the candy quest

The second Christmas gift i received this year was from one of my customers, Don. He also gave me an old food processor which is probably a more valuable gift, although he seemed to think he wouldn't be able to sell it on ebay. But it seems to be at least as good as the one we used at work. Of course i haven't turned it on yet.

But truffles! He said that he spent about a year searching for the perfect truffle, and these were the winner. He gets them from some secret place. My somewhat unfounded suspicion is that they come from somewhere in Canada. I have never been on a best-truffle-ever quest, but they are very delicious. And i really like that he spent a year searching for the perfect truffle. What will you spend the year questing for?

watch out

kurisumasu

The first Christmas present i got this year was a pair of earrings from my sister and her husband. The earrings were made by my sister's friend from her time in the Peace Corps. She makes lots of pretty jewelry and sells it on etsy. My earrings look like little pink flowers.

Today is a marshmallow world.

every sunday in the cafe

I've done a lot of noteworthy things the past few days (noteworthy for this blog, at least) but some of them are secretish for now so i'm not going to write them. But, i think i'm pretty much done with buying things for christmas... i have a lot of making to do though. I spent much more money than i thought i would. I'll probably have enough stuff leftover to make next year's gifts too...

Although i'm sorry that Bri ended up grounded partially as a result of it, it was pretty fun to sneak into the church and have "band practice" the other day. We really ought to do it again. And not in six months.

Yesterday at work i made gingersnaps and tahini cookies. My first time for both, and both turned out pretty good. Next time i make the gingersnaps way smaller though, and let the tahini cookies cool completely before i try and move them. Today i just made brownies.

squash bread & lebkuchen

I had a bunch of squash leftover from when my family came over Saturday so i decided to make some bread out of it. Here is the recipe i used:

Squash Bread
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cooked squash
3* cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water. Add honey (i used slightly more than 2, just to use up what was left in the bottle), salt, squash (i used butternut and another type i forgot to look at the name of), and 2 cups flour; mix well. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Knead till smooth and elastic, about ten minutes. *(Either i counted my measuring cups wrong, or i had to add quite a lot more than three cups of flour to get the dough anywhere near smooth and elastic. It was still a little sticky when i gave up.) Cover in a greased bowl and let rise till about doubled, for about an hour. Punch down, shape into a loaf and place in greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise till doubled (about 45 minutes). Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

I burnt the crust a little but it turned out pretty good, even with all the "extra" flour. Not especially squashy, just nice and soft and orangey, kind of like an egg bread. A nice light sweetness too.

Meanwhile, i enjoyed a cup of black coffee and some lebkuchen today. Nic and Tim brought Gramma a huge treasure chest full of it. I usually don't drink coffee at home but with all the gingerbread floating around, i felt i needed some. I also had a slight headache.