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

Meet the Farm animals

 As of today: 16 farm animals at High Tide Farm.  Each morning starts with letting the animals out of their overnight shelter and starting breakfast,  The day is theirs to enjoy life and then in the evening comes dinner, a little time spent with each one and then all get tucked in to bed with a good night story.  Not all are good listeners.  LuLu has been known to eat the pages of the book I read to her.  Ha Ha!  

Here they are:

Poppy and her mama LuLu - yes  Poppy is a goat not a cow

Poppy with a chicken on her back

Watching over everyone is Charlotte, a Great Pyrenees and guardian livestock dog

Baby Rose is interested in my earrings.  Rose is 2 weeks old in this picture but is now 3

Rodney is a feral turned friendly cat.  He gets along with everyone and is a funny little guy

LuLu (Eloise when she is bad - but she never is.  LuLu came with me from Denver and is now 8 years old.  She likes to hang out on tree stumps and in wagons.  Oh she likes her bedtime stories

Firecracker.  She's just lost her tail feathers and is beginning to molt but when she is laying she lays a beautiful blue egg.  Thank you Firecracker

Pippin.  I don't know where he came from - across the street i think- but figured out where the free meal was served and now is a part of the farm.  I've yet to touch him.   See the heart on his side?

Eclair - one of my newest flock.  Eclair is an "Easter Egger" chicken and is now at 5 months just starting to lay hr eggs.....a pretty blue one

This is Lily.  Lily is also a youngster.  She is a lavender Orpington and her egg is brown.

This is Croissant.  She is Eclair's twin but does have a look of her own.   She is quite a talker and when you hold her she will gently tell you a story....she waits for your verbal response and then she adds a bit more,  Her egg will be either green or blue like Eclair's

Bullet is my only male goat.  He has been castrated and is called a wether - no longer a buck.  He is very funny,  Don't you love his blue eyes?  He also has wattles (little pendulous skin under his throat) which add to his adorableness  Bullet weighs about 60 pounds.  The does weigh about 45

This is Lacy.  She is a golden laced Wyandotte chicken and lays a brown egg.  Lacy is getting old - about 5

Butterscotch.  Also one of my old girls.  She sometimes needs a little help getting out of bed in the morning but don't we all sometimes?  Scotchy  lays a blue egg.  She is an Aracauna.

Jolene.  She is a silver laced Wyandotte and lays a brown egg.  Jolene is the head hen in my flock

LuLu in the chicken yard

Rose today.  She is 3. Rose is a tiny goat even for a Nigerian Dwarf.  She gets pushed around a lot but has developed skills that keep her strong and happy.  She gets a little mixed up when she wants attention.  While the other goats in the herd nestle up to me when they want attention Rose gives me a head butt.  Just a little one but that's really not the way to ask for attention Rose

Meet Spiderman.  She had a different name at first but she started to look just like the first chicken I had in Denver.  Kate had named the chicken Spiderman and she was terrific.  This Spiderman is an excellent Japanese beetle catcher.  She will chase them around the barnyard and when they dare get low enough she grabs them.  Way to go Spiderman!  This chicken is an Aracauna and lays and beautiful green blue egg.  It's actually too bg to fit into an egg carton

Last but not least is Violette.  She is a lavender Orpington and has not yet started laying but soon.  Her egg will be brown.

Today's eggs: Spiderman's, Jolene's, Eclair's & Lily's

This makes a total of 1 dog, 4 goats, 9 chickens and 2 farm cats.

Life is good on the farm.  I'm a lucky girl to have these fabulous animals around me each day!