Hello Blog Friends!
Just one week left until Christmas Day. When working in Christian ministry one has to realise that contacting churches prior to major festivals is largely a waste of time as, understandably, communities are focussed on their own preparations and so work here needs to focus more on internal housekeeping tasks.
Last Saturday’s Carols and Cocoa went off pretty well considering the number of last minute challenges. The weather here in Montreal was appalling as we had freezing rain overnight on Friday combined with winds gusting to 100kms throughout Saturday. Jillian, our event techinician, was without power all morning and we were thinking we might have to cancel although there was really no way of informing people since we had no advance registration and so did not know who might be planning to log on.
We forged ahead and thankfully over 30 people did “attend”, which was pretty good under the circumstances. Unfortunately, due to the earlier power failure, the Jillian’s Internet router was not functioning properly and so, despite her best efforts, the video kept failing causing a number of technical hiccups. Everyone was very understanding but it was extremely stressful for Jillian as she tried to overcome all the difficulties. All in all people seemed to have a good time, which was the main thing and those of us organising the event breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was over!!
I spent time Sunday and Monday sending thank you cards to all the musicians and everyone who had been involved in production. Time will tell if we decide to try again next year 😊.Monday morning my friend ,Barb, knocked on the door with a Christmas gift for me.I hurried to my gift basket and quickly brought found hers so that we could make an exchange. After she left I noticed that tied to the gift bag was a lovely handmade ornament of a Chickadee. Can you see in the photo where I have added it to my tree?
I think next week I will most probably publish on Friday, as it is highly unlikely that any of my readership would be thinking about reading a blog post on Christmas Day 😊 The last year it fell on a Saturday (when I usually post) was in 2010, before this blog existed so the problem has not occurred until now.
A lot of time this week has been spent working on the catering job I received. The ordering of all the groceries was quite complicated as Ecollegey, the small local organic grocer where I shop, did not have all the needed items but in the end everything was sourced by Tuesday evening so on Wednesday afternoon I baked chocolate cookies to use in the frozen peppermint cheesecake crust for the THREE cheesecakes and then on Thursday assembled them as the first one was needed yesterday. This coming week I will complete the rest of the order that will be picked up the morning of Christmas Eve. Early in the week I ran out of the grey wool with which I was knitting my Christmas socks, this was disappointing since I will need to order another skein from the mill in New Brunswick and I doubt it will come in time for me to complete the second sock during the Christmas Season. Since I always have at least one project on my needles I immediately wound the yarn for a shawl which a friend has commissioned me to knit for her. It is a special shawl from a book of new prayer shawl patterns. The pattern is a bit tricky but at least the yarn is thick so, each evening, I have been making steady progress 😊.
Today, besides baking a second batch of Stöllen and a couple of other kinds of Christmas Cookies (most of which will be used as gifts for neighbours) I am also working on the hoodie for my eldest Godson, William. The contrast fabric arrived on Tuesday and I cut out the pieces Wednesday but have not had time to begin sewing until today. Hopefully the 3 boys and their Mum will be driving down from Ottawa during the week between Christmas and New Year so that we can exchange gifts. The hoodie is not a gift from me but his Mum ordered it as a surprise for him so I really want to have it completed in time. That means I had better stop typing and set up the sewing machine 😊.
I got so engrossed in my sewing project that I quite forgot to publish this post. But I’m so happy I persevered and, despite breaking a machine needle in the process, managed to complete William’s hoodie of which I am quite proud 😊
So now let’s close off with a Christmas cookie recipe. I saw this one on a vlog and wanted to try it as a couple of my neighbours eat gluten-free. I was pleased with how they turned out and they are very tasty. The recipe comes from Germany and so you will need a metric conversion table or a metric scale if you decide to give it a try.
Zimtsterne
- 2 egg whites
- 100g fine icing sugar
- 350 ground almonds
- 3-4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- For the icing 1 egg white 100g very fine icing sugar
Beat the egg whites half way. Add the icing sugar and keep on beating until stiff. Add the almonds and cinnamon and mix well. Wrap the batter and put into the fridge (at least for 2 hours, even better overnight). Sprinkle some ground almonds onto your worktop. Roll out your dough (1 cm thick) and use a star cookie cutter. Make sure to dip the cookie cutter into cold water in between, as the batter is very sticky. Put onto a baking tray that is lined with parchment paper.
For the icing beat the egg white and add the fine icing sugar towards the end then beat until stiff. Preheat the oven to 215ºF Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the Zimtsterne with the icing. Bake the Zimtsterne for about 15 minutes. Enjoy!