Hey, remember the Chantico? That gooey, ultra-concentrated hot chocolate Starbucks sold months ago? Well, I unfortunately never had a chance to try it, but Trader Joe's has something similar. Their Sipping Chocolate is made with only 1/3 C milk and 3 T powdered mix, so this potion is strong and thick. However, it is pretty darn tasty and a nice hot treat for cold wintery days. I approve.

I had been wondering about the possibility of creating my own version of Fran's delectable salty chocolate balls.. er.. caramels. I've made caramel before, but never individual caramel candies. How hard can it be? I found this recipe for French caramels with fleur de sel, but it doesn't say anything about coating the candies in chocolate. There's another Betty Crocker recipe for plain caramels that looks good (and the other candy recipes on this page look promising too). This recipe for Salted Chocolate Caramels from Epicurious looks like the real thing, but the reviews aren't so hot as the caramel apparently comes out extremely oily. Maybe a combination of several recipes would be the best bet. And this last recipe comes with a perhaps more realistic photo. What do you think, should I try it?

... because it was force-fed goodies from my Christmas baking basket! Now that's some sweet foie gras. So here's what I've got the this year: These gingersnaps are probably my favorite out of all the cookies I make. Don't tell the chocolate chip cookies, they tend to get jealous. I just love the way they sparkle! And, they're long-lasting because there's no butter in them! Before you ask me to divulge my low-cal gingersnap recipe, let me just tell you that while there is no butter, there is 3/4 cup of delicious golden canola oil. Yummay! I used to like this toffee recipe, until it gave me my first holiday baking-related injury. I get one such injury each year. Guess what I did? Burn myself on hot sugar? Nope. Cut myself while chopping the pecans? Try again. Stab myself in the thumb while breaking the toffee into pieces, leaving a two-pronged wound much like the mark of a venomous snake? Wow, you guessed it! The offending piece was summarily executed with no trial. Well, I trialed a little bit that wasn't bloody. Ooh that orange peel is even better dredged in dark chocolate. And Santa's little helper, rum balls. And finally, my first foray into homemade marshmallows was a success! Many thanks go to Amy for invaluable advice and reassurance that the chunky glob of horse-smelling gelatin would indeed turn into marshmallows. Making these was an interesting experience. It was reminiscent of growing a giant slab of flesh for a skin graft, complete with a thick layer of subcutaneous fat! It looked nothing like a skin transplant, of course, but there was something about the texture of the uncut plank of marshmallow, and the way it clung slightly to the mold as I attempted to excise... er... extricate... er... remove it. I'm definitely making these again, perhaps with some glurps of rum to replace the vanilla extract. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Or ooh ooh I know! Kahlua. OK, now if you're a classy baker who puts as much energy into packaging goodies as the goodies themselves, look away. You're not going to like this. Hopefully, the only people reading this are tacky. Because look at what I got to package my goodies! This is so horrible, I'm almost ashamed to show it to you. Yes, holiday-themed Ziploc bags with snowshoeing polar bears. Augh, it's dreadful. A few years ago I got cute holiday cello bags from Mrs. Cooks, and labeled them all with tags I made using tasteful, vintage-y clip art. But I ran out of those, and... uh... there's no excuse. If you want to see some examples of what I wish my goody bags looked like, go here. I'm pathetic.

Here are some pictures from the candied orange peel I made for my holiday goody bags. I used the Il Forno recipe, and I think these turned out much better than previous batches. Usually, I cook it too long and the orange pieces crystallize, which isn't necessarily bad, but not what I'm going for either. I also had fun removing the pith from the peel with my chef's knife. I felt like I was in a knife infomercial - you know, the one that dazzles you with the fact that not only does it cut a perfect fillet, but also a fillet of a fillet! This activity was also voted most likely to land me in the ER. I didn't cut myself, but I did end up with a wicked thumb cramp. Just look at how much pith I was able to slice off the peels! And here it is all done, rolled in powdered sugar. Off to melt some chocolate for dipping!

I just found this photo from Christmas a few years ago. We made gingerbread houses (from scratch, of course) and decorated them tastefully. Then we set up my Mulder and Scully action figures to investigate an unusual sighting of a translucent alien in the holiday village. What, you think that's weird?

Citrus is king at my house. But sometimes the king needs to be drawn and quartered and simmered in hot sugar syrup. I give you recipes for candied citrus peel: A version at Il Forno. Another at Simply Recipes. Check the comments for a reader's amusing plan to substitute Splenda for the sugar in this recipe. I've got to wonder how much money has been wasted by South Beach Dieters trying to make Splenda caramel and hard candies. It's chemistry, people. Sunkist offers a recipe that's most similar to what I've done in the past. Of course, I think they come to your house with a sharpened zester if you have the audacity to use non-Sunkist brand oranges. The Sunset recipe should work as well. Imagine my delight when I found this recipe calling for whisky! This recipe comes with an awesome blast of Armenian music. And I'm not sure if it matters, but I like using organic oranges for this purpose.

I know these aren't the most dramatic pictures of Seattle's windstorm out there, but here you go. Campus is littered with huge tree branches. I usually wait for the bus at this shelter on the UW campus. The tree that did this damage has been taken away, it was about 2' in diameter. You can sort of see the giant tree in the middle of the structure. Downed trees near Husky stadium. More tree carnage near the medical center. Even after all this, Mt. Rainier still looks pretty.

That's right! It's America's Test Kitchen sweetheart, Christopher Kimball! I "met" him at a book signing several weeks ago, and it was thrilling. You can tell CK was thrilled to pose for a picture with me. In the uncropped version, I'm off his right shoulder grinning like a goofball. It's an interesting juxtaposition, my unchained glee and CK's barely tolerant boredom. Which is funny because he was really nice and smiling when he was signing my cookbook. When the camera comes out, here comes Mr. Serious. I wish I could have snapped a pic of the look of terror in his eyes when I announced I was using the shot as my Christmas card picture this year. Now that would have been a good Christmas card.

Here's some even more detailed information about post-power outage food safety. I'm very lucky that my power was restored after only 12 hours, but others are still without power going on 48 hours. As my sister pointed out yesterday, it's kind of romantic (in the literal sense of the word) to take a shower by candlelight, but it starts to get old once the electric hot water heater runs cold. My only "hardship" was having to drink black coffee this morning - my first trip to the store yielded nothing but empty shelves. I was able to score some milk and half and half at the sole open grocery store this afternoon - there wasn't much on the shelves but I snagged enough for little old me. I'm not sure if the woman I saw in the parking lot at Albertson's this morning tearing at her hair and yelling "Goddammit!" repeatedly was officially insane, or just mad because she had to buy non-dairy creamer. Even though I always knew intellectually how dependent we are on power (and internet!) it was still a shock to see the strip mall near my home closed for the second day in a row, and to see the air heavy with woodsmoke from all the fires burning as powerless people try to stay warm. It's very Dark Angel out there.