Four Words: Holiday Baking = Trader Joe's

Holiday baking.

There. I've said it. I know that the mere typing of those words has now caused Mister Man to have an aneurysm because I mentioned the festive season. But you and I both know that now is really the perfect time to contemplate baking for the season so that we can make like a good Girl Guide and BE PREPARED. So, Mister Man? Go ahead and foam at the mouth. I, for one, am just holding up the Girl Guide gospel.

When Lisa and Paul visited in October, I asked if Lisa would go to one of my favourite grocery stores and cost up some baking ingredients for me. Because Mister Man and I are trying to save our shekels for the part where we stroll down an aisle and get all hitched next September, so I'm going to show my friends in Vancouver how much I love them by BAKING for them. And in order to meet a variety of likes and dislikes, I'm aiming for a little variety. But variety can be pricey, and hence, having Lisa do a little recon for me.

What I discovered is this. While I LOVE living in Canada and being Canadian, sometimes I'm not very happy paying $6 for a pound of unsalted butter in sticks. (I realize any American readers have just fallen off their chairs). And maybe it's like I'm cheating on my country to sneak across the boarder and load up on nuts and butter and belgian chocolate.... but that's the way it was last weekend. I stepped out on Save-On-Foods. I am cheating on my grocery store.

But here's why my friends. Unsalted stick butter at Trader Joe's? First of all, delicious. Second of all? $2.49 a pound. Belgian chocolate at Trader Joe's? Um. $3.99 a pound. I am NOT kidding you. So really, I had no choice.

And in exchange for my cheatin' ways, I promise to post recipes and colour photographs of the baked goods as they come out of the oven bathed in love and a decent price tag. Cheap? Perhaps. Commited? Always......

Your intrepid, cheatin' Canadian baker xoxo

I know it's only August but....

Yes world.

I DID start thinking about the festive season today….. just a little bit… and just for a nano-second. But, for that brief and beautiful moment, there was a Christmas song on my lips, a bounce in my step, and a vision of wonderful things to be baked in my heart.

There was also the promise of Christmas in July after Space Girl gave THIS to me. And she gave it to me in the new year after all of the festive paraphernalia had been put away. So instead of being tucked out of sight, it taunts me daily from a shelf in the bedroom with promises of chocolate fondue. Yes gentle reader, you have guessed correctly. This is a SANTA FONDUE POT.

You put the chocolate in his head, where it tumbles down into his belly to be warmed into a melty chocolately bliss by the fondue flame. You place the items to be fondued onto little Christmas tree skewers.

I am so giddy with anticipation, and I can hardly STAND IT!!! Please don’t hang up on me. I won’t trot out the festive season for months. I just needed to let you know that it had popped into my mind today.

These thoughts were exacerbated by the fact that Mister Man brought me this in lieu of flowers (because I wasn't feeling well yesterday and he knew it would bring a smile to my face).

As I started thumbing through the pages, I had this fantasy moment in which the mums and I were sitting across from each other at our table, attempting to turn an everyday cupcake into a festive decorative masterpiece. And I found myself filled with a nostalgic longing.

The Cake: A Beginning

So here I am yabbering on about baking (or at least hinting at it in my banner), and I have posted nary an image, thought or recipe! Clearly I am one sad slacker!!

Allow me to share a tale with you, gentle reader. A long time ago, when I was but a wee snip of a thing (okay, I was actually never really “wee”. I popped out of the womb as a “big-boned lass” and nothing much has changed over the years except scale…..)

In any event, one of the things I loved about childhood is that The Mums used to encourage my brother Paully and I to bake. I have many fond memories of standing on a chair and carefully adding ingredients to a cream coloured bowl. (you know the kind that resemble a cable knit sweater?) There was something utterly magical about putting all of these ingredients together and having a cake or a batch of cookies emerge 20 minutes later! My love for baking continued with the acquisition of my easy bake oven. (Old school, natch!!) Golly.... I can still smell the wonderful scent of the 60 watt lightbulb "baking" that chocolate cake!!!

And then I became an adult. And with the onset of adulthood came utter apathy for baking. I mean, really, [insert eye roll] why bake when bakeries and patisseries abounded? I had more important things to do than chain myself to an oven for god's sake! I had to THINK and PONTIFICATE and WAX POETIC and drink Pernod!! [insert shaking fist and self righteous head nod]

Flash forward to a mellower me. I started following some amazing food blogs, and I found myself inspired again. (Thank you Smitten Kitchen and Pioneer Woman - you have made me see the world in a brave new sugary light.) And I had this urge to bake again. And ever-so-tentatively, I tiptoed back into the baking arena. Once there, I found a kind of peace and joy that I hadn’t experienced since my mother stood behind me and helped my little paw stir that batter into a bliss…..

And THEN Mister Man (I did mention how wonderful he is yes?) purchased THIS for me for the last festive season.

Need I say more? This baby has made mama one happy camper!! And I’d go out on a limb and say it’s made a few friends kinda happy too over the past year....

Stay tuned for the saga of where this next leads me.....