Don't turnip your nose at rutabagas.

After working four full days last week, it was nice to have Friday off to stay home to catch up on our baking and have a nap. Four loaves of oat bread, a gallon of granola cereal, six dozen whole wheat breadsticks, six dozen butter caramel sugar cookies (in Wintery cut outs), and a big pot of chili.

Today's work included an adaptation of a Christmas cookie recipe I've had for a long time. The original recipe requires you to dye half the dough, then take bits of each colour, roll them out, and then twine then into dozens of tiny candy canes. SO TEDIOUS, and then the guys would eat them up as fast as possible. I have refused to make them unless the boys helped in recent years, but this time they had other ideas: why don't you swirl the colour into the dough so it's marbled, and then just make little balls like round peppermint candies? Indeed! Why don't I?!


It took about 15 minutes to make this batch, and then about 10-12 minutes in the oven. They taste just as good, are still cute, and are so much easier to do.

Either way you want to make them, here's the recipe:

1 cup butter or margarine (butter tastes so much better)
1 cup sifted icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp peppermint flavouring
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour.

Mix butter and sugar, add egg and flavourings, mix. Stir in flour and salt. The original recipe said to chill at this point, but I have always found it makes it harder to handle, so I don't.

Candy Canes:
Divide dough and add red food colouring to one half. Take a tsp of each dough, roll out into short pencil shapes , press together side by side, twist like a rope and bend into candy cane shape, then dip into granulated sugar before putting on the greased pan. Bake 9 minutes @375

Peppermint Drops:
Put a few drops of red food colouring onto the dough, and work it in to create a marbled effect. Take a tsp of dough, roll into into a ball, dip in sugar and placed on greased pan. Bake 9-12 minutes @ 375.

*FYI- rubbing alcohol takes food colouring off countertops. Just sayin'.

Another new thing I learned this week was that there IS a difference between turnips and rutabagas- I thought they were interchangeable, until I actually looked at them in the store:

The rutabaga is on the right. The apple is about the same size as a turnip. Ah. There is indeed a difference. Another good thing is that rutabagas were about half the price of turnips, so I bought one to go into today's beef vegetable soup. When the boys were unpacking the groceries they looked through the plastic bag and asked, "WHAT is THAT?!!" as they thought I'd bought the head of some poor creature. (Yes, we're trying new foods, but I'm not THAT adventurous!) We've had turnips in soup before and Peter likes the cooked texture better than he likes potatoes in soup. We'll see how the flavour compares. I may also take one of the little squashes from the pantry and chop it up as well.

Next week I am already booked for 3.5 days, and we'll see if I get called in on Monday. Mason's birthday is next week, including a party Friday, and we're looking forward to next weekend as we'll put up the tree in preparation for Advent starting next Sunday. I think I like Advent season even more than Christmas Day. It lasts longer and has so many small joys along the way. There will be many pleasant things coming up this week at our house.

I hope you have a good week, too! I'm off for a lovely afternoon nap to build up energy for next week.