It’s been a while since i’ve done one of these posts (and there’s a reason for that, which we’ll get to later.) Let’s start with eating!
I did some baking last weekend, because I sent a care package to my son. Today (December 8th) is his 21st birthday. Here’s his Christmas photo when he was a year old:
I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday… and now he’s an ADULT. The years go by fast.
Anyway, ever since the kids were little I’ve made cinnamon rolls for their birthdays. Now that my son is in college, I send him his birthday rolls. I always use the recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Vegan Brunch cookbook. I only sent half the batch to my son, so my daughter got to enjoy cinnamon rolls for breakfast all week.
I also sent cookies! I made two cookies from Sally’s Baking Addiction- Peppermint Snowball Cookies and Seriously Soft Molasses Cookies. These recipes are easily veganized by using Earth Balance spread and a flax egg.
When my son was a freshman in high school, he had his wisdom teeth extracted in December and could only eat soft foods. I googled “soft cookies” and found these molasses cookies, and he’s loved them ever since. I didn’t actually mail the peppermint ones- I figured they would be a melted mess before they even got out of Florida. My daughter loves peppermint so I made those for her.
Here’s the first gingerbread waffles of the season!
They are suspiciously similar to my “pumpkin spice” waffles. Two cups of oats, two scoops of protein powder, a banana, salt, 2 cups of water, and then lots of ginger, cinnamon and cloves. YUM.
Several weeks ago, Suzanne mentioned Red Lentil Soup with Warm Spices in her “Dinners This Week” post. The link to the recipe is actually in a post by Julie. This soup is SO GOOD. It’s like dal, but with slightly different spices. I don’t even make the topping (and use vegetable broth and oil instead of butter) and it’s still delicious. The recipe says “? teaspoons cinnamon”- I use 1/2 teaspoon. And it doesn’t specify how much salt, so I do the same thing I do with all recipes- add enough salt so that it tastes delicious. If it doesn’t taste delicious, just add more salt until the flavors pop.
Okay… reading. It took me an ENTIRE MONTH to finish this book.
It wasn’t that I didn’t like it- I did! But NaBloPoMo really took up a lot of my time, and it’s not like this book is a thrilling page-turner. The plot was interesting, but it was very dense and wordy. I did want to find out what happened to the dad, and I liked the ending- that it was a little ambiguous but not really (I think Mia’s “most likely” scenario is probably the truth.) It’s not a book I would ever want to re-read though- once was definitely enough.
Next up- a Christmas mystery should be arriving tomorrow (ahem- that is, if Amazon manages to deliver it correctly.) I’m in the mood for something festive!
Have you read Happiness Falls? What did you think of it?
Have you done any holiday baking yet?
35 Responses
I haven’t read Happiness Falls but I can identify with reading slowly – I slowed down in November once back from my holiday as had a lot of admin to do for NonFiction November, and now we have workmen in doing the last bits in the house and that’s taking up my reading time somehow, with all the sorting out and moving stuff around etc.! I haven’t got any Christmas baking to do (having two people in the house, one of whom doesn’t eat saturated fat and one of whom is a diabetic makes baking a pain or just not worth it!) but I do now have two Christmas books, as I collected Brian Bilston’s collection of Christmas poems at an event last night and have a book of winter short stories from the British Library Women Writers imprint!
I would say your Christmas reading sounds a little more serious than mine- mine is just a murder mystery, but I’m looking forward to it.
Yes, I guess having one of the two people in the house be diabetic would put a damper on holiday baking- but that’s okay, more time for reading!
Oh no, light poems and interesting short stories, not serious at all. And both very enjoyable! I have an annual of cartoons now to read but they are political satire!
I haven’t done any Christmas theme baking yet. I have been having oatmeal with cinnamon and ginger flavor for a while. I should make your waffle next! looks delish and good fuel for long run.
Yes, those waffles are good fuel. I’ve been making my oatmeal with ginger and cinnamon as well!
That photo of your son! So sweet!
I panic when I think of the kids that have 20XX-birthdates. Right now we are in the majority with our 19XX birthdates, but soon we will be in the minority. And very soon it will be: “Wow, you were born in the last century?!”
Fun fact: cinnamon rolls are called cinnamon snails in German.
Oh really? I’m not sure “cinnamon snails” sounds appetizing! And yes… I’m starting to feel old, having been born in the 1900s.
Delicious! It is also so fun to watch these books and recipes circle through this corner of the internet
Yes, it’s fun to make things other bloggers are making too.
Those cinnamon rolls look AMAZING. And I am following the link to that lentil soup now because I have A LOT of red lentils I need to use up. I have a red lentil soup recipe, but I’m kinda “burned out” on it. This might be my lunch every day next week!
Oh, I hope you like it! If you actually make the topping, I want to hear how that is.
Happy birthday to your son! All of your baking looks very yummy.
My girlfriend who knows me very well told me I should read Happiness Falls, so it’s on my list!
Okay Nicole, I’ll be interested to hear what you think!
Yum on the cinnamon rolls. I wouldn’t mind getting older so much if someone would make those on my birthday. Hey I’m a someone, why am I not making myself birthday cinnamon rolls???? I won’t make Christmas cookies until closer to the holiday, but I’m working on my list.
I never really read all that fast, but there are times when I deliberately take it slow with the reading. There are those books that are good but not “OMG I’ve got to stay up until 3AM and read this to find out what happens”, so why not take the time to enjoy them?
Yes, sometimes I read slowly deliberately- this wasn’t one of those times! I just couldn’t seem to carve out the time to read.
Gingerbread waffles sound SO AMAZING! I might just have to try that on Sunday for brunch… I love that you send your son his birthday rolls via mail to continue that tradition. Lil Momma likes ice cream for breakfast for her birthday (those summer birthdays, haha!), but hopefully that will change into a baked good once she is grown and out living an adult kid life so we could do something similar.
Yes, you won’t be able to send ice cream through the mail. I’ll bet if you got creative you could figure out a baked good that would be a good substitute though.
Today is my husband’s birthday!!! BDAY TWINS 🙂 Happy bday to your son!
(And Monday is Genevieve. December is a celebratory month indeed!!)
oh that’s funny! Do you follow Hungry Runner Girl? One of her daughter’s birthdays is today as well.
It’s my dad’s birthday too! (Last century, of course. ;>)
Happy birthday to Paul!! I love the flash back photo of him at age 1! I bet Paul was thrilled to get such an amazing package of goodies from you! I remember the handful of times that I got care packages in college. They were such a delight!
I didn’t love Happiness Falls but I didn’t dislike it as much as other bloggers did. I thought it was fine? I did not love the voice of Mia and the footnotes were annoying, especially since I read it on kindle.
So the only Christmas baking I usually do is making sugar cookies for my cookie decorating party over Thanksgiving – which you know got canceled. I am going to try to reschedule it for January, though. We’ll see if I can pull that off.
Well- I always get so sad when Christmas is over, so maybe having a Christmas decorating party in January would be something fun to look forward to.
I agree- I inwardly groaned every time there was a footnote. And I was reading a physical book- it must have been extra annoying on kindle.
Happy birthday to your son!! R will be 4 in January, and I feel he was JUST born. As they say, the nights are long but the years are short. Right in the feels…
It’s true!!! It doesn’t feel like it when you’re in the thick of toddlerhood, but the years really are short. Sigh.
Aww, that’s so cute and sweet that you mailed baked goods to your son! And happy birthday to him! Wow, 21! That 1 year old picture is adorable. I feel like time is flying by so quickly… I still can’t wrap my head around that my son is 9th grade. And the year feels like it’s almost half over now. After Christmas we’ll blink and it will be June and then he’ll be a sophomore. STOP IT!!! 🙁 Anyway, you are way ahead of me in the baking department- I’ve not made any holiday goods yet. But I do want to do a little bit, maybe to try to bring to Mexico with us? Not sure yet!
I feel the same way- my daughter’s freshman year is basically HALF OVER. But even more alarming is the fact that my son is a junior in college. Once again, I feel like I just dropped him off at his dorm freshman year- and now he’s more than halfway done. WHY is time going so fast???
Getting real mail in college was always such an amazing treat. I bet your son really enjoys getting packages of delicious treats sent to him!
I was meh on Happiness Falls as you know. Fortunately, I followed that up with a couple of really excellent reads, so December’s books are turning out better than November’s!
I definitely wouldn’t put it on my “favorite books of the year” list, but I think I liked it better than a lot of people did.
All your baked goods look AMAZING. And that picture of your son is so stinking cute. They grow up much too fast.
When a book is taking me a while to read, it’s generally because it’s dragging. But… I know what you mean, that sometimes a book can be enjoyable while you’re reading it, but not so much fun that you want to pick it up all the time. I’m not sure if I’ll read this one.
I enjoyed it, but I also think your life will be complete if you never read it.
Happy birthday to your son! I hope he enjoyed his cinnamon rolls! I feel like I was just 21 and in my last semester of college and I realized that I graduated college 10 years ago this month, eek! Time really flies as an adult, it’s kinda scary.
I’m not great at baking but fortunately my mom is so when I go stay with my parents for Christmas I’ll get to enjoy her treats — my favorite is peppermint bark and I love that there’s vegan white chocolate now to make it extra festive!
Happy birthday to your son! That is so sweet that you sent him a package with baked goods. I am sure he’s thrilled 🙂
I LOVE THAT SOUP. I forgot how annoying it is that the cinnamon doesn’t have an amount. I looked around online, it is 1/8 tsp. Please try it once with the herb (fake) butter, it’s so good.
I liked Happiness Falls, but I agree, I don’t feel the need to read it again.
I hope your son had a great birthday, the baked goods look great.
I love homemade cinnamon rolls and yours look amazing! I’ll check out that molasses cookie recipe. I have one I make every year, but I’d like a chewier one.
I did read Happiness Falls. Honestly, I skimmed over a lot of the dense bits. I thought it was interesting, but pretty un-believable from the first day to the brother’s amazing breakthrough, to the end.
Oh, I’m glad you enjoyed Happiness Falls! I feel like it’s getting a little of bad reviews, which is fine, but I thought it was a pretty interesting read and I really enjoyed it. It probably won’t make my favorites of the year, but it was a good read nonetheless.