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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Stumbling my way through the holidays

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It's so sad that, while Christmas will often provide the best stories for a blog....it also leaves the least amount of time to actually write them!

I'm sneaking this entry in, because really I should be in the car again.....for another long drive!

I didn't actually cook much on my own this week - my dad's friend Pim kindly cooked for us 2 nights this week (yummy, yummy spicy Thai food!!!!!!!) and I joined my friends at a favourite restaurant the other night (Le Panaché on Somerset - highly recommend for classic French cuisine!).

On the upside, I finally got my tree decorated (with Pim) - here is a picture of one of the cutest ornaments. I love these little guys!



And I also survived my work hors d'oeuvres party.....have to say my stuff was a total hit! There was some tasty food there (including fabulous cheeses and pâté), but mine definitely stood up. ;)

I finally got to cook the cute little phyllo rolls I've been talking about and they practically vanished from the table. I had about 40 of them, and only 10 people at the party....there was only one left at the end! If you have the time to labour through the phyllo cruddiness, it's definitely worth it. :)



The other recipe that I guinea pigged my co-workers on was one for pumpkin pie wontons (posted in my recipe blog - check out my profile and click on the other blog - it's right at the top). These were very very easy to make (though the grocery store was out of actual wonton wrappers - so I made mine larger with egg roll wrappers). This kind of pastry gets two thumbs up - it's a lot more forgiving than the phyllo was.

They bake up nice and crispy (I brushed the tops with butter to give a richer flavour) and as far as baking goes, they are practically health food (a characteristic that I most likely negated through the use of copious amounts of spiced whipped cream......3/4 whipping cream, 2 T sugar, 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/4 t ground ginger - whip away and voila - everyone thinks you're a genius!).

Anyway, the filling just goes right onto the pastry



After which, you just moisten the edges and seal. Then, you brush the tops with melted butter, and add a sprinkler of cinnamon and sugar!



And then eat them all.....



YUM!

I was lucky enough to finish work at noon yesterday, but do you think I could get home before 3? I actually ended up walking about 4 km of the 30 km trek, due to bussing crapiness. In high heels. With heavy Christmas purchases. I'm lucky I didn't break anything! We're actually approaching the one-year anniversary of when I destroyed my knee last year (in the same boots I wore yesterday).

For the courageous among you, click HERE to see what I did. If you're squeamish, don't click. There's still a nice scar.

Dinner last night was random pizza - I made whole wheat dough in my breadmaker, and then raided the fridge for potential toppings. :) We ended up with red onion, mushrooms, crispy bacon, old cheddar, parmesan and goat cheese. This was also quite tasty. Really, you can't screw up random pizza - you just add what you find in the fridge! It's a great way to use up remaining bits of peppers, onions or whatever you find. Even sliced baked potato is great on pizza!

Anyway, though I wish I could regale you with more stories, it sounds like hubby is almost done wrapping my prezzies (hehe - I'm banished to the home office in the meantime!).

Thanks for reading and a very Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!!!!!! Give lots of hugs to everyone, call people you can't see in person and just celebrate!

Ciao!

1 comment:

UptownGal said...

Hello! Have always enjoyed reading your blog. Yup.. i'm one of your non-Canadian readers. Heh. Just wanted to say Merry Christmas! :)

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