Frosted windowpanes

Gingerbread

Yesterday afternoon was time well spent, as I frosted gingerbread boys and girls in preparation for our Christmas guests!

Cottage Pie

This has been one of my favorite dishes to fix since I was married. It really hits the spot when it's cold outside! The amounts are extremely flexible so feel free to experiment a little.

• 1 tbsp. olive oil
  
• 2 onions, finely chopped
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
  
• around 1.5 lbs. ground beef
  
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
  
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  
• 1 c. beef or chicken stock
  
• 1/2 c. red wine
  
• salt and pepper
  
  
• around 5-7 medium-sized potatoes, peeled
  
• 4 tbsp. butter
  
• milk
  
• salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until softened but not brown. Add the garlic and stir well. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. (Alternately, you can brown the beef separately and add it in with the onions and garlic once it's cooked, if you want to drain off the fat as I usually do.) Add the carrots and season well with salt and pepper. Stir in the flour, stock, and wine. Season with salt and pepper. Heat until simmering and thickened.

Transfer to baking dish and bake in the oven for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into chunks and add them to a pot of boiling water until soft and mashable. Drain well and mash with a potato masher until smooth. Add the butter and enough milk to get the potatoes to the consistency you like (smooth and spreadable, but not overly wet). Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the ground beef mixture into an oven-proof baking dish and spread the mashed potatoes on top. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and bake at the top of the oven for 15-20 minutes. Serves 4-6.

Excerpt from my current reading

[Mr. Pickwick and his friends are celebrating Christmas Eve with the Wardle family...]

"From the centre of the ceiling of this kitchen, old Wardle had just suspended, with his own hands, a huge branch of mistletoe, and this same branch of mistletoe instantaneously gave rise to a scene of general and delightful struggling and confusion; in the midst of which, Mr. Pickwick, with a gallantry that would have done honour to a descendent of Lady Tollimglower herself, took the old lady by the hand, led her beneath the mystic branch, and saluted her in all courtesy and decorum. The old lady submitted to this piece of practical politeness with all the dignity which befitted so important and serious a solemnity, but the younger ladies, not being so thoroughly imbued with a superstitious veneration for the custom: or imagining that the value of a salute is very much enhanced if it cost a little trouble to obtain it: screamed and struggled, and ran into corners, and threatened and remonstrated, and did everything but leave the room, until some of the less adventurous gentlemen were on the point of desisting, when they all at once found it useless to resist any longer, and submitted to be kissed with a good grace. Mr. Winkle kissed the young lady with the black eyes, and Mr. Snodgrass kissed Emily, and Mr. Weller, not being particular about the form of being under the mistletoe, kissed Emma and the other female servants, just as he caught them. As to the poor relations, they kissed everybody, not even excepting the plainer portions of the young-lady visitors, who, in their excessive confusion, ran right under the mistletoe, as soon as it was hung up, without knowing it! Wardle stood with his back to the fire, surveying the whole scene, with the utmost satisfaction; and the fat boy took the opportunity of appropriating to his own use, and summarily devouring, a particularly fine mince-pie, that had been carefully put by for somebody else."

--The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, first published 1836-37