‘Tis the Season for…

Stress?

Sickness – cold/flu?

Finals?

Baking?

Miracles?

The Christmas season is a time when many things seem to occur like clock work. Everybody gets sick at the same time, every student is stressing over finals and end projects, and in the midst of it all we are all hoping and praying for a miracle during this holly jolly season of ‘anything is possible’

I can say this past week I have been beyond stressed. Adam and I are now officially moved into our new house as of Saturday night, after many back and forth trips, that also included returning our couch that was deemed too small for the space. Adam’s brother in law has been quite sick the past two weeks and still struggling with a flu type sickness, and last week began what I dub the week of no eating and no sleeping. I am officially finished this semester of the PDP teaching program and passed my final and practicum, and this last week was a wind-down week of bringing together the loose ends and preparing to gear up for the long practicum beginning in January. Now, it wasn’t exactly a stressful week in terms of school but in terms of my personal life it was quite a difficult week.

They say moving is one of the hardest, most stressful thing you can go through in life.

As I googled “moving is stressful” the top site hits were:

“Moving house is one of the most stressful experiences you’ll have” – Where one man said he had moved 26 times and finds it hard to believe it is stressful – an answer to which one man replied “Is your house a caravan?” Well noted.

As well as “Moving is the third most stressful event in life, following death and divorce.” This I can agree with because I have already experienced two of the three (no divorce here). Funny how life goes, as this week as we were moving in I also had a shockingly stressful week because of a terrible loss in my extended family. While I still believe Miracles may happen, this season our family was not afforded a Miracle. I won’t go into the details, but just want to remind everyone what this Season is truly about – Family and Friends and gathering together to celebrate in whichever way this may be for you and yours.

Embrace the joy of being with Family and Friends as often as possible. Don’t let the small things get to you (as my mom and Adam are constant reminders to me.) I am terrible at thinking of every small thing at once and turning it into a large thing to focus on.

‘Tis the Season for miracles if you are lucky enough to experience one.

I am constantly reminded how many days there are until Christmas through e-mail reminders, and how many short days there are left to buy presents. Just a reminder that presents aren’t everything. Just being Present in your families life is a large enough gift.

I also missed out on my last day for the semester with my PDP family and our get together, for which I optimistically baked this loaf for. Baking and cooking are a huge stress reliever for me. I think due to the whole not eating/not sleeping properly last week my stomach has taken quite a beating with the stress and is now taking it out on me. It’s been in knots, quivering, and nauseous the past few days and kept me at home. I made some chicken soup with rice for dinner, and enjoyed a bowl for breakfast as well. Instead of sharing this loaf with my school family, I’ll share it with Adam and his co-workers this week.

Lainey did her job as a therapy dog (her original purpose), and kept me company while I wasn’t feeling well

Cranberry Orange Loaf

Recipe adapted from: Just a Taste
and Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

Directions:

{Etta James Style}

This has been a long time coming.

A Very. Very. Very. Long time coming.

I have wanted a new camera probably since I started this blog in 2008. Not just any camera, but a Canon.

I have had my eye on a Canon Rebel for quite some time. A couple things held me back from getting one right away, but mostly the cost. As a ‘starving student’ (Hah) I just couldn’t bring myself to spend upwards of 500-600$ on a camera when I wasn’t exactly working, and in school full time. So, I made do with what I had. Adam and I bought a Panasonic Lumix camera back when we went to Mexico the first time. This was a major upgrade to my old point and shoot Nikon. However, that was about 300$ on sale at the time we purchased it, and we split it 50/50. It was also a point and shoot, but a huge step up, and only a few steps down from a DSLR. It was a pretty good camera, but it just wasn’t what I was looking for in a camera.

Bloggers will know, especially food bloggers, that the pictures are everything. A very appetizing dish can quickly become un-appetizing with a bad photograph. So many times I have made wonderful, delicious recipes that I wanted to share with you, but the photo’s just weren’t great. It’s hard to sell a recipe when the photograph looks so unappealing. I can go on and on about how amazing good it was, but if the photo isn’t great you may not be up to trying it out. Somewhat like my cookbook theory; if there’s no pictures in the book I don’t buy it. I need a photograph! Otherwise, how else am I going to know if it turned out right? Or, if it looks like something I might want to try. I need at least 80% of the recipes to have photographs accompanying them! If I ever made a cookbook, or maybe When, I make my own cookbook I would make sure Every Single Recipe has a picture. Cooking is very visual.

People, the photographs are the food relationship deal breaker.

I had been trying to use the point-and shoot Lumix, but it just wasn’t capturing the photographs right. It’s sad to say that my iPhone camera worked better for me, and about 70% of the photo’s on the blog recently were probably from my iPhone.

I had said I wasn’t going to partake in the Black Friday madness, but I was sucked in. I was browsing the flyers and sales and noticed a Canon Rebel T3 on sale at Black’s Photography (no pun intended.) The deal was $399 for the Rebel T3, including a lens. Now, I have been hunting and drooling over, and stalking Canon cameras for probably the last year or two religiously. Adam can confirm my lamenting about wanting a new camera forever. So, when I saw one on sale for LESS than 400$ I was shocked! Then, I also saw Shoppers Drug Mart had one on for $379! As well, WalMart had it on for $398, plus they Ad-Match, so you could bring in the Shopper’s Ad and price match it. So, I asked Adam to kindly stop on his way home from work to pick me one up! What a great boyfriend =)

Now, I’m still a starving well fed student, but I had recently sold a few new/recently won un-needed items on Craigslist, and had been saving up my money specifically for a new camera, stored in my great-aunts teacup on my dresser. Thankfully the amount I had saved in my antique teacup was the exact amount needed. Therefore, not money out of pocket for me!

{Adam’s dog, Chubby. One of my first photographs}

It’s nice to know that after saving up, and waiting I finally have what I’ve wanted. It also makes you appreciate it more knowing that you’ve been wanting it for so long.

Good things come to those who wait.

Now, of course to celebrate I had to break in the new camera with a recipe. I needed something to take pictures of clearly.

I brought these to a Cousins get together last night, the first holiday party of the season! They were a hit, and definitely going to be making them again this season. They reminded me of my Blackberry Crumb bars, but the base and topping were a little more firm.

Cranberry Lemon Squares
Adapted from: Kitchen Culinaire  

For the dough:

3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced (juice reserved for filling)
1 cup,  cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg
2-3 tbs. water
2 tsp. vanilla

For the filling:

1 bag frozen cranberries, plus a little more depending on your baking dish size.
1/2 cup sugar
reserved juice from 1 medium lemon
2 tablespoons corn starch

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. Mix the cranberries, sugar and the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Add the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and mix well. I always have lemon juice on hand, so I added a bit more to the mixture.
2. For the dough combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, and lemon zest in mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on low to combine dry ingredients.
3. Slowly add chilled cubed butter and mix on low until dough forms pea sized crumbs, don’t over mix. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again. Add a couple tsp. of water if needed, more or less, until dough just comes together but still slightly crumbly. You can also use a food processor if you like.
4. Press a little more than half of the dough into the bottom of a  9 x 13 inch baking dish with your fingers. Set remaining dough aside for topping.
5. Next add the cranberry filling, in a single layer so that the top is evenly covered, you don’t want any gaps.
6. Crumble the remaining dough evenly over the top in small/pea sized clusters using your fingers to crumble it.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or so until the top starts to brown.
8. Cool on countertop, you can also move it to the fridge to cool completely. Let sit at room temp for a few minutes before cutting.

These would also freeze nicely for the holiday season!

After the peanut butter cookies were eaten in a mere couple hours (ok, maybe 48 hours, thanks to mom and brother) I had an urge to make these oat bars. My mom begs me to stop baking sometimes because she doesn’t want to eat them all! (She ate three of the peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies in a matter of seconds. Sorry mom!) But I can always send them to work with my brother, if she really wants them out of the house! (she doesn’t.) 

I made these a few times this summer, after I had seen them in the Kraft Canada Magazine Fesitve 2007 issue. This time I didn’t have any cranberries on hand so I used raisins. Both are really yummy because you soak them in orange juice before baking. And I was sad to find no oats, so I used three single serving packages of brown sugar instant oatmeal (each servings is 1/2 cup.)  They are great to pack in lunches. I took some to class (and secretly ate them in the bio lab. Shh!!) I also added some shredded coconut. You can add pretty much anything you like, but no peanuts this time. I think i had my day with those. No more.

Ingredients