HAPPY 249TH JANE AUSTEN BIRTHDAY

 

CHRISTMASTIME #2

 

I am sharing a little more of our

Christmas decorations:

I apologize for showing the same

items that I have had "forever"

and have shared for years. 

2024 CHRISTMASTIME

 

Hanging some bulbs on the kitchen

chandelier was one of the first

steps in decorating for Christmas.

I don't decorate very formal 

because frankly, we live in

 a cottage - not a

castle.

I recently found this fabric on Ebay and made a tablecloth.  I did make a mistake in sewing it as I centered the French couple cameo design.  Really, they

should have not been centered as then

they get covered up with the 

centerpiece.  I still make mistakes!

I wanted the cameos to 

show better but

placed them wrong when I cut

the fabric.

I missed some red and green

transferware in the armoire.

We have our tree in the dining

area which is a small

area off the kitchen but without

a wall dividing it.

I think I just remembered

that last year we turned

the table to allow more room.

And one more photo for today:

COLONIAL FRUITCAKES WITH WATERMELON RIND PICKLES

 I have made these little fruitcakes

many times for Christmas over the years.

This time I could not find the required

watermelon Rind Pickles anywhere

in my town so I ordered 3 jars  of

Jake & Amos brand from

Pennsylvania.

I cut this recipe out of the Woman's

Day magazine back in the 1970's.

Actually I saw a note that it was published

many years ago in several historic cookbooks.

These fruitcakes are really fun.

As you can see, we don't have snow

but it was a cold 39 degrees today.

Did see that in the UK they have

already had snow?  And lots in

Colorado where we lived years ago.

So this recipe made

9 little fruitcakes:

Here is what you will

 need to make

them:

The cake base is made with 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 tsp baking powder

6 eggs, 2 sticks of melted butter (1 cup)

and 1/2 cup of rum.

Mix all these ingredients together in a

large bowl or Kitchenaid.

You need to chop most of these

items which you will be adding to the

cake base and mix together well:

16 oz container red candied cherries cut in half, 1 20 oz jar of watermelon rind pickles which are chopped and drained,

1 8 oz container of candied pineapple,

1 box of about 15 oz golden raisins, 2 cups of chopped walnuts, 1 1/2 cups of chopped

almonds (we find the almonds always

settle down to the bottom of those bit

jars of mixed nuts so I just stole mine

from there!)

This year our Walmart didn't have the candied fruits above but I found them at another

local market (HyVee)

I baked these cakes in the mini foil

little pans at 300 degrees for 50 minutes 

in my convection oven

After they cooled I brushed

more rum on them and will do

this again every 3 days for the

next week or so.

I actually used some green candied cherries too and also used 27 additional whole candied red cherries for the tops (3 per cake)

Did you know they used these pickles

in their fruitcakes in the 18th

century?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 Wishing you a Happy

Thanksgiving!