Ah Ha!! Caught in the Act!!

Oh my!! This is what I walked into when I came home from work today!! This is one little kitty having himself a whole lot of fun at my expense!!


As you can see, Miles is at it again!! And I just have to wonder where he is getting this yarn!!

And be sure to notice in the second picture--he has even managed to somehow remove the tank from his water dish!! So not only is there yarn everywhere, but water, too. And he is looking at this like "how in the world did this happen?"

This is after I have reorganized my yarn in boxes with lids, cleaned my closet and placed these boxes on the top shelf just so he can't reach them.

The only thing I can think of is that he has a stash of this somewhere, and when he is bored he gets himself a ball of yarn and just plays and plays (and makes a big mess!).

Oh, well!! Off to clean up the water and the yarn--once again.

And Kelly--in response to your question about using store bought croissants for the Christmas breads--I don't think that would work. But, I'd consider using frozen bread loaves instead of making the bread dough if you really wanted to try them.

K--that's all for a while!!

Beth

Holiday Cooking Blogger Style

I mentioned several posts ago, about Holiday Cooking Blogger Style. At the time I had originally looked at this, there were several recipes. Today, I checked again, and there are 64 recipes.

Since I had mentioned my Christmas breakfast tradition yesterday, I decided to add that recipe to the list.


These are the Candy Cane coffee cakes that I make for our Christmas morning breakfast. I usually make them a few days before Christmas and then refrigerate them. Christmas morning, pop them into the oven, warm them up and then put on the glaze.

I'm not taking credit for the picture--these are not ones that I have made--though mine do look like this--minus the bow!! This recipe makes 3 large candy canes, so I usually give one away.

Christmas Candy Cane Coffee Cakes

Makes 3 coffee cakes (12 slices each)

2 packages regular or quick active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F)
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs
5 1/2 to 6 cups Gold Medal Better for Bread™ flour
or Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups chopped dried apricots
1 1/2 cups chopped drained maraschino cherries
Coffee Cake Glaze

1 1/2 cups red cinnamon candies, if desired

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Add buttermilk, sugar, butter, eggs, baking powder, salt and 2 1/2 cups of the flour. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. (Dough should be soft and slightly sticky.)

2. Grease 3 cookie sheets. Turn dough onto well-floured surface; gently knead about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll one part into rectangle, 15 x 9 inches. Place rectangle on cookie sheet.

3. Mix apricots and chopped cherries. Spread one-third of the apricot mixture in a strip about 2 1/2 inches wide lengthwise down center of rectangle. Make cuts in dough at 1/2-inch intervals on both 15-inch sides almost to filling. Fold strips over filling, overlapping and crossing in center. Carefully stretch dough until 22 inches long; curve one end to form top of cane. Repeat with remaining 2 parts of dough. Cover and let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until double. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.)

4. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle Glaze over warm coffee cakes. Decorate with cinnamon candies.

I have some other Christmas recipes, too, but I'll save them for another day.

K--that's all for a while!!

Beth