Christmas goodies

Apple crisp season melded into pumpkin goody time, and it is now the era of gingerbread. So far, all these baking opportunities have passed me by. I prefer baking to cooking, but man (and woman, and child) does not live by dessert alone. As with many things, it is hard to find the time for what I enjoy amongst the pressures of what must get done. However, some yummy desserts made their way to our home this season. Nanaimo bars (a decadent Canadian confection), biscochitos (a New Mexican specialty), and caramels are among them. The latter two came from the quarterly get-together that I enjoy with my local female in-laws. We convene at regular intervals to cook or bake and generally hang out. The caramels are from a recipe originating with Jon's great-grandmother. My MIL hadn't made it since she was a girl, so this was a great adventure. We learned, for example, that the caramel should only boil to 230 F (soft ball stage), not 245 F (medium ball). When it came time to cut up the slabs of caramel it was so hard we resorted to throwing it on the granite counters to break it into shards. Jon preferred using a hammer and knife, but I think that took too long. He also likes these caramels rock hard - no accounting for taste, is there?

Anna and I decorated a gingerbread house (no pics - camera is a bust and I'm still not sure how to get photos off my phone), and I hope to make gingerbread men. I want Anna to help with the cookies, but her enthusiasm is inconsistent. Since I'm not all that interested in eating them (I prefer actual gingerbread) cookies may not happen. Perhaps better to focus on the inevitable: cinnamon buns (a must have for Christmas morning, according to all the males in my family), and matrimonial cake. You may not have heard of the last one. It's a common dessert at potlucks where Mennonites are found: a yummy oatmeal cake with a layer of cooked dates in the middle. Dates are important this year, since they seem common in Mauritanian cooking. Mauritania is our "Christmas country," but I'll explain this further in a separate post. It is a big country, after all.

In other, non-baking, news... I guess there isn't much news. Jon was away for a couple of days this week, and I'm finding these trips to be less bothersome than when the kids were younger. The usual sicknesses have been around: runny noses, vomit, coughing, etc. And the snow levels have reached pathetic lows. Maybe that's why I haven't been baking as much. It's hard to get into a gingerbread mood when the temps are in the 60s. 
We did manage to go swimming today, and I was pretty proud of myself for pulling this off. We had a great time, and Anna is getting closer to sticking her head under water. Alas, things ended on a sad note when Isaac split his lip on the stairs of the baby slide. Lots of blood, and he keeps sucking on the wound. Yuck! He got over it, of course, and now is having an extra long nap. So, I still count our trip a victory.

Only eight sleeps until Christmas!