Hi Haley,

I felt The Guilt last night. That weight of responsibility to a sister, particularly to one who is younger than you, is a hefty thing. Particularly when you slip up.

Like I did when I told Crach Friday was ours and downtown would be our oyster.

The next day I made a series of small mistakes: I invited two of my friends. I made plans for lunch at a particular restaurant at a particular time. I accepted a shift for Friday morning.

In none of these did I consult Crach. Rather, I dumped the plans on her last night on a car ride home and then got snippy when she wasn't thrilled. Relationships can be so tricky. An action rarely leads to the conclusion you hoped for. Around Christmas these intimacies seemed to be even more riddled with puddles and pot holes. Our expectations are so high. Time is so short. Life is so busy.

Now I want to say that bread is the boon:constant, comforting, simple. Although, that isn't real true. In a way, bread is just bread. But I like it. And yesterday I was happy to make it and it felt simple, comforting, and constant.


This is Maple Oat Bread is really good. It's sweet, but brown, whole-wheaty, and soft.


Maple Oat Bread (Adapted from Beth Hensberg's Honey Whole Wheat Bread)
1 cup warm water
pinch sugar
2 packages yeast (4 and 1/2 tsp)
1 cup buttermilk
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cups oats
3 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 Tbsp salt

Combine water, sugar, yeast and wait ten minutes for the yeast to foam.

Warm the buttermilk to take off the chill. Melt the butter and combine the two, along with the maple syrup.

In a large bowl combine the whole wheat flour, oats, and salt. Add the buttermilk mixture and the yeast mixture. Mix smooth. Add the remaining flour half a cup at a time, mixing smooth after each addition. Knead 7-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough will be a bit sticky, just be patient and add Tbsps of flour to your counter top as you knead.

Form the dough into a ball, place in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let rest for one to one and a half hours, until doubled.

On a floured counter top, divide the dough in two, shape and place in greased bread pans, and let rise another 45min, or until doubled.

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 40-50 min.

Savory Shortbread

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath, wondering, whose going to win this year's Reems Eats Christmas draw? While this is exciting, I want to draw (pun-ha ha) your attention to a new Christmas treat that you too could be serving to adoring guests, or toting to froofy cocktail parties. (If you go to froofy cocktail parties. I have (bragging) actually been invited to one. I'm twenty-seven; I think it's high time I attend an event titled, 'cocktail party.')

While I have a sweet tooth (all Reems' do) at Christmas I actually (shocking) become overloaded with chocolate, almond, cinnamon, and sugar. That's not to say I stop eating, no, no, no, but it is nice to bring in an alternative (in addition to the ever popular spinach dip). This recipe for lemon and thyme shortbread comes from the cookbook, Savoury Baking and its wonderful. It tastes a lot like a cracker, but with a little more weight. The lemon is subtle, the thyme interesting, and the sprinkle of coarse salt gives the cookies a nice finish.

Oh, and the winner is...drum roll...Cautiousmum, congratulations.

The recipe can be found here, on the NPR site.

Christmas Cookies and Giveaways

Rach -

How was the puff pastry course? I'm looking forward to my own private tutorial over the holidays.

Yesterday was our first foray into Christmas baking this year. Of course, despite my attempt to keep the halloween cookie cutters in the cupboard, Finn felt that bats and pumpkins would be a nice addition to the more traditional stars and angels. We made the dough, cut out the shapes, all with the intention of icing in the afternoon. A day later the cookies are still un-iced; after sampling half the dough I just wasn't sure that Finn's little body could handle the sugar consumption. Maybe tomorrow. I'm not going to provide a recipe, there are enough sugar cookie recipes online and in your dusty cookbooks.

Now for the giveaway. Leave a comment telling us your favourite Christmas treat and we'll announce the winner next week Wed (the 15th). The randomly drawn name will be shipped a specialty Reems stollen.

Here are a few other seasonal recipes I trolled from our archives:

Biscotti

Not-So-Traditional Christmas Cookie

Monster Cookies

And some Dutch selections:

Speculaas

Boeterkoek

Blueberry Buckle

Rach-

The Reems Eats 2010 Conference was epic. Your post had me chuckling all over again. I was daydreaming today about our lovely little noodle shop, where after an hour at our counter perch, our pores breathing in the pork-tenderloin-infused-steam from vats and vats of broth, we both experienced the horror of standing shiny-faced in front of the singularly most unflattering mirror in all of Vancouver. Definitely not a first date kind of place. But wow- a great bowl of noodles.

Carmen, or Auntie Carmen is she known in these parts, has arrived. I warned her upon her arrival that if she wanted any respite at all, she needed to tone down the fun. Fun auntie = busy auntie. Well, she has not heeded my warning, she has already taught Finn a few classic Guy dance moves, and along with other unsuspecting visitors to the Campbell house, has run multiple 'races' around our main floor. Finn is just doing his part in trying to keep her youthful figure.

I had to post something delicious. Our freezer is full of blueberries, and I've been on a bit of a coffee cake binge lately; there is something about cold days and a cozy home makes anything streusel high on my list right now. Once again I've been turning to King Arthur, this time for their Blueberry Buckle The only change I made was using brown sugar instead of white in the topping. Blueberry buckle - if not because it's delicious, make it because of the name. I really have to get into the history of food names, I'm sure I'm not the only one with this curiosity. I'm adding Buckle to the list, somewhere after Bundt, Grunt, and Muffin (I know, muffin sounds normal but say it a few times).

I must log off, the fake fireplace is on, and Carmen needs a reading companion.

Readers, stay tuned for our first annual giveaway later this week.