MmWwaaaHaHa!!!

Frightening, isn't it???

     Today, with the Feast of the Presentation, we come to an end of all things Christmas.  So that makes it a very good time to begin a cleaning and clearing out of clutter!  I don't know about you, but around here the fall months with all of their wonderful holidays always result in stuffed closets and cupboards.  When we leave behind the celebrating and look forward to Lent, I am filled with an urge to cleanse and simplify.

     Some of the holiday clutter that was taking up a lot of room in my freezer was my collection of three pumpkins--whole and complete with lids!  After Halloween, we rushed out of town for a few days and I didn't have time to cut them up.  The kids really wanted to cook something with their own pumpkins, so I just stuffed them in the freezer whole.  I'm sure you have never just stuffed clutter anywhere, lol!

     Today, I roasted one of the pumpkins directly from the freezer...whole!  It worked great.  The only thing I would have done differently is to use a pan with higher sides.  The low-edged baking sheet just barely contained the juices of pumpkin.

Also, I think next time I'll remove the candle before baking the pumpkin.  Just sayin'.  Even if it is Candlemas today!




      
     

     The final result ended up both looking and smelling delicious.  I pureed it using my immersible blender.  I now have nearly a quart of yummy smashed pumpkin for baking.

  
     Tonight I will use some of this pumpkin in place of the oil in a boxed cake mix.  With the addition of pumpkin pie spices, we should have a tasty desert that's high in Vitamin A and uses up some more "holiday clutter".


Hope your clutter busting is as delicious and vitamin-rich as mine as been!

Cookies!

"The Loaded Cookie" by African Lion

       When I was a child, my favorite Christmas cookie was Spritz!  These delicious, sweet butter cookies were part of our annual Christmas tradition.  So, when it was time for me to begin my own traditions with my own children, I certainly wanted to include this tasty Swedish treat as a tribute to my own Swedish heritage.  Since the feast of St. Lucia is such a fun and family-oriented day in Sweden, I thought that today would be just the day for this heritage cookie.

Sankta Lucia, Carl Larsson

      Making Spritz requires the use of a cookie gun:

   The Sawa cookie press pictured above is exactly like the one we used when I was a child.  It is also evidently both vintage and collectible (if you live long enough...), but there are other options available in kitchen stores and online.  I just love having that Swedish flag on the box...

     The recipe I use is from The Joy of Cooking (my copy of which is also vintage and collectible...pretty soon I'll be vintage and collectible myself) and is simplicity itself.  The only trick is to get the dough to the correct temperature for pressing, pliable but not too warm.  Then you can press out lovely wreaths:

There are also many other shaping options such as trees, stars, diamonds, hearts, etc.  I would have done a variety of shapes today, but my daughter used most of the dough last night baking cookies for her friends--which are now gone and probably eaten up!  I'll mix up more dough today and when I have a few minutes, it is easy to take it out and press more delicious shapes.

     The younger children have trouble getting the knack of the cookie gun, but they have no trouble sprinkling decorations on:

or eating them:

Enjoy the feast of St. Lucy today with your own lovely traditions!  St. Lucy, pray for us!