Monday 19 December 2011

Christmas preparations

It's strange how the little things make all the difference to Christmas. Even though I put a few decorations up for Pikkujoulu on the 1st of December, and I've visited the various seasonal ex-pat fairs, as well as been to the Swedish Lucia carols, to me, it hasn't really felt like Christmas yet.

But today, as I started making the two Finnish vegetable dishes Lanttulaatikko and Porkkanalaatikko (swede and carrot bakes) for Christmas Eve, the scent of rice pudding and swede being boiled, together with grated nutmeg which is used to season the dishes, made me feel completely Christmassy.

Lanttulaatikko and Porkkanalaatikko
While the two dishes cooked in the oven, Daughter decorated the Christmas tree and then moved onto making gingerbread biscuits. She put on the cheesy old That's Christmas compilation which we've had for years and years and which always brings a tear to my eyes on the first listen. It seems the tracks (eg Winter's Tale by David Essex) which I most hated when they came out are the worst....

You need nimble fingers to deal with the gingerbread biscuit dough.

The finished biscuits taste delicious.

The tree has a white and silver theme this year.

Hope you too are getting that Christmas feeling!

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