Happy Holidays!

 

Merry Christmas morning, my friends! Although the day is young, the season is over for our small family. We've had our Christmas feast, and we're ready to get on with the New Year. 

As expected, there was no time for sewing yesterday. I spent all of my morning finishing off the two desserts I had planned. I needed to add a topping to the cheesecake and make some chocolate curls. I only attempted chocolate curls for the first time a few years ago. They're actually pretty easy to make. I followed this video from YouTube. In my kitchen, it takes the chocolate too long to set up at room temperature. I put mine in the refrigerator for just about three minutes to get it to the right "hardness." And here's my finished cheesecake. This is a Bailey's Chocolate Chip Cheesecake, but I've taken to calling it an "Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cheesecake." We're not using expensive Bailey's Irish Cream in baked goods. I just use something with a lower price tag.

But I couldn't stop at just one dessert. Oh no. I needed to try something new. It was a good opportunity to try this new recipe I saw in the NYTimes recently. This is an Apple Skillet Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting. (I'm not sure if you can open that link without a subscription to the NYTimes. If you can't open it, email me, and I'll be happy to send it to you.) For this, the apples were first cooked and then cooled. Then, I mixed them into the cake batter and baked it. When the skillet cake came from the oven, it looked like this.

When it cooled, I made a caramel frosting by melting some soft caramel candies and then adding them to a frosting batter. When it was frosted it looked like this:

And let me just tell you...that frosting was to die for. We added finishing salt to each piece when we ate it. So yummy. I'll definitely make it again. Next time, I'd like to try making a "for two" version. Of course, I will let you know when I get around to that.

It was nearing lunch time when my baking was finished. I still wanted to get in a workout in the Chamber of Horrors. We've taken to calling the Bowflex "The Rack." So there was time to work out, and then a shower, and then it was time to head over to Erik and Mae's house. Mae makes the most beautiful charcuterie boards. This one was about half eaten by the time I thought to take a picture of it.

Around dinner time, their kitty Clementine showed up wondering where her dinner was. She's looking pretty disgusted with us for not thinking of her needs first. She's quite a talker too!

Clementine's sister cat, Cricket, showed up a little later. My picture of her was blurry, but here's a picture I took of her at a different gathering. She has the most interesting markings.

Eventually, it was time to eat. We had some delicious roasted vegetables, Burgundy mushrooms, a salad made with (amazingly!) lettuce from their garden. Erik did a superb job roasting the prime rib. It had a rub of around six different herbs. It was all so tasty. 

After some good wine, good conversation, and lots of laughter, we headed for home. The roads were a little slushy, but not dangerous when one traveled at a sensible speed. Fortunately, most everyone we encountered was driving as if their life depended on it...which it did.

Today we'll pull things back to normal. I'm ready for the Christmas quilts to be put away to make way for the winter quilts. With no tree in the house, we can set things back to normal pretty quickly. And then I'll get back to my sewing. It is a holiday, after all.

With that, my friends, I'm signing off. Have a wonderful holiday in whatever way you choose to celebrate. Tomorrow, I'll be joining the party at Meadow Mist Designs for the "Best of 2022" party. I hope I'll see you there.