My special guest today is Leah Braemel, another blogging friend who comes from Canada. Her very first book, Private Property is out with Samhain Publishing on 27 January 2009. Meanwhile today, Leah is talking about family rituals and she has a very yummy looking recipe for us. Over to Leah…
I want to thank Shelley for inviting me today, it’s my very first ‘guest blog’ so I’m thrilled. Oh, and Happy Birthday, Shelley!”
I love Christmas, I always have. I love the lights and the carols and the joy in watching someone else open a present you’ve chosen specifically for them. So when I had my boys, I wanted to pass that joy on to them.
Every year, we drove to a tree farm to choose ‘the perfect’ spruce or pine to bring home. Every year, our beautifully decorated tree fell down in the middle of the night at least twice, soaking the carpet with gallons of water.
Every year, the boys would write letters to Santa that they would hand deliver to the postmen and -women who collected them at the Santa Claus parade.
The first week of December, I’d bake a gingerbread house and spend the next week assembling it. Every Christmas day, my husband and boys would eye it hungrily, waiting for my approval to bash the heck out of it and retrieve the candies I’d so carefully ‘iced’ to the roof.
Every year, after we’d set out home made cookies and milk for Santa, and spread hay and carrots in the backyard for the reindeer, the boys would sit down for the traditional reading of “The Night Before Christmas” before scurrying upstairs. Then my hubby and I would wait until they were asleep before bringing down the carefully hidden presents to place beneath the tree.
Unfortunately most of those traditions have died off. The Christmas tree farms got edged out as the cities took over the rural areas. Even the pre-cut lots run by the Boy Scouts in the local A&P parking lot and other enterprising tree farmers who would take over empty lots haven’t sprung up in the past few years. But that’s okay because about five years ago, tired of having to mop up after our dog once again toppled the tree, we gave in and bought an artificial tree. Now instead of having to run around the week before Christmas to guarantee a fresh tree Christmas Day, we drag out the boxes and put it up on the first weekend of December and decorate at our leisure.
The letters to Santa and the annual trek to the Santa Claus parade stopped long ago, replaced with Christmas lists that would make Donald Trump’s accountant cringe.
I stopped making the gingerbread house when my eldest suggested, “why don’t you just put the candies out for us to eat?” Since making a gingerbread house from scratch and assembling it are a lot of work, I must admit that was one tradition I was glad to see end. But still, I miss the final product.
Our cherished “Night Before Christmas” book has disappeared, and the cookies we used to set out are now served as an evening snack for everyone to enjoy. The presents are still brought down around midnight, but now the boys (who tower over us) assist in that chore, since my dear hubby and I stash our presents for each other in their rooms.
But even though some of those cherished rituals aren’t observed, others have evolved and flourished. Back when my eldest was about ten, he’d begged and pleaded for a rather pricey remote control car. Santa was naughty that year. Instead of placing the car under the tree, he left a card in my eldest’s stocking with a clue as to where another gift could be found. So began the traditional Christmas Treasure Hunt. We don’t hold a treasure hunt every year – only for those extra special gifts. A brand new computer for the boys one year, another for my hubby a few years later. The whole family gets into the spirit – the ones hiding the present rub their hands in glee while writing obscure poems. The recipient rubs their head in confusion trying to decipher the clues while wanting to open every closet and peer under every bed until they found their carefully concealed present.
The one tradition that hasn’t stopped has been my baking. I love the way the house smells when I’m done, I love the anxious faces waiting until I give the okay to help themselves to the bounty. Usually I spend two days in the kitchen making peanut butter cookies, peanut butter logs, peanut brittle (sensing a trend?), chocolate macaroons, cherry jewel bars, coconut ice, oatmeal cookies, oatmeal squares, shortbread and Nanaimo bars. I’m already getting sideways looks from both the boys and my hubby as they whisper, “When are you making the macaroons?”
Most of the recipes are ones that have been passed down from my mother, but a couple are new – the Nanaimo bars, and the peanut brittle. And the one I’ve sent for Shelley to put up today. I got the recipe for pizza-pan cookies from my youngest’s kindergarten teacher when I helped them assemble a gingerbread house to help raise funds for a family in need. They’re easy to make, and not your usual type of cookie. Instead of rolling the dough into balls or dropping it from a spoon, you fill a pizza pan with the batter and let it cook as one big round cookie. Then when you take it out of the oven and it’s cooled down a while, you slice it just the way you do a pizza. (I usually buy the tin foil pizza pans just for these)
Pizza Pan Cookies
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 package (or 1 ½ cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
(You can get inventive and try raisins or M&M pieces, etc.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease two 12-inch pizza pans. Cream butter, sugars, cream cheese and vanilla in a large bowl. Add eggs; beat until light. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Add to creamed mixture; blend well. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Divide dough in half; press each half evenly into the pizza pans.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool completely in pans on wire racks. When cool, the cookies may be decorated with icing, icing sugar or other toppings. To serve, cut into slim wedges or break into pieces.
Leah
http://www.leahbraemel.com
PRIVATE PROPERTY – January 27, 2009
Excerpt
PERSONAL PROTECTION – May 2009
