No tree - no problem and Christmas Eve Supper

When my husband brought in the boxes of decorations from the tool shed and I gazed on that stack for about half a day, I finally told him to put them back from whence they came.  I opted for a no tree Christmas and guess what?  We were just fine. We have a live evergreen on the buffet gifted to us by a friend and it was more than sufficient.

Late afternoon supper was enlivened by the presence of some home-baked French baguettes.  I used the recipe from Beth Hensperger's book, "Baking Bread - Old and New Traditions", now sadly out of print. There are plenty of used copies available at Amazon and I highly recommend this book.

There are many great recipes online and I plan to try different variations.  When adding the flour I lost count of the number of cups of flour already doled out.  Note to self:  pre-measure the flour and put in bowl.  Duh! 

I spread one of the loaves with a mixture of garlic infused olive oil, chopped olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and a sprinkle of Parmesan before rolling up.  It came out quite good and certainly looked lovely.

While the crust was quite good, I was hoping for a better appearance.  Next time I'm going to use my baking stone and remember to add some water (in the form of ice cubes or a small pan of boiling water) to the oven.

Supper:

• Crudites (around here it's called a plate of sliced vegetables) with bread and herb infused olive oil dipping sauce
• Baked Ziti
• Italian Sausage
• Candied nuts and fudge for desert

Now we look forward to the visit of the Magi on January 6 when Our Lord and Savior will be revealed to the world.


Hope your Christmas festivities were wonderful...

I don't have this book but I'm planning on ordering a used copy from Amazon...