December post, that came up really fast.  I wrote in November that hopefully the December post would have lots of Christmas baking.  Nope failed that one.  I have not baked one single Christmas cookie.

This will be the last post hosted by the lovely Celia of Fig Jam and Lime Cordial  .  Thank you to Celia for hosting these every month and bringing such a nice supportive community together.  Don’t forget if you want to participate you must post and let Celia know before the 10th.  Our new host will be Maureen at The Orgasmic Chef.  I look forward to meeting up in your kitchen Maureen.

In my kitchen is an Advent calendar, which some of you saw in an earlier post last week.

In my kitchen is an Advent candle.

In my kitchen window is Snoopy and Woodstock

In my kitchen is a treat from Uncle Tatsu’s, a Japanese cheesecake, it was soooo good

in my kitchen is some saltine toffee (post to follow);

and a cranberry orange loaf (post to follow);

A cookie press, hopefully to assist with the making of some cookies soon;

Belgian dark chocolate;

trail mix;

and a gingerbread house, Santa and chef will not go to the dark side.

Merry Christmas to all! If you do not celebrate Christmas I hope that you have a wonderful and relaxing end to the year.

See you in January at Maureen’s!

Cranberries, goat cheese and pecans, oh my!  I found this recipe originally on Pinterest and it looked so good I had to try it.  I think I may have tweaked it slightly but it was so long ago I honestly can’t remember.

The candied pecans were amazing.  So easy to make and they were delicious on the salad and on their own.  I am going to make some more for Christmas snacking.

Here is the link to the website Heather Christo where I found the original recipe.  I have to say thank you to this lady for the recipe for both the salad and the pecans, they are keepers!  I basically recap her recipe here, but for the details and the pecan recipe visit her site.

This was a large bunch of curly kale (6-8 cups), washed, dried and chopped.  I diced (bite sized pieces) and roasted a small pumpkin sprinkled with a little salt and pepper (it was a pie pumpkin), and Evie made the shallot dressing by whisking together a finely minced shallot, 1tbsp Dijon mustard and 1/4 cup of each olive oil and red wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

The recipe for the pecans can be found on Heather’s link.  I halved the recipe because I didn’t have that many pecans.  But it is sooo worth it to make the full batch.

Then I tossed the kale with the dressing, arranged crumbled goat cheese, cranberries, roasted pumpkin and pecans over the top.  It was amazing, one of the best salads that I have ever had and it looked so pretty too.  Perfect for the holidays.

It is Thanksgiving in Canada today so we get a day off!  And I so needed it.

We had apur turkey donner and pumpkin pie with gingerbread cookies yesterday.  Today we are going to make turkey sandwiches and pack them up with our leftover gingerbread cookies and go for a nice fall hike and have lunch outside.

Here is a great fall soup that we made last week.  We make it every fall it is very good and makes a big pot so you get leftovers too.

You will need:

1/2 cup butter

1 large onion, diced

1 med carrot diced

1 stalk celery diced

1 sweet potato peeled and diced

1lb butternut squash peeled and diced

4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved

3 TBSP brown sugar

pinch nutmeg

8 cup chicken stock

3 sprigs fresh thyme, 1 sprig parsley and 1 bay leaf tied together (you could just add dried herbs if you don’t have fresh)

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup whipping cream

Melt butter in a large pot and add onion, carrot and celery.  Cook until softened.

Add sweet potato, squash, garlic, brown sugar and nutmeg.

Cook gently, stirring often for about 10 minutes.

Add stock, herbs and a little salt and pepper

Bring to boil cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until vegetable are tender.

Remove fresh herb stalks and bay leaf if you used those.

Puree soup and add cream.

Steamy lens!

Enjoy with crusty bread or baguette.  Pairs well with a dry cider or nice white wine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We received this award last weekend and I has taken me until now to get on the computer to accept it.  Many thanks to Natascha for this.  Natascha is so sweet and I am happy to have “met” her.  She also makes a lot of very delicious looking food, so stop by her blog if haven’t already and have a look for yourselves.

The Rules for accepting this award are:

1. Display the certificate on your website.

2. Announce with a post linking back to whomever presented you with the award.

3. Present the award to 15 bloggers that you think are deserving.

4. Send them a comment letting them know.

5. And the hard part (for me) list 7 interesting things about yourself.

Of course you are not obligated to participate and I understand if you cannot.

Here goes, 7 slightly interesting things about me:

1. I am a bit of WW1 and WW2 and that time period buff.  Anything of that time period sparks my interest. I especially love watching shows set in that time period, Foyle’s War, Land Girls etc.  They are also all set in the British countryside which follows along with number 2.

2. I would love to be a Homesteader, to garden and be with my animals all day.

3. My favourite place that I have visited so far has been Portland and Cannon Beach Oregon.  Technically it is two places but I love that area.

4. I am from Newfoundland, Canada (though I don’t live there now).  If you do not know where that is check it out on google maps.  I have several earlier blog posts from there when I was on vacation there a couple summers ago.

5. I have two pets, a 12 year old west highland white terrier named Max (who is sick at the moment, I hope he gets better soon, poor little guy) who is very protective over his momma, and a budgie named Oliver (a.k.a professor perecles) who is a very goofy friendly little budgie and has just started talking a little bit (mainly saying “pretty boy” or “pretty bird”)

6. I just started re-watching (on youtube) “Swiss Family Robinson” the t.v. show from the 60’s. I think it was a Canadian show on CTV.  Evie is just discovering it.  I loved that show when I was a kid and dreamed of living on a deserted island in a treehouse.  It still sounds pretty nice to me actually.  Though I wouldn’t like the spiders.

7. I also like watching cartoons/animation.  I really like the show “Gravity Falls” and “Scooby Doo-Mystery Incorporated”.  It probably has something to do with Evie loving those shows also and we watch them together as a family.

Well there you have it!  I only took me all night to come up with that, which really should tell you I am not very interesting.

Hey, I could have my own show about a Newfie homesteader living in a treehouse!

I choose to nominate the people because they always comment or like my posts letting me know they are there and reading:

1.  Kazounas Kitchen

2. The Complete Book

3. Renee’s Bistro

4. TasteofColours

5. the not so creative cook

6. love the little bakery

7. fabulous fare sisters

8. how to $tuff your pig

9. Nandini

10. Italian Home Kitchen

11. My Kitchen Witch

12. Emily’s Kitchen

13. Fae’s Twist and Tango

14. Tassy Bakes

15. Harriet Young

Thank you all for reading.

I mentioned in my post earlier this week that we had a lot of mint in our garden, so we are finding ways to use it.  This is a nice little thin butter cookie with fresh chopped mint baked in to give a subtle mint flavour.

They really are a nice cookie and I make it once a year when our fresh mint is plentiful.

I found the original recipe in an old copy of a Taste of Home magazine.  Of course, when I was ready to make the recipe  I could not find which magazine it was in.  I went to the Taste of Home website (www.tasteofhome.com) and searched et voila there it was!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons 2% milk
1 cup fresh mint, finely chopped

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.

Stir in chopped fresh mint.

Shape into two 8-in. rolls; wrap each in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.

Unwrap and cut into 1/4-in. slices.

Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 8-12 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove to wire racks to cool.

These are nice dipped in dark chocolate, but they are also nice plain.  If you want to dip in chocolate, in a microwave, melt about 2/3 cup chocolate chips with 1 Tbsp of shortening or butter,  stir until smooth. Dip each cookie halfway; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper (or Silpat), let stand until set. I usually store these in the refrigerator.

If you have mint in your garden, or if you know someone with an abundance of mint to share with you, I recommend that you try these.  This recipe makes a few dozen at least (I think the original recipe says 4-5 dozen).  Maybe you could trade a few cookies for a bunch of mint!