Do you feel the pressure?
The pressure to be perfect during the holidays?
It's amusing to read the magazines that tout,
"35 Ways to Beat That Holiday Stress" on page 71,
all the while including editorial pages of glorious all white themed holiday trimmed homes
in Madison, Wisconsin or Fairfield, Connecticut...
The editors lay out pages and pages of amazing Christmas cookies,
prepared lovingly in their test kitchens, crafts,
"You Can Make at Home, in a Jiffy!"
and festive holiday outfits, plucked right out of Bergdorf's...
I know, I know, those pages are meant to inspire our holiday spirits,
provide us with great ideas to make our holidays sparkle...
Sometimes, though, they rather bombard me with messages to get it all right this year...
MORE cookies!
MORE parties!
BETTER holiday cocktails!
Craftier HOMEMADE crafts!
HOTTER party shoes with a more SPECTACULAR dress!
Yikes.....
Forget Calgon...take me to Chinatown!
One year in my distant past, I spent an unlikely Thanksgiving in San Francisco's Chinatown
with my boyfriend at the time and his parents...
It was a bustling part of the city and we ate a fantastic Chinese dinner...
Looking out the window, Chinatown's residents
paid no mind to the American holiday...
They weren't angst-ridden over their heritage turkeys,
their pecan cornbread stuffings...
It was just a regular day...
So refreshing...
While I love the fun and festivities the holidays bring,
I need to force myself to savor the little kid stuff
and to forget about all the crazy trimmings...
The kids just anticipate Christmas...
They do love the Advent bags I made
and they wonder each morning where Fred the Christmas Elf is hiding...
BTW, remembering to move him around each night is a bit of a chore
until I see Kate searching for him every morning....
The kids enjoy the holiday TV movies
and hope for snow daily....
So what if my friend just made every cookie in this month's Bon Appetit?
Who cares if we weren't invited to any Christmas parties this year?
I don't have to stress about Spanx and mani/pedis, now do I?
And, really, most Christmas crafts look far better on the pages of Better Homes and Gardens
than in reality....
In the word of The Grinch,
"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
So, after this week of mailing out packages to family out of town
and the throwing of our first ever employee Christmas party,
I will sit on the couch, a kid on each hip
and savor our time together, playing games, watching "Elf", going ice skating or whatever.....
Martha may have a perfect Christmas, but I'll bet my imperfect Christmas is more joyful.....
And, I hope yours will be too!
I made two lemon recipes you might like to try...
One was even from Bon Appetit!
COCONUT-LEMON LOAF courtesy of www.familyfun.go
Moist, delicious and versatile, this bread can be served for breakfast with yogurt, fruit, or applesauce on the side. And it's enough like cake that it makes a tempting dessert, especially when topped with the optional Coconut-Lemon Glaze. Makes 10 servings.
Ingredients
-
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (2 ounces) sweetened flaked coconut
- Coconut-Lemon Glaze (optional)
- Instructions
-
- Line a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with waxed or parchment paper (or grease and flour it), then set it aside. Heat the oven to 350º.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, oil, lemon zest, lemon extract, vanilla extract, and milk.
- In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and the buttermilk until evenly blended. Set the bowl aside.
- In a medium-size bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir about a third of the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, then alternately add half of the remaining egg mixture and half of the flour mixture, stirring after each addition just enough to blend. Stir in the coconut.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spoon. Bake on the center oven rack until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and put it on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes, then remove the loaf and place it on the rack to finish cooling. When the loaf is completely cooled, in about two hours, apply the Coconut-Lemon Glaze, if using. Makes 10 servings.
- Line a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with waxed or parchment paper (or grease and flour it), then set it aside. Heat the oven to 350º.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 large egg yolks
Icing
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice
- Food coloring (optional)
- Sanding sugar (optional)
Cookies
- Whisk flour and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl, occasionally scraping down sides, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks; beat just to blend. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture and beat, occasionally scraping down sides, just to blend. Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 10"-long log about 1 3/4" in diameter. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.
- Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap 1 dough log. Using a sharp, lightly floured knife, cut log into 1/4"-thick rounds. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1" apart.
- Bake until cookies are firm and golden brown around edges, 16–18 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute, then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough log, using cooled baking sheets and new parchment paper.
Icing
- Whisk sugar and 2 Tbsp. juice in a small bowl, adding more juice by 1/2-teaspoonfuls if too thick. Add coloring, if desired. Spread or drizzle icing over cookies. Decorate as desired. Let stand until icing sets, about 10 minutes.
DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.
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