'Tis the Baking Season

As we were decorating our tree, we explained that it was for Baby Jesus' birthday, so now Abby thinks that Baby Jesus is actually IN our Christmas tree. When we turn on the lights she gasps and says "Look at Him!! Baby Jesus! Aww." (Have I mentioned lately that I love my camera?! Thanks again Love. You're too good to me!)

This year I have way more time than we have money, so all of our Christmas gifts are going to be homemade. Last week it dawned on me that the postal mail cut off for Christmas delivery is fast approaching. No biggie. Except that I have NOTHING done!! Not one single project is completed. I've always said that I work better under pressure and here I am proving it to be true yet again.

If you're expecting a Christmas package from me, I'd stop reading now. Unless of course you need a reason to stalk your mail carrier until it arrives! 

Friday and Saturday were spent working on crafty gifts for grandparents and some other pretty special people. I am so excited to share this project with you (my one faithful follower!), but you're just going to have to wait a few more weeks! The rest of my weekend was spent working up a baking plan and shopping for the coming week's meals and baking mayhem.

Today I was given the rare opportunity to sleep in. (Thanks Husband!) When I woke up I got straight to work - I baked bread for the second time this week, made coffee chocolate cake, Bailey's Irish Cream frosting, Orange-Almond-Cranberry Biscotti and Spritz/Press/Butter/Whatever You Want To Call Them Cookies. Then I made Slow Cooked Ratatuille with Polenta for dinner. After I cleaned up dinner and got Abby off to bed, I formed cake balls, which are now hanging out in the freezer waiting to be coated in chocolate tomorrow. I have also prepped for tomorrow's meals and measured dry ingredients for making Gingerbread Cookies and Peppermint Cocoa Kiss Cookies. Phew.

Oh my goodness I don't even think I can tell you how many times I have washed my mixer today! I am exhausted, but I absolutely must get a workout in tonight to make up for all of the finger-licking and taste testing I did today...and will do again tomorrow! For tonight, I will leave you with a few pictures and a promise for recipes to come!

Slow-Cooked Ratatouille and Polenta from America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. Hands down heartiest meatless meal I have ever made. I will definitely be adding this recipe to our regular rotation!

Orange-Cranberry-Almond Biscotti cooling and waiting for some white chocolate lovin'.

I love just plain ol' vanilla Spritz Cookies. It must be the simplicity and the less is more philosophy.  That and my cookie press was given to me by a very special person and I think of her so fondly every time I use it.

Everything But The Kitchen Sink

I do my best to plan out a weekly menu based on what is in season, on sale and looking good in the produce section, but if your house is anything like mine things rarely go as planned. It never fails there is almost always at least one meal that doesn't get prepared. This week several meals didn't get made and I was left with an onion, two bell peppers, an eggplant, mushrooms and spinach.

I really hate to see good food go to waste, especially now that we're shelling out more money for organic produce, and not everything freezes well. This is why I like to have a few "Everything But The Kitchen Sink" recipes on hand, so that I can prepare a quick meal using whatever ingredients I have on hand. For about two years now my standby recipe was a simple fritata, but when your eggs are delivered from the farm on Wednesday and it's Tuesday night that isn't always an option. I recently discovered polenta and though probably not as healthy as a fritata, but it provides a welcome change around here.

Grilled Veggies
Eggplant - Trim ends and cut into 3/4-1 inch thick rounds.
Onions - Trim ends, peel, and cut into 3/4-1 inch thick rounds. Skewer to keep them from falling apart.
Bell peppers - Cut in half lengthwise, remove stem, seeds, and ribs.
Toss prepared veggies with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place on preheated gas grill for 10-25 minutes depending on your preferences, turning over at least once during the cooking. Saute the spinach and sliced baby Portabella mushrooms in a skillet with a little olive oil, s&p while they other veggies are on the grill.

Polenta - adapted from America's Test Kitchen
4 cups water
approx 1 tsp salt
2 cups coarse ground cornmeal (aka polenta grits)
2 tbps butter
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Boil salt and water. Slowly whisk in polenta. Return to boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cook about 15-20 minutes or until done. Remove from heat, stir in butter and cheese.

See, I told you it was simple! I just chopped the grilled veggies and tossed them with the satueed veggies. I served the polenta in a bowl topped with lots of veggies. It would have been really nice to top with some fresh herbs, but I had none. The spinach was a bit wimpy in texture compared to the rest of the veggies and I think I'd use large Portabello mushroom caps and grill them in the future, but again the whole point was to use what I had on hand.