One Word Wednesday . . . Sushi.

Took a ferry ride across the Bay and found these wind-up Sushi in a touristy toy shop in Sausalito, CA . . . however, we had hamburgers for lunch (post to follow!).

Faux Gingerbread House

This year I wanted to make sure I had time to make a gingerbread house but I was inspired by an old Martha Christmas book to make this faux one instead, complete with candy windows. Here's a link to a similar way to construct this.

I used this gingerbread recipe and my best interpretation of the house. You can see the template at the top of the photo. I didn't trace it- just free-handed it. I also slightly overbaked it.

Even though it's hard to see, I made candy window panes out of sugar ( recipe in the link). I just poured the molted sugar into circles on the silpat and used a knife to trim. Martha makes clay molds but that was unnecessary. I have also made candy windows by crushing hard candy like peppermints, filling the windows and baking with the dough. They sometimes turned out great, other times, not so good.

Once cooled, I attached the candy window to the house with royal icing.

Finally, the house went on our buffet. Note the hanging snowflakes from our previous post.
And the results were great! My windows weren't as amber as I had thought but the faux house looked very pretty. I might save it and make more for next year! I actually used to make an entire facade village...maybe next year!

Let It Snow!

Well it's snowing quite a bit in Justin's hometown in Minnesota but these are the only kind of snowflakes we're having. I made these gingerbread cookies both as decorations and to eat!

These snowflake cookie cutters are available online and I love how they came with mini-cutters to make your own lacy patterns.

I made three batches of this recipe. I found it to be easy to roll and it doesn't have a big chill step.

When using these intricate tiny cutters, I recommend cutting out the larger cookie, transferring it to the parchment covered cookie sheet, and cutting the inner cutouts directing on the sheet. This way, you won't have to transfer the lacy cookie and deform the shape.

Once the cookies are baked and cooled, I frosted them with royal icing using meringue powder. Click here for the "outline" consistency recipe I used. I always adjust the water as necessary such the icing is as think or as thick as needed. I used white sanding sugar, which can be hard to find this time of year. I recommend stocking up in advance.

I also used nonpareils which looked a lot like snow!

Inspired by our previous bat-mobile experiment, I decided to hang some of these cookies with ribbon from our chandelier. These would also make excellent Christmas tree ornaments.

Here's a close-up. The royal icing becomes very hard and can last a long time!

Here are a few of the other patterns I made. They really turned out to be quite lovely. Hope you are having a lovely holiday!

Christmas Omelets A La Justin - Our First Vlog!

Inspired by this video of Julia Child showing us how to make an omelet, Justin makes Christmas morning breakfast for me and his dad. Hope you enjoy our very first vlog.

Merry Christmas to You!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Lauren and Justin

One Word Wednesday...Cutouts

These are the most beautiful snowflake cookies I've ever made thanks to a new set of cookie cutters that have little cutout cutters. With the tiny cutters, you can make your own patterns! Finished photos coming soon!

Colorful Side Dishes: Green Beans and Persimmons

Do you need a new side dish for your holiday meal? We recently modified this recipe and found it to be both lovely and delicious.

We used Fuyu persimmons (the short and fat ones) with onion and fresh green beans. We rinsed and snapped our green beans and blanched them in boiling water for about 3 minutes. They aren't cooked all the way through but they should be a bright green. We plunged them into ice water to stop the cooking.

Then in a frying pan, we cooked the onions in a bit of olive until translucent. Once, they were about ready, we added some thinly slice persimmon and cooked until they are softened but not falling apart.

Finally add in the green beans and saute until they are done to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste!

My Favorite Appetizer to Share: Baked Brie in Puff Pastry

This baked brie wrapped in pastry is a huge party favorite. It is one of those great recipes that looks very Martha Stewart but is actually very Rachel Ray! Your party guests will ooh and ahh over this melted, cheesy goodness and you can make it festive with a few cutouts on top.

With very little preparation and about 30 minutes of baking time, this indulgent appetizer was ready to serve. I have often made it without the raspberry jam but I was inspired by this post from Elise at Simply Recipes to add a bit of raspberry jam. My baked brie was a bit more rustic with the folds on top. If you want to have a more polished look without the jam peeking out, check out this video that puts the folds underneath. And this site here has a lot of ideas for variations with nuts, dried fruit etc.

Here's the step-by-step for my rustic version:

You will need:

• frozen puff pastry (which should be thawed in advance of when you want to use it) The Dufour brand says 2-3 hours but the Pepperidge Farm brand is a little less.
• raspberry jam
• a round of brie cheese
• an egg (optional)
• small cookie cutters or a knife to cut shapes (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Oil or use cooking spray to oil a cookie sheet.

2. On a cutting board, unfold the thawed puff pastry. Press out any seams with your fingers. You can gently roll it if you like or not.

3. Place the round of brie in the center.

4. Put a bit of jam on the top and begin to fold the pastry up on top. Trim excess as necessary. This is a rustic version where the pastry was not sealed shut and the cheese and jam bubbled a bit. Check out the other links above for a more formal baked brie.

5. Using a small cookie cutter or a knife to cut out leaves or shapes from the scraps. Feel free to reroll the scraps as needed.

6. Place the cutout on top of the wrapped brie. Beat the egg with a fork and brush the pastry with the egg wash. This will give it beautiful golden brown color. You can use the egg wash like glue to seal any pastry or even to adhere the cutoffs if needed.

7. Place on the cookie sheet and bake 25-30 minutes until golden brown. This baked brie puffed up to reveal the jam- which gave it a festive, colorful look. Your pastry may have puffed apart revealing some melted cheese spots in the photo above- don't worry! I used a bit more jam to fill in over the open melted cheese opening for better presentation.

8. To serve, remove from cookie sheet with spatula and place on a dish with high edges. Let cool AT LEAST 10 minutes before cutting. This is key because if you cut the baked brie too early, the molten cheese will gush out and deflate ( hence the dish with the edges). Serve with crackers.

I hope you like it as much as I do!