Marlene

Breakfast: Peameal bacon in the pan. This is not particularly good peameal. While I wasn't looking, the butcher sliced it much to thin. Today when I am out, I'll get more for Christmas day breakfast, and it will be much better. Ryan's breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon and texas toast. I managed to take the picture before he covered the eggs in ketchup I do not like scrambled eggs, so usually make a sandwhich out of mine. There are few things that process cheese slices are good for, but this really is one of them. Now, I really must shower and get the errands run (yes, yes, a pizza stone), or I won't get anything cooked today at all.

looks excellent! any thoughts on brining, marlene? ← It was truly awesome Tommy. Brining? Pork is not something I've ever brined, but I keep hearing that brining makes everything better, so why not?

Argh! Ok, ok. If the roads aren't slippery, I'll slip over to the mall and see if I can find a pizza stone. I need to finish up some Christmas shopping anyway. (sigh)

Marlene will hate it, but I bet Ryan will scarf it up. Let's get a recipe up here. ← Recipes? Recipes are good. The more the merriere here folks. But, just a gentle reminder to make sure they are adapted and conform to our copyright policies. That means, you can use the ingredient list as is from a recipe or you can change a few ingredients, but you must re-write the method rather than copying it verbatim. thanks!

Aha! Now who would have thought to look in the candy section?! I now have several bars of this stuff and am anticipating rum ball and truffle making today and tomorrow. So now here's a question. If one isn't going to use all this chocolate right away, should I freeze it?

Good morning everyone. The fairies came along last night and provided a lovely dusting of snow. Not deep enough to shovel or make driving a huge mess, but pretty enough to dust the evergreens and lawns with white sparkly powder. Now it feels like it's almost Christmas. It's so pretty looking out the sunroom windows, drinking coffee, planning out the day while Ryan sleeps. The sumroom can be a little chilly in the morning in the winter, so I have a fuzzy throw wrapped around my legs, watching the day being to break. These are the moments I treasure most. The quiet time before the house wakes up and demands my attention. This is my time, something I get precious little of during the rest of the day. I'm a homebody at heart and there's nothing I like more than taking care of my family, but in these few moments as the sun rises, and my menfolk sleep, I can be as selfish as I like and think only of myself. I almost never take on clients in December, it's just too busy a month, so I can focus on birthdays, Christmas and families. Everyone here except me, has a birthday in Dec. Ryan, Don, Ry's Dad, my mom, and Don's mom are all December born. And so, onto breakfast. Snowangel? Bacon, scrambled eggs and toast, yes, but holidays require that pinnacle of bacon, Canadian peameal bacon. Sometimes known as back bacon. Today's baking will include shortbreads, maybe rum balls, and the pizza experiment. I'll look forward to sharing the day with y'all.

Thank you for this. I asked Don last night if he liked Pecan Pie. His response? "Sure, - without the pecans". Not that it will stop me from making it. I mean, everyone hates squash here, but I promised Brooks I'd make the squash casserole.. If nothing else, the food will look purty on my table.

Pizza stone? I don't even know what one looks like never mind have any clue as to where to buy one! I'll wait on this until I can determine if I can make pizza with any success or not! Breakfast for me? I must confess that most mornings, coffee and cigarettes are my breakfast of choice. But this week, with Ry being home and things being somewhat more leisurely, I'm more inclined to eat, especially as I'm already cooking something for him. I did in fact have a pancake yesterday. I mean really it was too cute not to eat. Sadly, my workouts at the gym have suffered the last few months, although my treadmill downstairs stares at me forlornly every now and then. I figure after Christmas he and I will become reaquainted. Or I'll be buying a whole new wardrobe. Or an assemblage of the largest unglazed stone or terra cotta tiles you can find -- enough to line an oven rack, minus an inch or three all the way 'round. Let them heat for a while (like twice as long as the oven takes to come to temperature), so the heat across the tiles has a chance to even out. ← No! I do NOT need another piece of kitchen equipment. (I've got my ears covered so I can't hear you all mouthing "pizza stone, pizza stone" at me. Marlene will hate it, but I bet Ryan will scarf it up. Let's get a recipe up here. ← You're kidding me right? First of all, what are Grillades? Secondly, I suppose if you tortured me, I might, just might, consider bringing grits into my kitchen.

Hmmm, I'm thinking that pizza would be a good dish to use convection on. Of course I've never made it before. I do not have a pizza stone. I don't even know if I still have a pizza pan. This could be interesting. Toppings? Hmmm, probably pepperoni and green peppers. Lots of cheese. Whatever my son will let me put on there.

Now begins Ryan's grazing hours. From now until bed, it will be "I'm hungry" every 10 minutes or so. First up the chocolate covered pretzels. I got these at Costco because I liked the picture on the box, not because I thought they'd taste any good. Ryan's "helping" with the blog pictues. He stuck the jube jube in the middle for "presentation" I knew I'd heard mutterings of popcorn. WE bought this hot air popper last year for Ryan for Christmas, it's kinda cute: Here I'm telling him to get his hand out of there. Sometimes he sprinkles a nacho seasoning on his popcorn, but tonight was pure butter and lots of it.

Jason was the one who recommended the soya oil to me, and that's what I used to make the blooming onion. I was pretty happy with the way it performed, but hell, it was the first time I'd ever successfully deep fried anything so what do I know?

All right, although food isn't over for today (I heard Ryan muttering about popcorn), I wanted y'all to start thinkin a spell on tomorrow. Tomorrow's experiment will be homemade pizza. Now, I'm going to cheat and make the dough in my bread maker, but after that, the floor's open. Wed will be the Fried chicken experiment. It would have been tomorrow, but I've decided to test two recipes side by side. Dave's deep fried and Brook's skillet fried. As Dave's recipe needs brining and then soaking in buttermilk overnight, the chicken will have to wait until Wed. After all, we can have Dave saying it wasn't a fair test now can we? Now then, what do you want for breakfast?

7:15 on the nose. Chocolate covered pretzels.

Shepherd's Pie, but with a rice/cheese topping instead of potatoes. Tacos sloppy joes spaggetti sauce (use the leftover sauce for lasagna)

Hot buttered rum?

Dinner is done, the dishwasher loaded, and I've a brief respite in which to get some eG work done before the lad decides he's hungry again. (Let's time it. I give it until 7:15. - It's 7:02 right now.) Tonight's dinner - Mac and Cheese Ready to go in the oven. I always use way more bread crumb topping than a recipe calls for. Sprinkle? Pah! I spit on sprinkle. I want substance. Out of the oven. Now serving. . . . . My son who is a life long KD addict declares this the best. (I've made this a whole two times now). Slowly, ever so slowly, I'm converting the lad.

Sigh. The Mac and Cheese is in the oven, the lad is otherwise occupied (read camped out in front of the t.v.) and I'm going to have a glass of wine. I deserve it. In the meantime, here's the Mac & Cheese recipe, adapted from the WS cookbook: I did forget to mention that for the bulk of the week, it will be just Ryan and I for dinner. Some nights, I'll keep things warm for Don, but Mondays are late nights for him usually these days. It is after all, the beginning of the hell fondly known as Audit Season.

Thanks Anna. It's as close as I can get these days! What's a green vegetable? Actually, I'll have you know, I've some asparagus in the fridge with with I shall make stir fried sesame ginger asparagus one night this week. Very funny. You do it, hero

All right. Gingerbread church pics. This is what it is supposed to look like I caught a glare on the box. When I upload tonight's dinner pics, I'll try to get a better picture of this. Beginning to build the church And the tower The finished Church and Tower For all that it looks nothing like what it is supposed to, this is the best result Ryan and I have ever had. And it only took about 4 hours. The fact that it's still standing is a major accomplishment on our part. Time to start the mac and cheese. I'll be using a recipe from the William Sonoma "American" cookbook, which I'll try to adapt so I can post it here later. If I had the energy, I'd make something to go with it, but the Church took it all.

Marlene, Look in the candy section - I'm serious - that's where I find it at Fortinos on Appleby Line. I hope it is the same as I did not see the article in The Star but it is nice chocolate - comes in a huge bar - 500g and it's about $5.99. ← Really? Thanks Anna!

The roof is on the church and the tower is contstructed and setting. I have icing in my hair, on my nose and on the floor. But the thing is still standing so far. . . . .

The hell with authenticity if it tastes god. I do think you should make both varieties, take a scientific poll among the pie-eaters (a blind A/B test would be even better). The recipe I use calls for half light Karo syrup and half dark Karo along with a sinful amount of granulated white sugar. I use dark brown sugar instead of white and substitute maple syrup for about 1/4 of the Karo syrup. Its' less sweet and has a more complex flavor than regular pecan pie but doesn't set up quite as well. I'm still working on that aspect fo it but I am inclined to try the Steen's Cane Syrup this year. I recently tried the fried dill pickles for the first time (at the Penguin Diner in Charlotte NC). They're way better than they might sound to some folks and the Ranch dressing for dipping is a must. Just curious... is there a traditional food to serve for Boxing Day dinner or is it just a hodge-podge of what's left from Christmas dinner (in whcih case what is traditional for Christmas dinner?). ← I will of course, now require recipes for pecan pie. Boxing day, which is the biggest shopping day of the year here in Canada, is usually leftovers. No one can even think of cooking normally the day after Christmas. Traditional dinner for Christmas? Mine is Prime Rib. Some do turkey and some ham, but more and more people are doing Prime Rib because they have Turkey for Thanksgiving.

Curses. Ok, ok. I'll do the pie. How hard can pie crust be? The walls are up on the church. 10 minutes to roof construction.

I did one of these a few weeks ago for the first time. Dave dreamed up a soy ancho sauce that just completely blew me away with the taste. glazed Crown Roast of Pork