These are some of the most addictive cookies to ever be made in this house.

They look as though they involve feats of amazing engineering, but they are so simple.

peppermint meringues

(adapted from Martha Stewart Living)

3 egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

red paste food coloring

Preheat oven to 175 degrees.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Heat the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is warm to the touch (about 3 minutes).  Transfer bowl to mixer.  Whisk on medium to high speed until stiff peaks form.  Whisk in extracts.

Using a food safe paintbrush, paint 3 stripes of red food coloring up the inside of a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4 inch plain round tip.

Transfer the egg white mixture to the pastry bag.  I used a long-handled teaspoon to get the mixture down to the pastry tip without messing with the stripes.  Pipe onto parchment lined sheets in candy cane shapes.

Bake until cookies are crisp but not brown.  They should easily lift off of the parchment.  This takes about 1 hour 30 minutes.  My second batch took longer, but the mixture was also not as stiff as the first, so be sure to beat them to the stiff peak stage.  Cool on pan.

Now I'm ready to start packing teacher's gifts.

This week is baking week.  I'm desperately working to get teachers gifts together for Friday's last day of school. Tuesday night, my friends and I got together for a big potluck/gift exchange party.  I made this tote for the exchange.

It was an appetizer/dessert potluck (let's all be honest those are the best parts of  a meal anyway)

I made cayenne parmesan twists.  I wasn't sure how much cayenne to add.  In the end I think I went a little heavy, but the spouse disagreed.  So that's why I'm giving a range for the amount of cayenne.

cayenne parmesan twists

one package puff pastry - thawed according to package directions

2/3 grated parmesan (divided in half)

1 1/2 teaspoons paprika

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix 1/3 cup of parm with spices in a bowl and set aside.  Dust rolling surface with remaining 1/3 cup of parm and place pastry on top.  Dust pastry with parm/spice mixture and roll pastry to 1/8" thickness.  Cut pastry into 1/2 inch strips.  Give each strip several twists and lay on parchment line baking sheet.

Bake until golden, 9-10 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly on sheet pan and then remove to rack to cool completely.

Last year I made Christmas stockings for a couple of friends.  It turned out that their dogs were jealous, so this year they will have their very own stockings for Santa to fill.

They are made with scraps of wool that have been machine pieced in a crazy quilt fashion.  I used embroidery floss to hand stitch all the embellishments.  I think my favorite stitch is the herringbone stitch on Izzy's toe.

Here is an etsy order I completed this week.

The chimney sweep is here installing a lovely new cap.  All the stomping sounds like Santa is making an early stop. I finished this cardigan in the fall, but I'm just getting around to wearing now that the weather has turned cold.

I found the pattern over at kootoyoo.  It made of 2 granny hexagons that are stitched together in the back.

I used a size P hook and malabrigo in Polar Morn for mine.

Here they are stitched together.

Then you stitch the top of the sleeves together.

Then you have new cardigan.

Put Me In The Zoo has always been one of my favorite books.

I loved the illustrations as a kid and still love them today.  Luckily, both the kids love the story so we read it on a fairly regular basis.

When I saw the polka dots fabrics in the freebird line by MoMo fabrics for Moda, my first thought was of those polka dots flying across the sky.

I couldn't resist making a quilt top with all those great big polka dots.

It's quilted with a horizontal stripes with a chocolate brown thread.  Turns out, it's going to go live at my mom's house.

Here's the back -

It's the family ribbed hat pattern from Joelle Hoverson's more last minute knitted gifts.  I used some malabrigo yarn from my stash.

I made this advent calendar a couple of years ago.  I love it, but I'm always at a loss for what to put in it.

Yesterday as I was digging through all the decorations, it hit me, why not a kids tree?

Each day has an ornament that the kids can put on their own little tree, so by Christmas they will have fully decorated tree.

Our weather has been so beautiful the past couple of days.

We are doing our best to take full advantage of this.

I've also been putting a lot of time into this project.

These prints are so cute.  They are loaded with flowers and geometrics, there are even hats and shoes.

It's available now over at mybricole on etsy.

it's done

The moment I saw this fabric at my local shop I loved it.  I knew nothing about making a quilt except this was the fabric I wanted to use to make mine.  The majority of it is made using the Rouenneries line from French General for Moda.  The pattern is the Yellow Brick Road pattern from Atkinson.

It is machine pieced and hand quilted.

It is also extremely cozy.  I cannot believe I actually finished it before the snow started falling.

Here's the back.

happy November

lulu found some flannel that she loved so I have been making pajamas First there was pink leopard, then skiing monkeys, and now, last but not least birdies

It's a NewLook pattern (#6746)

cj found a great moose flannel along with a black and red buffalo check for some pants of his own

We hosted a little bbq last Saturday.

It ended with homemade baileys, pumpkin cream pie, and these smores, made with ginger graham crackers, maple marshmallows, and nutella.

ginger graham crackers

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

8 Tablespoons (one stick) butter (cut into cubes and chilled)

1/3 cup honey or sorghum (I made one batch of each)

5 Tablespoons whole milk

2 Tablespoons vanilla

topping

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

To make the dough, combine flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and ginger in bowl of food processor.  Pulse to mix.  Add butter and pulse until mixture is resembles a course meal.

In a separate bowl, mix together honey, (or sorghum) milk, and vanilla.  Add to flour mixture, pulsing to fully incorporate.  Turn dough out onto a well floured surface, divide in half and shape each half into a flat rectangle.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for two hours.

Once firm, roll dough on well floured surface to 1/8" thickness and cut into squares.  Place squares on parchment lined sheets and chill 30 minutes in fridge before baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl.  Sprinkle liberally over squares before baking.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then cool completely on rack.

maple marshmallows

The basic recipe can be found here, just add 1 Tablespoon maple extract along with the vanilla extract.

These marshmallows are also perfect in a cup of hot cocoa.

All that's left is to spread your graham with nutella, toast your marshmallow, and sit back and enjoy.

I'm not a fan of butternut squash. This means I'm never really sure what to do with them when they turn up on the CSA wagons.  I've tried roasting them, mashing them, turning them to soup, all which the spouse enjoyed, but not me.  I was doubtful when I saw Jamie Oliver turn them into cupcakes on Jamie at Home, but I brought the squash home, so I had to do something with it.

Besides ignoring it.

They have great texture and flavor, but I couldn't resist going over the top with the frosting to make it more of a cupcake and less of a muffin.  And let's be honest, who doesn't love toffee bits?

butternut cupcakes

adapted from Jamie Oliver

1 medium-sized butternut squash - skin on, deseeded, and roughly chopped

2 1/4 cup brown sugar

4 eggs

pinch salt

2 1/2 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Using a food processor, blitz squash until finely chopped.  Add sugar and eggs.  Blitz to combine.  Add salt, flour, baking powder, spices, olive oil.  Blitz until well mixed.

Fill muffin cup no more than 3/4 full. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.

butternut cupcake frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature

4 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, blend cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add flavorings and nutmeg.  With mixer on low, slowly add powdered sugar until of a spreadable consistency.

After frosting the cupcakes, sprinkle the tops with toffee bits.

This recipe has been my favorite way to use up the extra tomatoes from my CSA.

roasted tomato soup

serves 4

4 Tablespoons butter

1 small onion

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup vermouth

3 pounds tomatoes - roasted *, peeled, and chopped

1/2 cup heavy cream

salt

pepper

chopped fresh basil (optional)

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic, cook, stirring until onions are translucent.  Add wine, tomatoes, salt and pepper.  Cook until tomatoes fall apart.  Stir in basil if desired.

Allow to cool slightly.  Use an immersion blender to puree mixture.  Add cream and season with salt and pepper to taste.

* to roast tomatoes - place tomatoes on a parchment lined sheet pan in a 425 degree oven for 40 minutes, turning once

and now, back to the hand quilting...

malabrigo gruesa kettle dyed pure wool, super bulky thick & thin in dark earth

becomes a set of wrist warmers

chunky yarn wrist warmers

one skein malabrigo gruesa thick and thin

size 8 double pointed needles

cast 25 stitches onto needle and divide among three needles

knit in round for approximately 4 inches stopping at end of a round

make thumb hole

while still on needles, turn work inside out purl one row

turn work to right side and knit row

continue turn to wrong side purl row and turn to right side knit row for a total of eight rows

join work again and continue knitting in round for another 1 1/2"

cast off

join in ends

We met up at the wine bar, sharing fancy meat & cheese trays and our fave fries along with lots of laughs and a love of hats. I made some sweets.

There were meringues

and truffles

and little cakes

iced almond cakes

for the cake

1 1/2 sticks butter (at room temperature)

2 1/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup almond paste

6 eggs (separated)

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prep rimmed 17" x 12" pan by buttering, lining bottom with parchment and then buttering and dusting parchment with flour.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside

Using an electric mixer, meat almond paste and 1 1/4 cups of the sugar until well blended.  Add butter and beat until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks and vanilla.  Mix well.  Add flour mixture in three parts alternating with milk.  Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until frothy.  While mixer is running, add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until soft peaks form.  Add 1/3 of the egg white mixture to the egg yolk mixture and fold in gently.  Fold in remaining whites gently.

Spread batter evenly onto baking sheet.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, turning pan half way through cooking time.  Transfer pan to rack to cool completely.  When cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

for the glaze

1 cup apricot jam

In a small saucepan, heat apricot jam to thin it and then push through sieve.  Brush a thin layer of the jam over the top of the chilled cake.  Return cake to refrigerator and chill until set.

for the icing

8 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon extract

gel food coloring of choice

Turn out cake and cut into 1 1/4" squares.  Place cakes on rack resting in baking sheet to catch icing drips.

Mix all the ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth.   Pour icing over cakes and decorate as desired. Allow icing to set a bit before placing in paper cups for serving.