From one Holiday to the next-- Christmas Stollen, Made Easy (Redux)

Black Friday was spent at home, with the aroma of turkey stock simmering on the stove.  We ate pumpkin pie for breakfast, with fresh coffee.  For lunch, we polished off the last of the smoked salmon, red onion, capers and horseradish sauce that my brother made (I need to make that sauce again-- it was divine).

The bonus of making turkey stock from roasted turkey is that it  makes a richer tasting stock-- in my opinion. Plus, I feel as though none of the "bird" was wasted.  I didn't photograph the process, but if you'd like to see how I make soup using my pasta pot, please click here. I made four quarts of Turkey Rice Soup and reserved two quarts of turkey stock for future meals. Our turkey carcass yielded a lot of leftover meat, so the soup is hearty.   It's already frozen for those work nights when I'm just too tired to cook. Amen.

Thanksgiving Dinner, no matter how many people you cook for, is a lot of hard work.  My husband was a blessing, as he washed and dried pots and pans (while muttering to himself, "didn't I just wash these?) While I'm on the subject of hard work--  the Make Ahead Gravy and Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes sure made life a whole lot easier!

Here's what happened to my gravy, once I added the turkey drippings on Thanksgiving Day...

I ended up with  two quarts of gravy, which is a good thing.  Personally, I don't eat gravy very often.  On Thanksgiving, I can't imagine not being able to pour it all over my potatoes and turkey.

As for the turkey-- I actually had my butcher "deconstruct it" and I seared it on the stove top-- then finished roasting it in the oven.  It took less than two hours for my bird to to beautifully browned, moist and flavorful (future post coming up soon).

I made a sweet potato casserole, but adapted it in a new way.  I think that was the star of the show. I'll be sharing that one, too.

I'm been reading editorials on how frustrated many people feel about the commercialism of Christmas.  I share that, too.  Christmas is a very special time of year for me, but mine is based on my faith in Christ.  I don't begrudge those who wish to celebrate it as they wish, but I choose not to focus on buying gifts and spending more money than our budget allows.  Instead, I focus on making gifts that are appreciated by my loved ones, because I enjoy making them with love.   I enjoy seeing my fireplace decorated with garland, and our Christmas tree with the ornaments I've collected over the decades.  As I place each unique ornament on our tree, I can still identify who gave it to me, or where I was when I bought it.

Despite my son being a working and low maintenance young man (and a son I adore), it seems I don't have enough hours in the week to create the beautiful Christmas cookies, crafts and gifts that I see on my addiction to Pinterest.  How I wish I had the time and talent to make the beautiful ideas I've saved!  This year, I'm hoping to accomplish my goal of making edible gifts to give to my coworkers and friends.  This Christmas Stollen is one of them.  This version comes from King Arthur Flour, and I will be baking these as gifts.  Unlike a traditional Stollen recipe, this one doesn't involve yeast.  I love to work with yeast, but I have to say that it's wasn't missed when I made these last Christmas.  I think of these as German Biscotti.

This weekend, I will be working on editing photos from at least a half dozen recipes that I've made over the last couple of weeks.  I wish I had the time to share them on a daily basis, but I'm still a decade away from retirement!  My three year blog anniversary is coming up--  and I still love my creative outlet and hobby as much as I enjoy visiting other food blogs.  Y'all are so inspirational to me!

To read this post, and see a step-by-step tutorial, please click here.  A printable recipe card, for the Stollen is at the bottom of this post.