Pischi Days

Happy Holidays

Christmas came and went quietly on little cats paws. We lost our beloved Kittiwitz on December 22nd. She was an adoptee who came to live with us exactly ten years and a month from her departing. She was a loyal companion and will be sorely missed. The season has been hectic and the calendar full. There was a yarn ball exchange, a cookie exchange, a soup party, a wedding, and a host of other events that filled the weekends.
I baked Dresdner Stollen this year. The recipe comes from an German cookbook that was published in the 50’s. I think it was the school cookbook of choice, This bread is the most delicious when made a week or two ahead. It necessitates a metric scale as the measurements are metric. A Kitchenaid mixer is very helpful. This year I candied my own fruit using homegrown Valencia oranges and Ponderosa lemons. This produced a clean crystallized citrus peel that is delicious and tart, tangly, and sweet. You cam speed up the rum raisin process by placing the bowl in a microwave for 3 minutes. The bread is not cloying and is a wonderful breakfast treat. I bake them in large batches and wrap them in parchment and give them for Christmas.
Und nun das Rezept:

Dresdner Stollen

1kg Flour
2-3 packages yeast
1/2 liter whole milk
200 g Sugar
the scraped interior of a vanilla bean
dash of ground cloves
a dash of ground nutmeg
a drop or two of almond extract
400 g butter, melted and cooled
100 g slivered or sliced almonds
400 g raisins soaked in rum overnight
200 g currents (use extra raisins if currents not at hand)
150 g candied lemon peel, chopped
100 g candied orange peel, chopped
500 g almond paste
melted butter to brush exterior of baked cake
confectioners sugar to dust

Sift the flour into the mixing bowl. Warm the milk, not too hot, add a tbsp of sugar and the yeast. Let the yeast proof. make a dent in the flour and slowly add the milk mixture and the sugar. Add the cloves, nutmeg, vanilla bean, almond extract, and the melted butter. Mix well. This results in a soft, glossy bread dough. Knead well for at least 5 minutes. Add the raisins, currents, orange and Lemon peels. Knead well.
Cover dough and let it rise for about 30 minutes or until it has visibly doubled in size. 

Punch down and let rise for another 45 minutes. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and at this point divide it into either 2 or 3 even portions. Roll the dough into rectangles, about 12 x 10. Divide the almond pastes into 2 or 3 portions and roll into long sausage shapes. Fold the dough in half lengthwise and place the almond paste along the edge, about 1/3 ways in. Fold the dough over to cover the paste. Place this loaf onto a parchment covered baking sheet and use your hands to form it into a long oval shape. Let the loaves rise for another 20 minutes. Bake at 325 degrees for about 45-60 minutes, depending on how large your loaves are. Once they have been removed from the oven, brush the hot loaves with the melted butter and generously coat with powdered sugar. These loaves can sit in a cool place for for a few days before wrapping them as gifts.

I leave you with some of my favorite images. The Korknisse have all found new homes and I am busy making more in preparation for next year. They have also evolved and gained bells on braided tassels and I also ended the hats in a three stitch i-cord, which can be shaped into a jaunty curve.

I wish all a happy and warm Holiday Season.

The Easter Grass IS Greener...

Aside from all the knitting blogs, I dearly love to indulge in the many design blogs out there. My favorites include How About Orange, swissmiss, Cool Hunting, core-77, and pan-dan, just to name a few.
Clicking on any of these leads to worlds of wonder and creativity that makes my head spin and gives me a daily dose of inspiration.

Recently, I noticed a simple white ceramic ring planted with prairie grass. The planter sold for $150.00. Wow, I remembered that I had a set of Crate and Barrel ceramic pieces that I have never used to serve anything. Perfect for my planter. I always wanted to have an Easter basket planted with real grass. This is just the ticket to satisfy that childish urge.
I secured two pounds of rye grass seed, courtesy of my neighbor, a bag of vermiculite, a plant mister, and some empty egg shells to start with.

First, I tried planting egg shells to great success. Here are they are in an old German Easter egg holder.
I've started the seed in the white ceramic and they've already germinated. I hope to have several small tabletop lawns by next week. Please, try this at home for some instant gratification.
Added bonus, the cats love it! Now to go and trim the grass...

I Love a Parade

For the past 12 years I've had the pleasure of volunteering, along with a few others, to dish out the BBQ to hundred's of parade watchers at the Mims Volunteer Fire Department Christmas parade.

The parade is truly a home grown effort and a labor of love, with the local schools, churches, businesses, volunteer, and civic organizations taking part.  You'll see lots of camouflage clothing, four-wheelers, gun racks, and golf carts. There's a blue grass band that entertains the breakfast and lunchtime crowd.

A bazaar set up between the firehouses is venue for clothespin dolls, wooden reindeer, and all types of homespun crafts made from plastic canvas, light bulbs and flowerpots. If its a common household item, you can bet that is been painted, sprinkled with glitter and festooned with ribbons.

The hard work has already been accomplished, Susan's husband, Don, has been up for hours cooking the many pounds of pork, organizing the parade volunteers, and seeing to the behind the scenes preparations. The home made coleslaw has already been dished into littles cups and the beans have also been simmering for several hours. Then we show up, coffee and tea in one hand, Christmas music and a CD player in the other. The red aprons have been washed and pressed. The work we do is fairly simple. Set up a serving line on both sides of a huge butcher block table in the kitchen and fill Styrofoam containers with meat (smoked Boston butt), beans, yummy coleslaw, and two rolls. Do this repetitively for several hours with varying degrees of speed according to demand, then we clean up. I come home reeking of BBQ sauce and collapse in the backyard hammock. I love it...small town Christmas at its best!