Taking a Break

Ash Wednesday is this week.

For Lent this year, I am giving up blogging. I have been having some thoughts about blogging and whether or not to continue, for some time now. I will use the season of Lent as a time to take a break and reevaluate whether it is something that I should continue. I plan to limit my internet use to checking email only. So I will be away from here, and I won't be around your places either. May you have a blessed season of Lent and Easter.


a random picture from our archives. while I'm gone you can entertain yourselves by figuring out/guessing where it was taken.

Visions of Sugar Plums

So, here I am, at the end of January, finally getting around to posting about my Christmas baking. Get your index cards ready, there will be recipes. I don't bake a huge variety, because my Mom and MIL still do lots of baking and, really, we can only eat so much.

1. Sugar Cookies.
(point of interest: this recipe is from the set of Sesame Street Encyclopedias that we had when I was a kid)

Cream together
3/4 cup butter/margarine
1 cup sugar

add
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla and blend.

In a separate bowl sift together
2 1/2 cups flour (this year I substituted one cup whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

add to first mixture. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Roll out to 1/4 inch and cut with cookie cutter.
Decorate with coloured sugar or sprinkles (red and green sugar is classic)

Bake at 400 for 6 to 8 minutes.


2. Almond Roca
(This is super easy and delicious. It also makes a great gift, except people often think at first glance that it is peanut brittle.)

Line a cookie sheet with foil.
Cover with graham wafers.

Heat, but do not boil
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar

add
6 oz flaked almonds.

Pour over wafers.
Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.
Cool. Break into pieces.

3. Chocolate Balls
(my mom stopped making this years ago, but it was my favourite, so when I got married I resurrected it. Try to enlist some help. The dough can dry out and become hard to work with if you don't roll them fast enough. It has raw eggs in it, but that has never stopped me. Just make sure you refrigerate them.)

Melt together
4 squares unsweetened chocolate
4 tbsp melted butter/margarine

Add
2 cups icing sugar
2 eggs
2 2/3 cup graham wafer crumbs

Mix well. Roll into balls. Roll in table sugar.



4. Peppernuts
(This is the Music Man's specialty, reflecting his Mennonite heritage. I don't actually have his permission to share this recipe, so I may be retracting it later when he reads this post. Oh, and we don't use the spices exactly as listed, because we don't have all of those on hand.)

1 1/2 cups margarine
2 cups sugar
1 cup syrup
1/3 cup sour cream
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp each of cardamom, cloves, mace, ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp anise powder
3/4 tsp peppermint oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
6 to 7 cups flour

Cream margarine and sugar and add liquids. Mix together dry ingredients and add to first mixture. Knead thoroughly. Refrigerate to blend flavours. Roll dough into thin ropes and slice (the pieces should be quite small, maybe less than two cm) Bake on cookie sheet at 350 for 8 minutes or until brown.

5.Christmas pudding.
I have already posted this "easy four step recipe".
Here is a picture of the finished product. Unfortunately I don't have one of it flaming as I carried it to the table.



Oh, and one more Christmas related thing...
I hinted a long time ago that I was doing a sewing project for Christmas. I couldn't say what it was at the time because the recipients of said project occasionally read my blog. I made cloth shopping bags for my mom, MIL and SIL. They each got two, one red and one blue. I used a pattern that I first sewed in junior high home ec. Luckily for everyone my sewing skills have improved a lot since then.

Can you follow directions?

If you can, then you can watch a funny video clip.
Go here.

On the left hand side choose "Episode 11".
Then choose "Mercer: Last guy to get his own blog"

Congratulations, you did it!


~enjoy

On Health Care

I would never trade Canada's free health care system for anything. It does has its drawbacks, though. I always had to laugh when reading pregnancy books that said things like "Make sure you choose a health care provider that you are comfortable with and shares your views on birth." Around here it should read, "If you don't already have a doctor, good luck finding one who is accepting new patients." I considered myself fortunate when, finding myself pregnant with Monkey, and in a new community, I was not only able to find a Doctor, but one who I really liked. So you can imagine my disappointment when my Doctor announced that she was leaving at the end of the year to move to The City for her husband's work. The clinic got a couple of new Doctors in fall, one of which was to take my Doctor's patients. So in November I had an appointment with this new Doctor. But I didn't like her. I can't say exactly why, but I didn't. I had been worrying for the last couple months about what I would do when I actually needed to see this Doctor for a medical reason. I couldn't imagine making an appointment with her.



So last week I called the clinic to ask, rather apologetically, if there were any other Doctors accepting new patients. The receptionist on the phone reassured me that it was not a problem that I was asking about other doctors, and that, in fact, it was a good thing that I was taking responsibility for my own (and Monkey's) health care. Yesterday, after another hour long waiting room visit, I met another Doctor. She was sweet and lovely and I can imagine taking Monkey to her for even a small concern. I mean, she's not my old Doctor, but she'll do.

I am interested to know - - do you have a choice in Doctors where you live? Do you have to wait months for an appointment? How is the balance of male and female physicians (our clinic seems to have an unusually high number of "Lady Doctors")? Do you like your Doctor? Just some thoughts.

Shot in the back of the leg

In case you haven't noticed, I thought I would draw your attention to some new links on my side bar. In my blog section (hilariously renamed "Brothers and Sisters") I have added The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks. Go read it when you need a good laugh.

In my newly created Music section (Open your hymn books) I have added my brother's myspace pages. Now, my brother is one of the best and most creative musicians I know. The Nifty Sounds is a group that he has with my cousin. Go and listen to his songs. Pay special attention to "Floating out of Here" on the Mike Mulligan page and "Shot in the Back of the Leg" on the Nifty Sounds page.

I hope you all have a great weekend.
Posts coming soon on News from Whitekirk....
-a post about doctors
-Christmas treat recipes



p.s. my brother doesn't actually have an afro. That is a wig.
p.p.s. see if you can find me in the list of contributers on the Nifty Sounds page...

Clearly the posting has been on the slow side around here lately. I know I don't need to explain that it has been a busy holiday season and blogging has not been my top priority. However, I feel I should explain that I have been a walking zombie lately, due to Monkey's decision to boycott sleep. Some of you may recall that I've been through this before. However, Monkey will be 15 months old next week and well, frankly, he should be sleeping a lot better than he is. He loves going to bed, he just hasn't quite got the knack of staying asleep. For longer than three hours at a time. Oh, I'm tired.

We've had a good start to the year, though. Well, other than the kitchen sink that wouldn't drain and Monkey's first band-aid (other than for immunization shots...). His chin had a run in with the wrong side of a metal penny-whistle (yes, I know, this could only happen at our house), so he has a nice semi-circular cut on his chin.

Some really good things have happened already this year too. Like I made my first loaf of bread in the bread-maker that I got for Christmas. And it turned out perfectly. We've had visits with two couples that are very dear to us. And we had a family gathering yesterday with the Music Man's "K" family. It was a lot of fun. This is what we got in the gift exchange, which made me smile.



It was from The Music Man's cousin who lives in Texas, but was up for the holidays. Too funny. Some of you may also recall that I've already learned my lesson about messing with Texas.


One of these days I will get around to posting about our holidays, and maybe sharing some of my favourite Christmas recipes. (Yes, I know I should have done this BEFORE Christmas instead of after...) I hope the New Year is going well for all of you.

Happy Hogmanay!

Wishing you and yours a joyful and inspiring 2008.


God be here, God be there,
We wiss ye aa a canty year;
God without, God within.
Lat the Auld Year oot
An the New Year in.
-Traditional