I'm Melting and Dreaming of a White Christmas

See that. That's ME !!! I took that picture less than a minute ago. Here. In California. On Sunday, December 12th !!! And it felt good on my feet cause it's so HOT out here...You see...it is 80 degrees today. And NO. I am NOT HAPPY about it. Not one little bit. It's CHRISTMAS. Teddy and I are sitting here with all the doors and windows WIDE OPEN. I am looking at my Vermont Castings woodstove and oak wood piled by the door with tears in my eyes. I think I'll go and turn down my Andy Williams Christmas music...it just dosen't seem right.How sad is this?The Christmas tree even looks sad baking in the hot sun. I wait all year for Christmas. And now this. Did you notice in my profile info that I am "pretending" that I live in Vermont. What a stretch that is. Not even close. But I will not complain anymore, my friends. I will carry on and be grateful for all that I do have. I am going to the market to get the dried fruit to make my Panettone....I make it every year...80 degrees or not. All I can do is hope that it breaks soon. I know I have zero chance of snow...but rain would be nice. Stay cozy....wherever you are.

Sending december love,

Kary and Teddy

Frosty The Snowman Cake

Only 3 days to go and it's been pretty busy around here at Farmhouse. This morning was kid's baking day. I got this snowman cake pan years ago from Williams-Sonoma and have never used it. Every year we say we are and then the season comes and goes...and Frosty is still sitting in the pantry. So this year we made a point of it. I made the cake yesterday..thank you to my new best friend, Mr. Duncan Hines.... I think if I would have made the recipe on the Frosty The Snowman box we could have stood the cake upright like the picture. That recipe seems like it would make a dense gingerbread-like cake. But time was running short..so we did the best we could....and the cake is pretty fragile..so we just left it flat in the pan...but the whole idea was to let the little ones do the decorating. We had all kinds of frostings, sprinkles, gumdrops, candies, jelly beans, coconut, sanding sugars...so we just let the fun begin..and we had a ball. And Frosty turned out pretty good....

Merry Christmas, Frosty

Butter Cookies

The first thing on the top of my list this morning..one week till Christmas Eve...was getting some cookies baked to take to Buddy's vets and the staff at Animal Care Clinic here in San Luis Obispo. They really went above and beyond the call of duty when the chips were down a week or so ago. And he really is doing alot better. I had bought the Christmas Sunset magazine earlier in the month. That magazine always reminds me of my grammy..she ALWAYS had it in the living room on the coffee table. And it does give me that Old California feeling. So this morning I got it out and decided to make the shortbread linzer cookies. I bought a linzer cookie cutter at Michaels right after Thanksgiving. I love how the linzer cookies look..with that red raspberry jam shining from under the top cookie.And the shower of powdered sugar makes them look like they are covered in snow. So I mixed butter and flour and sugar...put it in the fridge, got it back out..and what a mess....that dough was so crumble-ee I couldn't even get it to roll into a ball. I tried to flatten it out and it just fell apart. I knew the dough had to be good...there were only 3 ingredients...and I bought the good butter..The organic one. How could they be bad?

So I just rolled the dough in my hand until it came together. Placed them on the baking sheet and let them go for about 10 minutes at 325 degrees in the oven. After that I just rolled them in powdered sugar. John and I tasted the ones that broke...and they were good.

So I piled them on a plate that I had picked up at Cost Plus..added a few olive branches from from my tree out back, and tied it all up with a silver bow.And they loved it. But I think I loved it even more. Merry Christmas to all the wonderful doctors who make our beloved pets well. Peace on Earth to all the animals.........

Bessie's Christmas Fruit and Nut Bread

Saturday should have been the day I baked...but was too busy trying to keep Farmhouse from flooding. The water was right up to the door here at the house. The garden looked like a lake. I spent most of the day sweeping the water away from the door. But by Sunday morning it was just showering...and I felt like making Bessie's Christmas Bread.
My mom used to make this every Christmas. She used the candied fruit...cherries and pineapple..the red and green kind. And it does make a beautiful bread when sliced. Looks just like stained glass.But John and I prefer it with dried fruit. So I just substitute dried fruit for the candied. I used apricots,cranberries,and apple. I just cut it up and added it in. I also added about a teaspoon of grated orange zest just because we like it and it makes it taste like....Christmas.

This is the original recipe. It is a VERY dense and heavy bread. There is only 1 cup of flour for 2 loaves so this bread is mostly fruit and nuts. Very good toasted in the morning with coffee or tea.


Bessie's Christmas Fruit Bread

1/2 lb pitted dates
1 lb brazil nuts, whole
4 oz. red candied cherries
4 oz. green candied cherries
4 oz. red candied pineapple
4 oz. green candied pineapple


1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt


4 eggs, well beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Half the dates and cut all fruit,either candied or dried into pieces. Combine with the whole nuts.

Add dry ingredients to the fruit and nuts.Combine to coat mixture. Stir in beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir well.Batter is very dense.

Line loaf pans with parchment paper that is buttered.
Pour batter into pans.

Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees. Reduce to 300 degrees and bake another 20 minutes. Cover with foil if the bread is getting to brown. Check bread with a tester till it comes out clean. Let loaves rest on a rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans and tear away paper. Let cool.

Red Velvet

First a quick update on Buddy. We had a pretty bad night. He coughed most of it. We are exhausted. This started last Thursday...and truth be told, I don't really know how many hours of sleep we have managed to get in. Poor Buddy. The medication we got from Dr. Evans on Saturday just didn't do the trick..so this morning we started all over...and he just now FINALLY stopped coughing and is settled down. Had to up the ante and now he is on Vicodin..at least for 10 days till Dr. Evans ( Jennifer) says we do different...Thank You Dr. Jennifer....

So I decorated my tree last night, but, honestly, there is not much on it. It is a real pretty tree, but with all of this going on with Buddy, I have just been too tired and worried about him to focus on much else. Just like in the last post...let it go...do what you can do. It feels Christmasy in here though.

We live in San Luis Obispo and it is home to California Polytechnic State University..John and I both graduated from there...and the school really started out many years ago as an agriculture school. And it still is. The have a little plant shop up at the top of the hill..next to all the livestock and at Christmas the kids do a pointsettia project/fundraiser. So every year I like to go out and see what they have. I went this morning and it was like walking into Santa's Wonderland...when I turned and looked in the main room, I gasped. They had the most beautiful display of poinsettias...sometimes I am on the fence when it comes to these plants, I can't decide if I like them or not. But they really do say "Christmas". I like the traditional red ones. I got one that is just a single stem..with just one big flower. It is called RED VELVET. Each one is stunning in it's own way. They have so many different varities it's hard to decide...

It was so warm and cozy in there...they had on Christmas music and were serving hot cider and donuts....it was a nice break..to be sure.....

Angel Food

I had a Christmas Party to go to at Sharon's on Sunday night. And I was out of juice. That Buddy situation left me flat. He is doing really well and I appreciate all the kind words and well wishes. More than you can know...but, as far as getting into the kitchen and making something really special..well, it just wasn't in me.Before The Buddy Situation I had high hopes. I told Sharon that I was going to make the walnut cake out of Julia Child. The cake is wonderful...BUT..it takes most of the day to make...there are several steps...and I just couldn't face it. So I took the easy way out. Frankly, I barely could muster doing this.The boxed Duncan Hines angel food. I made the cake and frosted it with just a simple whipped cream. That was it. Simple. It was like the cupcakes...only one great big one.
It wasn't my proudest moment..but it got me to thinking..it isn't about the dessert..it's about your friends..and being there..especially at the Holidays...just do what you can...it's all you can do sometimes.... and it's o.k.

Simple and Sweet

First off...remember those old cake toppers that they put on cakes way back when.Bakeries like "Delight" and "Carlocks" and "The Cream Puff" always had them on the cakes at Christmas. I love them. I started collecting them years ago...The Santa and his sleigh was always my favorite one. I like to line them up in my kitchen window at Christmastime...

In Cambria there is Hospitality Night. This year it is tomorrow night.We're not going, but John works in Cambria and asked me to make some cupcakes for it. It is the night when all the local businesses are open...they light the town tree, Santa and Mrs. Claus wander the village, they have caroling,all the shops are open and offer treats and hot cider but my favorite is the live nativity...One year they had a baby camel. Julie and I must have gone by and checked that out about every 5 minutes. He was so cute, we just couldn't get enough of him...

So this morning I decided to make some simple, plain white cupcakes....

Candy Cup Garland

I saw these paper garlands over at Katy Elliot and she saw them from blogger Pam Garrison. Things were quiet around Farmhouse on Thanksgiving Eve afternoon, so I got out some candy cups, some were white and some were silver. I had picked them up a few days ago just because they were so cute. Had no idea what I was going to do with them. Got some string and a crotchet hook, punched a hole in the flattened out paper cups and started stringing. I have them over the windows in my window seat downstairs here in the kitchen. They look cute at night when the lights shine through them. Would be a fun holiday project to do with kids. It's easy...

Harvest

When we moved to Farmhouse one of the first things I did was plant 2 roses...and I'm not much of a rose fan. But when we left Cambria one of the saddest things to leave behind was my Soaring Spirits rose. It was a rose named after 9/11. And I loved that rose.It grew over an arbor that I had painted yellow. I heard through the village grapevine that the lady who bought the house had torn out my New England garden...yellow arbor, picket fence and....yep....Soaring Spirits went too. Heard she paved it all over and added a gas fire pit. How perfect is that? I don't want to see it. I have never been back by the house since the day I loaded up Buddy and my kittys and headed South down Highway One to San Luis Obispo. So this summer my rose was really beautiful. I couldn't find another Soaring Spirits at my local Farm Supply...so I got Berries and Cream instead. The picture of the rose is one of the very last of the season. All the rest have gone to rose hips. So yesterday I clipped the rose hips and made this wreath for my door for the Holiday Season. The base is just a styrofoam one I picked up at Michaels and wrapped it with green floral tape.I waited till late in the afternoon when the sun was starting to sink and the temperature dropped. Put on my Christmas music, got out the old glue gun... and made the wreath. It's on my french door as you head out to the garden... An early Christmas gift...from my friend...Berries and Cream.

Signs O' The Season

I haven't left the house since Halloween Eve. And we needed food. So I got my sweater on...and headed out. And it's Christmas out there.
Went to Trader Jo's and got that cute rosemary topiary. The little ornaments on it I scored last year off ebay. And they are old. I just love them.I looked for something like that this year but so far, nothing. My friend at "Entertaing Mom" had the Thanksgiving Coffee from Starbucks this morning on her blog. So that was at the top of my list. I needed the cranberries and orange to make the cranberry bread tomorrow.And the kitty. He's just on there cause he is my big baby boy, Whiskey Sour.Isn't he cute? I think he is.

I'm Dreaming

Along with the sack of ice and sunscreen..I got this. I'm not opening it till it rains.