stevenpiziks | In the Kitchen

This year I spent quite a lot of time in the kitchen for the holiday season. A lot of it was after 8:00 at night, mostly because that was when things wound down with the boys and I had time to do it.

I made Latvian rye bread again. This is a three-day project. Day One is making sourdough starter. I don't make sourdough bread often enough to keep starter in the fridge, so I start over each time. Day Two is making the bread dough. This took several hours, even with a dough hook. I was planning to make three loaves and I tripled my recipe without thinking--the recipe is for two loaves, and I ended up with enough dough for six. Oops! But no problem. Many people I know like the stuff, even if I don't. The dough has to sour for 24 hours, which sent me into Day Three: making the actual bread. Six loaves of Latvian bread!

I also made sugar cookies, chocolate-mint thumbprint cookies, butterscotch haystacks, oatmeal no-bake cookies, and Rice Krispie squares. Whew! I was going to make piragis, but I was just too tired.

Mackie and Aran and I frosted and decorated the sugar cookies around the kitchen table. (Sasha fled.) It was a very nice family moment.