Snowed In!

Over the weekend we awoke to snow in England....it was a bit messy but manageable. We opted to travel around via (very delayed) trains instead of driving but we were lucky in that we didn't have too far to go. Traffic in our little town was a disaster over the weekend, so we were thankful we didn't have to go far to get to the train station. And although our train on either side of our destination was delayed by 2 plus hours, we managed to enjoy a day out in the snow. The town looks very pretty covered in all of the white stuff.

And then we woke up to more snow as the week began! My dear friend Sarah has been in town visiting and she was due to fly out of London back home to the US on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately the snow and ice have caused complete chaos for this country and her flight (along with 98% of all others going out of London early this week) was cancelled! Thankfully we found out in advance of her going down to the airport but the bad news was she is literally snowed in with us and cannot leave England until after Christmas! While we are more than happy to have her stay extended, we know we are on borrowed time with her husband and family since they will not get to be with her for Christmas this year.

More snow out the morning window!

More snow as of Tuesday - compare with the photo above from the weekend....quite a bit more! It almost feels like we are back home in Chicago (minus the part where the city actually knows how to cope with removing the snow, and people know how to manage in it!)

So, Sarah & I have been taking advantage of being snowed inside. It has really been great fun! We have baked, cooked, and baked some more.....we have stayed in our pj's until well after noon and watched nonsense on TV.....have been enjoying hot cups of afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream and jam.....and have been organizing my closets and extra guest room in preparation for the baby's soon-to-be nursery.....and have even done a bit of sewing and monogramming too.

Sarah turning the made peanut butter chocolate chip biscotti that we baked one afternoon.

We baked even MORE cinnamon rolls today....this time we also made the orange marmalade version instead of just the traditional cinnamon version.

Two more pans of cinnamon rolls ready and waiting for our consumption on Christmas morning!

Holiday Baking 2010

Tis the season for baked goods....and it is that time of year when Scott brings in baked holiday gifts to his co-workers. This year I was fortunate enough to have my friend Sarah visiting from the US, so upon her arrival, we spent a day fully engrossed baking treats in the kitchen! The list of items made this year included: Cinnamon rolls (and many more cinnamon rolls!), Ranger cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Mint Cookies, Turtle pretzel treats, Cranberry-orange Shortbread Cookies, Gooey Butter Cookies, and Chocolate Fudge. The house smelled divine and we had sugar coming out of our pores by the end of our baking extravaganza!

A few of the pans of homemade cinnamon rolls baking in the oven.

The platters of cookies Scott took into work with him for his co-workers to enjoy.

Over 24 pans of cinnamon rolls wrapped up for individual gift giving and ready for Scott to take into his co-workers. (The tags should have read: From - Scott & Cassie and Sarah too!)

In total, we made over 200 cinnamon rolls, 12 dozen cookies, and 5 lbs of fudge!!!!

Bun in the Oven...

Recently I have been baking a famous "hometown recipe" - The St. Louis Junior League Cinnamon Rolls. They are quite a bit of work but worth every minute in the kitchen, after you taste the first bit of the warm rolls straight out of the oven! They are not as large as traditional cinnamon rolls but they are gooey and sugary and frankly delicious.

While I have been making a lot of cinnamon buns, there is another type of bun in the oven elsewhere....

This "baby bun" is almost 19 weeks along now and will be debuting around February 4th! I think the baby likes cinnamon sweets quite a bit so there have been a lot of cinnamon rolls consumed already...

Tis the season for baking...

I spent time this week baking up a holiday sugar high....

Per Scott's request, I made four large trays of cookies for him to bring into his office mates as a holiday sweet treat for all to share. Then, for each of his staff members and other colleagues from his department, I made "goodie bags" filled with bread, hot fudge sauce, and more holiday sweets. I made similar bags of goodies last year for his work colleagues and apparently they were a hit, as Scott's boss asked him a few weeks ago if his "Mrs" would be making the delicious holiday treats again this year? At least I am glad to know people enjoy the goodies! 

It does seem that holiday baking is not as big of a tradition here as it is in the US. In the US I used to receive many homemade goodies from friends and co-workers. Here, however, it seems the holiday card and maybe some liquor is more appropriate. Scott has been coming home with cards from all of his co-workers on a daily basis which have been addressed to both of us, wishing us a Happy Christmas. Additionally, our neighbors have actually walked over cards, rung the doorbell, and hand delivered these Christmas cards to us. In the US, most people would typically just mail their cards. I am not sure if this is a common UK tradition, but it seems more prevalent to us this year, now that we know more local people. 

The chocolate mint cookies as they were cooling with the mint/chocolate frosting.

Snickerdoodle cookies coming straight out of the oven. 

Orange almond poppyseed bread with its orange glaze. 

Two trays of fudge, peanut butter kiss cookies, and toffee bar cookies ready for Scott to take into his office. Funny enough, the peanut butter kiss cookies were the last cookies to be eaten! Must be a cultural difference since they are a favorite American cookie! 

Jars of Hot Fudge sauce ready for goodie bags.

Holiday cookies/sweets for the holiday bags.

The poppyseed bread wrapped up and ready to be put in the holiday bags. 

A Baking Disaster....

I was just going along baking some treats this afternoon and I needed to make icing for some muffins. I went to Sainsbury's today and purchased two new boxes of powdered sugar. So I opened one of the boxes and poured in some liquid ingredients into the bowl and then poured in the powdered sugar - I started to stir the mixture when I saw a thick black spider coming out of the powdered sugar I had just dumped in there! Scott just happened to walk in the front door at this very time and heard me scream in sheer disgust. 

He luckily came into the kitchen and disposed of the spider and then I dumped the entire mixture out and started a new. 

I tell you I have encountered MORE spiders in this country than I ever thought possible. Earlier today, I thought it was terrible that I had killed 5 spiders I found in our house, but I am pretty sure this icing incident tops any spider hanging out in a corner or crack in our house!!!!!!!!

A New Bakery In Town

There's a new bakery in our little town in the middle of England.... It's my kitchen!

I am not sure how it happened so quickly, but I have been getting calls with "orders" for my American baked goods for all kinds of birthday parties, social engagements, school functions, etc. I am working on another order tonight and tomorrow - cupcakes to celebrate a quilting's club first birthday.

I am glad the recipients are enjoying the treats and I have enjoyed the distraction to give me something to do with my free time these days. I am not sure this baking gig will turn into anything more than just a word-of-mouth hobby for me, but it is fun to do it while I have the time, for people who are enjoying the end products. The "American" style cupcakes (called fairy cakes here) seem to be the biggest draw for other Americans and also the Brits who are ordering from me right now. Of course it helps that I am often sending in baked goods with Scott so his co-worker's can "taste" the goods and send referrals my way....

Cupcakes for a High School Musical birthday party. 

Gingerbread men and snowladies for a birthday party. 

Vanilla cupcakes for a 3-year-old's birthday party.

Star cookies to match the Pirate theme for the birthday party. 

A double-layer chocolate cake for a 60th birthday. 

The side view of the chocolate buttercream frosting. Yum!

Holiday Baking Time

It is time for holiday baking in our house....I love this time of year! I spent all of yesterday preparing gifts of baked goodies for Scott's co-workers and a few new friends we have made here. The day of baking was so enjoyable for me - probably because I had the entire day to do it, and did not worry about having to get ready for work the next day! (Note: It is probably first time I have said to Scott that I was actually glad not to be working right now - most of the time I am anxious about wanting to get back into a work routine). The other factor that helped was that we also do not know as many people here yet, so the list of recipients was shorter than in years past. 

Here are the results of my labor yesterday.....I used 22 eggs in total and over 10 pounds of sugar in my baking frenzy, resulting in 25 loaves of bread, 90 pieces of fudge, 6 pounds of butter almond toffee, 4 dozen sugar cookies, and 28 cups of homemade granola. 

One batch of the almond cranberry granola all mixed up and ready to be contained.

The bags of granola ready for gifting.

Lots of loaves of orange almond poppy seed bread. 

The bread loaves wrapped and ready to be gifted.

Walnut Chocolate Fudge.

Chocolate Fudge in individual petit cup wrappers.

The fudge wrapped in packaging.

Butter almond toffee ready and wrapped.

Sugar Cookies in their bags.

The full gift bags of goodies. I hope the recipients enjoyed the treats! 

Thanksgiving Day and pumpkin pies

Today is obviously Thanksgiving Day in the U.S., and we are both are feeling a bit like the day will just pass us by because we have not seen any of the build up here toward the holiday. We celebrated turkey day early last Sunday with the American Club here which was nice so we did get to eat a bit of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pie. Even though we are not celebrating the day with a big thanksgiving feast, I did my fair share of baking for the holiday last night. Two of the other American wives have discovered that I am a baker and both of them are not. So, I made 4 pumpkin pies for one family last night (Her daughter's school is having an american thanksgiving celebration in her honor) and chocolate chip pecan pie bars for the other family who will have a feast tonight.

Like a good wife, I also baked pumpkin pie bars for Scott to bring in to his co-workers today. Many of them have been asking Scott if we will have a big feast tonight and they are most interested in if we will be eating pumpkin pie. Most of them have never had pumpkin pie, and their main knowledge about pumpkin pie comes from seeing it on tv on FRIENDS. (funny) I can't wait to hear the reports on what they think of the pie....

Wishing everyone in the US a Happy Thanksgiving today! Have some turkey and stuffing for both of us!