Archive For The “Christmas” Category

Snowflake cookies

When my sister messaged asking what my husband wanted for Christmas, he answered all he wanted was “white Christmas” and world peace. She probably rolled her eyes and decided to give him a pair of socks. I, of course, would love to fulfill his wishes. World peace is somewhat out of my reach, but I [...]

Read more »

Peanut Butter and Mocha Checkerboards

There’s time for kale salad and there’s time for cookies. The time for kale salad is mostly in January, but now, the week before Christmas, is time for cookies. Last year I made my coffee-addicted husband these cookies, this year I’m catering to his coffee addiction and his fondness of peanut butter – all in [...]

Read more »

Crispy cane cookies

Saint Nicholas has left for Spain so we can turn our thoughts to Christmas without feeling guilty. And “turn our thoughts to Christmas” means mainly “start baking Christmas cookies”. Because of an overdue kitchen renovation I find myself, at the moment of writing, without an oven. Or rather, I do have an oven: it’s sitting [...]

Read more »

Cranberry walnut biscotti

Last time I told you about the wonderful Parmesan biscuits that I brought to a dinner as a hostess gift. And I brought these biscotti, too. Something to have with the wine, and something with your after-dinner coffee – everything thought of, you see. These are not in the rock-hard biscotti category, the kind my [...]

Read more »

Gingerbread chocolate cookies

You know what the Dutch national sport is? Speed skating! Less than 2 weeks have passed since my post in which I complained about the parody on winter we were having and all has changed: it’s freezing so much that many channels and lakes are frozen.

Read more »

Potato salad with peas, carrots and celeriac

Because a marriage is not only a union of two individuals but also two different culinary traditions, it is during the high holidays, when “laws” and “in-laws” meet around one table, that culinary conflicts are likely to escalate. The traditional Czech Christmas dinner is carp with potato salad, but few agree on how the potato [...]

Read more »

Vanocka, the sweet Czech Christmas bread

Czech Christmas would be no Christmas without Christmas cookies. And “vanocka”. Vanocka is a sweet bread studded with raisins and traditionally made for Christmas. The taste is not much different from other braided sweet breads such as challah, but it is a lot showier, because it is not just one braid, not two, but THREE [...]

Read more »

Star-tower cookies

My husband discovered this recipe when leafing through a German cookbook, thought they looked “cool” and asked if I could make them. Since he almost never looks into a cookbook and rarely makes a request for me to make something, I obliged immediately. I also changed the recipe a little in his honor: I added [...]

Read more »

Linzer cookies

It might seem from this blog that in December we mostly live on cookies, but we don’t. Just yesterday we had a very healthy split pea soup for dinner, I swear. But yes, we do bake a lot of cookies at this time of year. One of the most traditional ones are the Linzer cookies. [...]

Read more »

Chocolate pretzel cookies

Just about two weeks to Christmas and I’m baking a batch of cookies almost daily. I am rather a slacker as far as decorating the house for the jolly season is concerned. We will be leaving anyway to spend the holidays with my family in the Czech Republic. But at least the house smells like [...]

Read more »