Merry Christmas - Joyeux Noel

Merry Christmas - Joyeux Noel

 

I am celebrating this Christmas in a very French spirit - a French Christmas - my 2025 theme

This them was inspired by a lovely little copper cookie cutter in the shape of the Eiffel Tower

Champs Elysee at Christmas

I chose a real tree this year for the tradition and good smells of a Noble Fir tree.  I brought in some cedar branches from the yard . eucalyptus, magnolia leaves and added them around the house.  I collected the pinecones that dropped from the trees on the Morman church front grounds and added a little fun glitter.  Then I started to add lots of twinkle lights and candles

Simple elegance:   I polished up some silver pieces and cleaned my crystal so that the pieces would sparkle and reflect the holiday lights.

No red this year but muted metal colors and a little soft green.  I limited my tree ornaments to support the simple elegance I wanted.

And the packages have all been wrapped with a soft color and classic silk French ribbons.  I have collected ribbons from around the world - France, New York City and San Francisco's Britex Fabrics on Maiden Lane.  I searched my stash for my color palette and chose from what I had.    Aren't they beautiful?  It's really hard to find lovely ribbons like these.

OK  The packages are wrapped and under the tree.  Time to get in the kitchen:

I make peppermint bark every year.  The cookies do change.  This year: French cookies bien sur (of course).   Sables are basic sugar cookies and palmiers are shaped puff pastry - like a squished croissant.  So Eiffel Tower sugar cookies and almond palmiers it is:

There is a stray sheep in the mix....a nod to Kate and a private joke  Kate IS a badass on the soccer field for sure.

Here is the best recipe I tried for my almond palmiers  demo at end of post

This year I added some almond roca to the edibles.  There is a fun history of almond roca that Amber told me while we were in Tacoma, WA where almond roca was born.  We were in the Ice Cream Social shop and chose the "Roca" flavor.  It was a fun story and so these candies had to make it into the box 

  Here's a link to the history of almond roca

You can't feel completely French without having a beret among your hats wardrobe.  So I went to work on making some for my pals.  Goats are more curious about these wool chapeaux than looking chic but I managed to get them to sport the for a few seconds 

LuLu

Bullet

Rose

Poppy

Christmas flowers: paper whites and amaryllis of course

And a sweet little hand for Hattie-age 15 months  (with a poodle of course)

I so much enjoy this season.  It's festive.  It's busy with lots of get togethers and fun.  We put aside our differences- if we have any  and celebrate our love for each other.  We will also remember the first Christmas in Bethlehem and our gift of Jesus Christ

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noel

love,

Denise

Almond Palmiers

Ingredients:

4 oz butter - room temperature

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 7 oz tube almond paste, cut into pieces

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

sliced raw almonds. optional

Method:

 In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter until creamy - about 1 minute

Add the powdered sugar and almond paste and beat until creamy - about 1 minute

Add the egg and almond extract.  Beat until combined

Sprinkle your work surface with granulated sugar

Carefully unfold the pastry dough that has defrosted in the refrigerator

Sprinkle 1 TBS sugar on top surface of one piece of pastry dough

Using a rolling pin roll out the pastry to a 12"by 12" square

Spread 1/2 of the almond cream evenly over the pastry square

Sprinkle thinly sliced rawalmonds on top.  My addition

Roll up the outside edges to meet in the center and then Roll the 2 halves together

Refrigerate at least 2 hours

Repeat with 2nd piece of refrigerated pastry

When ready to bake heat oven to 400 deg

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

Unwrap the pastry logs and with a sharp knife cut off the uneven ends

Cut 1/4"-1/2" pieces and place flat side of each piece on baking sheet 2" apart

Bake until golden brown  12- 14 minutes

Cool on cooling rack 2 minutes before removing cookies from sheet

When completely cool dust with powdered sugar.

Try these   They are easy and so yummy

Patisserie's footnote:

Pepperidge Farm puff pastry dough is readily available and very reliable but if you are looking for Gluten Free as I do when baking for my Denver family it will take a search.  I found a small package at Sprouts and a normal size like this one at Albertosns.  It's always good to keep a package in the freezer.

When I was in culinary school in Paris we learned to make this from scratch.  This skill serves absolutely no purpose in the life of a chef when it is available in the market.

Third post:   Granddaughters

I rarely post about my girls but this year has been especially celebratory.  Ella - age 22 graduated from Macalester College

Eventhough I was not able to attend the ceremony in St. Paul I watched Ella receive her diploma streaming.  I'm so proud of her

Three days later her sister Kate graduated from East High School in Denver

The family spend a busy summer together and then Kate was off to University of Puget Sound.  She had a fabulous first season playing women's soccer and just completed her first semester of study.  I was fortunate enough to spend a week with her in Denver and attended 6 of her soccer games.  Kate  is fun to watch

Reina graduated from Lincoln HS in Seattle and had lots of parties that week.  She is on her way home after her first semester in Madison, WI at the U of Wisconsin 

               

While I was in Seattle younger daughter, Gabriela - age 15 danced her heart out with her recital performances with "All that Dance" - dance company.  Gabriela is extremely talented and versatile with performances in at least 5 different disciplines.  She also plays the trumpet in her school bands

Watch out world.  This young lady will be driving in less than a month.  The West family took a family trip to England and Portugal before Reina left for college. 

I took one trip ti Seattle/Taacoma in October and another in September to watch Kate play soccer.

Gabriela and Kate in Tacoma at Stadium Bowl

after a soccer game

So I got to spend a lot of time with my family this year.   I cherish these times.

And a final little nod to this precious child who has brightened this world.  Hattie - is Ella and Kate's half sister.  She therefore has none of my DNA but I love love being around this little girl as she lightens up our world.

Here's looking at you too Hatte

A Very Merry Christmas to all Old Fashioned Gingerbread and candy cane treats

 The packages have been sent to family members so it's time to reveal the 2023 theme.  

Gingerbread Man and girls..with a lot of old fashioned sweets.  An Old Fashioned Christmas.

Last year as I was putting away my Christmas ornaments I noticed my gingerbread men were sort of "tired".  They had been taken out, displayed and stored in their boxes for over fifty years.  I decided not to store them in 2023 but to do some repair and freshening up.  

circa 1970

When I was a young newlywed I wanted to start my own ornament collection for my tree as all young adults like to do when they've moved out of their parents home. Because I loved to sew and because money was tight I decided to make these little guys.  I used a cookie cutter for a pattern and cut  out from velvet and brown gingham fabric scraps.  Then I appliquéd and embroidered the eyes, mouth and cheeks and apple buttons.  A velvet necktie and rick rack around the edge dressed them for display. I still love to hang these old ornaments on my tree each year.  They send my mind back to another happy Christmas time as so many ornaments do.  My friend, Jan, just recently described it as "my life's history is presented on my tree.  So true!

Usually my Christmas theme inspiration comes to me in October or November but this year in early January I knew what 2023 would be.  Gingerbread.  I decided to make more gingerbread men and share them with others:

Start with a set of gingerbread people - yes I have a few..  In my kitchen "more is more"

The originals are on the top and 7 new pairs of gingerbread fabric ornaments made from both old and new materials

white felt, "apple" appliqué , blue felt eyes, embroidery and vintage ribbon

As I decorated the tree I pulled out all the old ornaments that supported the theme of old fashion candy canes and ribbon candy, sweets like cupcakes and chocolate truffles.  Then I added gingerbread houses and candy cane striped ribbon

Here's a look at my tree:

Candy cane paper, gingerbread bags and boxes

Old fashion Christmas tree

Topped with a gingerbread girl  "Jellycat"

ribbon candy, candy cane ribbon, gingerbread garland - all sugar free!

Sweets on the tree from Christmas' past

Ribbon candy tree, Gingerbread nutcracker and a corner of my poinsettia quilt from 2006

And now for the cookies:

It's just fun making cookies: cut out cookies, decorated cookies, chocolate cookies and red cookies:

This year gingerbread men were a must. Then Ella requested peanut butter cookies with the iconic chocolate kiss on the top.  Red velvet crinkles and sugar cookies made the cut this year.  I first made a batch of each gluten free ( for my Denver family) and then an additional batch of each for others.  Really the G-F choice does not compromise the taste at all and I encourage everyone to try it.

Red velvet crinkle batter

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/231745/red-velvet-crinkle-cookies/

so pretty and delicious

Don't forget to let your cookie cutters go swimming in the flour before they cut

Red velvet crinkle cookies plus peanut butter kisses  Here's the recipe 

A village of ginger people    https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/230238/gingerbread-men-cookies/

And sugar cut out cookies candy cane, Royal Icing (with 1 drop of peppermint extract)  I use the recipe from Rose's Christmas Cookies book - secret ingredient is lemon zest but if you don't have that bible Allrecipes has a good one too https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10402/the-best-rolled-sugar-cookies/

And finally it would not be a complete Christmas without including my High Tide Farm animals

A big wag, hug, nestle, cackle, and meow from all of us

The newcomers

Charlotte

The 4 funny goats......plus 6 chickens

And my favorite girls:

 Reina (16) and Gabriela(13)  Visiting from Seattle

Kate(16)  and Ella(20) - my Denver girls - on their trip to New Zealand

May this upcoming year be filled with love, adventures and joy in your lives

Happy New Year 💗