Christmas is Stollen

Christmas is Stollen. It is my most consistent tradition. Fitting, given my family, that it would revolve around food. On some of our tree-less west coast christmases stollen was like the anchor. I remember when Cliona was a newborn we stayed up late making stollen on christmas eve, the two new parents now turned into little elves.

I am especially grateful to be celebrating christmas this year, with a TREE and my mom and sisters. Undoubtedly there will be snow as well. Its all coming togther . . . well, we will see about the list of hand made gifts still unfinished.

Until then, I am posting my Stollen recipe. I got it from my mom, who probably got it from a cook book, but I don't know which one.

Stolen

2 1/2 c flour
2 t baking powder
3/4 c sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t mace
5-6 cardamom pods rushed OR 1 t ground cardamom
3/4 c ground blanched almonds
1/2 c butter, cold
1 c cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 t vanilla
1/3 t almond extract
2 T brandy (can use rum)
1/2 golden rasins
1/2 golden currnts
1/4 c chopped candied lemon rind or diced dried apricots
** can substitute other dried fruits like rasins, citron, dried cherries or dried cranberries.

• sift togther dry ingrediants, stir in almonds
• cut in butter until mixture is the consistancy of coarse sand
• combine liquids in blender, pour into bowl and add fruit
• gradually add flour to this mixture snf work dough into ball. Knead for a few minutes on a floured board just to get it into a bowl.
• shape into oval 10x8 inches at least 1 inch high
• use blunt edge of a knife to crease lengthwise in the center, fold smaller side on top of other side
• put on grease baking sheet, can brush with melted butter
• bake 45 min in pre-heated 350 oven
• cool and dust with sugar

In our family, this is usually made on christmas eve and eaten for breakfast on christmas moring, while opening presents. Ahhhh, the sweetness of it all.

Heart curtains, circa Feburary 2010

Here is an old post  . . . I have infact finished one curtain, but lack of hot pink thread and moving to Vermont has prevented me from finishing the second one.

When we moved to Sacramento, I knew it was time to make a new pair of curtains for Cliona. Her room there was a bit dark and the dark blue curtains I made her when she was a baby just didn't seem to fit. I have been wanting the make the heart applique curtains from Make it Yourself, volume 7.

I started them back in February, and was enjoying cutting our little fabric heart during Valentine season, but deep down I knew it would be sometime before a finish product emerged. Well I was right. I did finish one just in time for daylight savings time. BUT, the Brother sewing machine I had was giving me a terrible time. I discovered that it can't actually sew a proper zigzag stitch!! Oh, now I know why I was having so much trouble sewing the elastic on all those wool diaper covers I made while I was pregnant. I am very grateful to the women of my husbands family for my "new" Singer. Thank you so much to Germa for the machine and another big thanks to Nana for it sending all the way from Vermont to California.

I never tend to follow patterns or directions exactly. I just invariably change things, in part because I am usually improvising on the materials needed, but more so because I just find myself in the flow of the creative process and my own contributions emerge.

But, this project ended up full circle. I'll tell you how. I sat down to cut out my hearts with 4 different plastic play-dough HEART shaped cookie cutters. I was thankful to be a mother - otherwise I would never have such things in my possession! I decided that it would be really interesting to have many different sized hearts and make a random design on the curtains, as opposed to the more uniform pattern displayed in the book. So I cut up just about as many little hearts as I could using the Fancy little scraps from Aunt Sophie. Then I set about to organize the hearts and discovered that I cut out alot! Oh my. Random was not working, my freewheeling multi sized heart cutting just didn't really work. So I tried the uniform alternate spacing with the two larger sized hearts and YES. And then there was baby Ginger to contend with as well. I really couldn't even get a picture with her out of the frame if I tried. So I safely pined all the hearts in place, and one curtain has been hanging above Cliona's bed while the other one waited for the new machine.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the process. I really love the curtains. The white fabric is and old flat sheet from Thrift Town, with a very convenient lace edge! And all the pink and purple scraps came fabric all came form PurlSoho, via Aunt Sophie's scrap box. Now those are some fancy scraps!!! In fact it was back in February, when I started this heart project that a dreamed up the name for this blog. It takes me a while to germinate ideas . . . I've got lots in the works to share with you in the future.

Woodland Party

 A basket full of Fairy Pirate booty from the treasure hunt at the party. Wands, shooting starts for the little brothers, colored frogs, crystals and a tin of chocolate covered rasins.

Enjoying a little down time in her new elfin hat from Bend the Rules Sewing.

Planting bulbs in a fairy ring . . . in the spring we will happily remember the day Cliona turned 5!

Oh, I'm a toy maker. I little princess fairy and a good witch . . . I repurposed some wooden Plan doll house people to create these magical ladies.