Hello Blog Friends!
I do hope you all enjoyed this week’s special Wednesday Words post about the Christmas Cookie Cook-Along. It was great to look back over those photos of our happy little chefs. 😊
December has arrived and much of the western world is now caught up in the annual frenzy of shopping, excess eating and partying. Not to sound like Scrooge but is easy to say “Bah Humbug!”. Don’t get me wrong, I do love to give gifts but thankfully, since I spend the whole year squirreling away things I have made from supplies in my stash, there is zero shopping involved with the exception of adding a few extra baking supplies to my bi-weekly online grocery order.
In the world of Day Camps, badgering has continued apace as we are now just 1 week away from our third annual Carols & Cocoa event. Honestly, it has not been easy finding presenters and, once found, actually nudging (badgering!) them into submitting their recordings. Sigh. It is stressful on several fronts as I have been concerned for poor Jeff, from the DC committee, who nobly agreed to edit and caption the videos. I have visions of him burning the midnight oil as the videos are still being submitted. Secondly, there is the fear that no one will actually log on to participate in the event. Unlike our other online programs, people do not need to register for C&C and, although the link has been widely circulated via a variety of Social Media, I still live in dread of having gone to all this trouble in begging artists to make videos, only to have no one join the Google Meet. AGH!!!!
In order to bring variety to the task it has also been necessary to badger the list of people who agreed to edit and/or rewrite chapters and sections of the 2023 Day Camp Program Manual. The deadline for all that content is December 31st so it seemed prudent to give a heads up on the first of the month.
Then, of course, there is also the Alumni Advent Program, which continues on the next three Sunday afternoons. We had a good group for the first session last Sunday, although only five of the eleven registrants turned up thus additional badgering took place yesterday via email, texts and Instagram messages. This week I also spent part of a morning putting together the PowerPoint for the program and checking that I have the correct videos downloaded. I tested presenting them for the Meet as, for the first episode I hade found juggling the PP and 2 separate videos to be rather daunting. This week I shall try the videos as “windows” instead of “tabs” and see if that works better 😊.
Along with the usually day-to-day accounting, following up with random emails and attending several Zoom and FaceTime meetings, it has been a full week. Afternoons and evenings I did manage to complete the 4 sets of Sacrifice Beads that a friend ordered as Christmas gifts for her granddaughters, knitted feverishly on the second sock of a pair I’m making as a Christmas gift, hem four curtain panels for another friend and make a batch of Lavender Lotion Bars.
Today is “Bake & Blog” with Cinnamon Rolls, Einkorn shortbread, Gingerbread cookies and Porcupines on my list, along with Jerk Cauliflower for my supper. While things are baking the plan is to also wrap all the Christmas gifts.
With that agenda in mind, it is best to wrap up this post straight away. Since we have started a new month I have been pondering a theme and have decided to go with a few of my Advent& Christmas favourites. This week we will kick off with: –
Smoked Salmon Rösti
- 4 cups grated potatoes
- 1 Tbsp. butter
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 4oz. smoked salmon, julienned
- ½ cup Greek yoghurt
Melt the butter in a large cast iron frying pan over medium heat. Add the grated potatoes and press down evenly. Cook for 15 minutes. Loosen the “cake” with a large spatula, place a dinner plate over the pan and carefully flip the Rösti onto the plate, then slide it back into the pan. Continue to cook for another 15 minutes or until the potatoes are well browned and cooked through. Garnish the top of the Rösti with the smoked salmon and spoonfuls of Greek yoghurt. Serve immediately directly from the pan. Serves 2-3.