Bb. Pilipinas Annual Christmas Charity Day

Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. Annual Christmas Charity Day

The Annual Christmas Treat for the less fortunate of Bb. Pilipinas Charities Inc. was held on Dec. 29, via a Special Preview of Splendide The Grand China National Acrobatic Show. Around 2,000 kids from different orphanages in Metro Manila were treated to a show of breath-taking stunts and routines by the Chinese Performers. Reigning Bb. Pilipinas Queens Ma. Venus Raj, Czarina Gatbonton, Diane Necio and Nicolette Henson along with former queens Nina Ricci Alagao, Janina San Miguel, Lia Andrea Ramos, Mary Ann Umali and Patricia Fernandez as well as Mr. Philippines World winner Alvin de Joya and BPCI Chairman Madame Stella Marquez de Araneta were present to hand out treats and gift packs to the invited guests. Splendide The Grand China National Acrobatic Show will have it's regular run until January 2, 2011 at the Big Dome.

Photo credit : Opmbworldwide

10 Vegetarian Christmas Recipes

Here are a hand-picked few of my favorite gluten-free vegetarian recipes.

Winter Solstice- with a spectacular lunar eclipse- has blessed us with a turning point. Daylight now grows longer inch by inch. Or is that minute by wintry minute? In spirit, I suspect, it is both. Christmas is almost here, and the season celebrating rebirth, light, and sliding into credit card debt is in full swing. Carolers are caroling. Gift wrappers are gift wrapping. Egg noggers are nogging. The shiny New Year crouches right around the corner. And recipes are flooding my in-box for... ham? Roast beef? Rack of lamb? Wait a duck fat glistening minute, here.

Where are the vegetarian Christmas recipes?

I can't be the only person not forking a slab of meat on Christmas day. I can't be the single solitary soul who doesn't treasure bacon fat like it's a princess tiara. I'm not alone in my imaginings of a fresh and healthy vegan Christmas dinner--- am I?

Okay. Okay. I get it. I honestly do. I realize I'm in the minority here. That to most folks celebrating the winter holidays in all their myriad and nuanced diversity, meat is the centerpiece of celebration. I acknowledge that. I even accept that. Just because I've been a vegetarian 78% of my life doesn't mean I bury my head in the sand of denial. I cope. I deal. I go with the flow.

But just so you know? The UN thinks vegetarianism is not only a cool idea, it may be necessary to save the planet. So here's ten of my favorite vegetarian and vegan recipes for Christmas. With love.


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Gingerbread Dudes, Gals & Pups, plus *the best* gingerbread cookie recipe

 

EVERY year, I say I'm going to make gingerbread cookies more often.  And every year, I forget. But I'm making these again next week (and quite possibly the next week and the next).

I'm going to beg you....MAKE THESE COOKIES!  They are some of my favorite cookies ever....soft, chewy, spicy...delicious!

I had a little too much fun making these.  The gingerbread dudes and gingerbread gals were just decorated with a bit of royal icing.

Was it wrong to start pairing off the gingerbread couples? It's like eHarmony for cookies over here. 

{Sign you've spent too much time with your cookies? You start staring at the gingerbread girl wishing you had her outfit.}

Here's a little trick for making hair from Martha:

Use a garlic press (this is the only thing I ever use mine for). Just fill it with dough and....

.....squeeze. 

These gingerbread scotties could not be easier.  A little collar, a little spring of holly...voila! Gingerbread Scottie Dog.

Here is the recipe.  I'm going to go out on a limb and call it the BEST GINGERBREAD COOKIE recipe EVER.  (I can say that because it's not my recipe, it's from the Southern Living Incredible Cookies cookbook.)


Gingerbread Cookies
(modified from Southern Living Incredible Cookies)

1/4 c. water
1 & 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. molasses
1 c. butter
1 c. sugar
5 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
1 & 1/2 TBSP ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
1 & 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Line baking sheets with parchment.

Stir together the water and baking soda until dissolved. Stir in the molasses; set aside.

Beat butter & sugar until fluffy and combined.

Whisk together flour, salt and spices.

Add to the butter mixture, alternating with the molasses mixture. Begin and end with the flour. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with a floured cookie cutter and place on baking sheet. Freeze for 5 minutes before baking. {They are going to spread.}

Bake 10- 12 minutes (for a large shape). Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling rack. Cool completely before decorating with royal icing.    

 What are you waiting for?!?  Go make 'em!!

Dotty Winter Trees

...otherwise known as the "Trees of Indecision."

As soon as I saw these two-tone trees from A Dozen Eggs, I knew that tree cookies were in my future.

But, since I seem to have an obsession with dots....whether it be on cakes or apples or presents....I added some dots.

The indecision came in with the sanding sugar and the wood grain trunk. To sugar or not to sugar. To wood grain or not to wood grain.  Those were the questions.

{You know you are having serious cookie issues when you wake your husband up at the crack of dawn to say, "Sweetie, which do you like better, this plain tree trunk or the wood grain one?"}

Wood grain it was.

Now, *someone* in my house does not care for sanding sugar.  (Not the way it looks, but the way it tastes.)  Had I known this before marrying him, we would have been in for some MAJOR pre-marital counseling.

I, on the other hand, love that bit of crunch on a soft sugar cookie.  So, I went for half and half.

To make these trees, you'll need:

• royal icing in green, light green and brown (AmeriColor Leaf Green & Chocolate Brown)
• squeeze bottles
• disposable piping bags 
• decorating tips: #2 & #3
• toothpicks
• sanding sugar
• fan shaped paint brush

Dotty Winter Tree Cookie Tutorial:

With a #3 tip, outline the tree on green, piping 3 sections of the tree.

With a #2 tip, outline the trunk in brown.

Thin the green, light green and brown icings with water, a bit at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula and transfer icings to squeeze bottles.

Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the trees in the 3 colors of green.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.

Come back over the filled trees while the icing is still wet and drop on dots of thinned icing.

Fill in the trunks in brown.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.

Let dry overnight.

The next day, set up a sanding sugar station.  Mix equal parts meringue powder with water.  With a small paintbrush, brush the mixture on the area to be sanded.  Sprinkle on the sanding sugar and shake excess over a coffee filter.  The filter can be used as a funnel to go back into the bottle.

For the wood grain, I used a cookie painted technique from Renee of Kudos Kitchen.  She is a fabulous artist, check out her painted tiles, and she shared a video of how to add wood grain on cookies at University of Cookie.

Basically, mix water with food coloring....a 1 to 1 ratio or so.  Trim your fan brush, so that it is uneven.  Dip the brush into the food coloring mixture, dab on a paper towel and brush onto your cookies. (I used the same technique on the Harry Potter broom cookies.)

Tell me....are you a sanding sugar lover like me, or do you side with Mr. E on this one?

Peppermint Candy Cookies & and a trip to . . .

You won't believe how easy these cookies are to make!!!

This cookie idea was inspired by stolen directly from Martha Stewart Living, December 2009.  Why I waited a whole year to make them, I'll never know.

These peppermint candy cookies would be so cute for a cookie exchange, Christmas gifts, holiday open houses...anything, really.

To make them, you'll need:

• royal icing, tinted with AmeriColor Bright White, Super Red and just a bit of Super Black
• disposable icing bag
• decorating tip (#2 or #3)
• squeeze bottles
• toothpicks
• silver luster dust
• candy-shaped cookie 

With a #2 or #3 tip, outline the candy and wrapper in light grey icing. (We're trying for a silvery look.) Reserve some of this icing for later.

Thin the white and red icings with water, a bit at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dish towel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula and transfer icings to squeeze bottles.

Working 6-8 cookies at a time, fill in the centers in white.  Use a toothpick to spread to edges and pop large air bubbles.

While the icing is still wet, go back over the same cookies and draw a cross and an X in red icing. directly on top of the white icing.

Drag a toothpick through the icing in 3 circles, going the same direction.

Thin the grey icing as described above.

 

Fill in the wrapper.

Wait about 1 hour, then add the detail on the wrapper with the unthinned grey icing.

Let dry overnight.

The next day, brush the "wrapper" ends with dry luster dust, using a small paintbrush.  This will give the cookies a sheen, instead of an opaque silver look.

---

Now...to the trip!

If you're on twitter, I've been teasing a little about making a trip to "the happiest place on earth."  There's a reason that for the last two weeks, I've been singing:

"Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you..."

Saturday, I am going HERE to decorate cookies with some gals.  Did you click over?  HERE, I'm going HERE!!! 

{Who wants to *squee* with me?!?}

So, think of me Saturday, will you?  Send good thoughts so I won't forget how to decorate cookies, and that I don't faint, and that I remember to suck my stomach in.  OK?

I am so, so, so excited!  {You might be able to tell by all of the all of the !!!}

I'll be sure to report back from the land of butter, Wranglers and Ethel Merman! SQUEE!!!