2011 YEAR IN REVIEW

January: 

 Meyer Lemon Marmalade

February: 

 Heart Shaped Valentine Cherry Scones

March:

  Cheesecake

April:

 Pansy Tea Time

May: 

 Flowers in The Dining Room

June:

 Tea In The Garden

July: 

 Beatrix Potter Tea In The Garden

August: 

 Rose Vintage Tablecloth for 

Tea in the Garden

September:

Pumpkin Cookies

October:

  

Comfort Food on A Snowy Night

November:

Carl's Holiday Scones

December:

 Christmas Present

"CHRISTMAS PRESENT"

Christmas is always the time

to decorate the home.

Welcome to our home where the sights, smells and sounds of Christmas filling the air!  Time to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus!

This years tree is a White Fir like the last 2 years - this seems to be our favorite type of tree.

In a way "Hark The Herald

Angels" seems like a good theme

here at our house.  It is also a

perfect time to enjoy Old

Country Roses china.

I love Nicole Sayre and added

 a new angel to my collection.

When we come home each evening, the

first thing we do is fire

up our wood burning stove.

These decorations may be

a little over the top but they

sure bring me joy.

A TIME TO BAKE

If there ever was a time to bake and

cook that would be now at Christmas

time.  The house should smell delightful

and there should me Christmas

music filling the air.

We had an event at my store

so I made numerous dishes like

this Cranberry Apple Crisp.

And we always have English Trifle:

Sugar Cookies with Ribbon Candy below:

Sugar Cookies with Ribbon Candy: You will need to purchase one box of ribbon Candy!

Ingredients: 1 cup of butter, 1 tsp vanilla,1 ½ cups of sugar ( in high alt.

Decrease 1 1/2 Tb), 3 eggs, 3 1/2 cups sifted flour, 2 tsp cream of tartar,

1 tsp soda (in high alt reduce ¼ tsp), ½ tsp salt

This recipe will make 24 large or 36 med-large cookies or more smaller!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (400 high alt)

Cream butter & vanilla and add sugar gradually till fluffy.  Add eggs

One at a time and beat after each.  Sift dry ingredients together.

Add this to creamy mix.  Chill for about 30 minutes

Roll on floured surface –sprinkle with candy which

Has been crushed with a mallet.

Cut to desired shapes and bake on ungreased sheet for

About 8 minutes.  No need for icing here as the

Candy makes each cookie colorful!

Bernideen’s Aspen Mulling Spice

Apple Cranberry Crisp

For the Filling you will need:

1 Carton Original Aspen Mulling Spices, 5 Large Granny Smith Apples or other baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced, 1 cup chopped cranberries, 2 Tb Light Brown sugar, 2 Tb melted butter

For the Topping you will need:

1 ¼ cups all purpose flour, 1 cup rolled oats, ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup packed light brown sugar, 1 ½ sticks of cold unsalted butter, cut into bits.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Make the filling by combining ingredients in bowl and put into 9 x 12 Rect ovenproof dish which has been buttered.

To make the topping:  Combine all ingredients until crumbly and sprinkle over first mixture. I like pushing some of it down into the filling too! Bake 35- 40 minutes – watch for browning Let cool – it will thicken as it cools! 

Olde English Trifle

made with English Devon Custard

In a glass bowl or compote layer the following:

Split lady fingers turned sideways around the edge of the glass bowl or cubes of pound cake, fresh fruit of your choice or according to seasonal availability, raspberry jam and Devon Custard (repeat layers again to the top)

At the top of the bowl, pile on the lovely

**whipping cream (cool whip could work too) – maybe maraschino cherries on the very top!

**To 2 cups whipping cream – whip in ¼ cup of powdered sugar till stiff

CARL'S HOLIDAY SCONES

I saw this delicious recipe in the "Tea House Times Cookbook" and called Carl Povlick, Innkeeper at the Naeset-Roe Inn in Wisconsin to get permission to print the recipe on this blog! 

 Carl was so sweet to let me!  You know what great bakers Innkeepers are so are you ready for some Holiday Scones?  Carl's are so lovely!  You know those little plastic cartons of candied fruit at the grocery store? BUY ONE!  You can visit Carl's Bed and Breakfast at  naesetroe.com

 Just looking at these ingredients,  you 

know these will be good.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

 Here is what we your will need

 to make them:

2 cups of flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder (reduce in high altitude to 1 1/2 tsp) , 1/8 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp all spice, 1 stick of cold unsalted butter, 1 large egg lightly beaten, 1 tsp almond extract, 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 cup of candied fruit, chopped.

The egg mixture for brushing scones: 1 large egg, lightly beaten and 1 Tb heavy cream whisked together to brush on top before baking.  Place rack in center of oven and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl sift cry ingredients.  Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry cutter.  Work it until it looks like course crumbs. Add chopped fruit and the beaten egg,cream and almond extract.
Add this mixture to the flour mix.  Stir with a fork until just combined.  DO NOT OVER MIX.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently.  Roll out and cut with a scones cutter. Parchment paper works great on top of your baking tray.  Brush tops with egg and cream mixture.  Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Serve with jam, lemon curd, butter or my favorite - clotted cream.

 I hope you have a started a collection of scone cutters in various sizes - they do come in handy!  Next time I will leave my

dough a little thicker though.

A BEAUTIFUL HOLIDAY SALAD

Several friends have told me they are having an evening High Tea during the Holiday season.  This is a complete multiple course meal with hot tea as the beverage.  This salad would be wonderful on your menu!

Time to pull out all those lovely Christmas Recipes and enjoy the wonderful dishes of the season.  Many years ago - actually back in the 70's - Marilyn Long of Des Moines, Iowa gave me this recipe.  I just made it this week and was reminded of many wonderful Iowa memories.  You will love it for it's color alone!

To make this congealed salad, you will need the following: 

1 10 oz frozen raspberry package drained (reserve syrup)
2 3oz packages of raspberry jello
2 cups boiling water
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 6 oz can pink lemonade
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Thaw and drain the raspberries reserving the syrup.  Dissolve the jello in boiling water, add ice cream by spoonful and stir in till melted.  Stir in reserved raspberry syrup and lemonade.  Pour into a ring mold.  Chill until partly set.  Add raspberries and nuts.  Chill till firm. Turn out on a favorite plate on cake stand. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Best made overnight!

This has been a busy week in the USA with Thanksgiving. A whole lot of  cooking  happening!   

FIRESIDE COMFORT FOOD ON A SNOWY NIGHT: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

Yesterday it snowed all day and

 we got about 8 inches at our house!

Blue Jays and Rocky Mountain Bluebirds come to my back door to squabble over the nuts and inside I decided to make some true comfort food.  Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes work for comfort.  Nearby the woodstove was fired up and cozy!

This recipe is so yummy and easy.  That's important - yummy and easy!  Here is what you will need for your meatloaf:

1.25  lb lean ground beef and 1 lb of ground turkey, 1 cup of chopped mushrooms, 2 large eggs, 1/2 cup quick cooking oats, 3/4 cup of dried chopped parsley, 1 medium onion, chopped well, 1/2 tsp dried sage,1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  I purchased a meat loaf pan which is basically 2 pans with the top one having holes in it for the juices to drip into the bottom pan. I like this pan.  They have them at the grocery store or any discount market.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and mix until well blended.  Place this thick mixture into your butter loaf pan. Bake until loaf is firm and browned - about 1 hour 15minutes.

Remove from oven and let sit 10-15 minutes. You will be serving this with mashed potatoes and gravy.  I sliced mine and froze 1/2 right away for later use!

Now that I have made this gravy, I recommend doubling the recipe as we like a lot of gravy and could have used more!

Recipe for gravy:  3 Tb butter, 1 small onion chopped, 1 cup chopped mushrooms, 3 Tb flour, 1 can of beef stock - 1 1/2 cups, salt and pepper

This gravy is wonderful and so easy - you will use it often!  In your saucepan, melt the butter and saute  onions and mushrooms in it.  After the onions begin to brown, add the beef stock and stir in the flour and whisk it nicely to combine and reduce lumps.  Keep stirring into a gentle boil and reduce heat as it will thicken nicely.

Salt and pepper to taste and after you make this you will never need to buy any of those little brown gravy packets again.

WHO'S THAT IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH?

I guess the inevitable has happened.

PUMPKIN COOKIES FOR FALL

Here is a perfect recipe for your Fall Afternoon Tea Party - you won't be able to stay out of these and your kids will love them too!

I originally got this recipe from Bev Meller:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter the baking sheets which you will put in the refrigerator.

 Ingredients: First of all blend the following together: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp lemon juice

In a large bowl mix these together: 2 1/2 cups sifted flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp ginger, 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cinnamon. After combining these- mix with above 6 ingredients.

 Now add these: 1 1/2 cups of canned pumpkin, 3/4 cup nuts and 3/4 cup raisins. Keep the cookie sheet cold before dropping heaping tablespoons of dough on it. And chill dough between each batch.

Bake 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool cookies on waxed or brown paper.

Now for the icing 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, 4 Tb melted butter, 1 lb (which is 3 3/4 cups) powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, pinch of salt. Wait till they cool to ice. Icing can be thinned with a little milk if too thick. Makes around 5 dozen or more.

SUNDAY CELEBRATION - The Ten Commandments

My Mother in Law just sent this plate back with my husband for me.  I found it interesting that it says "state flower" since D. C. isn't a state - but a district.   Do you know the Ten Commandments (by heart) that God gave to Moses ?

WELCOME AUTUMN BACKYARD TEA

You know when fall comes you can feel

a change in the air.  It isn't fall yet

but we feel a change.

 I have set up a little tea table

with some favorite old issues

of Victoria Magazine which has

always been my all time favorite.

Help yourself to some

cinnamon tea:

 My garden is just over 2 years old

and it makes me very happy.

I will soon be missing it

as we will face the snow

of winter.

This particular issue of Victoria

really interested me because my

friend and I got to visit that

unusual shop, Bellochio near

Berkley, California.