Christmas Stollen Recipe

So, I love to cook, and I like to share recipes with people from time to time. Even when I take abuse for the instantaneous diabetic coma induced by some of them (and yes, Yorkie, I'm looking at you) So, I thought I would share with you a recipe from my great-aunt Ivynella (or Aunt Ivy, as we all called her). Auny Ivy was my maternal grandfather's older sister, born in 1900. She passed away right around Christmas in 1998 (I think), and wrote down this recipe for my Mom in 1990. She still was making this every year for Christmas at age 90. (Stollen is the German version of fruitcake, for those who are not familiar. It's much more bread-like than cake-like, though, and is not soaked in rum like fruitcake) German Christmas Stollen 2 cups Scalded milk 1 cup Sugar 2 T Salt 1-1/2 cup Shortening 2 reg. or 1 large Cake of yeast 8 cups Flour 4 Eggs, beaten 1-1/2 cups Chopped blanched almonds 1-1/2 cups Raisins 1 to 2 cups Candied mixed fruit (you choose the quantity depending on how much candied fruit you like) 1 container Candied cherries - cut up some Grated rind of 1 lemon 2 T Vanilla Cinnamon sugar Melted butter or margarine Confectioner's sugar icing/glaze (thin enough to drizzle) Fruit and nuts for decorating Preheat oven to 425F Add sugar, salt and shortening to scalded milk. Cool to lukewarm and crumble in yeast. Add 2 cups flour. Let rise in warm place until light and fluffy. Add remaining flour, eggs, fruit, nuts, lemon rind, and vanilla. Place on board and knead until dough is smooth. Divide into 6 parts. Roll out into a 1/2" ovals. Sprinkle with a sugar and cinnamon mixture. Fold into long loaves like an omelet. Brush with melted butter or margarine and let rise on greased cookie sheets until doubles in bulk. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F and continue baking until toothpick comes out clean. (She didn't say for how long, and I can't remember what I did last time, so I'd just check every 10 minutes.) Decorate with thin confectioners sugar icing and sliced fruit and chopped nuts. Slice to serve. Yields 6 loaves I'm going to be making these again this year, so if any turn out purty, I'll post a picture. :D

Blogstalking! And another recipe!

This week in blogstalking... tools. Clearly, I opted for knitting tools. I thought about shooting Kris's woodworking tools, but they are big. And I could have done cooking tools, but I have WAY too many, and it would be embarassing to show that. =) So, knitting tools it is. In the front are my straight needles, flanked by the 2 Knit Picks cases holding my Options Circs in one and my Classic Circs and DPNs in the other. On the top of the footstool are my swift and winder, along with my DPNs, and the array of tools I carry with me: scissors, ruler, tape measure, pencils, erasers, TONS of stitch markers, cable needles, point protectors, stitch holders, and Chibi with a variety of yarn needles. I'm a tool junkie, I guess. Ok, so y'all remember the Oreo Truffle recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago? Well, my Mom has done it again. We were in PA this weekend to see my folks (Sunday was Dad's birthday), as well as some other family (including both of the baby girls I made the quilts and Boleros for). When we got there, Mom told me about these cookies that a friend of hers from work told her about. Tell me that is not the funniest thing EVER? It looks like a little cheeseburger! (That's a saucer it is sitting on, just for the size comparison). The "buns" are Nilla Wafers, the "burger" is a Keebler Fudge Shoppe Filled Caramel cookie, the "cheese" (or mustard, depending on your preference) is vanilla frosting tinted yellow, and the "lettuce" is coconut tinted green. To assemble them, put a little frosting on a Nilla wafer, stick the caramel cookie on it, spread a layer of frosting on the caramel cookie, and dip it in the coconut. Top it with the other Nilla wafer (you may need another dab of frosting). They are really yummy, in addition to being hilarious to look at. Not surprisingly, they were a big hit with all the kids (big and small) at my Aunt & Uncle's house on Saturday. We're having some people over for the Penn State-Notre Dame game this weekend, and I think I have to make some. You might notice that there is a new progress bar in the sidebar. Um... yeah. I cast on for the Shamrock Henley pullover for Kris last Thursday night (before meeting the absolutely adorable Margaret9 in DC for coffee and a crochet lesson), and then proceeded to keep working on it in the car to and from PA and while we were there. So much for sticking to my holiday projects. I suppose I could make Kris wait unti Christmas to actually have it, but that just seems mean. I am enjoying it - it's a nice stitch pattern and goes fairly quickly. I definitely like the yarn a lot. I'll probably make something for myself in it at some point. I'll take pictures once it is more than just a big old tube. =)

Three Ingredients

My mom shared this recipe with me, and I thought I'd pass it along to y'all: What do you get when you combine an 18 oz. package of Oreos, 8 oz. of cream cheese, and a bag of chocolate chips? Oreo Truffles! Take the bag of Oreos and pulverize them (a food processor works well for this). Add in the cream cheese and mix thoroughly (again - food processor = very handy). Scoop and roll the mixture into balls of about 1 to 1-1/2T each and chill thoroughly. Once they are firm, melt the chocolate chips and dip the balls in the chocolate. Let the chocolate harden, and enjoy! On the Macro Guessing Game front... I won't say who has gotten the most right yet, but I will tell you that no one has gotten all of them yet. =)

Weekend Recap

Had a good weekend. We went up to PA to see Kris's Mom and my folks. One of the reasons we went up to see Kris's Mom was so that he could deliver something to her. When his Dad passed away in April, Kris and I talked about buying the urn for his ashes, but I suggested to him that maybe he should make something. His Dad is the one who taught him woodworking, so we decided that would be a fitting tribute. Kris designed and built this: The light wood is cherry, and the dark wood is wenge. I think it is absolutely stunning. Like I told Kris, I wish to hell he hadn't had to make it, but I think he did a beautiful job on it. While we were there, we took a walk with his Mom and Onyx (their black lab/Rottweiler mix) around the old farm. Kris took a bunch of pictures and posted some of the best ones on his flickr page. We spent Saturday night at my folks' and took Dad to lunch at the Olive Garden on Sunday. He claims never to have been to an Olive Garden, which just boggles my mind. We had a great lunch and a nice time just hanging out with them. In the car on the way to and fro, I finally started my HushHush. I cast on and got through about half of the lace at the bottom. At the moment, it's just kind of a pink pile, so I haven't taken any pics just yet. That, and it's been raining like mad here since yesterday (although it looks to be clearing up), so the light is less than ideal. I did realize that between the HushHush, the Pomatomus socks (currently in time out due to some issues on my part. Trying to figure out how to fix them without ripping. Not sure it's going to be possible. Sigh), and the Candleflame Shawl, I am using nothing bigger than a US2 needle right now. And it is killing my hands! So, the solution? Cast on something else, of course! :D I recently swapped with chadzturtledove2 on the Knittyboards, and she sent me 8 skeins of the coveted and discontinued Lion Cotton-Ease in Ice Blue. She also sent me some really cute patterns for it from an issue of Family Circle Easy Knitting. I'm seriously considering a sleeveless turtleneck with some of it. For the time being, though, I started the Bombshell tee from Big Girl Knits. It is really a cute pattern, and I can't wait to see how it comes out! And how sad is it that I have gotten to the point where using US8's is using "big" needles. What happened to the woman who feared anything smaller than a 9? Oh, and just for massive amounts of temptation - check out this blog: Cupcake Bakeshop. I am totally drooling over some of her recipes and am absolutely going to try some of them. Eventually.