Christmas Baking

The only time I bake is 1) Christmas 2) if I have time to do something for one of our many office Goodie Days 3) friends birthday or dinner party 4) the grannie smith apples next door are ripe and need to be picked

One thing I love about baking is the gadgets! Cooking just doesn't incorporate enough gadgets which is probably why I don't enjoy it as much as baking. With baking one has bowls, whisks, spoons, graters, grinders, blenders, pastry blenders, zesters, rolling pins, measuring spoons, oh the list goes on.

Sharing recipes with coworkers and friends is a delight! Tasting someone else's baking is pure pleasure! Taking a recipe and experimenting, adding your own twist is so much fun.

My favourite sites are www.allrecipes.com, Kraft (recipes which are easy to modify), Thrifty Foods (online eflyer and recipes) and Chatelaine magazine online. Oh and I do admit it....Martha Stewart for recipes, crafts and inspiration.

Also on my list of fav sites is: http://www.goldaskitchen.com and www.ashtongreen.com--both Canadian. I love looking at the new gadgets!

And I can't resist kitchen shops--Muffet & Louisa, Capital Iron (best cast iron frying pans), Haute Cuisine...

I have a good selection of cookbooks too, including my Grade 8 Home Economics cookbook which was printed in the 1960s and was a joke to my HE class because of the opening photo and some of the recipes. The reason I kept it is it does have the basics and a long list at the back for removing stains from clothing which actually work.

Now Christmas is over, the baking is done until a Goodie Day or birthday or my good intentions of taking my own homemade muffins for morning coffee break.