Christmas Feasting...

From late-night cookie parties to Christmas Eve and Christmas day feasts, this was one of the most food laden holidays I can remember. And that's not even including last month's Thanksgiving extravaganza. 

To start I made shortbread and thumbprint cookies. I think shortbread might be one of my favorite cookies of all. They always make me think of my mom because years ago she and I got on a shortbread kick buying the traditional English, quite expensive, shortbread cookies to have with tea every day. Eeks, I miss living near my mom!

 

Peppermint hot chocolate before opening presents. This was my token of compensation 

to the kids for having to wait until everyone was up... 

 

 Several decadent breakfasts...

 

 My first attempt at anti pasto to kick off our Italian inspired Christmas dinner...

 Stuffed onions that our friends came over and made with anise biscuits in the filling...

 Focaccia bread to appease my fifteen-year-old who will eat ANYTHING 

except risotto which was the main course of our Christmas dinner.

Ending with tiramisu, I hope to post the recipe soon...

 

 All in all, so much good food and good people to celebrate with. 

 

Missing our faraway clan of family and friends!

 

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

 

                                                      

                                                              Cheers ~

                                                                    Marica

Happy Holidays Everyone!

 

                                                        Cheers ~

                                                                      Marica

December December, tea time and soon a break...

Blink, is it gone yet? No, but that's how December is feeling. School is out, I've closed the pie truck for a week and now I'm ready for a calm. But wait, first a tea party. Last year my daughter and I held an afternoon tea for her friends and their mamas just before Christmas. I'm sure I have stated elsewhere in this blog—probably too many times—how much I love tea and baking. Somehow when you add those two together it's hard to get anything but tea party.

                                  Hope everyone is going to get a bit of rest!

                                                          Cheers ~

                                                              Marica

Making Stockings from Sweaters and Curly Willow Love...

Ooo, the holidays are so close. I like this part best—the before time. My house smells so wonderful right now. Between the Christmas tree and cinnamon essential oil I've been heating over a candle, it literally smells like Christmas.

I like the cold weather and the cozy feeling of preparing. I bought some curly willow cuttings that have added a burst of festivity to the room. I wonder how long they can live indoors. The lady at the floral shop where I found them said to plant them come spring, but I would love to keep a potted curly willow in my house.

Lately I've been working on making stockings from sweaters. I have only completed one, but a second is near the finish line. My goal is to make five. Imagine one stocking for each person in the family? All the same size with the same essence? Somehow, my youngest never got a stocking made for him, this year I plan to remedy that. Our first born was lucky enough to have great aunts who knitted a stocking with his name and snowman to boot. I made our daughter one, though it didn't come out how I envisioned. Each year I intend to fix this imbalance, but it's taken until now to make it happen. Oh well, that's the way things go...

Hope everyone is having fun preparing for the celebrations to come. 

 

                              Cheers ~

                                          Marica

Vegan Sweet Potato and Lime Soup Recipe

BLOG OVERLAP FROM DEAR COUNTRY MOUSE

Dear Country Mouse,

Oh my gosh it is so dark and rainy up here. I do love it, but seriously it is rain, rain, rain right now. I'm trying to send some of this dripping, wet, goodness southward, but I have yet to succeed.

Your succulents are so wonderful! How fun to find the old pieces of ceramic-ware to turn into pots. Come spring, I think I will do that with a couple of my cracked tea pots I've been holding on to.

I made a nice sweet potato and lime soup today. Just note, I kept it vegan for the sake of some of my regular customers that I was expecting, though it would be lovely with chicken stock instead. You'd think my food truck was vegan as lately all the recipes I send you tend to be vegan. But truth is, as you know, we are far from it.

Vegan Cream of Sweet Potato Soup

Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until soft:

2 lbs sweet potatoes

In a decent size pot sauté for several minutes:

1 teaspoon safflower oil

1 large sweet yellow onion chopped

Add and continue to sauté for several more minutes:

2 cloves garlic chopped

Add and simmer for 20 minutes:

4 cups vegetable stock

Once the sweet potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and blend with:

1 14-ounce can coconut milk

Continue to blend adding the soup stock and add:

2 limes zest and juice

3 tablespoons molasses

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon salt or more to taste

1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper 

Return to the pot and bring to a desired temperature.

Also, I liked it with tabasco and  fresh parsley or cilantro on top. 

Anyway, I love you to pieces! Thanks for the cool idea on plant pots, I will be on that soon.

Hugs and hugs again,

City Mouse

Autumn Projects...

Something about the fall, the change of temperature, the leaves, the moister in the air. It's all so good and such a hearty invitation to sit down and get to work. Thread and needles, sewing machines and felting. I want it all, and I want a wealth of quiet mornings with mild sunlight or dripping rain and tea, and hopefully a friend to sit with. These are special days, not as easy to come by as I'd like, but I'll take what I can get.

 

                                                                 Cheers ~

                                                                               Marica

P.S. Please add links to your projects, I would love to see them!

Vegan Banana Muffins Recipe

I have a real soft spot for banana muffins. These particular muffins are yummy and yet still a tiny bit healthy. I often make a batch at the pie truck and then bring them home at the end of the day for my kiddos—They love when I bring treats. These days it's hard to keep my fifteen-year-old from eating us out of house and home. Seriously! As an added piece—so you can get in the mind of a crazy pie-maker/mother/obsesser-of-story-books—I have an old love affair with the Betsy Tacy and Tib books. I read each and every one multiple times as a child, and to be truthful, I even read some of her later books not so very long ago. Either way, in the stories the house keeper/cook always makes the family muffins on their first day back to school. I found this tradition so romantic. Every time I make my children muffins I think of Betsy and her family and the simple tradition that somehow has made a lasting impression on me. Silly as it sounds, I feel like these are the things that matter. These bits and pieces are what keeps us inspired, warm and decent people in a very complicated world.

VEGAN BANANA MUFFINS

In a large bowl mix:

3 ripe bananas 

1 cup orange juice 

1/2 cup grape seed oil

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup ground walnuts

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix both sets of ingredients together. Pour into an oiled muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes and then rotate the the pan and bake for another 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.


                                                                    Cheers ~
                                                                                Marica