christmas eve

For as long as I can remember, Christmas Eve has always been the "bigger deal" in my family than Christmas Day. All of my family gets together then and now that my sisters are older.. married.. mothers... there are a lot more people to fill the house (think: three significant others and seven children).









It's interesting looking at things now that I'm no longer the family baby (I'm the youngest of four). When did I become a grown up? And where did all my money go? (A growing family means more presents.) Christmas Eve is by no means the only time we're all together, but it was the only time we were all in tears of laughter because my mother posed with her "new family" on the box of the TV we all chipped in to get her.

last minute wrapping à la fraulein maria

I'd originally written this post for another site, but since it didn't make it up I couldn't bear to wait until next year to share. So, in the off chance you've waited until the very last hour and 15 minutes until Christmas to wrap your presents, here are some quick wrapping ideas inspired by Julie Andrews’ character, Fraulein Maria, in The Sound of Music. These ideas are simple, sustainable and easy to put together with typical household items.



Using old grocery paper bags, gently rip the bag open along the seams to get one flat piece of wrapping paper. Measure the amount of paper you need for your present and cut the appropriate amount.



Presents wrapped? Great! Here’s where Maria comes in. Throughout the movie, Maria made things more beautiful and creative using these three steps:

1. Get back to the basics: When the Von Trapp children told Maria they didn’t know how to sing, she started them off with “Do Re Mi.” If your gift consists of multiple presents, try “1 2 3.” Wrap them individually and number them in the order they should be opened.



2. Sing about it: Write the lyrics to your favorite song on your wrapping paper and use that to wrap your present. “Brown paper packages tied up with strings” have never been more fitting.



3. Use what you have: We kind of already did this using our paper bags, but don’t limit your resourcefulness to that! When Maria wanted the children to have play clothes she used her bedroom drapes. Me? I just snipped off a piece of my sister’s Christmas tree and used baker’s twine.

Happy last minute wrapping! (But really, you could use this "wrapping paper" year round.)

Wishing you the merriest, love-filled holiday season to date.

happy holidays!

Love,
RIMRAM

(Raine Isabella Maranan (4) & Raiza Alexis Maranan (2))

cinnamon sugar bread

There were a lot of things working against me when I decided to make this cinnamon sugar bread from Joy the Baker. I've been daydreaming of making the recipe for months and finally decided to go for it the morning before my last day of work at Stanford. I knew the process would take a while but I wanted to say thank you to the ASCO team for being so kind, friendly, and supportive.



However, after deciding to do this, there were challenges to overcome:

- I started at 2am (and the bread needed to rise twice)
- I only had one bowl
- We only have small chopping boards and our kitchen counter is tiled
- (i.e. I had to lay down saran wrap on my tiled counter to roll out the dough)
- No rolling pin
- During the bread's first rise, I accidentally left it in our freezing cold kitchen. Whoops.

But, by some miracle, I had all of the ingredients. I took weird 1 hour naps during the rising/waiting/baking process. And the bread came out really well!

And I wasn't late to work!





cinnamon sugar bread
adapted from Joy the Baker

dough:
2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 envelope active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces butter
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

filling:
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 ounces butter, melted until browned

Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt in one bowl and set aside. In another bowl, whisk eggs and set aside. Melt the butter with the milk in a small pot, remove from heat, then add water and vanilla. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients. Add eggs and mix until incorporated. Joy said that her mixture felt soupy, but mine felt dry. Add the remaining 3/4 cups of flour. Just keep mixing until everything is incorporated and sticky.

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic and a tea towel, and leave it to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

Once the dough rises, mix the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Melt the remaining butter. Set aside both items.

Knead your newly risen dough with about 2 tablespoons of flour. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rest for 5 minutes. Roll out the dough until it's about 12" x 20" if you can. I couldn't just roll it out as much as you can.

Spread melted butter on rolled dough then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Cut the dough into strips of six. Stack the strips on top of one another until you have just one strip. Then cut that single strip into six squares (like this). Layer the squares sideways into a greased bread pan. (My squares weren't really even but it didn't matter.)

Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for another hour.

Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes, or until dark golden brown on top. Let rest for 30 minutes then remove from pan.

Eat and die of happiness.

weekend

Proof that sometimes all you need are good friends and good food. Especially mixed together.