what are you making for the holidays???

you start and i’ll join in 

I was going to make whiskey cakes but ABC says it's a $1000 license. I had a lot of requests for them

French almond macarons~~~~ I've made them in the past in Alaska, but re-learning how to do them in humid Florida as me on batch #4 today.

I just started invigorating my sourdough starters, so breads for sure!

I am making this incredible gluten free bread — let’s see which direction my photo will go — ha! (not funny:)

(upside down — dang it!

It looks wonderful!  What is it made from?

@SandraSmiley  here's a tutorial I just found for heart macarons.  Wish I'd seen it before I tried it. LOL

Biscotti! And loads of it. I don't know why I don't make biscotti year-round, but it always ends up being a holiday thing. And it's an easy thing to share with coworkers and friends. 

Also, I recently traveled to Ireland for a wedding and had THE MOST AMAZING sticky toffee pudding at the venue. So I'm on a mission to recreate it. 

And the last issue of Bake from Scratch magazine had a recipe for a mulled wine pear cake that looked delicious. I'll be making a gluten-free version of that for either Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner with the family. 

Those bread pictures are inspiring me to make another attempt at a sourdough starter. 

As for baking, just my grandson’s birthday cake. His birthday is December 24th, but we always celebrate early with a kids/family party. Usually my grandson is very specific, you know super heroes, trucks, etc. Last year, he knew exactly what he wanted. This year he just said Christmasy???? I’m going to ask him again, because I want to make sure before I start any of my  elements. It is my turn for Polish Christmas Eve this year. There will be a small birthday cake for my grandson to celebrate as part of the dessert, and maybe some cookies. After the big meal, no one wants desserts anymore. I don’t want any dessert leftovers!!!  I’ll be making cabbage rolls, patychky (meat on a stick), possibly homemade sausages, and babka (Polish cake for Christmas morning). So more cooking than baking. 

June, your menu is making my mouth water, starting with the cabbage rolls!  I think I am part Polish!

mmm, june —

signed, your polish southern neighbor

Thanks, MBalaska!  I have been wanting to try heart shaped macarons, so maybe this will help me avoid a lot of grief.  I have a hard enough time trying to make them stay round!

Oh June I’d love to be a guest at your house for those cabbage rolls!!  But Then they’d have to be made w/ground ckn or turkey or something other then beef:(   (Not Polish But Gernam background)   

I do make awesome cabbage rolls if I do say so myself. And when there made ahead and frozen, like cake, they taste much better. kakeladi, I make my cabbage rolls with ground turkey, for 2 reasons. 1. Less fat, and not so heavy. 2. Most important, my nephew has Chron’s, and can’t have beef. He dearly loves cabbage rolls. I actually eliminate the salt from the recipe and add beef bouillon, which, as you know is very salty. Adding the beef bouillon gives the beefy meat taste without the beef!!! I will tho, add a small amount of lean ground pork, which adds a lot of flavour.  

YOU ARE KILLING ME JUNE!

I maybe killing you Sandra....but this whole Polish Christmas Eve process, cooking, baking, rearranging the house for 30 people is a KILLING ME!!!!!!!   And there are 10 family members that don’t participate with us anymore, long story. So technically, could have been 40 family members. This of course doesn’t include sending Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating the house....and anything else Christmas related....oh, can’t forget making 2 birthday cakes....one just before Christmas, one for Christmas Eve.  AND......We’re finishing our basement as I speak. Only been waiting 32 years!!!!!!!  I put my foot down and said I needed more space for family to sit so I can turn my upstairs into one giant eating area. I had hoped by this time the 2nd generation would have taken over. Only one niece has. She has a fairly large house. With the exception of two nieces, the rest have small houses that cannot accommodate that many people. That includes my children. So it’s a every 4 years rotation. If the other niece participated, would be very 5 years. This niece has shown no inclination of taking over Polish Christmas Eve for her parents, my sis/bro-in-law. There in there 70’s, and it’s getting harder and harder. I see a year very soon where they will have to drop out. For lack of space, and just physical limitations. My son/d-in-law are going to be looking for a new house very soon. Probably within two years or less. They want a much bigger house before they have a 2nd child. SOoooooooo my big plan is that in 4 years, they will take my place hosting Polish Christmas Eve dinner. I will literally bake/cook for the dinner and help extensively on the day of......so long as I don’t have to host. And my daughter/son-in-law would help my son/d-in-lw too. Of course I have no intentions of mentioning this to my daughter in law, she would freak out!!!!! I’ll wait and bide my time before I make this request.... Funnily, my husband seems to think that Polish Christmas Eve dinner is easy peasy. He definitely helps now that he’s retired, with the cooking, clean up etc. ( Oh and that’s another burr in my side, that certain nieces and nephew’s don’t lift a finger to help tidy up, clean up the mess after Christmas Eve dinner. Makes for a difficult situation when their parents are sitting right in the room and you can’t admonish/embarrass/goad/guilt...whatever into getting them off there rear ends and helping out.)  But I can tell you I will be cleaning up well towards midnight, even with my husband’s help. I DON’T want to wake up Christmas morning to a kitchen full of dirty dishes and pots and pans. Big Sigh....

So this has been my baking/decorating/cooking “rant” for today. I’ll get through it, hopefully in one piece!!!!! 

Oh Lordy...between classroom parties, cookie exchanges, an Italian Christmas and December birthdays i don’t even know where to begin...

so I’ll just tell you the one dessert I always make..almond cake. It takes like a giant pignoli cookie and is a family favorite across the board. 

Not too sweet, lovely crumb, super easy (but expensive ingredients) and stays fresh for a long time.

You ALL put me to shame. I don't do very much at Christmas. I don't shop, don't like the crowds and there are no small children to shop for in my family  but I do bake a few things for gifts, cookies, pound cakes things like that. Not sure what I'm baking this year, I've been trying my hand at baking yeast bread. Can you believe with all the baking I do, other than biscuits. I've never done much bread baking. Anyone have a tried & try recipe?

 I have a few cake orders that I do every Christmas (birthdays ). I decorate the house still, not because I have many people over any more but just because I like doing it. I have so many decorations I've collected over the years and I change what I put out every year. I love looking at all them, brings back lots of memories.

 On Christmas morning  my two children + my daughter's fiancé will be here for breakfast, that's the only meal I cook that day and we just enjoy each others company & eat. We don't exchange gifts , unless it's something to eat.  At my age there's not anything I really need. My family is small now most have passed away.

MerMadeBakedGoods 

You sound crazy busy too!! And your cake sounds wonderful!!

Betty, I have to say, I do look forward to Christmas day, as it’s just my husband and me. Lounging in our pj’s enjoying coffee and cinnamon buns. We don’t exchange too much in the way of gifts. As you say, as you get “older” there’s not much you need. And actually, it seems the real meaning of Christmas is constantly being obliterated. It was never about giving, giving, giving.  Ever since I married my husband, I haven’t been able to go to a Christmas Eve service. I do so miss that. It was a tradition in my family. 

sandra, post #21 lists the ingredients for that bread — I got if off “delish” on fb — 

all  the ingredients above the egg go into the microwave for I minute to melt  — combine well —

add the egg combine well

pat the dough out onto parchment

the rest of the ingredients get melted together and brushed on top —

bake 400 degrees for 15 mins until nicely browned — So good!

I used two tablespoons of butter —

and it won’t work as well with regular almond flour needs to be the fine ground

Betty  I’m right there w/ya    No longer “do” Christmas:(   I live w/daughter #1 but I might as well be alone   We are in the same place but she almost never talks to me   We’ve sort of divided the place in 1/2 even the fridge is divided .....she decorates as she wants - won’t “share” the tree or anything   We each do our cooking etc      Sorry I got such a sob story   I’ll stop now   

Thanks for the recipe, -K8! I love anything with almond flour in it. I always blitz it in the food processor for about a minute to make it is super fine. Same with granulated sugar, when the recipe calls for caster sugar.

June, starting at age 25, my mom turned Thanksgiving dinner over to me.  Said she was tired of it.  I was delighted and for about 10 years, my husband, daughter and I hosted approximately 45 people every year.  I did all of the cooking, took about three weeks.  We were exhibiting roses at the time, so we had two commercial coolers, to refrigerators and a chest freezer, thank goodness!  We invited all of both our families and several friends and they often brought guests with them.  It was wonderful!  I encouraged everyone to bring containers in which to take home left overs.  It all stopped when my sister had children and she said it was too hard for her to come with the small kids.  Although I still do the bulk of the cooking, we've been having Thanksgiving at her house ever since.  Her children are all near 40!  She gives us paper plates and plastic forks, which I hate.  I have casual china and real flatware to feed that many people and five times as much room in the house, but she refuses to come here.  She and her children are the only family I have left, so it just (as they say) ain't what it used to be.

MerMadeBakedGoods, your cake is beautiful and it sounds so good!

Betty, I cannot pipe worth a hoot, but I can make bread!  What do you have in mind?  I have many, many great recipes.  The braided loaf above is a Challah bread, a traditional Jewish celebration bread.  It is delicious and easy to make.  You don't have to make a braid, but it is fun!  I have several different sourdough starter recipes, as well, if you want to go wild!  Just let me know!  Wish we could play bread together (then I would make you give me a piping lesson!).

Aww, kakeladi, that sucks.  I've actually thought about doing holidays with friends, other's who's families have dwindled.  Mike and I usually just wish each other a merry Christmas and cook something special, since we both love to cook.

Sorry Kakeladi, Wish things were better for you. I love to decorate the house for Christmas, I guess I would do it even if no one was here but me to see it. I always told my kids " when I stop decorating the house you better start worrying about me".

Sandra I would love just a good yeast sandwich loaf bread recipe. I did a hamburger bun recipe, came out pretty good. I also want to make some cinnamon buns.

Hello everyone. For me Christmas is special, since it is also my bday on Christmas Eve. My family is super small. Just my Mom, fiance and daughter.  I have an uncle and cousins from my mom but we do not speak. My son moved to Washington in July. Being Cuban we celebrate the 24th more than the 25th. We do the pork, rice, beans, yucca and buñuelos (dough made with yucca that is fried then served with syrup), and Cuban eggnog (crema de vie). Everyone comes over as well as my fiance's kids and extended family. Alot of work but it's nice. I decorate the house butt not much. When i was small, we just went to friends and family to visit On the 25th and ate leftovers from the 2th. Now on the 25th or 26th we drive to our house in the VA mountains and come back after the New Year. My daughter stays home. She doesnt want to go anymore with us.

With all the festivities I always go out to breakfast with my daughter on my bday, nothing fancy just Mc Donalds or so. I do bake cookies, coconut macaroons, and lots of rum cakes to give out, and everyone loves them. My daughter helps out with the cookies so we bond ogeher, which i love to do. I do try to enjoy it for now, pretty soon she will be out of the house and our holiday gatherings will not be the same. I'm so sad about that. I will miss that so much. Its so hard when your kids go their own way.

all I want for Christmas is some of sandra’s challah bread ( I can smell it from here) naty’s eggnog and kakeladi to share it with

if june is determined to share the polish food I would not deny her just sayin’

and since mahtc  can’t sell the whiskey cakes we could dessert on a couple slices of that 

I have been eyeing the pretty prelit Christmas small footprint 7’ trees for several years— even on sale the ones I want are $300 — I always told myself if I ever see one for $200... and this year I did and I have one now!!! this’ll be the first year in a looong time I put up a tree — kids are grown —

see we got married on Christmas Day so I actually have a couple small ones (4) that stay up all year ceramic and crochet, one is all white & gold — so I can’t wait to sit at night when it’s all quiet and warm and peaceful and enjoy the glow from the tree  —