buche de nöel

and here is the finished masterpiece. i might not have the heart to let anyone eat it...

it's christmas!

my fever has abated today and although i'm still sneezing and coughing and hacking, i was inspired to make a julelog christmas cake! buche de nöel, they're also called. i have to say that i'm so proud i feel i've very nearly outdone myself!  we're going out for pinecones to finish decorating it now, but check it out in the meantime:

and some opening of prezzies pictures from last evening...

and with silly far...

and one shot of the tree. i couldn't find our real christmas lights and we probably didn't have enough for this huge tree anyway, so i ran two strings of purple star lights up the trunk of the tree. we'll put real candles on it this evening. but see how tall it is!

after we ate a creamy pumpkin soup with chorizo and ate some sandwiches, we read twas the night before christmas and then sabin was allowed to open some of her prezzies.

merry christmas!

how to pick a christmas tree

first you choose the right tree

then you threaten it with a saw

then you show it who's boss

then you stuff it into the wonderful old-fashioned tree-wrapping device...

then you have the kids turn the wheel so the twine comes around it.

this is sabin and her christmas tree.

that's cousin nicolai.

risengrød - food for real nisse

risengrød

1 C short-grained rice (do not use basmati or other long-grained rice, it won't work)
1 liter of whole milk (to start with)

combine the two in a pan and heat up slowly to a gentle boil, stirring constantly (that's the hard part)

keep adding milk, possibly even up to another liter as the rice absorbs it.  this takes a good hour, but you have to keep testing the rice, you'll know when it's close enough to done to "put to bed"--by which i mean wrap it up in a big quilt in the midst of the pillows on your bed--for about 20 minutes or so. it will finish cooking this way.  serve with a big dollop of butter and plenty of sugar and cinnamon.

i personally would use 1.5 C rice, but husband says a cup. if you're going to sit there for an hour stirring, you might as well have plenty. and you can always form the leftovers into pancakes, roll them in a bit of flour to hold them together and fry them up in some butter and eat them with a bit of sugar & cinnamon sprinkled on.

risengrød isn't very photogenic, so no photo with this post.