All I want for Christmas is...

Yes, I recognise Christmas is over. I was going to make it a Birthday wish, but the modem was out of commission for a few days so I missed that too. So what the heck, its a late request but a request none the last.

All I want for Christmas, my birthday, New Years (there, that works) are some FOLLOWERS. That's right, I'm just gonna come out and ask for it. I know you're out there, secretly reading and (hopefully) enjoying my random thoughts and life events, so it would be most encouraging to see some growth in that list of followers. So whether you are a frequent reader, or a first time reader, it would be the most excellent gift to see you sign up to follow.

Shameless self promotion, I know, but hey, thought it was worth a shot.

Happy New Year All, hope everyone has a fun, SAFE, night.

Christmas Treats: Vinaterta

I had great ambition this year. I thought I was going to somehow find the time to create beautiful baked treats for family and friend, and help  my mom with her Christmas dinner, preparing homemade perogies and other special sides. So far, not much luck. What I have managed to bake, my family has managed to eat, so very little in the way of "giftgiving" was actually acheived. And with the sad realization the perogies would not be handmade this year I thought, Ok, can't do perogies, maybe I'll make my Dad the chocolate chiffon cake he's been (not-so-subtley) hinting for. As we speak a deflated Chocolate Chiffon Cake is mocking me in my oven. Another "Charlie Brown" cake is about to make its way to the Hemminger household.

The one treat I did manage to make that reminds me of Christmas' at my Grandma and Grandpa's house is Vinaterta. My grandmother started making this Icelantic treat for my Uncle many years ago. It is a layered cake, the cake is almost like a shortbread, with a sweet prune filling (I can see that face your making. "Prunes? Yuck" But seriously, this is probably my favorite thing in the entire world, and if I didn't tell you it was prunes, you wouldn't know).

So, here is a very coveted family recipe. Mine isnt nearly as pretty as my grandmother's perfectly layered cake, but it all tastes the same.

Guess I'll see how many of my relatives are actually reading this now :)

Vinaterta

Cake:
1 cup butter
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1-1/2 cups icing sugar
2 Tbsp sweet cream
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cardamon seed

Directions: Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, cream and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and cardamon. Add to wet mixture.

Divide dough into 6 equal parts. Press each into a 9" cake tin (greased and floured) and bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes. Remove from tin when warm and let cool on wire rack. (they will harden)

Filling:
1 lbs prunes
2 cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Directions: Boil the prunes until softened. Drain and reserve 1/2 cup "prune water". Blend the prunes, water, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth.


To Assemble:  Once both the cakes and the filling have cooled, assemble the vinaterta by layering cake then filling. My mom always has said Grandma used to let her cake sit a few days to "cure". To serve, it is best to cut the cake when it is frozen/cool as the layers hold better and the slices come out cleaner.

SO YUMMY! Hope you enjoy!

Christmas Treats: Merry Meringues

Thanks to a lovely standmixer I can make things that I would otherwise never have the patience to make. I made these great meringues for the first time this year. They're pretty sweet, but James and the boys loved them just the same. Keelan was thrilled to be able to help "sprinkle" the jello powder on top.

MERRY MERINGUES
Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• jello powder (christmas colors)

 Preheat oven to 225F. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high for 5 minutes, or until soft peaks form. Add sugar, one Tbsp at a time, beating on high until stiff peaks form (careful not to overwhip or they will collapse).
Drop tablespoons full of the mixture onto a well greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with the jello powder.
Bake 50 minutes. Turn off oven and let stand for about an hour, or until completely cooled.
Yeild: 24 cookies.

Christmas Treats: Nalysnyky [Crepes]

Tis the week before Christmas, and all through my house, Mommy is frantically baking!!! Cookies and cakes, and other traditional treats all need to be finished...well yesterday. So I thought that this week I would multi-task and share some recipes on my blog while I bake them.

For the last few years we've been trying to establish a breakfast tradition. I've been making a "Puff Pancake" that I really enjoy...but James, not so much. So this year we are going to substitute a recipe I've been making for a few years. Its a Ukrainian pancake, Nalysnykys. Traditionally you would cook up the crepes and fill them with a savory dry cottage cream mixture. You roll them up and then warm them through in the oven. Yum! But the actual mixture is fantastic for crepes. Here's what you do:




Nalysnyky

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 T sugar
• 1 cup  flour
• 1 T melted butter

Beat the eggs, add sugar, salt, butter, milk and dry ingredients. Mix like pancakes (the batter should be VERY thin). Heat a non stick pan to med-med/hi.




Pour about 1/3 cup of batter onto the pan
and then quickly spread the batter ( i just use a spatula) using a circular motion until you have covered the pan with one thin crepe. Let cook until top side is nearly cooked through (45-60 seconds), and then flip.

 Let cook 20-30 seconds until back side is finished (it will not brown).
It takes a few tries to get a feel for the timing, but once you do these could not be easier to make.


 

Fill them with fruit (i love a nice apple sauce) or just eat the with syrup. ENJOY!!!
*note* Please forgive the plate :) Its one of the "extras", I think it was my Grandma Rose's circa 1991

Ode to a Stand Mixer

Martha Stewart I am not. Its not for lack of desire. I would love to be the put together women with an impecably decorated home and homemade EVERYTHING. Baked goodies, handmade Christmas cards, ironed shirts. But lets be honest, my desire for that homemade touch is most often outweighed by my lack of organization and follow through. My "craft" cupboard is overstuffed with well-intentioned projects, including a wonderful mini-album that was intended to be C's first birthday present and is now something he will be lucky to receive before graduation :) .

Baking is something I always liked to do, but was never particularly good at. Past attempts have been fraught with mismeasurements (resulting in a lot of melting cookies due to too much butter or too little flour), burnt bottoms (we actually termed this event the annual "scraping of the cookies" after me and mom spent consecutive Christmas' scraping the bottom of the cookies with butter knives to try and remove the charcoaled bottoms), and a loss of motivation to even try.

As most of you know, my many food allergies make buying baked goods tricky and best, deadly at worst. After several trips to the emergency room I've resigned myself to the fact that unless i make it, I'm not eating it. Enter the KitchenAid stand mixer. Two Christmas' ago, after agreeing on a Christmas gift budget, my husband COMPLETELY blew our budget and gave me a stand mixer. It was a beautiful thing, and just seeing it reignited that deep rooted Martha Stewart complex. No, it won't measure my flour, no it won't keep my cookies from burning, but it just makes everything so easy. I love it! Its mesmorising. Both the boys will pull up a chair and sit quietly for HOURS watching it mix batch after batch of goodie.

I bake WAY more (not so great for the waist line, but sure keeps the kids happy). And truth be told, it makes me feel fancy, I create my goodies all the while day dreaming I have a little cooking show and an audience watching my baking prowess. With the help of a fancy mixer and a kitchen timer, we have not had a scraping of the cookies since 2007, and I'm happy to say there is no lack of baked goods in the Rivett household this year.

"Say Mommy"

Good grief. Six weeks of sick and finally it seems we've reached the end (hopefully not an intermission) to the barrage of flu strains that have been plaguing the family since the end of October. With several trips to the Children's Hospital and family doctors, the boys have both come out of it unscathed. Feels like we just skipped November all together, and I'm completely behind the eight ball for Christmas and birthday planning. All my dreams of homemade cards and jams and jellies are quickly being replaced with email Christmas cards and Walmart shopping sprees.

But its not all bad. In the last six weeks, C's language has exploded. With all the hearing/speech issues that K went through, "normal" language development is completely new for me, and so much fun. It started with "aw-gee" for doggy, and within a few days "peez" (please), "cookie" and "ya" had cropped up too. Then came my favorite, "maw-mee". The word we wait for. All those late night marathons and diaper changes were finally validated with a loving "maw-mee". I was thrilled.

What was most amazing to me though, was how quickly the meaning of that sound changed. From a loving recognition, to a synonym for "I want". From the sweetest intonation, to a crying whine. *Sigh* the worst part, is that in the past when C cried at bedtime or had a little whail after I took something away I didn't feel the same guilt that now accompanies the sad little "Maw-meeeee" that comes with the cry. Its much harder to resist going into his room to (once again) try to sing him lullabies or give him a cuddle. At 18 months he's discovered the ultimate power advantage.

Its all very exciting, new sounds, little babbling conversations he has with us, hand gestures and all. and I'm cherishing that "maw-mee" sound, whining or not.