My Life's Ingredients

Welcome to the annual "OH SH... Sugar, it's only 10 days to Christmas and I haven't done ANYTHING yet!!!" post ... ;) Well... the 2 packages to Germany have been sent in time at least (that COULD have been prevented, had I started the presents maybe in November???! Then I could have taken the presents with me on our trip (and sent one internally there and hand off the others)). And we baked one batch of cookies (well... I made the dough, the girls did the mixing, started helping with the cutting out and then both got evicted from helping due to not following instructions despite being told 3 times each)... I've got 2 to 4 handmade presents to do (depending if the girls get their Disney Princesses PJs now or for their birthday). And maybe some cards for family and maybe for (crafty) friends (at least I had the foresight to obtain their addresses). Also was hoping to make at least 2 more batches of cookies (might be more) and a Stollen (this year o...

What easier to go for in December than Christmas baking! So after a lot of Christmas Markets in my November 10 things , my 10 things for December are my favourite baked goods during Advent/Christmas time (not necessarily all made by me or at least not yet): (photos for first 3 items are mine, the rest is courtesy of Google) “Stollen” (usually just the buttery type with candied fruit and raisins, but also like the Nougat type or Poppy seed one – just NO MARZIPAN one please – can’t stand the taste of it!!) – best with some squishy cream and a cuppa hot chocolate or tea! “Vanillekipferl” (vanilla crescents – tried my best in this country to get my granny’s recipe going, but somehow they don’t rise properly and go all flat – would have thought I’d have figured out why after 13 years!) (2008 batch) (2009 batch) And the 2010 batch looked again like the one from 2008!!! I wonder if it’s the butter … or flour…   “Husare...