Saturday, November 28, 2015

Getting Ready for the Holidays (but not baking Kolache)

I made a good start today, getting all my outdoor decorations up and all the wreaths hung. It was about 40 degrees out so not too bad out there. My son helped me with some last minute yard work (that oak is still hanging on to some of it's leaves). We moved furniture around and I am now ready to bring up the tree and all the rest of the decorations.
This was last weekend!

Today brought to mind all the Christmas baking that my Mom used to do. I don't bake any more. I used to try to keep the kolache tradition going but when I could no longer eat all that sweet stuff, I gave it up. I used to make my own log roll and press cookies as well.
My Mom was an excellent baker and turned out so many wonderful cookies and other treats. She made a chocolate sheet cake covered with marshmallow and then a chocolate ganache....yum! She also had a deft hand with pastry (most recipes from my Grandmother) turning out kolachi, kiffles, date bars, nut roll covered with icing and much  more. The Kolache were nut, poppy seed, apricot,and prune. 
Sorry that those days are gone for me now and I must settle for a dried up sugar-free cookie.







In this picture is my Mom's pastry board where all the magic happened. Behind, is her well used kolache pans. I don't even know if you can buy them anymore. It would take my Mom all day to make 12 kolache rolls and she usually froze half. At Easter she would only make 6 rolls. She also made a roll with sweet cottage cheese.....one of my favorite
Mom would bake all day, clean up and then make dinner....what a woman!!!
The Pyrex bowls are from my vintage collection.
Always think of my Mom and Dad at this time of year with such fond memories and miss them everyday.


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