful with tea.
They are good anytime of year, but I like them at Christmas when everyone is making sugar cookies.
You think these are sugar cookies but with one bite, you are taken away with their lightness, their delicate crunch, their buttery goodness and subtle sweetness.
They are pretty much perfection.


Also, they are easy to make.
It is a quick dough to throw together--just 5 ingredients.
I am too lazy to type out the whole recipe, so I am just going to link to it.
Go here.
They are from Orangette, my favorite food blogs.


Here are a few of my notes on her recipe.
1.  Butter.  She tells you to use the best butter you can find since these are butter cookies.  The first time I made them, I used Kerrigold Irish butter found at Trader Joe's.  It is significantly more expensive than their regular butter.
I did find that the Kerrigold butter made the cookies a lovely golden color that regular butter does not give.  But I did not find a big difference in taste.
I am going to leave the butter decision up to you.
2.  Flour.  She mentions the flour making a big mess when you mix it with the butter and sugar.  I remedied this by adding the flour 1 cup at a time and mixing it just a bit between each addition.  Perhaps this adds a little extra mixing, but I promise, the cookies did not suffer.
4.  Yield.  I must not be rolling my dough thin enough because I got no where near 9 dozen cookies.  I'm not sure how many I got, but it wasn't that many.
3.  Packaging.  The cookies are extremely delicate.  If you are going to give them away, don't pack them willy nilly in a bag.  Pack them in a stack or lying next to one another in a small box.  It will be worth the extra effort.


That's it people.
If you still want to whip up a batch of cookies to give or to take to a Christmas Eve event, give these a try.  
You'll be thanked profusely.
People will praise you.
They are a dream.
Sort of like all my plans for Christmas......


I won't be back here until after Christmas as we leave tomorrow to spend Christmas with our families in our old hometown.  Unwrapped presents, sick husband and all, we're driving south and we're going to have a great time.
Just like every year.


Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.
With love from,
Greta

Crystal Cove Mini Break in Pictures

I like how the Brits call a short holiday a mini break.

I also like how they call a vacation a holiday.

I often like the language of the Brits.

But that is not really the point of this post.

The point is that Aaron and I took a mini break at the start of this week.

With many thanks to my parents for keeping the kids, we spent 2 lovely nights in a historic cottage in Crystal Cove.

It was quite brilliant.  (more Brit speak)

Of course I took a zillion photos.

I couldn't help myself.

There were some long walks on the beach--just us and the birds mostly.

And huge logs washed up on shore--roots and all.

The beach was lovely and wintery.  Deserted, windy and grey.
But I can't help looking for color.
Here's some of the red I found.
You know how I feel about red.
I fancy it.

Like these red chairs.

And my favorite sign in Corona Del Mar.

And this bike.

Perhaps the coolest bike in the history of mankind.

Yes, that's right.

An Alexander Girard bike.

I dream of a bike like this.
Maybe if I am really, really good I can get one for Christmas.
In like 25 years.
When we don't have to buy bikes for all these stinkin kids.

Until then, I dream.

Or maybe I can just get the bell?

Come back for more photos.  Maybe tomorrow.

Love from,

Greta

Vintage Christmas

I like all sorts of Christmas decorations.

The woodsy, natural ones. Ornaments made out of wood and moss, fresh pine branches and red berries everywhere.

The sleek, modern ones.  Decorating the whole tree in one or two colors, everything kept minimal and well edited.

Even the Currier and Ives, old timey pictures of sleighs and snow and life a hundred years ago.

But my favorite sort of Christmas decorations are vintage.

And by vintage I mean bright colors, pinks and turquoise, reds and yellow.

No hunter green thank you very much.

Tinsely.

Glittery.

Some might even call it kitchy.

But I call it awesome.

Like my santa up there in the header.  (had to figure out a way to direct your attention to it)

I bought him at a thrift store and pushed him home in the stroller, while one and half year old James walked next to me.

I got some looks.

But he was just too cool to pass up.

My house is quite full of vintage Christmas.

It makes me happy.

Here's some of my other happy this Christmas.

The glow from my neighbor's light up plastic statues.

I don't know which is my favorite.  The candles?  Santa?  The snowman?  

Glittery paper houses and bottle brush trees in beautiful, oranges, pinks and turquoise.

I am strangely drawn to flocked trees.
Haven't you secretly always wanted one?

But my favorite tree?
The aluminum ones.
I never thought I'd be able to forgo the traditional tree and that smell of Christmas it brings into the house.
But these trees--they are wooing me.

I don't know how much longer I can hold out.

I'm hoping I can be back tomorrow for a post on a craft boutique I went to last Saturday.  It was held in the home of that beautiful silver tree and I got some great pictures.

Inspriration just when I needed it.

We'll see how I'm feeling.

Until then, enjoy whatever Christmas decorations are making you happy.

I'm off to look at my vintage santa mugs.

Love from,

Greta

Make It From Scratch: Buttermilk Biscuits = Fail

I have been craving biscuits.

Bread of all sorts sounds good to me.

And yes, I could drive through a KFC, but that just isn't my style.

Usually I make baking powder biscuits and they are quite wonderful.

I am always happy with them.

But I could not find my regular recipe.  (that is happening to me a lot lately.  i need a better system)

And since there are so many more recipes for buttermilk biscuits, I decided to give those a try.

I chose this recipe from Scot Peacock.

I like Scot's recipes.  I like his story.  I like that he is southern and cares about southern food--like buttermilk biscuits.  I like that he is kind of opinionated about how things should taste and what ingredients you should use.

The funny thing is that I really did not follow his recipe at all.

Perhaps that is why the biscuits were a big fat failure.

Oh well.

We had fun making them.  

And unless I hear something different from you, I'm going back to baking powder biscuits.

Here's the down low on the biscuits:

5 Ingredients.

Flour--he says use White Lilly.  Can't get it here.  Used regular white.

Lard.  I don't have that hanging around.  I used butter.

Homemade baking powder.  Even I sometimes say, "why bother?"  I used store bought.

Buttermilk.  Check.

Kosher salt. Check.

The dough was pretty dry, even when I added extra buttermilk.
But I did like the slightly sour smell of the buttermilk as I added it.
It has a tang that kind of tickles my nose.

 I think I added way to much flour to my rolling surface.  It said "generously floured surface."
But it just seemed to make the bottom of the biscuits extra floury.
We used a glass to cut our biscuits since I don't have a biscuit cutter.
The kids love that part.

They didn't come out of the oven looking very pretty, except for the golden edges.

We hardly waited for them to cool before we cut them open, still steaming and dotted them with butter.
They were good.
I ate several.
But not as good as my usual biscuits.

I am not really a baker, so I don't know the science behind this failure.
Maybe lard makes a lighter biscuit and you can't really substitute.
Maybe I handled the dough too much.
Maybe I need to try a different recipe.
Maybe you can share your favorite one with me.
Anyone?  Anyone?


We'll still be eating these for breakfast tomorrow.  I am quite sure they will be tasty when dipped in the runny, yellow yolk of a soft boiled egg.
Yum.
Happy weekend everyone.
Love from,
Greta


ps  For the first time, I am using edited photos on my blog.  
I don't edit my photos.  Ever.
I am sure you can tell.
I don't know how to use photo shop and frankly have been rather intimidated by it.
But tonight I asked Aaron's opinion on a picture and he suggested cropping it (I don't even crop) and then showed me how to adjust the color a bit.
Oh wow.
A whole new world has opened up for me.
I don't really know what I am doing.  Tonight I just played around.
But it was fun and some of the changes I made I really liked.
I don't think I'll always edit and make big color changes--it can be a bit overkill sometimes.
But it is fun to experiment and try something new.
Bear with me as I do.