Holiday Vittles

These last couple weeks have been filled with late nights, bustling bodies, holiday secrets, happy surprises and lots and lots of baking.

I am by no means a natural in the kitchen, but I am adventurous and nothing quite says Christmas like all the goodies that go along with it. 

The scents of cinnamon wafting thru the home, flour dusted all over chubby hands and a mound of dishes that will take hours to complete. Surprisingly it all goes hand in hand in making this the most coziest of times.

This year will be our first to ever spend Christmas day just the six of us. It's exciting, but also quite daunting. I've spent many an hour searching, debating and agonizing over our Christmas menu. 

Finally, Kaleb and I decided on "hand food" for Christmas dinner. One of our wilds favorite things about the beach is that they get to eat "hand food" as they call it, every night. Shrimp, Mussels, Clams- food that requires no silverware, has some work involved and ends in smears of goodness allover faces and fingers that must be licked clean. 

Bearing that in mind- we have settled on Maple-Pepper Salmon Bites, a recipe Kaleb and I use to cook every week as newlyweds, but had completely forgotten about. As a side I'm thinking steamed artichokes with a selection of dipping sauces. I've never made them and the kiddos have never tried them, but it sounds like fun and something they might, possibly, if I'm lucky, enjoy- risky business, but I'll let you know how that one turns out! We also want to try these sweet potato pumpkin rolls. I realize they are pumpkins but they are so cute, with little notes tucked inside, they should pair perfectly with our theme. 

Now, onto the goodies. As I previously stated- there has been lots and lots of baking- here's some of our favorites and a few we will be attempting in the upcoming days!

- We made four batches of the Pioneer Woman cinnamon rolls, two batches of plain, and two of the orange rolls. I actually like the orange rolls so much better- not near as sweet, although I can still only eat just one. We froze them in batches and have given some away as gifts, but will definitely save some for our own Christmas morning.

- I hope to be cooking up this almond biscotti later in the week. I've tried to make biscotti before with little to no success, but hopefully this recipe will do the job!

- Kaleb really wants us to try a Buche de Noel for our Christmas dessert. There's an interesting history that goes along with it, and we thought it may be fun- although I'm quite worried we're  overshooting our skills on this one!

- I'm most excited about these gingerbread cookies from My New Roots- I love cooking with natural, simple ingredients and I hope these will be a hit. They are in the oven right now, so I can't say for sure how they will turn out- but my goodness, the batter is good!! 

- Of course, nothing says winter quite like hot cocoa, and as it's finally descended, I've been whipping up lots. I've tried many a recipe and my favorite and thankfully the simplest is to melt ghiradelli chocolate and caramel squares in milk. It's so yummy- not too sweet, not too chocolatey- just right.

I will so be needing a kitchen break after this week, but for now- I'm going to turn my christmas music up a little louder,   pull on those dish washing gloves and dance myself into a floury frenzy!