An Aside ...

This week the elves have been busy! There is so much baking, sewing, and puttering with design here in the grey cottage!  I've been experimenting with a spelt flour crust - something that will hold up to very wet fillings like quiches or gravy-based meat pies.

The result is a nutty flavoured crunchy crust, not at all like the typical, flaky, light white flour pie crust, but rustic enough that I think it would work with meat pies. The floppy crust looked cool, but it got far too crunchy hanging out in that hot oven. Next time, I'll trim it right up. The ham and spinach quiche was very tasty, though. Just loaded with stringy caramelized onions and plenty of Jarlsberg cheese.

Sigh ...

Making another batch of Christmas cookies was positively therapeutic. There's something about rolling warm cookies in sugar that makes me feel like a kid. Looking at them all lined up in the Christmas cookie tin made my afternoon complete!

German Sandkeks , the traditional shortbread cookie that always graces the cookie tins at the grey cottage! perfect with a glass of milk or better yet, a hot cup of tea!

Finally, the apricots that were left over from my chutney-making session got soaked with some prunes and turned into a sweet gooey sauce with Asian flair. After thickening up in the oven, it was poured over pork scallopine that had been pan-seared and rested to a perfect pink center. Fast and easy dinner for this Christmas elf!

Are you managing to get your Christmas projects done while juggling regular chores or is your house going to smithereens like mine? I'm cooking, but cleaning and laundry have gone by the boards for a few days. Might be time to do a major sweep ... or maybe I should wait until the tree gets dragged though and set up. Yeah ... I should wait.

Okay! Glad we got that settled!