And please note, I mean the Clapper not the Clap.

Drake and I have a sort of on-going joke about the Clapper, the device that lets you turn lights on or off by clapping your hands. I don't know why we found this product so funny, but we did. And every Christmas, there was some joke about getting a Clapper. This year, it was no joke. I bought Drake a Clapper.

Clapper

The reason is that this year he actually mentioned he thought a Clapper might be handy. We recently re-arranged some lighting; the main light in our living room is behind the couch - and it's a bit hard to reach the switch. So I zipped out to our neighborhood drug store (which I noticed had a large display of Clappers this holiday season--I suspect people use them for Christmas lights), bought a Clapper, wrapped it up, and put it under the tree. The hint on the package was "this present is sure to generate some applause." I thought the hint was a dead give-away, but Drake thought it must be concert tickets.

Back to the idea of applause. Little did I know how much applause (i.e. clapping) the Clapper would entail. First, it took me quite a bit of trying to clap in a way that the Clapper recognized it. The trick (for me at least) is to cup you hands slightly when you clap, to get a deeper-toned clap.

So that evening we are sitting on the couch, with the light on, listening to some music (Drake was also reading; I was knitting). The light suddenly goes off for no apparent reason. *Clap* *Clap* I turn it back on again. Several minutes go by, and the light goes off again. *Clap* *Clap* I turn it back on again. We figured there was something in the music that was triggering it.

The next day, I notice that the light has turned itself on (with nice south-facing glass doors there is no need for us to use the light during the day). *Clap* *Clap* I turn it off.

Well, you can see the pattern here. Life with the Clapper involves a lot of clapping. There is a setting to make it less sensitive to sounds, so maybe we'll try that, but I had enough trouble getting my clapping to work on the normal setting.

So we may return the Clapper. For some reason I'm slightly embarrassed to return the Clapper saying it doesn't really work. I mean, this is a product that was displayed right next to the Chia Pets. Shouldn't that have set my expectations accordingly? Probably.

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I wanted to get a better picture of this before I shipped it off to my mother-in-law, but I was busy making the pom-pom for the hat right before I needed to get everything wrapped up:

Seeded rib-stitch hat and scarf

The pattern is one I've made before, but I decided the hat, for Lorna at least, really needed a pom-pom. I've had poor luck in the past with pom-pom making (and have vague memories of pom-pom-related trauma in girl scouts) so I armed myself with the best pom-pom making tool I could find: the Susan Bates Pom-Pom Maker, the procedure for which is nicely illustrated here.

Pom Pom Maker

In the end, the pom-pom turned out OK, but I really needed to give it a haircut to even it out.

Pom pom haircut

Once I attached the pom-pom to the hat, though, it looked fine. Whew!

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I've been trying to organize some of my photos, getting a few of the better shots together in some folders. I came across this photo, which I took in 2004, of Drake's Dad in the old machine shed (which interestingly enough blew down this year and was recently replaced). It's part of a series of shots I took of both Drake and his Dad in the old machine shed.

Jim (original shot)

I'm not sure how Jim would feel about this picture of himself, but I think it captures so much about him: his thoughtful nature and his love of farm machinery. I wanted to give Drake a framed print of it for Christmas. This was another photo, however, where I felt it needed a little something. I decided to highlight Jim more by blurring/darkening the surroundings a bit. I did my best to use a light hand with this, so it wouldn't look too contrived.

Jim (reworked, slightly)

It always makes me a little nervous to work with photos in Photoshop in this way, because it's so easy (at least for me) to totally wreck a nice photo (not really of course because I'm working non-destructively). But I like how this turned out.

Here it is in the frame:

Framed

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(Those with an aversion to hunting may wish to skip this post.)

I normally use a very light touch with Photoshop--not doing much more than fixing up scans of old photos, color/contrast correction, and occasionally removing distracting details. But for this photo I decided to do a bit more:

Hunters (Original)

It's a picture of Drake, his Dad, and his brother this past hunting season. I didn't take the photo (I didn't go back this year for hunting season) -- a family friend did. It was taken with our old digital camera, which Drake brought with him. I loved the photo of the three guys, but felt the photo needed a little something.

The inspiration came from a beloved family photo of hunting in the mid-1950's. That little guy in this pic is Drake (with his folks, of course).

Hunters c. 1956

And so I decided to do an antique-y treatment on the photo, but I didn't want to go all the way to black-and-white or duotone. I wound up doing more of a faded-color-print effect, with a bit of a "burned" edge around it:

Hunters (a little bit vintage)

Drake found the perfect bronze-hammered-metal frame, which provided just the right rustic touch. I thought the whole thing turned out quite nicely--and both Drake's brother and his folks really enjoyed received the framed prints.

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For my parents' first Christmas together, my mother bought a German Christmas Pyramid, even though it was a very big splurge spending-wise at the time. It was an integral part of our family Christmas growing up.

This year I was finally able to discover its proper name via Google (I had tried all manner of keyword combinations... further confirmation on how useless search can be when you don't know the name of what you're looking for).

In action

Traditionally, Drake and I light it after Christmas dinner. And every year we have the discussion about which way the blades should be pitched to move the sheep forward (instead of backwards), and whether the blades need to be pitched steeply when the candles are tall--or less steeply.

It's also very hard to find the right candles for it. We finished off the last of our candle stash this year, so we will be on the lookout again for slender ~6" tapers.

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Since 1891, it has only snowed five times on Christmas in Seattle.

The last Christmas Day snow was in 1990 (those here will remember that infamous arctic outbreak). Most of the snow fell earlier, but we did manage 0.8" on Christmas. Before that, we had an inch in 1965, a dusting in 1944 and 1915, and about 2" in 1909.

For more recent events: The big snowstorm in 1996 didn’'t start until Dec.26, and we did manage 2" on Christmas Eve in 1998 but it melted before Santa could arrive.

I just got back from what could only be described as a snow globe run. It's not sticking much, but the falling flakes are beautiful.

Snow on my cap

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To: Drake | From: hp

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Every Christmas I bake at least two things: Russian Tea Cakes (shown in the photo here) and my Apricot-Cashew "Fruitcake". I put fruitcake in quotes because it's really more of a dense (but very tender) pound cake with dried fruit and nuts.

The secret ingredient is freshly-roasted salted cashews from the nut man at the Pike Place Market.

Nut bag

Going to see the nut man is a ritual in itself. This year Drake volunteered for the expedition. Here is the conversation he had:

Drake: "I'd like enough nuts for about 1 cup. About how much would that be weight-wise?"

Nut Man: "I don't know... I didn't take home economics in high school."

(The guy sells nuts for a living and he can't/won't tell the weight equivalent for 1 cup of nuts? So it goes with the nut man. One year he completely ignored me while he tried to feed a bird some nuts. I finally gave up and came back later).

------------------------------

This is one of these recipes where it pays to have everything laid out before you start.

First, I prep the pan, a 6-cup bundt pan, buttered and floured:

(This pan reminds me of Devil's Tower)

I set up my stand mixer with the butter and sugar. Yes, more butter and sugar!

3/4 c. unsalted butter | 1 c. Baker's sugar

I get the fruit and nuts all chopped up and in a bowl:

1 cup each of: salted cashews | apricots | golden raisins

And put the wet and dry ingredients in smaller bowls:

1 3/4 c. flour | 3 egg yolks | 1/2 c. milk | 2 T. apricot brandy | 1 t. vanilla

For the egg whites I set up a separate little egg-white-beating station. (The mixer was my mom's--still works great. It's the mixer I grew up with.)

1/4 t. cream of tartar | 3 egg whites

And, finally I have the oven pre-heating at 275F. This cake gets baked for a long time at low heat.

(Pardon my flour-dusted stove)

From here, it's a pretty quick matter of getting everything mixed up and into the pan:

• Cream the butter & sugar together
• Stir in the egg yolks
• Add the milk and flour in four alternating batches
• Stir in the fruit and nuts
• Beat the egg yolks and fold those into the batter

When you put the batter in the pan, the pan gets very full, but aside from the eggs, there isn't any leavening agent so this isn't a problem.

Ready for the oven

It bakes for 1 3/4 hours to 2 hours, during which time it emits wonderful holiday-y smells. It's important not to over-bake this so I start checking it at about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I use the "clean toothpick" method, and also by visual inspection--bake just until the cake starts drawing away from the sides. Here it is out of the oven:

Lightly golden brown

Once it's out of the oven, you cool it completely in the plan. And, then finally, the reveal:

Voila!

And the eating!

Mmmmmm...

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APRICOT - CASHEW FRUITCAKE

3/4 c. unsalted butter
1 c. Baker's sugar (or superfine sugar)
3 eggs, separated
1/2 c. milk
2 T. apricot brandy
1 t. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup salted cashews, coarsely chopped
1/4 t. cream of tartar

Preheat over to 275 degrees F. Grease and flour a 6-cup bundt pan.

In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at high speed until fluffy. In a small bowl, briefly beat the egg yolks. With the mixer on low, add the yolks to the butter mixture.

In another small bowl, combine the milk, apricot brandy, and vanilla. Measure the flour and set aside. With the mixer on low, add the milk and flour in four alternating batches: 1/4 of the milk, 1/4 of the flour, etc. Stir in the apricots, raisins, and cashews.

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar and continue beating egg whites briefly (the white should not be stiff). Stir in 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 3/4 to 2 hours. Cool completely in the pan. Store at room temperature wrapped tightly in plastic.

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We live just a few blocks from the Seattle Center, home to the Space Needle (in fact, we have quite a nice view of the Space Needle from our place). One thing we did on my birthday was take a little a walking tour of Christmas lights, walking from our place, through the Seattle Center and then on to downtown. It was a bit of an expedition because it was windy, raining, and cold. You can kind of see in this photo how the wind is blowing the "Christmas Tree" at the top of the Space Needle:

Lights

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I am writing this post for my dear sweet cousin Elise, who found (in Boise, Idaho no less) the required toffee chips to make these cookies. She had read a previous post about my fruitless search in Seattle for the toffee chips without chocolate (I tried four different stores but could only find the toffee bits with chocolate).

Not available in (Seattle) stores?

Ready to go

I melted some bittersweet chocolate--the recipe calls for semi-sweet, but I thought bittersweet would be better given the sweetness of the toffee bits.

I'm melting...

You drizzle the chocolate on the the cookies and top it all with some chopped pecans:

Messy but fun

Here they are ready to serve (with a few Russian Tea Cakes tossed in on the platter):

On the platter

The Chocolate Toffee Butter Cookies recipe is here at CooksCountry.com (country cousin of Cooks Illustrated). Subscription is required, but you can sign up for a 14-day free trial. These cookies won the Cook's Country Christmas cookie contest last year.

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