Thursday, January 3, 2013

Grandma Miller bakes again but the dog is allergic to Christmas

Its has been awhile since we were treated to some of our favorite Pennsylvania specialties courtesy of Grandma Miller.  Two factors were involved.  First her granddaughter got her PhD and moved on from the lab to another institution. Even though we kept in touch, apparently Grandma Miller gave up baking for a time and so no treats were to be had even after a visit down to PA.  Of course there was a good chance that something was going to be baked for the holidays. So shamelessly we traded an invite to a Christmas party for another cake hour session.  The graduate involved was indeed going to be visiting family and sure enough Grandma Miller had stepped into the kitchen again and prepared some goodies.

Back from PA with some cake hour favorites!
The telltale loves in aluminum foil! Banana or Zucchini?

Big bag o' sugar cookies!

It's banana bread all atound!
And some great looking cooies!
We got a message to sign her up for cake hour today and dutifully our former grad student showed up with the stuff.  There were several of the signature foil wrapped Grandma Miller loaves. These could be either zucchini or banana bread. This time it was all banana!  We had about five of them which we were not going to finish but will save for another day. 

The classic banana bread!
In addition we had a good size bag of sugar cookies.  These were more like the Italian type Christmas cookies and not the flatter typical sugar cookies that you see around the holidays.  They have a bit of a cake like texture and were not as sweet as some cookies can be. They were nicely sprinkled with colored sugar and some of them had a cinnamon heart as an embellishment. Apparently Grandma ran out of the hearts so they all didn't get them.  
What's in the bag?
Cinnamon hearts add a final touch till they ran out!
Lastly there was a box of not homemade biscotti.  So what if the stale date was December 6th, 2012 it is the thought that counts. The cookies were great, as was the banana bread and the biscotti were just find it a tad old. Wwe remain very grateful for the efforts of Grandma Miller on our behalf inadvertent or not. Thanks also to the grad who got to attend a fabulous party in exchange for the goods.
Biscotti too!
Better late than not at all!
One sad thing for the graduated student...apparently in her new job there is no complimentary coffee after about 11:00am.  So much for cake hour in that environment. She also had an abbreviated Christmas celebration. Upon hauling out the Christmas decorations, including a small fake tree, from the cellar storage location and decking the halls,  the dog began to behave very strangely.  Constantly itching and scratching and anxious to get outside and stay there.  After a trip to the vet came to naught the realization suddenly dawned that the behavior began after the holiday decorations got put up.  It appeared there was something on or in them that the dog was reacting to.  Sure enough,  everything was removed and packed back away and the dog returned to normal.  This may well be the first instance of a dog being allergic to Christmas. Our friend settled for a less festive atmosphere and the dog probably breathed many sighs of relief!

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