Mince Pies

Christmas treats were overflowing at our house this year. Shortbread, spritz cookies, caramel corn, pastries, cakes....and mince pies. I was introduced to mince pies and all sorts of other English treats when I met D, and have been eating them every Christmas since. His sister makes them every year, and when we visit Deep River we always look for the green tin (that's where they live) and sneak as many mince pies as we can throughout the day without being noticed. And then have a few more at tea time with everyone else. Did I mention they are delicious?

Since we didn't travel this year, there was no magic green tin of mince pies. So I emailed D's sister and got some instructions on how to make my own. Mince pies are little pies filled with a mincemeat - a mixture of chopped dried fruits (raisins, currants, apples), sugar, spices and traditionally, some sort of suet/fat. Mincemeat may have originally been made with meat, but these days the meat component is probably limited to suet. You can make mincemeat from scratch, or you can buy it pre-made in a jar - mine was a store-bought vegetarian kind. If you go online looking for mince pie recipes, you'll find that a lot of people seem to add extra chopped cooked apples and liquor to spiff up their fillings. I just used it straight from the jar. I'm not exactly a mince pie connoisseur, but I thought they tasted pretty good.


For the pastry, I just used the basic pie crust recipe on the back of a box of Crisco, except that I used a bit of butter instead of all shortening. Each pie was made from a 2" circle of rolled dough, topped with a star cut-out. I made them in a little cupcake pan, but if you are a serious mince pie maker there are special tins you can buy.

As for updates, I think my backlog of blog stuff is dwindling. I only have a couple more things to post about...a few little knitting projects I just finished up. My crafting to-do list includes some curtains (boring) and working on a quilt. D's been working a lot, and I've been volunteering. Plus we've had to run around getting all sorts of errands done. We had to get our chimney flashed because there was a leak. We had to get medical exams for our permanent residency application. This Saturday, we are hosting a book club (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon...very gripping and beautifully written...) and I am cooking a gluten-free vegan dinner for that. Tonight we're having dinner at my volunteer boss' house.

Oh! We also went on our hospital tour of the birthing centre...the facilities were really nice, the staff seem great, and the program itself seems quite progressive and they offer lots of support to new families. Yay!

That's all for now!

Vive le Croissant!

There is nothing like a warm, flaky, buttery croissant enjoyed with a dollop of strawberry jam and coffee. YUM!! Enjoying the above at a Parisian cafe doesn't hurt either.

Unfortunately, good croissants are still an elusive thing in this part of Pennsylvania (although an hour away in NYC you find some of the best French pastries in the world...if only there were a train connecting us to the city! sigh) If and when the real thing is found, they cost at least $3 each piece, and the inexpensive supermarket ones just taste kind of boring and leave a funny feel in your mouth.

Over Christmas, I learned why croissants made from scratch cost $3 each. They are a big, huge, pain in the butt to make, although worth the time and effort...and you get really sore arms. I'd been looking up different croissant recipes for some time now, thinking that I'd like to give them a try...and what better time for indulgence than Christmas!!

I used a recipe from Ciril Hitz's Baking Artisan Bread book, which has nice photos of each step as well as a DVD component that teaches how to make beautifully formed croissants. I had to make two components: the dough, which had flour, egg, milk, yeast, salt and sugar; and the butter block, which was a mixture of regular unsalted butter and a little flour (if you use European plugra butter, it has a higher fat content thus not needing any flour added to make it roll-able)

Laminating the dough was a fun process...you place the butter block inside the rectangle of dough you've rolled out, close it up like an envelope, roll it out, fold in thirds, and repeat. I think altogether there were about 27 layers of dough and butter. The dough it also going in and out of the fridge and freezer this whole time.

I forgot to mention that this process takes 2-3 days and requires some degree of patience. And, on baking day, rolling out the dough takes some major muscle work. I thought my arms were going to fall off and that I was going to break my rolling pin. I should have recruited D to help me, but I didnt' think it would take me 45 minutes to get the dough to roughly the correct dimensions. The elasticity kept making the dough shrink back, and it needed small resting trips in the freezer to gradually achieve the 1/4" thickness for cutting and rolling. In the end, I think my dough was still too thick, but I was too tired to care by then. I made my nice even triangles and rolled them up like in the video.

Not only did they bake up beautifully, they tasted as good as they looked. The frightening part was looking at the baking tray afterward and seeing the butter swooshing around on the pan. Yikes. As usual, we were too impatient to wait until they cooled, so we scarfed down some hot croissants, which were delicious, and then after they came to room temperature, we scarfed down some more and they were perfect. With great satisfaction, I peeled about my croissant and examined the dozens of delicate layers inside...beginner's luck seems to be my thing!

Final note: it took 2 days for my arms to recover.

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year, everyone!

2010! It's going to be a big year for us. I had really wanted to squeeze in one final blog entry for 2009, but the usual things got in the way....I fully blame pregnancy for that! But I do have a few new photos to share and lots of updates to chatter on about.

D and I experienced our first ever Christmas alone here in Bethlehem. It was was restful, pleasant, and very quiet. A pretty blanket of snow covered the town just in time for Christmas Eve.

The Saturday before, the doorbell rang and a large basket filled with delicious cheeses, sausages, bacon, exotic salt, olive oil and Christmas pudding surprised us on the front porch...a present from D's parents in case our stomachs got sad and lonely. We missed seeing our families and friends, but this year we didn't think that at 34 weeks my back would have done too well on an 8 hour car trip.

We had holiday lunch at the Hotel Bethlehem, roasted Cornish hens for dinner and opened some gifts. D got me a new sewing machine! I picked it out, so it wasn't a surprise, but it's fantastic and I can't wait to try out the quilting functions. It puts my old machine to shame...I never realized what bad condition it was in until I used the new one. Over the years, bits and pieces had gotten chipped, bent, and broken off during moves and I'd just learned to sew with wonky tension. The new machine purrs like a happy kitty.

A few days before Christmas, we got a new car. I was sad to say goodbye to the old big blue car, but it was starting to need lots of repairs and we just didn't think we could keep up with the unpredictability of things going kaput, especially in the winter and after JJ arrives. Here is our shiny new car:


Our nursery is also coming together... she has more furniture and gear than D and I, the lucky girl. The due date is Feb 18, but it's possible she'll arrive sooner, as early as 37 weeks instead of 40...

Not surprisingly, I am feeling even huger these days. My weight seems to have plateaued even though my profile keeps getting bigger. I can no longer see my shoes or do up my boots. When I feel JJ move now it feels like an elephant crashing around doing somersaults, and is more groan-inducing than cute-fluttery sensations.


Knitwise, I made this bunny hat with some leftover worsted weight Misti Pima Cotton (free pattern right here)

I have also been working on the Woodland Shawl for about a month now...it's taking forever and I'm not even halfway done! Pretty though, huh?


Stay tuned for pictures of...homemade croissants!! (and a workout like you won't believe)

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year!!

It's been a while since my last entry. Hopefully you've all had a restful and enjoyable break, and are ready to face work/school (or in my case, a very messy craft room and the joy of starting job hunting). We had a really good visit filled with delicious food (as usual), skating, movies, drinks, dinners, crafts and boxing day shopping. And this time I even lugged home two huge baguettes from Fred's Bread (I know, I know, I said Ace Bakery was the best, but sometimes you just have to make do with what's nearby and available). And luckily the border crossing officials didn't look in my trunk, although I think bread is fine. They probably would have confiscated them just seeing how delicious they looked.

Now that the holidays are over, I can finally do my Christmas recap. And tomorrow, if the light is good, I'll show you the new toys I received as well as progress on some projects.

The Christmas giveaways:

Pattern: Various internet readings, stitch dictionaries & Stitch n' Bitch Nation

Yarn: Lamb's Pride Worsted

Needles: US 8 dpns

Basic Cabled Socks for H - I was obsessed with making labels

Four coaster sets to give away, more labels

I tried not to look ridiculous taking photos of everything I ate and drank, but here's one from Christmas day - brandy champagne cocktails. It kind of captures the bulk of how we spent the holidays. We were in a perma-celebration mode.

And here is D's mum's Christmas cake, looking very pretty and cheery (and deliciously boozy - Christmas cake has definately grown on me over the years). The flowers are made with royal icing, I think, and the flower stamens were dipped in yellow food colour. The hearts were piped onto parchment paper, dried, and the attached with thinner royal icing.

And here is my friend A, the recipient of some Knitticrafty mittens, proudly modeling them on a freezing Yorkville morning. And (so far) the only person I know to explicitly state her desire to be featured on my blog. Done! I'm not one to prevent someone from reaching their goals.

More to come!