It's Christmas time!

A view from our perch.



I have been humming this song by Sufjan Stevens all day. Here is someone's homemade music video for it:



If that gets taken down, there is always lala:

Hey Guys! It's Christmas Time!...

Pepparkakor!

Apologies on the lack of recent blogging, but now I am done done done with finals and can write a little! Christmas break has been wonderful so far, and has been filled with lots of cooking and baking. We will write more soon, but for now, here is the recipe that I've been using for this season's pepparkakor, adapted from two or three recipes in Swedish Recipes Old and New by the American Daughters of Sweden, 1955.

• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cloves

1. Heat molasses in small saucepan to boiling point. Then boil 1 minute. Add sugar and butter and stir until butter is melted. Cool. Beat in egg.
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, and spices. Add to first mixture and mix thoroughly.
3. Cover bowl tightly and refrigerate overnight. Roll out a small portion of the dough at a time on a lightly floured pastry cloth. Roll out thin. Cut desired shape.*
4. Bake at 350 F for 6 to 8 minutes (until edges just begin to darken).

*Optional: add a sliver of almond in the center of the cookie.

Yield: 10 dozen cookies

Merry Christmas!

From all of us.

Here is a video of Winnie opening a present from her Grandma.

Christmas!

Ah, another Christmas is past. We had two Christmases this year, one at my parents' and one at Chris' parents'. And there is a third coming some time in January out in Wisconsin with Chris' grandparents and cousins. We had our own little Christmas morning here too, under our pretty tree. Winnie finally picked up on the idea of opening presents this year, and got really excited when we both started ripping up paper. She opened up her bone by herself (in the photos below), then promptly buried it back in the wrapping paper.

There seemed to be a bit of a kitchen theme with presents this year- we got a great mixer, a nice big pot for making soups and pasta, a beautiful slate cheese board, a cute little food processor, Woot Wine, an awesome corkscrew, and a basket full of vinegars and other yummy things for spicing up our cooking. It feels like half the time we're at home is spent either cooking or eating, so it's great to have so many new things in the kitchen to play with!

We tried to give a lot of handmade and local things this year, inspired by our trip to the first Craftmas Spectacular held in Uptown in early December. We found out about it when some of our neighbors advertised that they'd be participating, and ended up finding a lot of great artsy-crafty things there. We followed up with a trip to I Like You, the store that sponsored the Craftmas show, and found more good things there. Then, after finals, we both went on a crazy baking spree and produced several dozen cookies and candies and about five gallons of fruit soup. Yum...

Now that Christmas is over, it's time to prepare for our trip up north. We bought most of our food today. I still need some winter supplies, so we're hitting up the Scratch and Dent sale at REI tomorrow morning... do winter coats ever get scratched and dented?

Winter Adventure!

I have not had much to post about but here is something, Megan and I are going up north! Just a few miles past the cabin even. We made reservations for three nights, the first in a B&B on the 31st and then in a Yurt (pictured right) for the 1st and 2nd. So, a REALLY quiet new years for us but thats what was available!

It should be an adventure. We hope to get back to the cabin for a winter visit and check out some trails around the area. It should be cold and snowy, but they have a sauna next to the Yurt and we wont have to worry about wolves eating us like winter camping...

It's beginning to look a lot like......

Winter?


No, Christmas!



And presents?



Oh boy...

Soup

Well, after picking on Chris about his lack of blogging, he has made up for it and then some... So now it's my turn again :-)

Christmas is pretty much over now. I had a great (busy) day, with lots of good food and friends and music and no homework, just like I asked for. I guess I also got a few presents, too... A few good books, and lots of things for the apartment (crock pot!). Wine glasses and a wine rack (oh and some wine), corgi socks, coffee and chocolate. Bjorn gave me this goofy thing called a Labbit... a bunny that comes with various accessories to put in his mouth. I thought Labbit was silly, but he's been sitting on my night stand and gets a different accessory every day... *hugs Labbit*

The Pooh Bear got a squeeky penguin (you can see it in the picture of her snoozing on Christmas day). I also got the soundtrack to the movie "Curious George", which is surprisingly good and uplifting. Remember to share and recycle, and isn't it fun to go on a bus ride? It always makes Winnie fall asleep (aw).

The Schommer Christmas party was great too. Crab cakes and Swedish meatballs, and Christmas crackers (I got a fish in mine). I gave some St. Paul Dairy cheese, which I thought was kind of a strange gift at first, but I think it worked out well. It was a thing that was related to vet school, but didn't come from Veterinary Student Supply (who really needs another coffee mug, anyway?). I also gave a creel, which is apparently a more distinctive shape than I though (I should have put it in a box...). I got an awesome Daiwa reel, bathy-lotiony-girly things (perfect for after having to do stinky things at school, like play with cows), a beeswax candle, chocolate (three different kinds!), and the most incredible hot chocolate I've ever had. Making it is a little labor intensive, because you're supposed to warm the mug, heat the milk on the stove, and whisk the chocolate in, but oh it's so worth it. Swiss Miss will never be good enough anymore...

I've been fantastically lazy ever since Christmas. It's great. Reading books for fun, playing with the puppy, and shopping marathons at Ikea (thank goodness we don't have to buy all that other stuff, like cabinets and countertops and appliances). My goal for today is to make soup. Beef and barley soup, specifically. Here's the recipe I'm gonna try:

1/4 tsp. thyme
1 beef soup bone
1 lb. lean beef stew meat, cut in sm. pieces
1 to 2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 med. onion, chopped
1 c. carrots, chopped
1 c. celery, chopped (include some leaves)
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1 (1 lb.) can tomatoes
2 tbsp. dried parsley flakes
1 tbsp. salt
1 bay leaf
3 peppercorns
3/4 c. pearl barley

Brown beef (cut up in small pieces) in oil in a large kettle or Dutch oven. Add water, soup bone, and herbs and spices and bring to a boil. Simmer 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Remove bone, skim fat from top of soup. Add vegetables, cook about 30 minutes. Add barley. Cook about 10 more minutes until barley is done and vegetables are tender. Makes 6 to 8 servings. Freezes well. Tastes best on second and subsequent days.

Wish me luck! It's a very soupy day in Northfield, wet and gray... Hopefully this will make enough soup that we can have "second and subsequent servings." Yum.

Christmas!

Chess

Well Christmas is past and it was a wonderful time. Great meals (two christmas dinners!) good company and good time to catch up with family. I was able to give a handmade gift to every one this year. A bird to both Megan's and my parents, chess sets for the siblings, a glass plate for Megan, a glass sculpture for my dad, and ornaments for the tree. I was really happy with the way the chess sets turned out and loved giving them away. I am looking forward to visiting them in their respective homes often. I took some photos of them for my portfolio, you can see them in this slide show.

My parents also got all of the kids a life-long gift of Wüstof Knives, the best kitchen knives in the world. It is a set of 6, a larger chopping knife, a larger utility knife, a bread knife, a paring knife, kitchen scissors, and a diamond knife sharpener in a block. There are three open spaces in the block to fill.

Megan and I also promised each other that we would get each other a gift that we could bring to the apartment in May as our Christmas present. So we went to IKEA today to look at their stuff and came away with about $700 worth of stuff! Or, rather, we wish we did! No its just a list and I have

IKEA

posted those things on a google picasa web album for you to see as well. I think the chairs are the most important thing so they match the table. Then the bed, then the other stuff. The big book shelf looks really great in person, but I think its too expensive for right now. I might try building something like that even. I like it because it is so tall and there is no back so we could put it over the brick if we wanted to. I also want to build something for the big 43 gallon fish tank out of bricks. It will match the walls!

More Christmas

After Christmas here, and after Win was thoroughly tuckered (see below), all three of us headed over to the Schommers' for Christmas part 2. More great food, great talk, great presents, great company! I got some good-smelling things and good-tasting things, and a beautiful Daiwa reel that will allow me to reclaim my status as Great Fisherperson of East Bearskin this summer...

More to say tomorrow- or, technically, later today. Christmas is over for one more year...

So this is Christmas....

Merry Christmas everyone!

-Love c, m, and w

Bad bloggers

Chris and I are apparently lousy bloggers at Christmas time...

Not much to say except a) Marley and Me is a very good, laugh-and-cry-inducing book and b) here are my official grades thus far:

Veterinary Gross Anatomy: B
Physiological Chemistry: B
Normal Radiographic Anatomy: A

Weeeee! Let's see how the rest turn out...

Merry Christmas Eve, all!