Hello my lovelies! A quick update today. Still a bit under the weather. As is my oven! I’ve been testing a few different things. I’ve been planning some excellent Christmas recipes. I’m working on a gift guide for bread bakers. And I’m getting organised to save my sanity.
It’s been a busy feeling week. I’ve got a niggly bit of a cold that is still hanging around so I haven’t had a full energy meter. My brain chemicals haven’t been playing ball either. And the lightbulb in my oven has blown. A little thing that makes things difficult! I’m sorting out a new one in the next few days but it’s hard to determine cooking times if you need to open the oven to peek. Surprisingly annoying.
I did some recipe testing this week. A bit of lots of things. I didn’t post a second recipe because I wasn’t 100% there on any of them. There is a gluten free chocolate cake coming though. I played around with crackers. Crackers are hard to get past the “they’re ok but I don’t really love them” stage. I experimented with Injera. I still need to work on it. The batter took three days to ferment so it was ready on a day that I didn’t have time to cook them. When I did find time I’m pretty sure it was over the hill. I researched stollen. I will be working on a recipe for y’all over the next couple of weeks. And this year we will be making the fruit mince for our Christmas tarts. There is also some Lebkuchen in the works. There is so much excellent holiday joy coming your way dotted through the next 6 weeks. Recipes for delicious treats. And a handy gift guide of great items for bread bakers.
Now while I have Christmas in my blood and love to start getting ready early it’s also a good idea for the less obsessed. It’s just easier to get to Christmas day with bread in the freezer, a dessert that just needs assembling, cookies waiting in the jar and cake already soaked in brandy. This is the time to be making that cake. We want a good month or more of brandy drizzling. While getting family together is awesome it’s also stressful to organise and deal with all the personalities and dramas so give your sanity the best chance by sucking it up and doing things early. You’ll be glad you did.
Don’t settle. Embrace the Christmas spirit. Get prepared. Look after each other.
xx
I love the photo of the pohutukawa. Miss it a lot. And kowhai, too.
We do have some unique looking flora which is lovely – kowhai drops flowers like crazy though and makes a total mess!