2012 December 24 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Nap Time!

December 24, 2012 · by JudyL

This morning I was up at 5:30 with a sick dog. Poor Speck! The neighbor had requested we bring the turkey to them by 8 or 8:30 to get him on the smoker so I got dressed, worked in the sourdough starter/bread and stirred up a batch of Salty Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The Gingersnaps were already chilling in the fridge. I had made the dough Saturday and never got around to baking them.

Once the turkey was delivered, I got the cookies baked.

Gingersnaps on the right, Salty Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies on the left. What do you do with a girl who doesn’t like chocolate? Of course, you make chocolate chip cookies and leave out the chocolate chips! The 8 cookies in front are for me — no chocolate! And, I like my Gingersnaps more “gooey” than “snappy” so those behind my “no chocolate” chip cookies are the gooey ones. The good thing about being the cook is that you get to make some things just the way you like them!

Bread

Sourdough bread is rising on the back where it’s warm from having the oven on for the cookies. The sourdough starter in the jars has been fed and is proofing, waiting to return to the fridge.

One loaf of the sourdough will be used to bake this Blueberry French Toast.

I have no idea where this recipe originated. I would love to give credit where credit is due. This picture has been everywhere I’ve looked the past few days. I’ve seen it on Facebook. I’ve seen it on blogs. It’s even appeared in my inbox so I figured it must just be meant to be that I make this for Christmas morning. I’ll prepare it in two dishes, take one, along with the recipe, to the neighbor this afternoon when I go to pick up my turkey and they can have it for their Christmas breakfast.

This blog post has been interrupted, resumed, interrupted and resumed at least three times this afternoon.

The neighbors brought the turkey over and visited a few minutes. They left, I finished baking the bread and got the French Toast dish made, took it to the neighbor’s and now . . even though it’s way too late in the day, I am taking a nap!

· Filed Under: Home & Garden · 7 Comments

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2012 · by JudyL

While so many are hustling and bustling, visiting with family or awaiting the arrival of family, we’re having a very quiet Christmas this year.

Chad is only off Christmas Day and even if he had more time off, this is a good Christmas for them to spend with Nicole’s parents. Nicole is the first one in their immediate family to move away from “home” and it’s good that she’s close enough that they can leave when Chad gets off work today and go to her mom and dad’s. Vince asked if I wanted to go to MO for Christmas but I told him no . . we would be in a hotel and it seems more appropriate for Chad and Nicole to spend this year with her parents. My parents were here for Thanksgiving so we’re not going there and they’re not coming here for Christmas.

As far as cooking, there’s not going to be much of that going on. The neighbor is smoking a turkey and ham and had plenty of room on his smoker so they asked if we wanted to put something on there so we’re putting a turkey on his smoker. I’ll fix something to go with it but not much. I didn’t even make a pie or a cake! We’ll have cookies and maybe sticky buns for dessert.

As far as gifts, Vince and I don’t buy for each other. We get what we need/want throughout the year and in the past couple of months, it’s been a loveseat, recliner, stove, freezer, washer, dryer, grill, chipper, wood splitter .. and those are just the big items. Because of a crazy deal we had to make in order to get this house and land, we gave the seller an option to buy it all back within two years of the sale, if he needed it in order to make a sale on the big house on the big piece of land go through. He did not need our house, the big house has sold and the buy back offer is no longer effective so, as soon as we knew this places was ours as long as we want it, we had a lot of catching up to do so . . we’re not spending anything else for a while . . I hope!

I guess all this means one thing . . I’ll spend the day sewing! Safe travels to all who are on the road or in the air. Merry Christmas to you all!