On 2018-12-02 11:58 p.m., Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Sun 02 Dec 2018 03:04:33p, graham told us...
>
>> On 2018-12-02 2:48 p.m., Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>>> We had so much pie for Thanksgiving that I decided to make candy
>>> for Christmas and New Year's.
>>>
>>> First I made 2 batches of peanaut brittle. Next were 2 batches
>>> of pecan pralines. After going any further I vacuum packed both
>>> candies to keep them as fresh as when they were first made.
>>> These were both from old family recipes. so no specific
>>> attributions.
>>>
>>> Yesterday I made 2 bathes of Nougat from the Spledid Table
>>> website. They were wondrful, but I wasan't quite done with 1
>>> batch. Today I coated 1 batch of nougat with dark chocolate and
>>> it still needs to set until sufficiently hard. I covered the
>>> other batch with edible rice paper. Tonight I will vacuum pack
>>> both bathes of nouget.
>>>
>>> Tomorrow I will make myown recipe of rum balls using choped
>>> pastchios, honey, dark cocoa powder and Myer's Plantation Rum.
>>> Those freeze well, so I may not vacuum pack them.
>>>
>>> And, NO, I won't be taking any pictures:-)
>>>
>>> A couple of days before Christmas I may break down and bake 1
>>> mincemeat pie. I still have two quarts left of the 6 quarts of
>>> homemade mincemeat that I pressure caned just before last
>>> Christmas.
>>>
>>> As to Christmas dinner, we're breaking with tradition and having
>>> brisket along with potato latkes and a few other side dishes.
>>>
>> Well it does celebrate a Jewish birth:-)
>>
>> I'll be doing 2 batches of xmas baking, the first for a pre-xmas
>> visit to son #2 in BC and the second for son #1 here. No mince
>> pies - I haven't made those in many a year having replaced them
>> with almond tartlets. Then there will be batches of chocolate
>> cookies of different types and hues and perhaps Parisian macarons
>> if I feel up to it. I made a batch of chocolate thumbprint cookies
>> filled with ganache last week and judging from the response of my
>> fast-growing grandson, those will be on the menu too.
>>
>
> It all sounds delighful! When we lived in Ohio I used to bake a wide
> variety of cookies including several different types of German
> cookies and Slovak and Polish pastry type cookies. I don't do nearly
> as much baking here in AZ as I did there. Old age and an aggravated
> back injury has caught up with me. :-)
>
I don't particularly like xmas spices. I know that they are traditional,
going back centuries but I avoid them in all my xmas baking.