Making Pizzelles

One of my favorite holiday traditions that I remember from when I was a little girl are Pizzelles. May grandmother and great aunts would always make the Italian cookies at Christmastime. They are so yummy and go great with a cup of coffee. I think they are pretty easy to make and Arabella helped me this year. She loved it! She also enjoyed eating the fruits of her labor...Jay has been enjoying them too!

Martha Moment

On Friday, I went to a D&B at my friend, Carrie's house. We all bring something fun and yummy to eat or drink. Most of the time we just hang out and relax sans kids, which is a great break for all of us. I decided to make something sweet - brownies in the shape of Popsicles! I randomly found them here http://loveandtwentytoes.blogspot.com/2011/03/brownie-popsicles.html They were pretty easy to make and they were a hit. Laura even asked me to make a modified version for Allyson's birthday later this week!

Making Croissants

After spending Thursday with Cynthia and GiGi, Arabella woke up from her nap asking for croissants. She didn't have any at Cynthia's house, we did not have any at our house and she really wanted one. She asked for them on Friday, Saturday and on Sunday morning...which resulted in a trip to Tim Hortons since it was the only place open that early in the morning. She she had been asking so sweetly, I checked to see if one of my cookbooks had a recipe...how hard could they really be to make?? I found a recipe in my Larousse Gastronomique cookbook and sure enough it seemed simple, only about 5 ingredients and it looked as if most of the recipe time would be spent waiting for the dough to rise. So on Monday, Arabella and I decided to finally make them.


After a lot of waiting for the dough to rise, and a lot of rolling, dotting with butter, rolling out again, they finally begin to take shape.

The final product, not too good looking or tasting...


My friends may call me Martha Stewart, but apparently the only thing that Martha can't make are croissants. They just didn't come out right, too doughy, at least we tried. Needless to say, croissants are the one thing that I will leave to the patisserie!

Cookie Swap

Yesterday, Arabella and I hosted our 1st Cookie Swap. The house quickly filled with my favorite group of ladies and their kids. And the light snow falling outside put us all in the holiday mood. The kids had fun running through the house and destroying (in the best way) the playroom, while the moms enjoyed the cookies and company. We had the great variety of cookies to sample and each of us with home with a dozen of each other's cookies...so now we all have a variety of cookies without having to do all the baking! Each and every one was delicious! We had a great time and hope that his can become an annual celebration with our friends. Thanks to everyone who came and took part in our Cookie Swap!
Playroom chaos!
Sophia's first pizzelle!




The cookie spread!

Christmas Cookies

One of my favorite things to do during Christmas is to make cookies. So to prepare of the Cookie Swap that Arabella and I hosted on Monday morning, I turned our kitchen into an Italian bakery for the day on Sunday! I made cranberry-pistachio biscotti, pizzelles and anise sliced cookies. The pizzelles and anise cookies are favorites from my childhood and I even use the same recipe that my great-aunts used to use for the anise cookies. I spent the whole afternoon baking and I wouldn't have had it any other way. I house smelled so good and I know that Jay and Arabella are enjoying the fruits of my labor!

Biscotti Batter
Sliced biscotti waiting to be baked a second time.
Anise cookies before baking....
Anise cookies ready to be sliced and enjoyed!
Pizzelle batter before...

Pressed perfection!
Perfect stacks of pizzelles!

Mini Martha Stewart

This morning while I was making my green smoothie, Arabella got into the cabinet where all of the baking supplies are kept. She wanted to use the decorations and I told her that we couldn't do that unless we made cookies or cupcakes. So what does she proceed to say...."Mommy make cupcakes". There is no way that I could say no to that, so I looked in the cabinet to see if we had any mixes and the only one that we had was a lemon poppy seed mix. She also decided that she wanted to make pumpkin cupcakes (she has been obsessed with pumpkins since we put out some of the Fall decorations this week). So I pulled out the pan that I have that is in the shape of pumpkins and we got to work. She helped me mix the ingredients, which she really did all by herself. And then we poured the batter into the pan.







While they cooked, she colored in her playroom, in her princess dress no less. (Just another little obsession that she has this week, it was supposed to be her Halloween costume, but she has been wearing it out and I think it might be getting a little to small for her, so I think she is going to have to be something else for Halloween).





After they cooled and we got back from shopping, we frosted and decorated them. Actually, she decorated them - it was hard for me to just sit there and let her do it all by herself. But she wasn't going to allow me to help at all. She did a good job of spreading the frosting and then decorating with Halloween (I know it is early, but it is pretty cold up here) sprinkles. And I sure hope that Jay enjoys them since he will be the one eating them with her since they are not a part of my diet. They might be a little heavy in places, but she had fun and was so focused. I think she could be a mini Martha Stewart in the making!