Our pinwheels have chocolate outsides

White cookie dough is much harder to handle than chocolate dough.  Its looser consistency makes it difficult to smooth out, flip and control, and therefore it isn't easy to lift it into position to marry with the chocolate base layer.

But that's what you have to do to achieve the preferred handsome dark edge.

So remember, Christmas cookie fans, whenever you sample a yummy pinwheel with the chocolate on the outside edge, please know that you're eating an icebox cookie baked by an expert.

We proudly present this year's batch:

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(Yes, those are Russian tea cakes in the background.)

Mothers Holiday Treat

 

It is 12/12/12 so tonight we celebrated by testing out our featured drink for holiday entertaining, and it's a winner! This year we are going with, (drum roll) the Peppermint Patti.
It's hot, it's chocolate, it's lightly alcoholic, with just a breath of peppermint. What's not to like? Oh yes. It's topped with a lovely shhoosh of whipped cream and chips of crushed candy cane. Yum.

Mortar and pestle for
crushing peppermint
canes. (Optional --
you can use a hammer and
a plastic bag.)

Here's the recipe:

• Eight ounces of hot, hot water in a festive mug
• Stir in three tablespoons of Swiss Miss Chocolate Mix
• Add one half shot of Mothers Peppermint Schnapps
• Squirt on a generous swirl of Reddi Whip
• Top with candy cane, crushed and sprinkled

This was so good, we made two more. We've got a full canister of Swiss Miss and a fifth of Mothers Peppermint Schnapps so we're good to go for the entire season, even if the Mayans got it wrong.

The best part is that we have finally figured out a way to use that big gift bottle of Mothers Peppermint Schnapps some thoughtful soul had re-gifted to us a few years back, since then long forgotten on the liquor shelf. Its seal remained unbroken . . . until tonight, 12/12/12.

Katie bought our first Waechtersbach
Christmas cups from Dayton's 30 years ago.

Night Light

All is calm on the cliff. . .

All the familiar characters have returned this year to the traditional Nativity Scene, taking their parts in recreating the story of the birth of Jesus. Our rustic shed sheltering the manger was hand-built 20 years ago and survives today, probably because it is rustic and a few dings don't really matter, you just jam the shingles back on when they fall off.
(The homemade wooden toy trains put together in the early 80s haven't fared as well. The half-life of Elmer's household glue means their wheels keep falling off and the smokestacks get lost somewhere in the tinsel.)

New addition to the nativity scene this year (ta dah) is the rocky cliff (above) carved out of a sandwich of blue house insulation foam and painted brown. Whether or not Jesus ever lodged near such a precipitous ledge, with all the worry about the looming cliff the country may fall over right after Christmas, it seems we could use any divine help available in that regard.

Trash Day

Monday morning on the Tundra

Our annual tribute to Robert Frost

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

Sunday snow

The first serious snowfall of the year fell on a Sunday, not a school day, a fact not lost on Mackenzie and Joey, down the street. They took full advantage of the steep backside slope of the No. 17 tee box, standing like bold surfers on their snowboards, taking their spills before reaching snow-covered Fairhaven Drive.

A faithful neighborhood newspaper volunteer took his turn through the overnight snow to the central distribution point at 7:15 this morning. Alas, he got to the boxes before the Sunday paper did, so he trudged back home disappointed, empty-handed. New snow has blanketed the state. Looks like we got a couple of inches, enough to make a White Christmas, but certainly not enough to delay the newspaper, we thought. Aargh. The snowplows did their work, but we do miss the paper. A morning paper should always come in the dark.
More snow all day Sunday. The Wild Boars rejoice.

Saturday snow rise

The sun rose on a lightly-frosted neighborhood this morning. They promise much more snow this afternoon, but mostly to the north of us. Heavy plows patrolled overnight, we watched their warning lights flash on the bedroom ceiling. Seemed a bit over-eager given the lightness of the snowfall, maybe they're just getting the kinks out. We pulled the covers tighter and thought of snowstorms past.