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We don’t have much and I wasn’t sure what we could afford, so I came up with the idea to do a “12 Days of Cookies” gift for my parents, my mentor and my sis. I didn’t get to make a dozen types of cookies, stopping after nine. I ran out of baking steam when I got sick a few days before Christmas.
In the end, my family loved the cookies. Most of the recipes came from the little booklet included with the December issue of Food Network Magazine. They came out fairly well, though I wasn’t happy with the lack of strength of flavor in the lemon volcanoes and peanut butter tigers.
The runaway favorite of the entire deal? Cake balls. The very thing that decided to give me a meltdown.
What I love about them is the hard crunch of the candy shell and the soft, chocolatey inside.
When it came time to discuss what we would be having for our Christmas dinner, my husband knew immediately that he wanted šķovēti kāposti, which is braised sauerkraut. I couldn’t remember if I had had it at any of the restaurants or at my mother-in-law’s house, so I was a little unsure of just what would happen to sauerkraut when cooked for a long time.
As it turns out, it becomes really, really good.
Our Christmas meal consisted of pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi (grey peas with bacon and onions), speķa rauši (Latvian bacon and onion rolls), a spiral-sliced ham, šķovēti kāposti (braised sauerkraut), apple cobbler and mulled wine. (Mmm.. mulling spices + inexpensive merlot.. Wonderful.)
On Wednesday, I told you that we’d been waiting all year for one special dish. These, my friend, are pelēkie zirņi. Grey peas. This is also the last of our supply we brought with us from Latvia and, unfortunately, will be the last until we go back.
It’s almost Christmas Eve and I’ve been busily baking up a storm all week. A very slow storm who stops and rests quite a bit. Luckily, I’ve only got a head cold and it’s been manageable, but I still have a lot to accomplish today and tomorrow.
Christmas Eve is when my husband has traditionally celebrated Christmas and we’ll be continuing that tradition together, seeing family on Christmas day and following. We have plans for a great Christmas dinner, including one meal we’ve quite literally been waiting all year to have.
I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks that I always mean to cook more from: Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food. I like his recipes, they’re fast, simple and quite to our taste.
This one caught my eye. It involves slow-cooking garlic, starting when you put the pot of water on to boil, and crumbled goat cheese. That was just perfect for lunch, combining some of my favorite things with another of my favorite things: warmth. I tweaked it a little and wished vainly for some spinach, but alas, we had none in the house. It was beautifully garlicky and tangy, perfect for a cold afternoon.
