Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Winter Postcard



The epic and historical storm that buried Boston, yesterday, swerved and totally missed us in the night, alas. Happily, in anticipation of the whopping blizzard that never happened, they cancelled school; so, we had a lovely day at home, anyway - lazing about in front of the fire and eating sticky, cinnamony monkey bread.

These pictures are from a few days before the floundered event when the snow behaved and acted like picturesque Vermont snow should! and that's enough of that! Back to a warm place under covers I go! It's been cold and windy enough for any proper winter!!

Cozy thoughts to you!

xo

(If you click on this one, it will get a titch larger.... )









Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Tea 2!



Only three weeks into the new year and I have, now, had TWO tea parties!

It's a very good omen! ;) 










Friday, January 9, 2015

Pate a Choux



I've been on an intense journey, this past year (and little bit), since I started to learn how to cook without gluten. The internet has been a wealth of information - tips and tricks - recipes - scientific explanations...

and so it is that, after a year of trial and error, I've finally got the knack of making light and fluffy, tenderly crisp, melt in your mouth pate a choux! Now, if only I could figure out the 'how sugar works' part - scientifically - on a stove, I mean....

Practice! Practice! Practice! and study!

...a good excuse for a New Year's Tea with champagne cupcakes and croquembouche!

When I figure more of it out, I'll let you in on what I've learned. ;)

Rubbing my hands with glee, I foresee a year of tea parties and entertaining of all sorts.







xo




Friday, January 2, 2015

Christmas...



I was thinking this morning about how it is that, the more we're active and busy and up doing things, the more every thing turns into a blur, and, the more that we spend time being still, the more time seems to slow down and be orderly. At least for me, anyway. This Christmas, I had lots of time to pray until the last week, then, with the Open House on the Wednesday before Christmas, singing at our Vesper's Service on Sunday and celebrating the actual holiday (which was celebrated, this year on the 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th consecutively - oy!!), everything turned into a quick march and we slid right on through and, here I am, wondering what just happened. It was a pleasant holiday with lovely memories - lots of small things that I was grateful for. The most stunning part of this Christmas for me was that I had so much more energy than ever before! I did get very tired but there were no headaches and no crises of exhaustion. What a beautiful thing - completely different from the past twenty years and a tremendous gift in and of itself!!

I think that, also, this year, what stands out in my mind is how much fun I had in the kitchen. After a year of cooking without gluten I have much more experience and converting the recipes and trying new ones was a ton of fun. Sadly, there wasn't much time for picture taking but I'll tell you that, at the open house, there were sugar cookies, linzer bars, gingersnaps (heavenly!!), cherry filled and plain fudgey brownies (a special hit), homemade eggnogg, my famous cheese ball and, very prettily, gingerbread spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and sugared cranberries (inspired by Linda Lomelino of 'Call Me Cupcake'). Christmas dinner was very, very satisfying, also. The greatest relief being a tasty gluten free stuffing!! Add in a dash of presence of mind and a huge dollop of laughter and it was a lovely Christmas, indeed!!















Wishing us all everything that is merry and bright in the new year...

xo






Pssst! Wasn't sure if anyone would be interested but someone is; so.... Gluten free stuffing recipe! ;)





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