Christmas for Squirrels

Christmas morning entertainment in New Hampshire. These photos are not very good but I could not resist posting this cute little guy eating corn off the cob. 

Persimmon Pudding

Around the holidays my grandmother used to always make persimmon pudding. As a child I never really appreciated it. Recently I have been feeling very sentimental about it and wanted to try to make it myself. As it turns out she took the recipe from the Joy of Cooking and it is really easy.  I made a few adjustments based on what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

2 overly ripe persimmons (Diospyros Virginiana variety) 

1 egg

generous 1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 Tablespoons melted salted butter

1 cup whole milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 325

Press the persimmon pulp through a strainer then add all your other ingredients to that and mix until well combined. Grease a baking dish, or in my case I used muffin tins, and pour batter in to bake until firm, about 45 minutes in the muffin tins. Serve with fresh whipped cream. 

This lovely desert is also reminiscent of an English pudding which as a child I did not appreciate as I do now that I have spent time in England. 

I ended up freezing most of these little pudding to enjoy later. They'll be easy to heat up as a quick desert. 

Knitter Christmas Ornaments

I've tried knitting a few times in my life. The first time my grandmother taught me. I took it up again for a bit in college. I've never made more than a scarf although I often think of taking it up again… An easier task however was making this little ornament.

Here's what I used:
styrofoam ball
wooden dowels
yarn
pin
paint

Here's what I did:
Prepared the dowels - cut them, whittled points, painted them and waited for them to dry
Put the dowels through the styrofoam ball
Tie a loop by one end of the yarn, use a pin to secure the knot to the styrofoam, wrap in yarn
and that's it!

Don't want to do it yourself? You can find it in my etsy shop for the holidays.

Green Smoothie Breakfast

My latest breakfast obsession is this green smoothie I heard about from my sister that she had found here.

It's quick and easy in the morning just put the following in a blender or use an emersion blender:

spinach
strawberries (fresh or frozen)
banana
peanut butter
coconut water

blend until smooth and enjoy!