gack! another christmas is nearly at our throats!

being largely out of commission for the last... three weeks? has it been three whole weeks? i guess it has, maybe even four. yikes. surgery does that to you, i guess.

anyway.

this weekend i had a little panic about the holidays being almost here and our party being just three weeks away and needing to send out invites and and and...

so after spending friday morning at the paediatrician's with a sick kid (he woke up literally sobbing with pain from an ear infection) i got to work. i started by writing a cookie dough inventory (cookie dough is one of those things you can do ahead and freeze): imperial cheddar, viennese icebox, hamantaschen, sugar cookies, chestnut shortbread, done. and today, i'm going to make gingerbread dough. nice to get a few things ticked off the list.

then, i made a list of everything i need to make for the party and xmas dinner, and started in. fruitcake needs to be done early so it can "ripen," so i started by digging through the freezer to find candied peel i'd made earlier. found lemon, orange, and grapefruit! all currently soaking in sherry and rum so i can bake my fruitcakes today. also found a bag of organic cranberries, so made cranberry sauce. and while i was at it, red onion relish and red pepper jelly. picked the last of the arugula from our garden and made artichoke dip, subbing the arugula for spinach. candied some more peel too, since i ate a couple of grapefruits yesterday (need vitamin c!).

and a bit of good/bad news; the bad news is the health food store in our neighbourhood is closing. the good news is bulk foods are 40% off, so i bought a ton of flour of various kinds, along with pecans and cashews and sea salt.

finally, i decided to try my hand at something that's always frightened me a bit - puff pastry! it's resting in the fridge now, and i'm thinking - the brick you can buy frozen is 400g (divided into two squares of 200g each) - this is about double that by weight, so i am going to divide it into pieces, freeze most, and use one today as a tester - that way i'll have an idea about whether or not it worked! also i love palmiers, so i am keen to make some. will post pics later, hope it's a success!