a Christmas poem

One of my favorites that I love to share on Christmas Day.

Christmas Bells

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

merry christmas! (the quest for cranberry bread)

I had every intention of adapting or creating a recipe this morning. I've stocked up on cranberries, bought oranges and wanted to make something like this lovely cranberry orange bread but I didn't think that experimenting with a part of the Christmas morning breakfast the day before would be a good idea.

My dad is making his famous fruit soup and some sort of fruit/almond bread concoction for our traditional Christmas morning spread and while he was fretting about having something that I could eat, I offered up to bring cranberry bread (especially since I think I bought out the local Whole Foods of their cranberries).

So instead of experimenting, I went to trustworthy sources that I knew might have something. Nothing in my cookbooks looked easy enough (nor did I have all of the ingredients), so to GF blog land I went. When I first started being GF, I happened across the Gluten-Free Goddess and thank goodness, because she has been a wonderful source for me to find recipes and has encouraged me to start experimenting on my own. And find a recipe I did.

While I wait for it to bake, I'll peel the root veggies and get ready to roast them. Before all of that, though, I'm going to sit. Enjoy my coffee, Christmas tree, the lovely snow and MPR.

Wishing you and yours a day filled with peace, joy and love.

Look for a cranberry-orange quick bread recipe from me soon.

olive oil thumbprint cookies

Wow. This blog has sat vacant for almost a year and I wonder where the time has gone. I'll be starting my thesis for my MFA in January. But in the last couple of weeks, leading up to Christmas, I've been fanatically cooking and baking. All in the name of trying to find the Christmas spirit. Three batches of cookies and two kinds of candy (plus one fail on a pan of caramels), and lamb ragu later, I'm still searching.

But in the mean time, I've converted an Olive Oil Thumbprint Cookie recipe from Amy at Sourtooth to bring to the family Christmas gathering.

These are delicious, crumbly, almost tart-like cookies that aren't too sweet. Perfect for my family, who loves a little bit of sweet in with their savory.

My adaptation of this recipe to make it gluten free was almost too easy. All you need to do is substitute your favorite GF flour mix for the flour and add a teaspoon of xanthan gum. I used a rice flour mix for this, which I think contributed to the crumbly light texture of the cookie. Instead of 2 1/2 cups, I used 2 1/4 cups of flour and mixed the xanthan gum in with the dry ingredients.

The rest of the recipe, you can find on Amy's blog post about these cookies. What a find!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.