Christmas Baking

The last couple of days, we've been doing some serious cooking around here... getting ready for the holidays..

It's that time of year...

Not that this is turning into a Foodie Blog, but it's a few days before Thanksgiving, I've taken most of the week off.. and I've had this serious yen to do some Holiday Baking.

In past years, I've not done a very good job of packing the freezer full of all the good treats we like to have at Thanksgiving and Christmas... and while I've got some extra time, I figured I'd do some of that cooking so I won't have to do so much in the next few weeks.

So yesterday, with a little help from the boys, we whipped up 8 Zucchini Breads and 4 Cranberry Breads..

And then, this evening, I put together a batch of a family favorite, Squash Rolls. This time, I didn't get so much help from the boys-- turns out, letting yeast dough rise isn't really their idea of a good time. :)

This is my second time making the Squash rolls-- and they've turned out pretty well both times. But each time had its own "should it look like this" kind of anxiety. So I snapped a few pictures to keep as notes for future iterations of the recipe.

Raise them. Roll them. Works out to about 24 to a 9x13 pan. Then bake them... By the time they come out, the kitchen smells wonderful. Take them out of the oven, then spread some butter on top of them and let it melt in... Oh yeah!

They came out great again this year.. and we've still got a couple dozen in the freezer to have around Christmas.

Happy Easter!

The day is winding down now and we've finally got a few minutes to make some notes about the day here.
I'd have posted some pictures of the day's festivities, but Mom left our camera in a neighbors car the other night and we have yet to retrieve it.. so we used Aunt Laura's camera for picture taking yesterday and today.. and we've got some good ones!.. but the battery died before we could upload any. Oh well.

But take my word for it, it was quite a blow-out bash!
Aunt Patty came down last night to spend the night with us and help us get ready for the Easter Bunny's arrival.
Aidan and Bryce came downstairs this morning at about half-past six to find the overstuffed baskets the Easter Bunny had left for them. Then we had to get dressed and dash to church for 8:00 mass. Then back home for egg hunting.
Later in the afternoon, Grampa came to visit, as did Uncle Wyatt, who brought Great Grandma Edith. So we had quite a full house-- and lots of good appetites for the big meal we had prepared!

The menu included a gigantic HoneyBaked Ham, DelMonico Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, home-made baked beans (thank you Wyatt!), squash rolls... whooah boy! and for dessert-- home-made apple pie (thank you Patty!) and carrot cake (thank you Wal-Mart bakery!)....

It's a good thing my arms are so long-- I might have trouble reaching the keyboard over my big belly after all that!

Gramma wasn't feeling so well, so she wasn't able to come up to share in all the hoopla with us today-- but we were certainly thinking of her all day today and hope she's feeling better! We sent Grampa home with a few heaping plates of left-overs, so hopefully she's been able to enjoy some of the good food we had today.

Aidan and Bryce were at a pretty high excitement level-- and they managed to maintain it through much of the day (although, getting up that early, Bryce was about ready to take a nap on my shoulder right in the middle of church this morning!)-- I know they said some pretty funny things during the day, things I'd really like to record here; but I'm honestly so tired, I can't remember what any of them are; maybe tomorrow I'll remember-- so they're sacked out now and we're hopeful, of course, that they'll sleep soundly through til morning..

Well, we can think wishfully, can't we?

Happy Easter, everyone!

Lots of Christmas baking!

And speaking of Zucchini bread and assorted goodies, there's been lots of Christmas baking going on around here...





Thank goodness Bryce was willing to pitch in and help clean up afterward!