75 Degrees on January 3rd

This is just plain strange. The rest of the country is frozen solid and I am strolling in my garden in flip flops. And I am not kidding you, either. The temperature gauge says 75. To tell you the truth, it might actually be hotter than that.It feels nice, I guess, but it just doesn't seem right. It's January...but that's California.

I'm glad the Christmas tree is gone..the thought of looking at that tree melting in the sun. No thanks.My "berries and cream" rose is blooming, the pineapple sage is in full bloom and the hummingbirds love it, the daffodils are pushing up and my spring showers are popping open too. Is this it? Have we gone from Christmas to Spring?

I don't know what to think. The weatherman says warming up by the end of the week. Warming up? Huh?

Making pizza tonight, but we should be bbqing.......

New Years Breakfast at Farmhouse

It's all quiet and cloudy here this morning at Farmhouse.
Last night on New Year's Eve we sat around the fire like 2 mice dipping little cubes of french bread into melting cheese fondue, sipping champagne, Buddy tucked in a snowman blanket between the two of us.After supper we added another log to the fire and nibbled on raspberries in cream and shortbread cookies. We had a wonderful, cozy New Years Eve, even though we were fast alseep upstairs when the New Year arrived.

New Years Morning Breakfast at Farmhouse

Scrambled Eggs in Butter
Roasted New Potatoes
Chicken and Sage Sausages

Toast
Tea

Happy New Years Day

New Years Eve at Farmhouse

New Years Eve Supper at Farmhouse

Menu

Champagne

Alaskan King Crab steamed served with Farmhouse Butter and Meyer Lemon

Gruyere and Emmenthal Cheese Fondue with Nutmeg and Kirsch

French Bread, Cubed
Assorted Sausages
Steamed White Rose Potatoes

Mache Salad with Hass Avacado

Raspberries and Cream
Shortbread Cookies with Walnuts and Apricots

Wishing all of you were here with me by the fire for New Years Eve. I know we'd have a good time. I just know we would. You have brightened my world this year with your love, laughter in good times, support in tough times,kindness and that wonderful feeling of community. I Love All of You and treasure each and every friendship. You mean the world to me and I wish you all a happy and peaceful NEW YEAR !

With Love and Friendship,
Kary
xxx

Cannelloni al Forno

Over Christmas here we thought it would be nice to make some cannelloni. We did the one out of Mario Batali... Molto Italiano Cookbook. We made the pasta, rolled it out, made the filing with the veal and pork, made a red tomato sauce and a white besciamella sauce, cut the pasta into squares, filled them, rolled them and layered on the two sauces. I took us five hours from start to finish. And John helped me with most of it, helping out with all the dishes and cleaning up. If I did it alone I would probably still be in the kitchen.

But we had them for dinner that night and it was worth all the effort...they were good.

my christmas tree

my christmas tree
Originally uploaded by Gregor Halbwedl

Wishing all my dear friends a Merry Christmas Eve of Eve

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.........