Sunday, February 22, 2015

Spiced Chai Almond Cookies

In amongst the madness of a 12yr old birthday, confirming the purchase of a house, painting mowing, waterblasting etc.......... All on the one day. I decided to bake. Still don't understand it but wow these are yummy.

We had lunch with my friends Linda and Craig and they had made them.

 The recipe is directly from a website called Canadian Living. You can link to the recipe or it is copied below.

I have also put a couple of our "getting ready to sell shots". We have decided to sell our current house and not rent it out. So it is all looking good.


Chai-Almond Cookies
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 40
Ingredients
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
  • ¾ cups granulated sugar
  • 1½ cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup ground almonds
  • 1½ teaspoon loose-leaf chai tea (ground)
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 40 whole blanched almonds
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
  2. Cream together butter and sugar for around 1 minute until they are very well combined and light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix flour, almonds, chai tea, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Add to butter/sugar mixture in 3 even batches until dough is well combined.
  3. My dough was very dry and crumbly (maybe our dry Calgary air?), so I also added a few tablespoons of water until it formed a crumbly, but roll-able dough.
  4. Roll into 1 tbsp sized balls and place on baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Gently press a blanched almond into the cookie.
  5. Bake for approximately 12 minutes until cookies are slightly golden around the bottom edge. Cool on baking sheet for several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.



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Sunday, February 8, 2015

Hiatus - but you probably guessed.

Yes doing stuff has slowed down due to working four days a week. But now all has stopped as we are in the process of buying a house and moving. Trying to do this all in 18 days. Bonkers!!! So see you back here in March

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Crayfish, what a great way to start a holiday

Wow.  First night on holiday and we get given two fresh lobster by other campers.  Yes that was given! And yes that was two!!

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Being a proud parent

Back before Christmas we made piles of fondant decorations for cupcakes etc over Christmas time. Eli and Jakob spent an evening icing and decorating cupcakes for their teachers and school mates.

Then on the second to last day at school we had the awards night. The photos are not that great but on the left you see two boys in blue shirts. Both Eli and Jakob won the academic award for their respective classes. I could not be more proud.

The next photo down of the band you will see Eli drumming his heart out for the two songs his band had been practicing.

Great parent moments!!!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Christmas Tree Fairy being safe at work

 Well before Christmas I shared making the fairy skirt from various short cut pieces at Fabric Vision. Here is my safe Christmas Tree Fairy spreading the joy at work with Santa in the days prior to Christmas Day.

What a safety concious fairy I am. Pink sparkly tutu, tinsel halo, if you look closely you will see the fairy lights from the tree around my neck. and then safety boots and a high viz vest.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

...And again. Happy New years eve everyone!

Our New Years Eve walk around the estuary in Motueka. Gorgeous sunset at 9pm. Great way to see the year out. Looking forward to 2015

Friday, December 26, 2014

Home made smoked salmon

Oh my,  what an amazing Christmas lunch we had.  I have never smoked anything before and yet decided that was going to be lunch.  Camping in a place where there were only 6 other people.  Bliss.  We and the salmon got smoked but it was so good I smoked the other half too. So 1.8kg of amazing sugar coated smoked salmon was made. Oh now I know I need a smoker. Waiting for the hoards of campers who will invariably arrive in the next couple of days.  Enjoying it in the meantime.
Not the best photo of me, but look at the Salmon and the empty campground. It filled up after that but it was lovely on Christmas day.

A gorgeous break in Rarotonga

Woo hoo, A holiday with no kids for 11 days. Bliss, relaxing and warm! BTW it was an early 20th wedding anniversary present to ourselves....