Christmas With Linus

Happy Day After Christmas! I hope you all had the best day yesterday with your loved ones! Did anyone hit up the after Christmas sales? I did, but I’ll get to that after my Christmas recap.

Meet Linus. My dad decided this year he was tired of Christmas trees. Every year Diane and I get to pick out a huge tree and get to do the fun job of decorating it. Every year he gets the not-so-fun job of taking all the decorations off the tree and chopping the tree up for pickup. He complained about it being too much work, and that he’s getting older, and he didn’t think we really needed one. I was scared for the first time ever we wouldn’t have a tree at Christmas but thankfully Diane came to the rescue and picked up a tree straight out of a Charlie Brown Christmas Story. Hence the name Linus. While I love big trees and plan on always having an actual Christmas tree in my future house, this little guy came to grow on me. There wasn’t a lot of space to put presents so some ended up on the floor.

Christmas morning I woke up bright and early to race downstairs for a tradition I absolutely love. Every year Diane makes fresh Belgian waffles with homemade whipped cream and strawberries. They are so delicious and I look forward to them every year.

The waffle station.

The finished product. They were so incredibly good! Hands down the best waffles I’ve ever had. Diane was so sweet to share the recipe with me, so I thought I’d share it with you guys. These waffles are not a quick breakfast thing, they take a long time to make but are totally worth it. They are also not a light breakfast dish by any means but its the holidays and you only live once right?

Christmas Belgian Waffles

(makes 10 waffles)

1 1/2 cups water

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast

3 cups sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, separated + 1 egg white

1/3 cups sugar

1 1/2 cup whole milk

8 tablespoons unsalted butter- melted and cooled

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat 1/2 of the water to lukewarm. Dissolve the yeast in the water with a pinch of sugar from the recipe, let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the mixture begins to foam.

Put the flour and salt into a large bowl, stir to blend and reserve. Add the egg yolks, one of the egg whites, and remaining sugar to the yeast mixture, stirring to blend. Add the remaining water, milk, melted butter, oil, and vanilla, stirring until the mixture is smooth. Stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter. Let the batter stand for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Preheat your waffle maker.

Once heated use waffle maker measuring scoop to measure the batter and pour into the preheated waffle iron. Set waffle iron timer and when it beeps remove waffle from waffle iron.

For whipped cram whip one cup of whipping cream with sugar to taste.

Serve and enjoy.

After the most amazing waffles ever we all hung out and opened presents and then spent the afternoon hanging out and relaxing. It was the most wonderful way to spend the day and I loved getting to just spend time with my family.

Diane spent most of the afternoon cooking! After such a big breakfast it took us most of the afternoon to get our appetites back but when we did we were hungry! For Christmas dinner I enjoyed a plate full of potatoes, squash, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. It was so delicious.

I also enjoyed a glass of Asti. It was so good and special because it was the first glass of wine I’ve had with my parents at dinner! I turned 21 in September and on Thanksgiving we didn’t have alcohol. My parents were big on following the 21 drinking rule at their dinner table so now that I was finally legal I got to feel grown up and drink something other than apple juice! ;p

After dinner we all cuddled up on the couch and watched chick flick Christmas movies on TV. They were so cute and sweet and had such good messages about the Holiday!

After dozing off for a few minutes after the movies and my carb coma from dinner it was chocolate log time! Diane makes the most amazing chocolate roll that I also look forward to every Christmas.

Chocolate Log

1 cup cake flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking pwder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs (1/2 to 2/3rds cup)

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup whipping cream, sweetened and whipped (made just like it was for the Belgian waffles)

Confectioners sugar (as needed)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line jelly roll pan with aluminum foil or waxed paper. Grease the paper.

Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In small mixer bowl beat eggs about five minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Pour eggs into large mixer bowl, gradually beating in granulated sugar. On low speed blend in water and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into pan, spreading batter to corners.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean. Loosen cake from edges of pan and invert on a towel sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Carefully remove foil, trimming off stiff edges if necessary.

While hot, roll cake and towel from narrow end. Cool on wire rack. Unroll cake; remove towel. Spread whipped cream over cake. Roll up, sprinkle with confectioners sugar and serve.

It was so incredibly good!

After dessert we all hung around for a little while before calling it an early night. Diane and I were going after Christmas shopping the next day and I was excited to get good deals. Since I’m graduating in a year its starting to dawn on me that pretty soon I’m going to have my own place I want to decorate for the holidays with cute things and special trinkets. I was excited for all the after Christmas deals to be able get thing for future Christmases to come!

Unfortunately out of the five stores we went to most were completely picked over by the time we got there. I guess when stores open at 5am shoppers take it to heart and head out early! I didn’t end up getting a lot but I did get this super cute penguin from Target! Josh and I first saw it in November when the Christmas decorations were going up and I was so excited to see this little guy was still around today! He was all they had left and was actually the display. There was no box and he currently doesn’t light up because of a bad bulb but I got him for only $20 (from $50!). I could not be happier with my first Christmas decoration purchase! 😀

Time for me to get ready for bed, I have an early day tomorrow. My dad and I are leaving at 9am to drop my car off in State College and then I have a day full of laundry, packing, and school book ordering to do. I leave for New Haven on Wednesday!

Question of the Day: Did you go after Christmas shopping this year? What was your best find?

* The winner of the Raw Crunch energy bar giveaway is Andrea! Congrats Andrea! Please email me your address at [email protected] so I can get your info over to Raw Crunch and they can get your box of goodies in the mail!