Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A Very Merry Dogmas (and Catty New Year)

Santa Paws came and we had so much fun opening our presents with Dad's help (prepare for blurry photo over load)
Bob with his stocking







Weasley got a new coat from Pug Snuggly



Bob got a Bumble Ball



He also got a Penguin


Weasley got a hyper pet bag, the perfect toy for a Hyper Pug



Norbert got a tugging toy Moose

Ping and Tubby got a new bed


Of course we all got plenty of treats



Ping got a red beret from For the Love of Pug

It goes perfectly with her new navy and white bobble sweater from Auntie Melissa at Pug Notes

Tres Chic




Weasley was very eager to get into his stocking


He got a knotted rope deer toy from Olive Green Dog


Thank goodness Santa didn't forget the Antler Chews

and he brought a new red Jive Ball for Norbert

and a cute retro Reindeer Toy


Our favorite stinky tripe chews

Here is our new bed piled with all of our stuff!  What a haul


We had fun playing with the Hyper Pet Bag, it barks and shakes and hops!

The cats got treats and knitted cat nip toys


The bumble ball was fun too, it hops and shakes

Knitted cat nip toys, how cute is it that they have Patrick from Sponge Bob!

We had a nice yummy breakfast too (these are the tastiest scones ever)

Blueberry Cream Scones 

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (King Arthur is always best)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt, as always Kosher Salt is best
6 tbsp butter, chilled and cut in small bits
3/4 cup frozen wild bluberries
1 cup heavy cream, plus a bit extra for brushing scones
1 egg 
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 425.   In a food processor combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.   Add the butter and process at short bursts, don't over process, there should still be a few small bits of butter, smaller then a pea, in the flour mixture.  Dump the flour mixture in a large bowl and mix in the blueberries, don't bother thaw them, mix them in frozen.   Stir together the cream, egg, and vanilla in a large measuring cup and pour into the flour mixture.   Stir with a fork until the dough comes together (you may need to add a few more tablespoons of cream).    Flour a board or a silicone baking mat and dump the dough out and pat in an 8 inch round

(

(One of my presents, a Martha Stewart baking mat with pre-measured circles drawn on it made this step a breeze).  Dip a sharp knife in flour and score the dough into 8 sections.  Separate the triangles of dough and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet leaving one inch spaces between.  Brush with a little extra cream and sprinkle on some sugar.   Bake for 20 minutes, turning one half way through.  Cool and serve with clotted cream and strawberry jam (for the true experience you really must have clotted cream, if you live in the states you can get some at Whole Foods like we do, or on amazon.)

We also had broiled grape fruit (or at the least the peeps did, grapefruit is not for us, though we did enjoy a crumb of the scones)

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!


Monday, December 24, 2012

Christmas Cooking 1 Day to Christmas (and some Knitted Ornaments too)

Every Holliday season
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Vogue magazine has articles on all the luxury gifts you can get.  Most of them are things like custom Bentleys and couture gowns, but this year they had an article about the luxury of a perfect cup of hot chocolate.   Really good hot chocolate, not the Swiss Miss kind, really is the ultimate little luxury.  After lots of tinkering, here is how I make mine (note this is not a very sweet hot chocolate so you may want to increase the sugar to 2 tbsp).

Luxury Hot Chocolate for One

3 tbsp unsweetened Scharfen Berger cocoa powder or other high quality cocoa
3 tbsp Evian sparkling water or other sparkling water (the sparkles help make it fizzy)
1 to 2 tbsp sugar (I use the smaller amount)
8  ounces whole milk
1 ounce high quality bittersweet chocolate, like Scharfen Berger

Whisk the cocoa, water, and sugar together in a small sauce pan to make paste.  Whisk in the milk.  Heat over low heat, whisking constantly, do not allow to boil.  Just before turning off the heat add the bittersweet chocolate and whisk until it melts.

Serve with marshmallows if you like (I got some tasty peppermint ones from Whole Foods)


You can sip your Hot Chocolate while you knit.  I made these knitted ornaments
using a pattern from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts and they where pretty easy and quick. 

Merry Christmas Eve!