A Taste of Summer

During these cold, snowy days, my thoughts drift to spring. I always feel like I am just marking time until the nights get shorter and the soil reappears. During the darkest days of December, one's spirits often need a little lift, and fresh raspberry jam can do the trick! A taste of summer in a jar..........mmmmmmmmmmm. Nothing better. I thawed out berries that I had picked and frozen in August, but if you want to make jam, just go buy a couple of packages of unsweetened frozen raspberries, and follow the no cook jam recipe inside the box of Certo liquid pectin. So easy my 6 year old can make jam (and he does, but usually drips it all over the floor while he's at it). Then make fresh biscuits or scones and savor the flavors. :-) Happy New Year!

Christmas Cookies

I like to bake. I could spend all day in my sunny kitchen making a huge mess, listening to music, covering everything with flour. And normally, Christmas is a really good excuse for making a huge assortment of cookies and giving most of them away. Homemade cookies just always seem like a really good present, especially for teachers and other people that just might not have the time to bake treats for themselves. Shortbread, coconut squares, pecan crescents, gingerbread men, Nanaimo bars............. I am always experimenting. I can't help myself, it's my scientific background. ;-)

Sadly this year, I am kind of behind because of the jaunt to Mexico, and have only made one batch of cookies so far. But this weekend! Definitely this weekend, I will be making several batches of rolled cookies. I have a huge collection of cookie cutters, largely inherited from my mom, and the kids love to help cut out cookies. Decorating is pretty fun too. I will probably make my usual gingerbread people, but will also try this sugar cookie recipe from my friend Sue. I haven't made these before, but I've eaten them, and they were delicious!

Sue's Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt


Cooking Instructions:

Part 1
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until creamy.
Add egg and beat until fluffy.
Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir into wet mixture until well blended.
Form dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Flatten and refrigerate for 1.5 – 2 hours.


Part 2
Preheat oven to 3500 F
Remove dough from fridge and work it slightly so its not crumbly
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to ¼ inch thickness
Cut out cookies
Sprinkle with sugar or sprinkles if desired
Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes until edges are lightly browned
Transfer to wire rack after 2-3 minutes of cooling

The Mayan Riviera

We had a fabulous week at the Grand Sirenis resort on the Mayan Riviera. It was our first time at one of these fancy schmancy all inclusive places, and the last time Ron and I were down this way, Playa del Carmen was a sleepy little fishing village and the 'mayan riviera' and all these resorts did not exist. How things change, and so quickly too!

The resort was very nice - the sheer size of it took some getting used to, and there was a lot of walking to get from the room to the beach and the restaurants. This would be a tough place for some one with limited mobility. The hotel did offer shuttle service on elongated golf carts, but we rarely waited around for those! It was a lovely relaxed holiday. So nice to see the lush vegetation and feel the hot sun on your face, the sand between your toes, the taste of salt on your lips after swimming in the ocean. Sigh. Of course, we are in the middle of a cold snap in Edmonton right now, with day time highs around -20C.

The boys thought they were in heaven. In addition to the beach, there was a lazy river at the hotel, and several large swimming pools, and an ice cream bar, and a swim up bar where they could order Coco Loco's or Strawberry Dacquiri's, or Sherry Temples' or Congas. :-) There was food everywhere, and we had four dinner meals at different ala carte restaurants at the resort. I think our favorite was the Brazilian restaurant, where filet mignon, pork tenderloin, different sausages, chicken and even pineapple were cooked rotisserie style on swords, and then carved at the table. Yum!

Electronic Waste Recycling

I was browsing for something else on the internet today as I get ready to teach my course on waste management and utilization next month, and I stumbled across this video on 60 minutes. Food for thought as we upgrade our computers, cell phones and televisions..........

Winter 2009 Canadian Scrapbooker

If you haven't seen it yet, grab one! The gorgeous cover was done by my friend Holly , who is also a featured scrapbooker in the Passport to Creativity section in this issue. I had a lot of fun playing with postage for the frugal scrapbooker column, using everything from real stamps that I rip off envelopes or buy in themed lots for a few bucks on ebay (email me if you want the name of the seller in Regina I use), to fake stamps you can make for free or almost free.

Advent Calendars

I just love these things. And so do the boys. We have all sorts around the house to pass the time from December 1 to Christmas Eve. They are so much fun and kind of spread out the excitement and make the time until Christmas go a bit faster. Our favourite are the 'toy' ones - Lego and Playmobil. Every day you get a selection of Lego pieces behind a flap door (or Playmobil toys in a tiny cardboard box) which follow a theme and can be put together to form a specific scene. A lot of fun and a lot of play value!

I am especially fond of Playmobil calendars because they can be reused year after year. All you do is fold up the little boxes, collect the toys after Christmas and hide them in the basement for another 11 months.

I have always had advent calendars, although they were usually thin cardboard boxes, with numbered flaps and a small chocolate for each day of December. We still get some chocolate ones, mostly for the grown-ups. ;-) I just discovered the toy ones after Benny was born. I didn't realize until this week that perhaps not everyone has heard of advent calendars or seen one before! My brother in law was astounded by the whole concept. Perhaps it helps to be born in Germany ........... I think it might be a European tradition.