Christmas Catch Up

 So we've taken down the decorations and recovered from celebrating the New Year; it seems like a goods time to look back on my Christmas culinary adventures for 2014.

 As regular readers would know, this year I made gingerbread trees to give out to friends/family/work colleagues/school teachers/comic book shop guys/the school crossing man. So I ended up making a LOT of gingerbread. Each batch made 64 Christmas tress, and I made 3 batches. That is a lot of mixing, rolling, cutting, baking, piping and bagging. Suffice to say, I don’t want to even think about gingerbread for a few months! Ironically I actually got to taste my first Christmas gingerbread at the weekend (the last two trees left over from Christmas day) and they still tasted good, almost two weeks after baking!

 One thing I did different this year was an attempt at Gluten Free (GF) gingerbread. With a friend who is coeliac and several gluten intolerant friends, I felt bad that they couldn't share in the spoils of my baking. Luckily, the only ingredient that contains gluten in my gingerbread recipe is plain flour (it uses bicarb soda as a raising agent), so I thought it was be a fairly easy substitution. I had some GF self-raising flour in the cupboard from a previous GF baking session which I usually wouldn’t substitute for plain flour. However, using my Science Brain, I remembered that it was the gluten in the flour that bound the baking together and helped it raise, so GF self raising flour was probably closer to non-GF plain flour than non-GF SR flour. All clear??

 And it worked quite well. I went more on Feel than exact measurements when adding the flour; GF flour has a rather different texture to non-GF so I probably had to add more to made the dough sticky enough to roll out. And I think the GF SR flour did make a difference, in that they were a bit more rounded, a bit softer, less crispy-biscuit like (next time I'll buy GF plain flour). But the main thing is they still tasted (and looked) like gingerbread, and my GF friends were very appreciative, even though I didn't get a chance to ice them.

(the darker ones were chocolate gingerbread)

 My next step is to try and make a refined-sugar free gingerbread (have I mentioned that a lot of my friends are very health/diet conscious with a lot of “…. Intolerant” kids???). I figure that I can substitute coconut sugar for brown sugar, and maple syrup for the golden syrup. This will probably affect the consistency and “stickiness” of the dough, so will probably mean a bit of fiddling with the (GF or not) flour. Next challenge will be going dairy free – should be a straight swap with nuttelex for butter which would hopefully cream up well with the sugar. I thought I had almost got everything sorted to finally make a batch for one of my friends (who is gluten, dairy, soy and refined sugar free), who then informed me that she doesn’t eat refined oils, which nuttelex is. *sigh*  My other option is then trying to cream coconut oil and coconut sugar together (and hope that it holds together), mix it with maple syrup and GF flour, and hopefully the addition of ginger will make it still taste vaguely like gingerbread.

 (Or maybe I can just resign myself to not making her gingerbread!)

 Regular readers will also know that I love a good theme, and Christmas is a great excuse to get Creative with Cooking. Last year it was my Rudolph pancakes, which this, year when I made them in early December, Son 2 proclaimed that he wasn't much of a fan of because he doesn't like bacon (Son 2 LOVES bacon, so he didn't see the issue). Nerdy Nummies Ro had made some Snowman pancakes (its the third 'treat') but that wasn't really suitable for an Australian Summer Christmas (but will be great if we go to the snow!). I then came across this awesome blog called The Joys of Boys (they had blog on making Star Wars snowflakes. So cool). They had Santa pancakes, which apart from having a HEAP of whipped cream (which I would think would be that nasty stuff from a can – what is it with Americans and a tonne of fake whipped cream?!?), they also had cherries for the hat. I have a girlfriend whose kids would adore this version (their dad was raised on a cherry farm and they are massive Fresh Fruit Fans), but mine, not so much. So what to use? Coincidentally at this time, one of my girlfriends (She with the French husband) was getting ready to go the Paris to celebrate Christmas with the Hubby’s family. For 5 weeks. And so was clearing out her freezer. As well as a packet of breadcrumbs (which my chickens loved) she also gave me a bag of 5 frozen eggs whites; which were leftover from an awesome chocolate Crème Brulee she had made the last time I went for dinner. Hmmmm – how fortuitous! So on Boxing day (as Christmas morning breakfast was taken up with the traditional croissants and fresh fruit breakfast), I made these Santa Pancakes...

...bacon for the hat, an egg-white omelette (badly) cut into shape for the beard and hat trimming, blueberry eyes and a strawberry nose. I got big smiles from both Sons who then carefully removed the fruit, swapped the bacon for egg and happily devoured them!

 My last piece of Christmas faffing was something that had been hovering around my Christmas Pintrest board for a while – the Christmas fruit tree. There are lots of really cool variations (when you have a spare 5 minutes, type “Christmas fruit tree” in the search engine and check them out). I did like the 3D version, but it didn't seem to be able to support a lot of fruit and as I was doing this for our family Christmas lunch of about 15 adults, I wanted to make sure there was bit available. Plus I knew I would be assembling it after I had hosted breakfast but before jumping in the car to drive to lunch. So it trying to keep things less stressed on Dec 25th, I settled for the 2D version. I had no grand plans as to how it would look (how very unlike me! I must have had my brain filled with other Christmas Organising), but ended up using cantaloupe (or rockmelon depending on where you were born) as “boughs”. Small bunches of grapes were great for greenery, strawberries and blueberries for a touch of colour and some watermelon star cutouts to make it look Christmassy.

 So I hope you all had a fun and festive Christmas with lots of yummy food (as I did) and I look forward to doing it all again in 11 months time

(but maybe not gingerbread this time…..)

Hot Chocolate

 I do love it when you work out a solution to a problem – especially when it doesn't involve paying someone/buying something/spending hours searching on the internet. It can be as simple as a system for taking washing off the line (Things that needs a hot iron off first so they are at the bottom of the basket and will be ironed last when the iron is the hottest), or for keeping you Tupperware drawer tidy (lids all in one spot people!). Thankfully this was a bit more of an interesting problem to solve – how to keep melted chocolate, well… melted.

 After my recent fondant fetish (click here and here and here!), I had started experimenting with melted chocolate as a decorating tool. It started with plans for Son 2’s Minecraft birthday party, which involved making black shapes for Creeper faces.

This is a Creeper. It explodes if you get too close. Just so you know

 While I was wandering the cake supplies shop, I noticed that black chocolate melts were much cheaper per kg than the black fondant. Interesting. PLUS chocolate could be piped in fine lines for smaller creeper faces (which I was planning to put on green rice krispie squares for taking to school) , where as it would be annoying to cut out very small slivers of fondant. AND it always looked so easy when my You Tube bloggers used it – what could possibly go wrong?

 Well.

 Melted chocolate assumes a liquid form. And the hotter it is, the more liquid it becomes, to the point of it oozing and not making pretty straight lines like you are supposed to. Not good when you are a perfectionist bordering on–OCD.

Not my finest work. They either look possessed, evil or stupid (still tasted yum though).

 Melted chocolate also has a tendency to set when it cools. And this doesn't always happen once it is piped out, it can also happen while it sits in your piping bag. Which leads to lumps of semi solid chocolate blocking up your piping nozzle, and it coming out unevenly. Which leads to much Fiddling and Fixing and Touch Ups and Swearing and Stress.

Like a Monet - good from a distance but a mess up close

 At first I thought it was just the colored chocolate, as it took quite a while to melt and didn't really mix together very well. But when I had the same problem using good ol’ Cadbury that I realised it was a Chocolate Issue.

My Groot Sundaes: more "messy" than "gnarled tree" appearance
(click here for what they were supposed to look like)

 So what to do?? I could use royal icing for all of my future decorating. It pipes nicely, colours well and you can keep it in the fridge between times.

(and a little goes a long way)

 But it doesn't taste as nice. And it’s not chocolate.

 So a solution had to be found. Especially with my plans to make gingerbread trees for my Christmas gifts this year.

LOTS of gingerbread trees!  (this was batch 1 of 3)

 At first I tried microwaving the chocolate intermittently, which worked well. I found I could ice and decorate four trees before it needed a minute in the microwave. But I had to unscrew the metal piping tip and scrape out the solidified chocolate each time. Annoying. And stop piping. More annoying.

 I did think about some sort of hot water bath to put the piping bag in, but I have found the no matter how carefully you seal the bag up or pop it in several plastic bags, water still gets in and ruins your chocolate. Not helpful

 There are cool cups (as in Cold, rather than Clever and Awesome) that you can put in the freezer to keep your drinks cool over summer, I just needed a Hot version .

 So I made one myself! Pour boiling water in a large cup, place a smaller cup inside and voila!

 (I shall add a picture here when I take one at this weekend's piping session)

Pop your piping bag in it in between sprinkled sanding sugar or carefully placing cachoos and you are ready to for your next set of trees. So simple, so cheap, so effective, so clever (well, I think so).

Oh! Christmas tree (s)

 So I hope that this has helped you to keep your chocolate hot and your piping pretty.

In other Kitchen News, I received a kitchen blowtorch at the weekend, so look forward to a creme brulee post in the future (which will hopefully not be entitled “What can go wrong with a Kitchen Blowtorch" or "Effective Ways to put out a Kitchen Fire")

Happy Hoppy Christmas

 Like many Foodie-Crafty-Industrious type people, I love Christmas. Not only is it a fun family time with lots of food (and presents!!) but it gives us like-minded people a chance to shine and flex our collective creative muscles. From hand making presents, to new riffs on classic dishes, to clever effective decorations, there are so many way to get into the Spirit of the Season.

 However.

My December related shenanigans took a different turn this year, when, while trampolining wth Son 2 in November, I landed awkwardly and broke two bones in my left foot and well as "destroying" (the surgeon's words, not mine) the ligaments that run across the top of my foot. Which meant surgery to put it all back together again. Then a cast for two weeks. Then 4 weeks on crutches. Which did put a serious dent in what I was able to achieve for and in the run up to Christmas Day.

 But being the determined (or "stubborn and pig-headed" as Hubby would say) person that I am, I  knew that I would find a way to do at least SOMETHING festive around the home. As the pain in my foot (and my reliance on medication) decreased, I was able to get up and move about more. We also purchased a little stool on wheels which meant I could move around the kitchen fairly well. But, I was still trying to be aware of my limitations and not create too long a list of things to do. One thing I did have plenty of time for, was sitting on the couch and browsing the internet for ideas. Thank goodness for sites like Pintrest, where I could search things like "Christmas cookies" and "Christmas table" and find all sorts of ideas that I could adapt. It also (thankfully) helped stave off the boredom

 First up was the work Christmas present. Last Christmas was the Year of the New Icing Techniques and they got a batch of festively decorated cupcakes. Scaling it back for this year, I thought I could come at gingerbread: simple to make but very yummy. Add a batch of royal icing and I could still get creative with decorarting.

 So my lovely work colleagues, who had had to deal with me not being there for the month before Christmas, got a batch of "Kim-gerbread Men" - complete with cast.

 ... and their smiles were similar to the ones on their gingerbread men.

 I also found this cute idea for pancakes on Pintrest, which gave the Son 1 and 2 a nice pre-Christmas breakfast...

 ...  bacon for antlers, blueberries for eyes and a raspberry nose.

 Christmas Day posed its own list of challenges. In our family, we rotate who hosts lunch on Dec 25th and this was my year to host. There were quite a few discussions post foot-break as to whether that would still be a viable option. I knew I wouldn't have to slave away in the kitchen as everyone brings something along and really, the only specific job of the host is to provide the table/chairs/plates/glasses etc and the crackers (which I had already bought at last year's post-Christmas sales). So Hubby convinced me that we would be fine, and as he would be doing the majority of the "heavy-lifting" work wise, I took his word for it. And it probably made more sense as I was quite good at moving around our house  by this stage. But it did require a re-think of how to run tae day.
 First thing was to confirm the meal as Cold Meat and Salad. Much more sensible when Dec 25 can be a scorcher to have this rather than the full roast and trimmings. So we had ham, (cold) roast chicken and a roast pork, which was more because Hubby had become such a whizz with his pork and crackling that is seemed a shame not to share it with the family. I made a yummy (and healthy) quinoa salad that is made in layers and looked very festive with a  layer of baby spinach leaves and layer of chopped tomatoes. We did bow to tradition and have a Christmas pudding for dessert (as my aunt makes a fantastic one), but I also whipped up a Christmas ice cream (with nutmeg and brandy), and we had a fruit platter as well (not the Christmas tree ones I had seen online -maybe I'll do that next time...)

  Next up were the decorations. The last time I hosted, I had gotten very excited and done the full Christmas table set up, with decorations and bonbonierre for each guest.

 I think it took me about an hour to set that table, not including the baking and boxing up the cookies in the noodle boxes!
 This year I went for simplicity and a Serve Yourself mentality. Instead of the full table set-up, I had all the plates on a separate table, and I had bundled up a set of cutlery with a napkin and cracker and placed them on each table.: the theory being that each guest could grab their plate, fill it and sit anywhere at the table and go from there.

This year's more streamlined table

 But I still wanted something for my guests, as much to say "thankyou" for helping out and putting up with a more low-key Christmas. After the gingerbread was so well received at work, I though that could be the magical Simple-but-Effective again.  I was going to make individual gingerbread men for everyone, but realized that would mean about 2 batches to make and roll and cook and decorate. I did find a smaller gingerbread man cutter, but, as a few family members have 6 letters in their name, I knew it would be a tight squeeze. So I settled for my favorite shape (which is luckily still Christmas themed) - stars.

  This meant every guest that was coming to our house on Christmas Day had their own gingerbread star that they could eat whenever thy liked, or take home for a quiet Christmas night cuppa.

Christmas breakfast table

 So how did my one-legged Christmas Day go? Wonderfully well. Sons 1 and 2 were great little helpers, getting things out of cupboards and moving things into place. Hubby dutifully completed the list of tasks that seemed to keep extending as he neared the end. Family brought delicious food and helped out with serving and tidying up and it was a lovely relaxing fun day, just like I had hoped it would be.

 And it now gives me just under 1,100 days to plan and get creative for the next time I host Christmas!