Holiday Season of Baking

White Bread (Finished)

I can safely say I've baked enough to feed a town. Maybe a small town in Montana. I have been gluten free for a while, so imagine the fun I had baking every thing with so much gluten it was deliciously sinful.

White Bread (Baking)

I baked so many types of cookies, including one gluten free version. I made sludge. Well, it was fudge that I'd adjusted and it was a failed chemistry experiment, until I froze it and it set!

Salted Almond Sludge turned Fudge

I made bread. Raisin Bread that is sort of like German Kaffee-Kuchen mit Rosinen. I made white bread - two loaves. I made Raspberry thumbprint cookies. Polvorones (Pecan Mexican Wedding Cakes). Maple Pecan Granola - my favorite 3-pound granola, which is thus named because I typically gain 3 pounds when I've eaten through a batch.

The only thing I didn't do was the icing mess with kids, decorating sugar cookies (sorry girls, but you'll know I meant to and then, skiing became a priority).

Here's wishing you all a wonderfully delicious 2016.

Thumbprint Raspberry Butter Cookies

Raisin Bread - Kaffee Kuchen

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Homemade Bread and Butter

Mom and dad spent a couple of weeks with us and, on their last day visiting, mom left a surprise in the kitchen.

It has been another crazy day in the life of the Olivier clan. How wonderful to come home from work to the scent of freshly baked bread. Mom had been busy. Helping us with laundry, organizing our drawers and baking bread!

Although rushing to get to our aunt's for dinner, the girls each had a slice of bread with butter. It was still warm enough that the butter seeped into the bread. Delectable.

Dad! Mom! Come back!

Weekend Rituals

As cliché as this sounds, human beings are creatures of habit. This fact is punctuated by my 11 month old when she plays a new game with me in her crib at bedtime. She starts by looking straight at me above the crib gate, then she bends down and peeks at me through the jail bars of the crib and smiles or giggles. Then it starts again. We are defined by our rituals to varying degrees (although these rituals are less and less appreciated over time because they are more of a necessity). Work schedules, workout schedules, feeding schedules, sleeping schedules, and for some of us who have more time or who simply make more time (because maybe they are way more organized than I am), there are additional hobbies like golf, volunteering, or even sewing, knitting, cooking or going to city council meetings! But one ritual I really appreciate with my family is weekend breakfast.

Although I used to savor a simple cuppa with my face buried in a newspaper, it never felt as rewarding as a chaotic morning does now chez Olivier. When Paul is frying up bacon, I can't resist. Bacon really is the gateway meat.

And whoa I love me some good pancakes, especially Paul's French Pancake Recipe from A Taste of Oregon cookbook (a wedding gift from Julie Vincent 12 years ago this month). If you want that recipe, with even just one request, I'll post it!

Where Are the Green Bits?

Mom is here. You can tell because the house becomes wonderfully transformed. The kitchen is filled with desserts. She absolutely had to bake zucchini dessert and zucchini bread.

This dessert came from catholic nuns.

Ironically, neither the bread nor the dessert looks much like zucchini. She shaves off all of the green so the textured look from dark green peel is missing. And yet...the taste is so, so, so amazing. One bite and you stop looking for the green bits. You just close your eyes and smile.