Three Cheers for a Long Weekend

Ahhhh, I love me some long weekends. It started out with some cookie baking Thursday night. I made these Orange, Cardamom & Brandy Biscuits from Esuientes Blog with just a few modifications. I used 3 T of brandy (good thing Brandy is gross or I may have had to pour myself a glass at the same time) and instead of rolling out the dough, I kneaded it just a little bit to mix it in the bowl. Then I grabbed a wad with my hands and rolled it in a ball, put it on the cookie sheet, egg washed it and then smashed it down with a sugared glass. Turned out beautifully -- a little crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. I baked mine for about 11 minutes. I recommend them!

Then Friday, it was a trip to the pediatrician for Baby Pumpkin. He checked out totally healthy, but didn't like his shots too much. He's been sleepy and not his happy, smiley self all weekend. Which is extremely unsettling when you are the momma of a very happy baby. But, he seems to be recovering okay.

Friday night we had friends over for homemade pizza, and tomorrow I'll post the recipe for the dough. It's really simple, and so worth doing by hand. Our friends challenged us to a pizza Iron Chef sometime, and I think Mr. Pumpkin might have a shot at winning. mmmmmm.

The family visited Saturday and I have the nieces to thank for this lovely shrinky dink Christmas tree. It looks a lot like my real tree...


We had a great time just hanging around, decorating the house and munching cookies. The girls found a spot and made a little fort for their dolls while the rest of us worked on dinner, or just took up space in the kitchen, per normal get-together protocol. Dinner was great, too -- scallops, wild rice, mushrooms scavenged by my sister and her mushroom hunting kids, and some salad. Oh, it's such a shame we can't do it every day.


Today we recovered, wrapped gifts, made Beef Stew in the crock pot (well, you virtually *have* to do this if you live in the Midwest and it's wintertime). Phew.