Of ornament swaps and naked gingerbread men...

Last week I joined a blogger ornament swap organized by the fabulous Micaela of Dolce Vita (Hi Micaela!). My partner was the lovely Jessica C. all the way from Kentucky (Hi Jessica!). I own a a jewelry store (Brass Pearl Caravan*) so I made the ornaments by hand using three brass pendants from a vintage necklace I took apart. The third one turned out a bit wonky so I suggested she hide it somewhere at the back of the tree. I also suck in some holiday essentials, namely chocolate, chocolate and Tide-To-Go (post-choc cleanup).

We were also asked to share our favourite Christmas memory... so here's mine:

It was first year of college (about 6 years ago) and my first year of making 'edible' food. So I decided to invite my cousins (all 15 of 'em) for a holiday turkey dinner. The turkey was in the oven roasting happily, the veggies chopped up ready to go, and the tart ready for baking at the end. Unfortunately the gas oven I was using only had enough gas for 4 straight hours of cooking, which was just barely enough for the turkey, let alone anything else...

So after a whole morning + afternoon of cooking and stressing, we sat down for a feast of perfectly-roasted turkey, half-boiled potato cubes, raw carrot slaw, and the worst apple tart you've ever had in your life (jiggly = not good) ! Luckily I was way too exhasuted to eat anything, but I was told it was all edible. Woop woop :)

Speaking of things that jiggle, I spent my weekend making chocolate covered cara-mallows and gingerbread men (which would have been barely decent sans leaf) for my girlfriends.

It was based on a marshmallow recipe from David Lebovitz (Hi Dave!) with a layer of chewy caramel on the bottom, and a few teaspoons of ginger/cloves/cinnamon mixed into the sugar syrup.

Girls, whaddya think??

*silence*

(my girlfriends don't read my blog... so just take my word on it, they were goo-ood!)

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll head back to the kitchen-- I'm lined up for a Batter Splattered hai-cookie swap...



*Shameless plugs are forgiven at Christmas, right?