It's been quite a week:
1. We all seem to have survived the end of the world with little or no bruises.
2.  Christmas Eve brought Santa to most of my friends houses.
3.  Christmas Day saw me still in my bed at 8 in the morning.
4.  I've had a few good sleeps under my belt now.
5.  We've survived a little stomach bug that took me out for a little while.
6.  The Christmas Ham is FANNNNNTASTIC this year.  Cooked slowly in coke then placed in a roasting pan, smothered in maple, mustard glaze and roasted until done.  Perfection.
Now that the big stuff is all done and behind me I really feel like I can be on vacation.  I've got a birthday coming up in a few days (not mine - kid #1) but that's kinda fun.  For now it's all 'sleep in/work-out/figure out what to eat/go see a movie/stay in a watch a movie/see best friends... and all that kind of thing.  Thank goodness because this semester was quickly approaching the tipping point into crazy.


What did I do on my first full day off?  I baked.  Who wouldn't.  I made the lemon curd dream cookies in the previous post.  I also made these nutmeg logs.  I've been wanting to make them for quite a while and since they really seemed like a Christmas kind of thing I decided to wait.  Kinda wish I hadn't.  These bad boys needed a little tweaking to get the flavours to work well in balance.  Everything needed to be turned up.  These cookies get a little dwarfed by all the other beautiful, sweet, colourful things around it.  They need a little more 'Stand Out' in my humble opinion.  I was going to put them in the 'disasters' file but they weren't complete disasters.  Not at all.  They just got a little lost is all.  I've adjusted the spices now and the rum too.  I think that maple would work well in this recipe too.  Again though, to juice up the flavour a bit you might want to use a little maple extract and not just the real thing.  This made me a lot of cookies for sharing and I might actually make mine a little thicker next time as well.  I did not sprinkle mine with additional nutmeg but that might up the flavour factor a bit too.  So in the end I liked these cookies now that I've adjusted my expectations.  I think if you keep your expectations realistic you'll find some enjoyment from these guys.  They're great for sharing too 'cause they make quite a bit.


I've been reading quite a bit on my 'off' time.  I've been thinking about our world of illusion - especially at Christmas when I think the illusion is so much at the forefront of what we do.  The illusion of presents making us feel better about ourselves (that big sigh of relief that we can keep up with the Jones's - the feeling that as long as we can keep up with the gifts that we are doing the right thing), the illusion that we are happy (if we fake it long enough we'll forget to ask ourselves if this is all working)... you know lighthearted things like that.
In other news we've just gotten our first real snowfall in Toronto.  Now this was no snowmageddon which you might have thought if you'd listened to any tv news networks.  It's just a normal winter snowfall.  It means though that I'm saying bye bye to my bike for a while.  I'm the weird person hoping that the snow melts so that she can continue biking through the winter.  The snow is my cut-off point for the bike.
For now I'm staying pretty close to home (more like close to my bed) and doing my best to enjoy the quiet simplicity of winter down time.  I wish that for you - a true break from the mundane of our everyday, a reason to find true joy and peace, moments of quiet beauty and reflection...


Frosted Nutmeg Log Cookies adapted from Taste of Home Magazine