FFwD: Speculoos

This was one exciting morning. We woke up to complete silence. Or, at least I did. Sometime during the night, the power went out. Southern California had unusually high winds, and blessed our neighborhood with a blackout.

Great. The rolled out Speculoos dough was waiting in the fridge.



For better or worse, my daughter has an ipod docking station that, for some reason, isn't affected by power outages. Although, instead of the usual soothing music, a shrill alarm went off at the appointed time. Curses! She can't even use a power outage as an excuse to be late for work!

And being a thoughtful daughter, she woke me up at 6:50 am. The sun was just peeking above the horizon and the inside of the house was colder than Antarctica. (Thanks.)


Having errands to run, I booted the dog outside, then set off, treating myself to breakfast and coffee at one of my favorite restaurants. I couldn't stay home and starve in a freezing house, now, could I?


By the time I returned home, the power was back on and timers and clocks needed resetting.



And cookies needed baking.


I only baked off half the dough. I'll bake the remainder over the weekend. They sure made the house smell wonderful with all those spices. They don't taste half bad, either. (That's a joke. They taste terrific.)


One of my Christmas gifts was a set of writing pens. (It's sort of like being a cheap date. Pens. It's an inexpensive, but vital, present.) So, anyhow, I used the Green One to mark in the cookbook about the missing egg. All is well in the ingredient world.

Are we ready for January? For 2011? For all that wonderful baking and cooking? Hope so. It's already starting off with exciting changes. I can't wait to get started.


Happy New Year!

(Don't forget to stop by French Fridays with Dorie to check out the recipes.)