Alternately titled:
Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!
- Your grocery list includes such items as chestnuts, red food coloring, peppermint extract and 2 pounds of white chocolate.
- Your little boy looks like he walked right out of the 40s in his red & green flannel, buttoned pajama set. (photos to come from my sister’s camera)
- Your whole house smells like a candy cane
- You pass a lady on your way into the grocery store (and on her way out) with a cart filled to the brim with poinsettia plants. (never was a big fan of those, by the way)
- Your husband unashamedly wears a plaid christmas tie to church on Sunday.
- You find at least three Christmas cards in your mailbox addressed to your home’s previous residents, but still read the letters, look at the photos, display them in your home and count them as points toward the Card Count Contest you’re having with your sister. (I have no shame.)
- The “Very Myers Christmas” playlist has been playing on repeat on the iPod downstairs nonstop since the end of the Thanksgiving meal.
- Your husband disappears for long periods of time during the day or evening, refusing to tell you where he’s going, and you’re not worried one bit that he might be involving himself in unsavory activities.
- You spend your evening with your husband in the kitchen, tediously removing pith from citrus peels and making simple syrups (recipe below) rather than watching Grey’s Anatomy (I feel like that should somehow be in the “Not Me Monday” post!).
- You are eyeing the ladies’ sweaters at church and at the mall, wondering how offensive it would be to ask them if you can borrow it for your “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party”
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Candied Citrus Peels
Makes 2 1/2 cups
Ingredients
2 grapefruits, 3 oranges, or 4 lemons
4 cups sugar, plus more for rolling
4 cups water
Directions
- Using a paring knife, make 6 slits along curve from top to bottom of each citrus fruit, cutting through peel but not into fruit. Using your fingers, gently remove peel. Reserve fruit for another use. Slice each piece of peel lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Using a paring knife, remove excess pith from each strip and discard.
- Place strips in a large saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then drain. Repeat twice.
- Bring sugar and water to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Stop stirring. Wash sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent sugar crystals from forming. Add strips to boiling syrup, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer gently until strips are translucent, about 1 hour. Remove from heat, and let strips cool in syrup. (Strips in syrup will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 3 weeks.)
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer strips to a wire rack placed on a rimmed baking sheet. Wipe off excess syrup with paper towels, then roll strips in sugar. Arrange in a single layer on a wire rack, and let dry for at least 30 minutes. Sugared peels will keep, covered at room temperature, for up to 2 weeks.
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Thanks for reading. Come back next time for “You Know You Have a Two-Year-Old When…” for such examples as:
“There’s actually a house rule about chewing on the kitchen cabinets.”
Until then, happy Advent, friends!
>Yum! thanks for the recipe!
>I was just thinking of making citrus peels! Thanks for giving me that final push. Oh, and we have that rule too! What is with these chewers. I feel like Micah should at least by now be able to reason that dark cherry finish is a disgusting thing to eat. He has turned to eating his blanket! I guess when it’s gone, it’s gone :) Talk to you soon. How is Friday looking? Let me know if you want some guests. Owen is looking around our house naming off his friends, hoping they will appear from behind one of the closed doors. Funny, but I guess to him, that is often how it seems since they come when he is sleeping or napping or something. Talk to you soon.
>Cute post! I wish our home smelled like candy canes. I’m sure you can imagine what it actually smells like these days…