Chocolate Box Cottage Diary, Volume 2
Week 51: December 24, 2022

What with the Christmas baking, chimney cleaning, and restarting the indoor salad garden we are as busy as Santa’s elves! What a busy and blessed week at Chocolate Box Cottage!

Indoor Salad Gardening

Let’s start with salad gardening. Growing salad shoots in cereal bowls keeps us in salad greens all winter, right up until the outdoor garden is producing.

Traditional “sprout” seeds like broccoli and peas join microgreen seeds, buckwheat and tendril peas. In about a week, they are ready to harvest with scissors.

By planting a batch of bowls every few days, the indoor salad garden keeps producing. Enjoy beautiful gourmet salads with just a little work.

Christmas baking

Looking for an easy, festive drop cookie?

Mix up a batch of Confetti Cookies; they’re simple, colorful, and fun! A delicious vanilla cookie batter is shaped in balls, rolled in sprinkles, pressed with a glass, and baked. The satisfying cake-like flavor of these cookies will grab you!

Granola is always a welcome gift. This batch of Pecan Promise Granola will be divided: 1 tray gifted and 1 tray kept.

There’s nothing quite like homemade pies for Christmas and it’s (almost) as easy to make two as one. One for Christmas Eve and another for breakfast on Christmas morning with coffee, tea, and cottage bacon (ham). See my recipe for Butter Pie Crust.

Miriam and I enjoyed an old-fashioned Christmas baking day which included these delicious apple pies and a batch of Confetti Cookies.

And since I was not planning to bake bread, I decided to use up the accumulated starter in my jars by making a batch of German Bread-Spice Crackers this week. What is bread spice? A mix of spices used in German breads; brotgewürz in German. It varies, but mine includes caraway, anise seeds, fennel seeds, celery seeds, and coriander seeds, ground to a powder.

I added most of the sourdough from the jars to the Ankarsrum mixer bowl, leaving enough behind to feed and maintain my starter. Whole grains were milled into flour in my KoMo grain mill, including whole wheat, spelt, rye, einkorn, and millet.

Cracker dough was rolled very thin – the thinner the better – then cut in squares with a fluted pastry wheel or crinkle cutter. Docking the crackers with a fork releases air bubbles. And don’t forget to sprinkle with salt! I don’t have an exact recipe for these, I go by feel.

Sam’s projects

Samuel has been mysteriously busy in the barn. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I am sure it will be good. We agreed to give each other practical gifts this year, and I asked for a pantry makeover, while Sam hinted at a backpack leaf blower. The “economy” leaf blower he has been using for years is giving out – it’s requires tinkering each time he wants to use it.

We both could use new wheelbarrows. A stout metal one for Sam, capable of hauling firewood, hot coals, rocks, dirt, and manure; a plastic one for me, to tote compost, potted plants, and garden harvests to the kitchen for preserving.

Samuel climbs the ladder to the roof for several tasks: blowing leaves off, cleaning out gutters, and cleaning the chimney.

In addition to cleaning the chimney, Samuel disassembled the stove pipe, carried it outside and cleaned it out; vacuumed out the elbow in the brick chimney; emptied the wood stove of ashes; cleaned the glass window.

Christmas Tea

Weekly tea at Mom’s took on a Christmasy theme this week. Granddaughters Miriam and Savannah + Emberly joined us for non-alcoholic Holiday Wassail, homemade clam chowder, fruit salad, carrot sticks, and Confetti Cookies. So thankful to have Mom and Rolly to celebrate with.

Gift baskets

I whipped up a triple batch of Maple Vanilla Syrup and added jars to a couple of Christmas gift baskets. This basket for my son Clayton includes Hot Cocoa Mix + a bottle of mint extract, dried Paragon pear slices, Pecan Promise Granola, gourmet coffee, Vanilla Lace Pear Jam, Vanilla Maple Syrup, Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde, and a half gallon jar of Goldenkraut (not pictured).

This Christmas gift basket for my sister’s family includes a full dehydrator batch (9 trays) of blackberry applesauce fruit leather along with a variety of pear preserves: dried, jam, and butter + Crock Pot Apple Butter + Maple Vanilla Syrup nestled in paper shreds in a thrift shop picnic basket.

Fermentation

I finally got around to straining my made-from-scratch Persian basil vinegar. It tastes and smells delightful and the color is captivating! After straining the herbs out, the resulting young vinegar was transferred to a boiled jar with a lid to complete fermentation.

In about a month to 6 weeks it will be ready. I can already envision Persian basil vinegar used in salad dressings and marinades for meats and vegetables.

Christmas Eve dinner included Old World Roast Beef and Vegetables, like my Grandma used to make. The roast is first soaked in clabber or cultured buttermilk for 1-3 days, then drained and baked with root vegetables.

I love this spattered yellow and white enamel roaster! I use it for roasting meat and veggies and for baking bread.

Family pictures

Bookshelf

In honor of Christmas, I encourage you, dear reader, to read the story of Jesus’ birth in the Bible. You’ll find it in Luke chapter 2. Like many families, we cherish the tradition of reading this story every Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas, dear reader! I wish and pray for God’s best for you this Christmas and in the coming year.

Blessings,
Michele and Samuel

Note: This post contains links to products and vendors I use and appreciate for their quality and usefulness. Some are affiliate, some are not. I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases when you use the links I provide; this does not change your price.

Chocolate Box Cottage, Volume 2
Week 47: November 26, 2022

One of the perks of working at, from, and in the home is taking a “kitchen day.” Scheduling a day to restock the freezer with essentials like broth, whilst preparing food for the Thanksgiving feast is a pleasure and a privilege that adds to the enjoyment of days off – days like our annual Christmas Tree Hunt. More on that later.

Kitchen Day

We are deep into soup season, so I knew I needed to make broth, specifically beef broth, for those delicious soups and stews we love to cook on the wood stove.

We appreciate well-flavored broth for sipping year-round, but especially in winter. Comforting and warming, broth fortifies the body against cold and illness, improves digestion, and tastes wonderful. If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy the smell of cooking beef bones into broth, but wants nutritious homemade broth, using the Mealthy Multipot or Instant Pot (or other multicooker) might be the answer. There is very little cooking odor when making broth in a multicooker.

Don’t laugh, but we have His and Hers freezers.

The broth goes in mine. This includes two types of beef bone broth: regular and pho, which is an Asian-style broth flavored with fish sauce and spices. Pho broth is our favorite sipping broth! You will also find in our freezer chicken bone broth, fish stock from fish bones and skin for Salmon Chowder and Thrifty Stock (my version of vegetable scrap broth) for cooking rice and beans. And occasionally other kinds, such as turkey, deer, and pork broths when available.

At the end of my Kitchen Day, I had 12 quarts of beautiful broth from organic ingredients: 6 quarts of Roasted Beef Bone Broth and 6 quarts of Beef Pho Broth. When Samuel came home from work and saw the “wall” of broth cubes ready to go to the freezer, he wondered aloud about the cash value.

High quality organic bone broth is currently valued around $23 per quart (close to a liter). Twelve quarts = $276. Wow! It would be nice to have straight sided Weck jars for freezer storage of broth someday. For now, I am working with what I have; inexpensive freezer containers labeled with a piece of masking tape.

Good things happening in this small space: Fermented-from-scratch vinegars are ready to strain, Goldenkraut has completed first two stages of fermentation and is ready to move to cool storage to complete stages 3 and 4. Four quarts are valued at $14 per jar, $56 total. Sourdough starters have been fed and are relaxing at room temperature for a spell before returning to the fridge. Two frozen packs of homegrown pumpkin puree are thawing for pie with a combined value of $3.56. A whole pumpkin pie made is valued at $23. This isn’t organic; I could reasonably add 15% for a value of $26.45

Today’s kitchen day yielded $358.45 worth of products. This does not include the organic specialty vinegars!

Pie for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving is a tradition with many families – it is for us, too. Knowing the pie is made from a pumpkin we grew in our garden, eggs from our own hens, with organic flour in the crust and local whipped cream makes it extra special.

Cranberry Fluff is a childhood favorite I’ll never outgrow. I made a triple batch of Mom’s recipe, which if memory serves me, originally came from the mini marshmallow bag. I use more less sugar and less marshmallows these days and it is every bit as good.

More than the food, I am thankful for people. Some important faces were missing, but I am thankful for the ones that were there. Catching up on life and sharing family stories and jokes is both strengthening and comforting.

Samuel’s projects

Like many families in the Pacific Northwest, we go on an annual Christmas Tree Hunt on the weekend after Thanksgiving. But before we could do that, Sam had to fix his truck.

Fixing his truck yet again was not in his plans, but when Samuel noticed a warning light, he set aside his plans for the day after Thanksgiving to find and fix the problem.

My husband isn’t a mechanic, he doesn’t have a heated shop, and his tools are just basic.

Repairs and maintenance of our vehicles, appliances, home, and property are one of the ways he contributes to our budget in tangible, money-saving form.

Whenever Samuel encounters a new fixit problem, he consults YouTube. Researching solutions, parts, tools, and methods is part of his process, along with prayer and determination.

I am so thankful for his hardworking hands that saved us between $400 – $640 for replacing a glow plug and harness in his Ford.

In the spare time he had while waiting for a part to be delivered to a local-ish (25 minute drive) parts store, Samuel worked on the garden, pulling tomato cages, uprooting spent plants, removing some of the sides to the raised beds in preparation for redoing the garden in Back to Eden style.

Christmas Tree Hunt

The woods were flooded with sunshine, with patches of snow in shady places. Samuel explained to Miriam that the base of the tree she and her dog Pumpkin posed by was an ideal spot to create a shelter in case of need.

When the tree fell it created a hollow in the ground and the roots formed a canopy. A few roots could be cut for a warming fire and the rest could be covered in branches for further protection from the elements.

The sweetly intoxicating aroma of white fir makes it our ideal Christmas tree. This one is exceptionally full, allowing plenty of room for tiny lights and our collection of ornaments. Some lower branches will be removed to allow it to fit the tree stand – and the living room! The needles will be saved for Christmas Tree Potpourri and Enchanted Forest Chai.

We found the perfect tree very quickly, which left extra time for a campfire and mugs of Hot Cocoa made from a homemade mix!

Black Friday crafting

Our Black Friday tradition is a craft day with Christmas movies and tea or hot cocoa.

Fun Finds

A walk yielded these treasures: giant Bigleaf maple leaves in lustrous gold and a handful of Egyptian Walking bulbils scavenged from a throw-away plant.

Bookshelf

THE CHRISTMAS PROJECT PLANNER by Kathi Lipp

“Christmas – whether you really love it, secretly dread it, or fall somewhere in between – shows up the same time every year, as unavoidable as your aunt’s fruitcake”… (taken from back cover)

Author Kathi Lipp is right, and yet somehow many of us feel unprepared for it. This book will change all that.

The Christmas Project Planner lives up to its subtitle: Super Simple Steps to Organize the Holidays. You’ll find this highly approachable book to be a good friend. It has pockets, for goodness sake! And perhaps more importantly, it walks you through your holiday preparations, step by step, the way YOU want to celebrate.

Brimming with tips and humor, preparing for Christmas has never been so…uncomplicated. Really! I am lucky enough to be acquainted with the author and have been using her book for the last 4 years.

*Please note there is a knock-off book with a very similar name and cover. It is not the real thing, so be careful!

Blessings to you as you prepare for Christmas!
Love, Michele and Samuel

Making your own HOMEMADE HOT COCOA MIX is so easy and it DOESN’T need any skim milk powder or artificial creamer! You control the ingredients; choose what suits your health, budget, and conscience. Stir up a jar of Hot Cocoa Mix and present it as a GIFT in a thrifted BASKET with a cute mug OR keep it for yourself – I won’t tell. You’ll be spoiled for store-bought once you taste it, so don’t say I didn’t warn you!

If you are sensitive to chocolate or caffeine, try my Carob Cocoa Mix. It’s rich and creamy and satisfies the longing for a hot cocoa style beverage.

Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix – no powdered milk!

Print Recipe

Making your own HOMEMADE HOT CHOCOLATE MIX is so easy and it DOESN’T need any skim milk powder or artificial creamer! You control the ingredients; choose what suits your health, budget, and conscience. Stir up a jar of MIX and present it as a GIFT in a thrifted BASKET with a cute mug OR keep it for yourself – I won’t tell. You’ll be spoiled for store-bought once you taste it, so don’t say I didn’t warn you! Directions for making a cup of hot cocoa using this mix are at the bottom in the NOTES section. 

• Author: Michele Pryse, FNTP
• Prep Time: 5
• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: 12 servings, 1 3/4 cup
• Category: mixes
• Method: make-ahead
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (the kind used for baking; look for “Fairly Traded” on the label)

Pinch of salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions

Whisk sugar, cocoa powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Drizzle vanilla over mixture and whisk well. Transfer mixture to a clean, dry pint jar with a lid. Label and store up to one year.

Notes

TO MAKE 1 SERVING OF HOT CHOCOLATE: Whisk together 1 cup milk plus 2 ½ tablespoons HOMEMADE HOT COCOA MIX in a small pan. Place over medium-low heat until steaming, stirring occasionally. Do not allow it to boil. TO MAKE IN A MICROWAVE OVEN:

Place 2 ½ tablespoons HOMEMADE HOT COCOA MIX in a standard 12-16 oz. microwavable coffee mug. Add one cup milk; stir. Microwave on high 1 ½ minutes or until hot. Do not allow it to boil. You’ll have to experiment with the timing on your microwave to find out how long it takes. Some coffee mugs really heat up in the microwave, so be careful when you remove it after cooking.

Keywords: hot cocoa mix, homemade hot cocoa mix, hot chocolate, make-ahead, gift, pantry