Time to take the tree down

Most years my tree and decorations are down by New Year but this year I have been happy to let them linger as we slouch around in holiday mode: sleeping late, eating, reading and playing games with all the bounty Santa dropped off. I'm starting to think I could live with a Christmas-themed house all year, really. I only gave it serious thought after a few people told me if I didn't take my tree down soon it would be bad luck. Can't have that, can I? So a bit of web searching has confirmed that Wednesday is THE day we must pack it all away for another year. You see it's the Epiphany tomorrow (hope I have one, or a few) for Catholics. This is the day the three wise men arrived to meet Jesus and bestow a bit of gold, frankincense and myrrh on the youngster. The story goes that you should leave all your decorations up until the day after Epiphany or else the wise men will not be able to find your house. And we could all use a little visit from some wise men, couldn't we? It's not to late to get your decorations and lights back out for all those who jumped the gun on this one. See, it pays to be a bit slow sometimes.

Christmas eve making: stockings out of old pillowslips

It's not too late to whip up a quick Christmas stocking for your kids. In previous years we have used stockings that someone gave us but I was never really in love with them so this year I left them in the box when we decorated and just kind of pushed the stocking thing to the back of my mind. Yesterday I couldn't escape the guilt of not having stockings any longer so we decided to make our own out of old pillow slips. It took about an hour and we did it all by hand. They are by no means perfect stocking shapes but they are ours and very manageable for five and three year old helping hands to get involved with. I raided the sewing basket and used old ribbons, some felt (as pockets for a little note to Santa), buttons, and even iron on patches. As you can see the only part of the pillow case I cut was the top front boot shape and re-sewed the edges together. They will be lying on the foot of some pretty excited little people's beds tonight in anticipation of being full of fun things come the morning (note to self: don't panic, of course you have enough gifts to fill the stockings. There will be NO ducking to the shops on Christmas Eve, that's why you get your Christmas shopping done early. You would only waste money on useless plastic crap that would end up as landfill in a couple of weeks. Okay, deep breath...). I can't believe it's Christmas Eve! My excitement levels are nearing the little ones' now (obviously!).

Christmas eve baking: reindeer cookies

We made these cookies last weekend for a Christmas-themed picnic with some extended family and we'll no doubt be baking another batch today with a few reserved for the jolly fat man himself... I remembered seeing a picture of some reindeer cookies somewhere but couldn't quite locate it so I decided to use my basic peanut butter oat cookie recipe and decorate with choc buttons (eyes), jaffas (nose) and pretzels (reindeer antlers). Here's the biscuit recipe (I have had this written down in a note book for years and I think it just came off the back off a sugar packet!)
Ingredients:
125 go butter
1/4 cup peanut butter (I like Sanitarium Natural Peanut Butter — 100% roasted peanuts)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup self raising flour
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line 2 trays with baking paper. Combine butter and peanut butter in saucepan and melt over medium heat while stirring. Transfer to large bowl and let cool a little. Add brown sugar and egg, mix with wooden spoon. Add combined sifted flours and oats and mix. Roll tablespoons of mixture into balls and flatten slightly on trays. Bake 10-12 minutes and transfer to cooling rack. Add decorations while still warm. Makes approx 16 cookies.

Weekend baking: Christmas cookies (but of course)

Cookies are one of those great foods that can be tweaked to suit any occassion. And what can be more perfect for the Christmas season than cookies that can be hung on the tree? These cookies come from Nigella Lawson's fantastic baking book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I use her Butter Cut-Out Biscuits recipe as (like she says) they really do hold their shape and taste good. Anything of the shortbread variety is just too crumbly I find.
175g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
400g plain flour (organic really does a make a difference)
1 tspn baking powder
1 tspn salt
Cream the butter and sugar in your mix-master until pale and mousy then beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt, add to mix-master and mix gently. The mixture should be a sticky dough that can be handled. Form into two fat discs, wrap in clingwrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. One of the batches can be frozen for later use (when the tree needs refilling).
Place one of the discs on a floured surface, sprinkle the top with a good bit of flour and roll out to about 1/2 cm thick. Use assorted Christmas themed cookie cutters to cut out shapes. We got 30 shapes out of our batch. Make a hole in the top centre of each shape with a chopstick or skewer and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof.


Bake for 8-10 mins or until lightly golden around the edges. Transfer to a wire rack and once cool ice however you like (if your hole has closed up during cooking redo it while the cookies are still warm). This year we went for plain white icing (150g icing sugar and a couple of teaspoons of near boiling water mixed to form a smooth paste) and little silver balls for a bit of Christmas bling. To string cookies you can use any type of ribbon. To go with the traditional Christmas decoration look we used silver Japan thread (from Spotlight). Let the kids decorate the tree and voila a Christmas decoration and snack in one.