Double Dog Dare (A Cookie Review)

On Saturday night I poised a question over my social media pages.  I simply said, which do you prefer - Dare Viva Puffs Candy Cane Holiday Edition or Dare Whippet Mint Holiday Edition cookies?  Is there a difference?

I just stood in my walk in pantry examining the ingredient lists on both boxes of cookies.  The ingredients are nearly identical although some are not in the same order which would usually mean its a lesser ingredient since they are listed from biggest to smallest.  The Viva Puffs say "Chocolatey Coating" and the Whippets say "Sweet Chocolate".  Both cookies are peanut free although it's only the Viva Puffs that have it boldly printed on the box while the Whippets only have it on the side so it's not very noticeable.  The same can be said for being Canadian. Both are probably manufactured in the same plant and say they may contain wheat, soya and milk.  

Yes, Sandra, but what do they taste like?

This is my opinion remember and you have to decide for yourself.  I personally enjoyed the Viva Puffs more.  The coating is more of a milk chocolate flavour and the cookie base is more tender.  The candy cane flavour is minty but reminds me more of the more expensive candy canes which have a lighter more candy flavour rather than in your face cool mint.  The Whippet Mint cookies have a firm base and the sweet chocolate coating is a darker and harder chocolate.  The mint flavour is really minty.  The Whippet cookies also have bolder coloured marshmallows.  They are nice as well and unless comparing them side by side you'd likely not realize a difference although the difference of coloured chocolate is apparent.

That is until you are in the grocery store gazing and drooling over the cookie aisle.  A 300g box of Viva Puffs are $4.19 and the Whippets are $4.79 for a 285g box.  The Whippets cost more!  Each box contains 15 cookies but the Viva Puffs are a slightly larger cookie.  

A serving of each is 2 cookies so each box contains 7.5 servings. Who gets that 1/2 cookie?  Viva  Puffs (40g) are 170 calories and Whippets (39g) 160 calories, but remember Whippets are a smaller cookie.  So you are paying more for a smaller cookie.

If you are concerned about your pocketbook then the Viva Puffs are the better product to buy.  A box of Viva Puffs are 60 cents cheaper and a slightly larger cookie.

Which do you like best?  Which would you purchase?

I'm going to throw one more kink into the review.  If you want a more decadent treat, then look for a product by Tunnock's called Tea Cakes or Snowballs.  They are delicious and have real fresh marshmallow and no flavouring mint or otherwise.  The Snowballs do have coconut.  They are imported from Europe so harder to find and will be more costly however, one wrapped serving (6 in a box) comes in at 100 calories but a great way to enjoy a seasonal special favourite.  I found mine at a local store called Churchills British Café.

No matter what you decide, have fun with your own taste test and enjoy all with your favourite seasonal tea or coffee as you watch the Christmas lights twinkle this holiday season.

Christmas Beans to Eat (Swedish Brown Beans Recipe)

At Christmastime 1999, I got the Hanson Snowed In CD.  It's still one of my very favourites to listen to for getting into the holiday spirit.  There's one song titled "Christmas Means to Me (My Love) but my husband has changed the words to be Christmas Beans to Eat.  We had just moved into our new house and had Brother In Law and family as our first house guests.  I remember how hectic it was to get the house finished for their arrival.  When we moved in the kitchen wasn't even finished!  The best memory though, is our Nieces singing and making up dance routines to that Hanson CD.

Sunday Roast Supper

I am not Scandinavian.  Well, unless you count my Grandfathers sister (I think it was) married a 

Norwegian man...but that doesn't have an actual impact on me.  What does have an impact is that apparently when you marry someone who is Norwegian and Swedish you yourself adopt lot's of their traditions.

One of us!  One of us!

My favourite Christmas item on the big festive meal is Swedish Brown Beans.  The odd thing is that those who grew up in the family prefer other items, but for those of us who married in we love and look forward to the brown beans.

My Mother In Law grows Swedish beans in her garden.  She has a fantastic garden and even when she says things haven't turned out you can guarantee they're more prolific there than anywhere else.  A good number of years ago she gave me a cool whip container of beans.  I'm going to say it was at least 5 years ago.  I put them in the back of the pantry with the intention of one day cooking them.

One day finally came last Saturday morning where I awoke with the idea to cook them in the instant pot.  I got out the "Cooking Favorites of Covenant Women" cookbook from my treasure trove of cookbooks and quickly searched for the recipe.  It had been submitted by Mrs. Doris Anderson.  See all good recipes worth making come from this cookbook and I have one which was passed down to us.  The inscription in perfect handwriting says "To Aunt Emma From Evelyn" with my name and Hubby's added below.

The photos and instructions below are my account of cooking these Swedish Brown Beans in my Instant Pot in about an hour.  The original recipe states 4 hours.  You should be able to 'right click and save' if you're so inclined to try it out and please let me know if you do!

 

My Dad Knew Santa

Faint jingling bells could be heard from the other end of the hallway that led to the Bridge Room on the top floor of the Prince Albert Daily Herald.  The room was filled with little kids dressed in their Christmas finery and bursting with excitement.  I was one of those kids and what made it even more special was that my dad actually knew Santa Claus himself.

You see, my dad was the Press Room Foreman at the Daily Herald and co-chaired the Social Club.  He was in charge of organizing the children's Christmas party.  A few days before the big event, Dad would bring presents home, on Mr. Clauses behalf, to hand out to the kids.  They'd be from The Bay and would be wrapped in festive wrapping and bows.  Ice cream cups would be picked up...you know the kind, with those little wooden spoons that even as an adult leave you with a dry taste in your mouth.  The entertainment would be planned, and hamburgers ordered.

There was wild anticipation but there would always be a movie or two.  The movies would be rented from the library and were the real kind of movies using a film projector.  Every year, we'd watch the one about the Maple Leaf hockey sweater.

Then...

"I think I hear Santa coming!" Dad would say and sure enough the Big Man himself would start the jingling and Ho Ho Ho-ing as he entered the room.  Santa would greet the kids and do the customary questions like whether we'd been good or not.  Of course, we'd been good!  Treat bags would be handed out containing bridge mixture, those little foiled bell chocolates and balls and of course candy canes.  The most important would be the gifts because it was always something we really wanted.  One of the last gifts I received was a large plush stuffed pink and white teddy bear.  The kids would rip into their gifts and paper would fly as holiday chaos ensued.  

Santa would make another round of greetings and he'd be gone.

We'd eat our burgers, fries and ice cream.  Families would start leaving and after tidying up the Bridge Room we'd leave for home too.  It was the best afternoon ever.

Hectic Holidays

There's a Christmas mash-up medley that I love to teach called Hectic Holidays.  It's got snippets of every well-known Christmas carol and a few surprises too.  The idea of the song is to mimic what it's like to dash from store to store while Christmas shopping and hearing the songs being played in each store.  It's a great arrangement but not the easiest to pull off.

I was a piano teacher for about 10+ years when we moved and instead of continuing with that career at the time, I chose to work in retail.  If there's anything more fun than shopping for yourself, then its helping other people shop!  I worked for a women's clothing retailer which specialized in sizing from 4-24 and is no long in business.  Before I worked there, I shopped there, and one of the perks was the employee discount and of course you were made to wear the clothing while working.

The holidays were especially crazy and fun to work.  There were lots of specialty items that would be marketed just for season.  The polar fleece sweaters with adorable festive prints were favourites for many.  Wives would come in and set things on hold for their husbands to come do their Christmas shopping later on.  Some poor forlorn husbands would rush in on Christmas Eve expecting to still find the sweater their sweetums saw back in November and we'd have to tell them no, sorry, that's sold out.

The store would hire special staff just for the holiday rush and for the chaos that ensued on Boxing Day.  The change rooms always looked like a bomb went off.  Shauna was our fitting room guru.  I'd never seen someone create such magic in the helping and clearing of the change rooms.  I'm not sure I've even seen it since!  I have some really great memories of that time and sometimes I can still feel what it was like to be in the store at closing time, cleaning and folding in the quiet, and what it sounded like to close the door at the end of the day.

When I'd moved on to management with a different Canadian retailer, the mall held Midnight Madness.  The stores would stay open until midnight, and we'd all have to take turns working a shift once.  I remember one particular time we were lacking energy and maybe for some reason it wasn't that busy at that particular time, so I went down to the Starbucks on break and returned with chocolate covered coffee beans.  Myself and my coworker ate them, and the result was energy alright but also insomnia for the rest of the weekend!

I worked in retail for about 5 years when the fun left and the hours and staff drama started to get to me.  I remember walking into the music school and the director at the time asked, "what's taken you so long?" Teaching was really my calling and I'd gotten several signs that I was indeed meant to return to it.  While that's still true these many years later, I still try to be kind when I'm shopping and even the other day a cashier complimented me for being so patient with her.  I've been on that side of the counter and there's no point getting upset.  It doesn't prove nor solve anything.  If we can't be kind during the holidays then really, when can we be?

I've noticed a real return to non-covid shopping this year.  In my excursions parking lots are once again full and stores are bustling, and the Christmas tunes are flowing.  It's so great to see that maybe Christmas doesn't all come from an Amazon box after all.  If you are out and about doing your holiday shopping, soak in the atmosphere, be kind and thank your frazzled retail workers.

Ye Olde Photo Camera

I was watching the Hallmark movie Haul Out the Holly last week and there was a part of the story where the main character had a Polaroid camera.  It was a flashback to when she was young and took photos of the Christmas celebrations in her town.  It got me to thinking that I also have a Polaroid camera.

It was very late and possibly midnight, but in a fit of nostalgia I dug through the cabinet doors of the hallway built in, to find my Polaroid camera.  There it was in its carrying case as pristine as ever.  I knew there was film left in it because a number of years ago I took it to work with me as part of my tourist Halloween costume.  I stood in the corner in my pajamas and lined up my camera in hopes it might still work and snapped a photo of our Christmas tree.

Nope.  It didn't work.  Well, it did take a photo but because the film cartridge has its own battery power it was likely so old that it just didn't want to work to its potential.  So, the two photos which were left didn't want to pop out nor were pictures visible.

Bummer.

A quick perusal of Amazon, London Drugs, and the Polaroid website told me that yes, indeed you can still buy Polaroid film in a vast array...for $29.99 which I suppose isn't that bad for some thing so retro.  But hold the train, that only buys 8, yes, EIGHT, photos.

Yikes.

I have 1000 photos saved on my iPad alone.

The difference is that besides sharing them on Facebook or Instagram, no one really sees them.  Gone are the days we'd take a roll of film to be developed only to find out weeks later how the pictures turned out.  We'd save them into photo albums and haul them out to show family members and guests.  One of the favorite activities at my In-Laws is to look through old photos and hear the stories connected to them.  I don't remember a Christmas as a little kid at my Grandparents where there wasn't at least one or two pictures resting on the coffee table waiting for the images to appear.  Now we post, share, like and maybe comment before moving on and it's all forgotten.

It's not all bad.  If it weren't for social media helping us to see what is going on in each other's lives I wouldn't get to see my friend who lives in Edmonton on the beach in Mexico.  I wouldn't get to see my Nieces share photos of their little one's meeting Santa.  This last year, when we wanted to gather photos of loved one's remembrance, I dove into the photo albums though.

The last time I had photos printed was in 2019 and at Costco.  Now they don't even have a photo department.  I made my Husband a collage shadow box of our trip to Utah and Nevada for Christmas that year.  It now hangs in our living room.

At work, I take photos of my students and print them myself to post on my classroom wall.  They love to see themselves and others who have completed the same music books they have.

Some of you still take special Christmas family photos for the annual Christmas card.  Are you planning on taking pictures this year?  How will you share them?  Maybe this is the year to set them out on the coffee table for the family to enjoy.

Cookies! (Recipe Included)

 

From "Christmas Cookies" by George Strait

I saw a meme last week that says every recipe blog starts off with how the blogger was out for a wintery walk and it reminded them of tobogganing as a child and yadda yadda yadda and the poster just wanted to hurry up and get to the recipe and who cares about the other stuff.  While I do feel the pain of having to navigate all that nonsense to get to the real information, I think we all want to share our warm fuzzy memories of the season with our readers, family and friends.

There's a Roughrider fan in every crowd!

Some of my fondest Christmas memories are of my Mom and me baking cookies. I remember having to kneel on a kitchen chair at the cupboard and watching with wild anticipation as Mom would roll out the dough and then we'd choose just the exactly right cookie cutters.  I was really blessed to have a childhood which contains sweet memories like these.  I was equally fortunate to have a niece and nephew who I was close to, so when I was older and married, I'd invite them to my house to make cookies.  One year in particular, my niece was sick and couldn't come for cookie decorating so my nephew and I did it but put some aside in a special care package to take to her.  She proclaimed that the Christmas cookies held special healing powers because upon eating them she immediately was feeling better.

Jingling Rider Fan Medicine Woman.

Flash forward to when I became a more enthusiastic Saskatchewan Roughrider fan.  I purchased a set of Wilton Football Themed cookie cutters.  The set includes shapes for pennants, footballs, jerseys and helmets.  I only used the jerseys and helmets pictured below, although the recipe, which is coming up soon, makes enough cookies for the whole neighbourhood and then some so you can use your whole array of cookie cutters.  I do have a very extensive collection from all the obvious Christmas shapes to Snoopy and that cute truck with a tree in the back.  Of course, you may already have your own favourite sugar cookie recipe, or you might not have the time to make it and in that case the cookie dough in the cooler section will do just fine.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

Without dragging it out farther... here is the recipe for Mom's Sugar Cookies.  There aren't any special instructions except throw it all in a mixer to combine.  Form it into a roll, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  If you don't refrigerate the dough, it will be pretty much disastrous and frustrating as the dough won't be able to be worked with.  Roll out the dough and cut into shapes, football themed or otherwise and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 8 minutes.  I use silicon mats on my baking sheets, so the cookies don't get overly brown and so cleanup is a snap.  One substitution you can make is the butter/shortening.  You can use margarine instead and the recipe still turns out wonderfully.

Once the cookies are completely cooled you can frost them with your favourite method.  Back as a kid we'd just use your regular butter cream homemade frosting with a myriad of sprinkles.  These days because my Hubby calls sprinkles "gravel" I bypass that method.  One year I purchased Cakemate Cookie Icing in various colours and although it didn't turn out to be my favourite product the cookies turned out pretty and tasty.

Go Riders!

Another year, I coated the cookies in white frosting and then used food markers to decorate.  These turned out to be my favourite cookies although the process was very time consuming because the markers had to dry completely, or they'd smudge.  That was also the year, where Hubby didn't know of how I'd toiled over the cookies and a good portion of them had "disappeared" before I'd found out.  

The table display for New Years Eve 2019

Maybe you want to make a batch of these for your favourite Riders fan or just make some sweet memories with some close family members.  I hope this blog was enjoyable to read and if it was, please share it with others on your Christmas list.  Nothing says love like a homemade gift-wrapped stack of sugar cookies shared with your family and friends.

Oh Snap! Looks pretty happy for a guy who just lost a leg!

Christmas Cards

Do you send Christmas cards?

I had stopped for a really long time.  Before that, I was the person who had the letter written in October and had all my cards addressed and stamped to go out in the post December first. We would receive so many cards that we had a specially designed wreath just to display them all. Then over the years, we stopped getting a lot of cards in the mail and friends and family chose to send virtual greetings or not to send at all, so it seemed like there was less meaning in putting in all the time and effort and expense into sending cards.  

One year, I quipped, "sure would be nice to get something in the mail other than flyers and bills." and I even mentioned to Hubby how much joy it brought me to receive something in the mail that was personal and didn't require payment.  He simply responded with, "why don't you give that feeling to other people?"

He was right.  

So, I set out to reform my card list.  That was a chore.  Some people on the list had passed, lot's moved and some had grown up to have families of their own.  Just making sure I wasn't leaving anyone out or spelling names wrong was another adventure.  I had once had a really cool adobe type list where I could add the date and whether I'd sent or received cards.  Surely there must be something similar for this new tech world.  I mean, there must be an app for that right.  Well sort of.  I found an app for my iPad simply called The Christmas Card List.  For me this works perfectly.

I remember being a kid and sitting with my mom at the dining room table as she addressed cards.  There seemed to be an art to choosing just the right design and poem to send to each person. It took what seemed like hours just choosing and writing.  When I was in a store this past weekend, there was a couple picking out Christmas cards.  I overheard their conversation about who they needed cards for as they looked and selected.  It was very sweet.  I tend to buy a box of cards that are all one design so then everyone gets the same card.  That's kind of like wrapping all your gifts with the same paper.

I've done that too.

Sunday night after all the hustle and bustle of the shopping day I sat down with the box of cards and my card list app.  I had bought more than enough Santa stamps and I even had some American stamps left.  Sometimes the thought of the task takes more time than the actual task, but I felt good at the end of it.  It's a part of the season we seem to have forgotten about and it's important to continue to let our loved ones know we are thinking about them. Addressing the cards helped me reminisce about friends and family over this last year, which has been a hard one for not only me, but many others.  Maybe a joyous Christmas card will be winging its way into your happy mailbox soon!