My Day on the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange!

The Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange will be full of quilty inspiration and treats and is always my favourite Hop of the year!

Carol from Just Let Me Quilt is our hostess and had some wonderful treats to share on her blog yesterday.

Any one who knows me knows that Christmas has always been my favourite holiday of the year. When I was married to my first husband (and raising three amazing children) we always had a home where the holiday season was filled with lots of entertaining. We often had my brother and his family come and stay with us and even managed to convince my father that we should fly him out to enjoy our snowy, holidays with some of the kids and grandkids. It meant my sister in law and I were able to compete share out love of cooking and baking with both of us starting in September and October to create the goodies we all loved. The baking often had fruitcake, shortbread, truffles and more being stashed in the freezer for a quick treat when company came. I did discover that my kids loved to sneak the treats out of the freezer and often found empty containers when I went to get a platter of goodies out!

My recipe is a favourite that is never the same each time I make it, since I enjoy having savouries as well as sweets on hand to share with company, and it is often a spur of the moment make:

Carol’s Antipasto

I always get out my largest pot (a commercial soup pot) because I keep adding until the pot is full!

• Start with heating 1/2 c. Of a good olive oil to heat to a medium temperature,
• Add one large head of cauliflower, chopped finely to cook,
• Add sliced mushrooms (I prefer fresh but a couple of cans work as well),
• Grate 6 or 8 peeled, grated carrots to the mix,
• Chop 2 large jars of sweet mixed pickles and add to the pot,
• Chop 2 or three jars of pickled onions and add to the pot,
• Add two or three or even four chopped peppers (I usually mix red, green, orange or yellow),
• Once this is all heated and sizzling I add 1 cup of ketchup and 1 cup of the brine from the sweet mixed pickles,
• Once the mixture is again heated and bubbling, I start adding any canned items I want to use up (garbanzo beans, black beans, green and yellow beans, black olives, tuna, shrimp or crab meat) in other words whatever I have in the pantry and need to use up!
• These days I do not add the seafood in case any guests have allergies, but it was always a sneaky way to get more veggies in to my kids. 😉
• Once the pot is filled and bubbling, I remove it from the heat and can it all. It keeps for a year (as if 😁), but can be enjoyed as soon as it cools with some crispy crackers, grainy bread slices, or even pita bread; again, whatever I had on hand.

Then when I lived up north I was able to indulge my passion for the holidays even more with my ex husband being coerced convinced to play Santa Claus in Wells and Father Christmas in Barkerville.

Since I have moved to the Kootenays and joined my local Guild, and live with a real Grinch, I have had to find other ways to celebrate the holiday season. Most years I have a few quilted goodies to send to our local food bank for their Christmas hampers. With the strange year I’ve had I haven’t had much time to do any quilting, but will have a few covered notebooks to donate and one very special gift.

You all know that I really enjoy working with patterns that Sandra Walker from MMM Quilts designs. A couple of weeks ago she emailed me to see if I would be interested in testing her newest pattern, Sunset Strip. Of course I said yes because I had been told that a wonderful woman I know would be receiving a hamper and has just been confined to a wheelchair. The baby sized pattern would be perfect for a warm lap quilt for this sweet woman. You can read Sandra’s post here to see some other versions of the quilt.

#sunsetstripquilt

#sandrajanequilts

#mmmquilts

I knew that she loves purple since her garden always had every purple flower she could find, and most days she will have an article of purple clothing on. I checked my stash for some pretty purples, and hoped I had enough of a white fabric or light sky patterned fabric for my background. I did discover a lovely white with blue roses and realized that I could use the back side of the fabric and almost get the background texture I wanted.

It didn’t take me long to get the fabrics pressed, cut and labelled.

Then in between other appointments and commitments I was able to get the blocks pieced and squared up.

In no time at all I had a finished flimsy!

Unfortunately it isn’t quilted yet, but will be finished by the weekend when I need to get it to the Guild. I will be doing straight line quilting on my dsm since it’s impossible for me to get away to the studio to use my longarm. I’ll also have a couple more of the covered notebooks that I love to make.

I do have one additional recipe to share. When I was growing up my mother made gingerbread frequently over the Christmas season. Over the years I have been trying to duplicate my Mom’s recipe (which she never did share with anyone) and I think I finally have it,

Gingerbread Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees,
• Oil and flour your cake pan,
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking side
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water

• Beat butter until creamy
• Add sugar until its light and fluffy
• Add egg and beat again
• Add molasses and beat again
• Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in a bowl
• Gradually add dry ingredients to molasses mixture
• Pour batter in to prepared pan
• Bake for 30 minutes , check the cake and cook longer if needed.
• Remove from pan and let cool

My mother served gingerbread either with a lemon glaze on it or made a lemon sauce to pour over it. My DH is addicted to lemon curd so I serve it with a healthy dollop of lemon curd on top. DH would be happier if I added whip cream he said, but the store was closed when I served this up! 😉

Check out who will be sharing their Christmas spirit today with me:

DECEMBER 5

Selina Quilts

Just Because Quilts

Karrin’s Crazy World

Domestic Felicity

Happy Cottage Quilter

Nettie Sews and Lucky Quilts

I do hope you show some love by commenting on every one’s posts. Thank them for the recipes or quilty inspiration they share. It does spread a warm, fuzzy feeling when you do.

Thank you for stopping by to read my post. I so appreciate the visits. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas from my home to yours. 🤶🏻❄️⛄️