We've Got Snow!

The driving conditions aren't that good (not a good thing for an unexpierenced driver like me), but I still hope that this snow will last till Christmas... Everything's so pretty - completely covered in white!

Not sure if I'm the only one excited in the family (I went out twice to clear the yard!) , but I have the dog on my side - can't ask for better weather conditions for a husky.

Orange Biscuits

With Christmas getting closer and closer I decided to devote my weekends for baking homemade biscuits. I’ve got a German book (Weihnachtsplatzchen alle Jahre wieder) with lots of nice recipes, so I hope to try and taste at least a few.

Yesterday I chose the ones that are easy to make.

Ingredients:

250g flour
1 spoon of cacao
1 tea spoon of baking powder
60g sugar
1 egg
1 orange
125g soft butter
30g finely chopped or grated almonds
200g castor sugar (for decoration)

Make dough from flour, cacao, baking powder, egg, sugar, butter, orange zest and almonds (I’m sure you can use some other nuts and orange can be replaced with lemon). Once it’s done wrap it into tin foil and put it into your fridge for at least half an hour.

Preheat oven to about 180C. Using a rolling pin roll your dough till it’s about 1/2cm thick. Cut out your biscuits and place them on a baking tray, on some baking paper. Bake your biscuits for about 8-10 minutes. Let them cool.

For decoration use 3 spoons of orange juice mixed with caster sugar. Apply this mix on your biscuits. (I used some strawberry jelly and dried grapefruit – they might not look very professional, but are very tasty!)

Next Sunday I’ll try to go for something more adventurous…

Christmas Tree Garland

I can finally say that it‘s time to get ready for Christmas. (Well, the shops over here have been doing it for ages – they‘ve started just after the 1st of November, but I refuse to believe that this is right – I don‘t want to spend half a year waiting for this holiday!) The 1st of December is the perfect date – it still leaves about 20 days for the hardest bit – finding presents… Meanwhile I have started on my decorations.

This year I had several ideas how to decorate my parents’ Antique shop. I’d love to capture the look at feel of vintage Christmas. I’m sure my mum would love it too, but she gets carried away and we end up with lots of stuff that I wouldn’t use. We already have a white Christmas tree, lots of candles and two white deer, which look quite nice, but I’m afraid that more decorations are coming and I won’t be able to stop them piling up on the tree, beneath the tree or somewhere near the tree…

What I had in mind was some handmade decorations that people would have used in the old times, when they didn’t have fancy baubles, or some old toys that would remind people of their childhood. Well, I’ve started with a handmade garland that I’m making using dried watermelon seeds and little beads.

I must admit I had this idea a month or so ago (the Christmassy stuff in shops must have stimulated my brain back then), so I have prepared – I’ve collected lots of watermelon seeds, that have dried nicely and it’s really hard to stick a needle through them now!

If you want to try this out all you need is seeds (any chunky ones should do, just make sue they are soft and not dried, this should help you to avoid little holes in your fingers), little beads, a needle and some thread. Also some paint, that you could make your garland look gold.

I promise I will post some more photos so that you could see what the garland looks like on the tree. Meanwhile I’ll continue trying to stick my needle through the dried seeds… as it’s not going as fast as I would hope it to be…