December 27, 2016

Christmas and End of the Year Reflections
















This holiday season all went by in a blur. Working retail will do that during the holidays I suppose. It wasn't as nightmarish as I thought it would be at the store, since my section slowed down, I had more time off than I thought I would, but still very busy time of year and not a lot of time doing things I would normally do, like planing dinners and decor. Christmas morning started with a nice brunch before we opened up gifts.  Christmas dinner was an easy one with ham and the potatoes that I did for my dad for his birthday. I also made my favorite recipe for carrots, from Jamie Oliver. They are so easy and so good! I found some really pretty edible flowers and micro greens to add to my salad for a festive mood, but other than that, not too much creativity went into my dinner and decor this year. I was so tired on Christmas morning, I hardly took any pictures of us tearing into our gifts hahah.
I received some lovely gifts from the family, but the best gift of all was just spending the day with them.

It's slow at work right now, so I won't be working too many hours for a while. Not sure when it will pick back up. Until it does, I plan on taking full advantage of my time at home with some ideas that I have for the shop. Making myself work outside the home, has really helped me value my time off more and I think I'm ready to kick off 2017 more organized. I'm excited about this.

This year I decided to make stolen fruit bread. It was fun, and for the most part I liked how it turned out. I added the powdered sugar too soon though, and I think if I make it again, I'll cut back the amount of fruit. It got me in the mood  to make some more yeast breads like cinnamon rolls etc. I use to make bread all the time, especially in college. Since we moved to the Bay Area in 1988, I quit doing it since we have such great bread bakers in the area.
Speaking of baking, I got to spend a day in a friends professional  bakery helping out last week. This is the same baker that I have posted pictures of the croissants and other treats. When I walked into the shop it smelled so heavenly. He is trying to make the bakery as close as possible to one you would find in France. Word has already gotten out, and things have been selling out faster than he can bake more! I have a couple pictures on my IG when I was there if you want to check it out. I'm happy that he will still be selling at our farmer's market on Sundays, but also great that if you have a hankering for croissants in the middle of the week you can get them now.
End of the year always gets me a bit melancholy, how about you?   I love the holiday season and when it's over, I feel like a little kid that doesn't want to leave the party. The taking down of the tree is always a sad day, but once it is done, and things are swept and cleaned, I move forward with a hopeful heart that the coming year will be a good one. This year hasn't been super fantastic nor horrible, just meh..... Let's all hope for a fantastic 2017.
I'm going to look at January and the new year like Caitlin does. She told me last year when I was dreading the turning of the new year....."It's just the next month!" So onwards and upwards!!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and Happy 2017!!!

2 comments:

  1. Your stolen looks really fantastic. I make it every year because I don't like Christmas cake. I don't put in the marzipan as I don't really like it much. What recipe did you use?

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    1. I used a recipe from the newer publication called "Bake From Scratch " it turned out really good!

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