the colors of Christmas

©2010, Monika Roe

Inspired by all of the colored trees I've been seeing this year in the homes of friends and family. The colors in my illo include (clockwise from top): Holly Berry, Santa's Cheeks, Sugar Plum, Blue Christmas, Forevergreen, 5 Golden Rings, Naughty Coal, and Cozy Fireside. Which one are you???

not in a hurry curry

©2010, Monika Roe

I used a crockpot for the first time EVER yesterday! I know! First time EVER! I cook a lot so it may sound weird to those who know me that I've never used this commonplace appliance before. Heck, I even OWNED a crockpot years ago, but never used it. The whole concept seemed so planned. And planning that far in advance for a casual dinner was never appealing to me. But when I came across this recipe for Slow Cooker Coconut & Green Curry Pork* I couldn't get it out of my head. So, I borrowed a crockpot and fired it up for this 8 hours of curry goodness.

The whole crockpot idea seems '50s to me (even though it wasn't invented until the '70s), so I drew this illustration in a retro style!

*You can find the full recipe at http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/main-dish/dinner-recipe-slow-cooker-green-curry-coconut-pork-134303. I made one change to the recipe, I used lite coconut milk in place of the regular. Still yummy.

advent calendars

©2010, Monika Roe

Loved having an advent calendar every Christmas when I was a kid. It was always the kind that had a piece of chocolate behind each window. A calendar with pockets like the one I've drawn here would have been too tempting to raid all at once!

under the mistletoe

©2010, Monika Roe

A pink Christmas illo to honor my mom's new PINK Christmas tree. Another friend of mine has a purple Christmas tree this year. Nice to see that people aren't afraid of color or breaking with tradition!

pretty poinsettia

©2010, Monika Roe

Poinsettia bloom as a hat!

cake truffles

©2010, Monika Roe

During December, really early in the mornings or really late at night I'm probably in the kitchen working on my holiday baking. There are certain recipes I look forward to making every year. Those pages in my recipe notebook have become quite a mess over the years, but reprinting clean copies isn't an option, in fact, it would be sacrilege! And then there are recipes that end up in my repertoire completely by accident. This is one of those recipes. Made one year because the recipe was so highly reviewed online, I now get requests for it every year.

Forget about my time consuming gingerbread with it's super secret ingredient. Alton Brown's fruitcake with it's deliciously long list of ingredients and 2 weeks of steeping time? Not interested! Sigh. THIS is the recipe people look forward to every year, despite the fact that it calls for just a few ingredients and those ingredients are as common as you can get. I give you: "cake balls". Yes, "cake balls". I changed the name to the more elegant sounding "cake truffles", but I admit they are really just "cake balls". Laugh amongst yourselves...

glædelig jul

©2010, Monika Roe

To say "Merry Christmas" in Danish you say "Glædelig Jul"! Some of the things that are always a part of my Danish Christmas decorating are paper star ornaments, lots of greenery and red hearts, especially heart-shaped woven paper baskets hung on the tree! And if someone fills those heart ornaments with candy I won't complain!