A Great Start to the New Year

 Happy New Year dear friends.  I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas holiday and a great start to the New Year.  I've had a wonderful holiday season with my family.

 

 Yesterday afternoon all the family ventured to the Montage Resort where we sat outside on the veranda and enjoyed coffee.  It was a perfect afternoon to watch the ocean and do a little people watching, too!  It was my daughter's idea (photo above) and we all agreed that this was a great way to start the New Year's Eve celebrations.

 

 Christmas at my home has been all boxed up until next year (although I hope the true meaning of Christmas is in my heart throughout the coming year).  My home is slowly coming back to it's normal, eclectic decor.  My dear son bought me these lovely pink carnations.  They brighten up the family room.

My beloved knitting needles have made a reappearance, too this season.  I'm knitting a pair of socks from the very talented Helen Stewart.  They're called Vintage Fairy Lights socks and you can find the info here on my Ravelry page. (Lilly insists on sitting my my lap when I'm knitting!)

I love to knit socks.  I taught myself how to knit them; unbeknownst to me that they can be a bit of a challenge. Luckily, I and my four DPN's get along very well.  I love the yarn I found on Etsy.  It's from Southern Skeins; she is an indie dyer from Florida.  Her yarn creations are so lovely and best of all, her prices are very reasonable!  My yarn is called "frosted berries"  which I thought was so appropriate for this project.

Speaking of the very talented Helen, she will be hosting The Handmade Sock Society.  There will be six sock patterns included in this KAL.  I can hardly wait until it begins in February.  Fun times ahead!

I received some beautiful and useful things for Christmas.  I love the perfume tray that my dear daughter and her family gave to me.  It sits on top of my Grandma's antique bird's eye maple chest which is in my closet.  It was fun to clean and rearrange the top of this much loved chest.

Lilly wanted to say "hello" to everyone.  She had a great holiday and is enjoying her catnip toys.  I hope everyone out there who has furry family loved ones, to wish them all the best for the New Year, too.

Thank you dear friends for being my friend and visiting my blog.  I wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

With my best wishes,

Pat

Egyptian Christmas Cookies Along With Danish!

Are you getting ready for my favorite time of Year?  I've had a great couple of days spending time in my kitchen and baking my favorite Christmas cookies.

First on the list were my Egyptian petit fours.  I tweeked the recipe a bit and made them in single cookies without any filling.  And, I just had to add some green Christmas trees.  Every year my Danish grandma would make "spritz" cookies in the shape of green Christmas trees.  I have kept the same tradition for my family. If you want the recipe, you can find it here on my blog from a few years ago.  Remember, the key to this recipe is using clarified butter and powdered sugar which gives this cookie it's unique texture :)

Another popular Egyptian holiday cookie is Uraybee* or Ghorayebah* or as it's known in turkey, Kurabiyesi.  I bought this mix in Turkey and brought it home with me.  Luckily, it had only two ingredients I had to "translate" and again I used clarified butter and oil. (My oil looks green because it's grapeseed oil!)  The cookies came out perfect!  I'm sold on this cookie mix and plan to buy it again.  Kurabiyesi is a rich, buttery, shortbread type cookie with a very fine texture.  My favorite - yum!

Now, we're going to head back to Denmark and here's my pebernodder (peppernuts) that I made this year.  Again, this is one of my Grandma's recipes and I just had to make them since my brother will be joining us for the holidays and he loves these as much as I do!  You can find the recipe here from a previous blog post.  Remember, you need to prepare the dough the night before so that it can ripen  the wonderful, spicy flavor. I love to pop them in my mouth, savor the flavor a minute or two before I bite into this delicious crunchiness.

 

Today I made my Danish Kleiner.  It seems that every culture has their own favorite fried cookie and this is our family's tradition from Denmark.  Again, it's my Grandma's recipe that I treasure.  Hopefully, I can pass this onto my little granddaughter so that she can make them one day.  They will be put away in an air tight tin and wait the arrival of my son since this is his favorite cookie.

Four down and one more cookie to make.  Tomorrow I hope to make some plain, old, much loved, chocolate chip cookies but with a twist using Nestle's Holiday Baking Chips.  Don't you just love how colorful these are?  I'm using my dear friend Elizabeth's recipe which you can find here.

What are you baking?  If you would like to share, please feel free in the comments below.  That's  about all that is happening here at Lilly My Cat.  I hope to share another post soon.

Blessings to everyone,

Pat 

PS *the Arabic language can be hard sometimes to translate into the Latin alphabet since there is no standardized translation.  But, you can google this cookie and see what you come up with since it's a popular cookie for all the countries in the Middle East. 

~~~ A Norwegian Christmas Luncheon ~~~

Hello my dear friends.  Here I am writing about Christmas and we're having temps in the high 80's today!  I'm still not used to being in  California for Christmas.  Last week my beloved Daughters of Norway lodge held their Christmas luncheon.

Our dear member, Gerd, opened up her home to host the luncheon for us.  The tables were beautifully decorated with the holiday theme.

The tree was aptly decorated and we placed our exchange gifts under the tree.

Our hostess had many beautiful Christmas scenes throughout her home but I loved seeing these Nissemen in their holiday finery.

Some of our members wore their Bunads, the national dress of Norway.  Pictured above is Berit on the left along with Carla.  Berit brought Carla her bunad from Norway this past year and it fits her perfect.  I love the embroidered designs and the bag.  The style of the bunad is based on what part of Norway you come from. 

There were more tables set up in the kitchen where all the food and activity was taking place.  We had pickled herring on brown bread for appetizers and it was yummy.

It was soon time to take our place at our assigned table.  Pictured in the glass dish is lingonberry sauce from Scandinavia.  It went so well with the entree.

We sang table grace in Norwegian before beginning our meal.

Speaking of food, here is what we feasted on; Norwegian meatballs with brown gravy, pork sausage, boiled red potatoes, browned cabbage, red cabbage, and a lovely Christmas colored salad with fresh vegetables.  It was delicious.

After our main course, we had dessert and coffee and then departed to the living room to have our gift exchange. 

It was such a lovely afternoon, spent together with dear friends and to continue the experience of Scandinavian customs.  Being Danish, I'm going to have this same menu for my family on Christmas Eve.  It's a tradition that we have had for many years, dating from the time when I was young and my Danish grandma would be in charge of our Christmas Eve meal.  I warms my heart to be able to carry on this tradition for my family and my grandchildren.

If you are of Scandinavian descent and are interested in joining a lodge, please take a look at Daughters of Norway or the  Danish Sisterhood of America.  They have lodges throughout the United States and are most welcoming to new members.

Do you realize that Christmas Eve is two weeks from today?  My home is decorated, the presents wrapped and now I will start my Christmas baking - my favorite part! Have a blessed week everyone and I will be back again to share some more happenings.  And, Lilly, my cat is doing very well.

With my best wishes,

Pat

PS Thank you dear Heidi for my new blog design.  The header photo is from my beloved Gig Harbor, Washington. 

❄ Christmas Season has Started at my Home ❄

Hello my dear friends.  I hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday.  It was warm here on Thanksgiving day; we set a heat record!  I'm so excited to share with you my latest find. . .

 A vintage 1949 Christmas issue of The Illustrated London Times.  I found it at our local library sale last week.  I was so thrilled to find this.  It's truly from a different time where I think things were more appreciated and classy than today.

 

As you can see, it was published for the US market at one dollar.  It was a weekly publication up until 1971 and it ceased publication altogether in 2003.

You can see that the insert for the subscription card is still intact in the magazine.  

I loved looking through the pages and seeing the advertisements from long ago.  This was published before I was even born!  (And, my children think I'm ancient...)

There were some beautiful illustrations in the magazine along with some wonderful stories that I have yet to read.

It was interesting to read about the Christmas customs of today.

 Speaking of my favorite time of year, you won't find any bah humbug here on my blog.  I too, don't like the commercialization of this blessed holiday but I ignore it.  It's simple really.  My shopping for Christmas is something that I look forward to do and I get it done early.  We bought the fresh tree for the family room yesterday at Home Depot and as you can see, it's up and decorated with hot pink lights!  It contains all the ornaments that mean so much to me.  The living room tree, which is artificial, will go up in a week or so.  Next up is wrapping presents to the sound of Christmas carols and baking my beloved Christmas cookies.

We have a family tradition that we always get our fresh tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving along with our dear daughter and her family.  Supposedly, there's a shortage of Christmas trees this year due to the recession and drought from years past.  Home Depot's tree lot was half full and many of those were already dry.  This is my daughter's beautiful fresh tree which my dear son-in-law takes care of each and every year.  And, looking at it in awe in the spirit of this upcoming blessed season are my little grandchildren.

Do you have fond memories of Christmas from years past?  I do and I have always tried to pass that onto my children and grandchildren.  Yes, we have gifts but it's not really about the gifts.  It's about family, tradition, worship and all the other wonderful things that go along with this holiday that really has nothing to do with money.

On a side note, I'm a little sad tonight since my dear kitty, Lilly, is not feeling well.  She has what I could call kitty stomach flu.  I will be calling the vet in the morning.  I cried earlier today as I'm so concerned about her.  She 12 1/2 years old and we've had her as a part of our family for over 10 1/2 years.  She is my child that I still have at home.  Please say a little prayer for her if you wish.

Until next time, I wish you all the very best for the upcoming week.

With my best wishes,

Pat

A Week of Cake, Lefse, Party Food & Socks!

Hello my dear friends.  It's Friday morning here and our heat wave has passed.  It felt like going into a furnace each time I walked outside this past week.  Hopefully, we can enjoy some nice fall weather southern California style!

It's been a nice week here at home.  Earlier this week we had some friends over for tea and cake.  I enjoyed using my English bone china tea cups that I've collected for years and years. (I inherited most of them from my dear Mother).  I made this seed cake from a recipe I found on the Simple Living blog.  I made it in my new 7" round cake pan and it turned out great.  I was so pleased.

Do you enjoy drinking tea out of pretty teacups?  Each afternoon I drink a cup of tea from one of my favorite teacups.  It just makes me feel like it is a treat and an afternoon enjoyment.

Yesterday, I met up with my dear Daughters of Norway friends and we made lefse.  It's my job to roll the dough and I always look forward to this activity.  I had to leave early but I know they made a lot of this delicious flatbread.

In the evening my daughter hosted a party and I made these appetizers to share.  It's an easy recipe and they make a nice addition to a party.  You'll find the recipe at the bottom of this post.

It's been awhile since I shared any knitting, crocheting or needlepoint.  I finished the socks above.  I called them my Aegean Socks since I knit them while vacationing on the Aegean Sea.  You can find the specifics here on my Ravelry page.

If you happen to enjoy knitting, crocheting, sewing, quilting, etc., please check out #stitchingsanta 2017.  Sewchet is hosting a secret santa/swap and you can sign up at her blog.  There are two categories to choose from; knitting/crochet or sewing.  I think it will be fun.  Sign up now if you want to join in as the deadline is October 31!  All the info in included in the link above.

I'd better start my day and see what Lilly is up to.  I think she's outside hunting geckos!  Enjoy your day and I look forward to hear from you!

With my best wishes,

Pat

Puff Pastry Appetizer

1 Package puff pastry

1 small potato 

1 to 2 tablespoons milk or water

1/4 cup to 1/3 cup feta cheese (I use Bulgarian sheep's feta)

1/2 cup grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

fresh chopped parsley - 1 tablespoon

fresh chopped dill or dried dill- 1 tablespoon fresh or 1 teaspoon dried

1 tsp dried mint

fresh chopped sage

salt and pepper

1 beaten egg

**Note**You can use any combination of cheese and herbs you may like to make this pastry.  Since I have an allergy to cows milk, I use sheep's milk cheese hence the Romano and Bulgarian feta.

Grease muffin tins.  (I used a 12 count and a 6 count muffin tin). I use puff pastry squares and cut each square into 4 pieces approximately 2" x2".  If you use a large sheet of puff pastry, cut into 2" by 2" squares.  Lightly place pastry into muffin tin; gather dough and place in muffin tin but don't press into tin.  Let the dough kind of float as when it bakes, it will fill into the tin.  

To make the filling, microwave potato for about 3 1/2 minutes. Peel and mash adding a little milk or water.  Don't add too much liquid as you want the mashed potato to be on the dryer side.  Add in cheeses and herbs.  Be careful with the salt as if your cheese is salty, add less salt.  Add in pepper and then beaten egg.  Stir mixture well until it is blended.

Place about 1 tablespoon of filling onto each pastry square.  (I usually divide the mixture in the bowl and that way I can judge how much filling to put into each square).  Place filled muffin tins into a 400 degree pre-heated oven and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes until golden brown and puffed.

Remove from tin and let cool on a wire rack.  Serve and enjoy!  

Although the recipe might look complicated, it is very, very easy.  You can adjust the filling to any taste you might like. 

 

Holiday Brune Kager Cookies

Hello dear friends.  The countdown is on . . . are you ready for the festivities?  I hope that wherever you are that winter is being kind to you.  We have had very windy weather down here in southern California.  And, when the sun sets, the chill sets in.  It's a perfect time to sit by the fire, sip a hot cup of tea and enjoy some Christmas cookies.

Being Danish, I look forward to making my Christmas cookies each year.  It's been over 40 years since I bought the little ornament above in Copenhagen.  I love bringing it out each year and putting it in a special place on my tree.

This cookie recipe is so easy to make as you mix up the dough and let it sit for two days in the refrigerator.  It's a new recipe that I tried this year.  I found the recipe here online via The Oregonian.

 

I followed the recipe as written using dark Karo syrup for the brown baking syrup.  You  may wish to add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the dry ingredients. After you mix the dough, roll it into logs and refrigerate for two days before baking.

This recipe made about 150+ cookies for me.  Do you like the new Emma Bridgewater Christmas plate I bought for myself?  It matches the teacup and saucer that my daughter bought for me last year.  These cookies are flavorful and very crisp.  I had to laugh to myself as they reminded me of poker chips the way they sounded when I put them in the serving plate!  And, no, I don't play poker :) 

There are many different recipes out there for brune kager.  You can search online or maybe you have a much loved cookbook with a recipe you could use.  Here's a small collection of my Scandinavian recipe books.

The brune kager are all tucked away my new cookie tin waiting to make their appearance on Christmas eve.  I just love these new Scandinavian cookie tins that my daughter gave me for my birthday.

Do you have a special holiday recipe that you make each season?  I wish each of you blessings during this special time of year.  And, thank you for visiting with me today.

With my best wishes,

Pat

Neopolitan Christmas Cookies 'a la Lilly

Hi Everyone.  It's me Lilly the cat from Lilly My Cat.  My Mom has been busy baking Christmas cookies and wrapping presents so I'm writing this post today to help her out. I've had my usual busy day of cat napping and eating and I did go hunting in the backyard for a bit today but I don't think it's gecko season right now :(

 

 Today my Mom made neopolitan cookies.  She told me they remind her of the Brachs coconut candy she used to eat as a child.  Obviously, that was a long time ago.

She said the dough is so easy to make and then she divides it in three sections and flavors/colors each section.  The pink dough is flavored with almond extract, the brown dough with cocoa and the white dough has chopped walnuts.

After she finishes making the dough, she puts each layer of dough in a metal loaf pan with a plastic liner.  Just push each layer of dough down, one upon the other.  Then, you need to refrigerate this dough for about 4 hours or more.  After it has set, she sliced the dough in three parts lengthwise and then slices across each of these.  Ummm, my cat vocabulary is having a hard time trying to explain what she did, but you get the idea.

Anyway, I'm sure you get the idea of how it works.  Here they are after they have been baked.  I think they came out so pretty.  Too bad they aren't flavored with pink salmon, white fish and brown beef for my gourmet cat taste.  You can find the recipe for these fun cookies at the bottom of the page.

Do you like the look of this Christmas tree with it's twinkling lights?  It's my sister Heidi's tree and unfortunately, I haven't been to visit her at her home yet.  I'd love to snuggle up under this tree for my evening cat nap.  Maybe she will invite me over?  I need to be a good kitty since Santa will soon be arriving.

My Mom sends her best wishes to each of you.  And, I send you my meows and best wishes to all my little cat friends in blogland.

Meows from

Lilly

Pat's Neopolitan Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

-------------------------------

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

red food coloring

2 Tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup chopped nuts

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Add in egg and vanilla.  Add in flour, cornstach, salt and baking powder and mix well.  Divide dough into three equal parts (approximately 1 cup each).

For the first dough, add in almond extract and a couple of drops of red food coloring.  Blend until well mixed.

For the second dough, add in cocoa and blend well.

For the third dough, add in chopped nuts.

Prepare a metal loaf pan, 9" x 5" with plastic wrap.  Place the cocoa dough in the bottom of the pan and flatten dough until it is even.  Place white/walnut dough on top of cocoa dough, keeping the surface flat.  Add the pink dough last and flatten until it is smooth.  Cover with more plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for approximately 4 hours or more.

Remove dough from loan pan and slice the dough lengthwise into three pieces.  Then cut across each long piece of dough  (about 15 slices out of each lengthwise piece of dough).  Place cut slices on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly browned on bottom.

Immediately remove from cookie sheet and let cool on a wire rack.  Store in a closed container. 

Enjoy! 

 

Another Egyptian Christmas Cookie Recipe ~ Sablee ~

Imagine yourself being raised in a large village in upper Egypt. You and your family's life evolves very much around the Coptic Church calendar.  On November 25th of this year (old calendar), the Copts began their nativity fast which means that all animal products are avoided (fish and seafood are OK).  The fast will end with the glorious Feast of the Nativity on January 7th; the birth of our Lord.

Copts have a lot of traditional Christmas foods and today I will share with you another recipe that is popular for the holidays.  I love baking Christmas cookies and this particular recipe is so dear to my heart.  My dear, dear friend Vivian gave it to me during the first Christmas I was married.  She had gotten this recipe from her sister-in-law, Zaizaf, who was an excellent baker.  Both Vivian and Zaizaf were raised in upper Egypt as was my husband.  The ingredients are very simple.

Recipe for Egyptian Sablee:
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla powder (use extract if you wish)
1 1/2 cups Crisco (vegetable shortening)
Little water if needed
Apricot jam for filling

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar and vanilla powder together.  Cut in the shortening until it resembles small pieces like the photo above.  At this point, you may add 1 tablespoon cold water and mix dough just until it comes together.  Please do not knead or overwork the dough :)

 

 Just mix the dough until it looks like above.  Now you are ready for the fun part of cutting out the dough.

Flour the board and take a small fist of dough and roll it out; not too thin and not too thick.  Cut into your desired shapes (round is the traditional shape).  Place cut out dough on an ungreased cookie sheet.

You will have some scraps left over so take those scraps of dough and add a small piece of fresh dough and roll out again and cut out the shapes.  Keep repeating this until all the dough is used up.  By using the scraps along with fresh dough each time, your cookies will not become tough.

Just remember to cut out the middle of half of the cookies you are making.  You will be sandwiching these two cookies together with the cut out on top.  My recipe makes approximately 40 cookies so that means 40 whole and 40 with cut out tops!  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for approximately 8 to 9 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on a rack.

I usually bake these ahead of time and store them in a tight container without the jam filling.  When I'm ready to serve them, I add a small spoonful of jam and sandwich them together and sprinkle a bit of powdered sugar over the top before serving.  As to the jam, I used some raspberry jam that my son brought me from Ukraine but the traditional jam to use is apricot.  I'll be filling the remainder with apricot as the apricot jam is dry versus the watery raspberry!

From you photo above, you can see the mix of traditions in my house as the little tablecloth with the nisseman is from Denmark and the cookies are Egyptian!  Fun time for the holidays . . .

I hope you will enjoy these if you make them.  And, as always, thank you for stopping by.  Until next time

My best wishes,

Pat