Living in
one province and celebrating Christmas in another offers some logistical
challenges. Sure, you have to do all of your Christmas shopping a little bit
earlier and buy things that will survive a plane trip in a suitcase. But when
most of your presents consist of Christmas baking, you have to get creative.
A lot of
the more complicated baking, such as cookies with frosting on them, have to
wait until I fly back (so if you’re looking for me anytime in the three days
before Christmas, check my Mom’s kitchen first). But some things I’ve been
making in advance, freezing, and then crossing my fingers they don’t crumble on
the way home. It has meant that this year’s stout brownies have a local flavour
to them:
This year
they’ve been made with Garrison’s Martello Stout, which is one of their
seasonal brews. And since the recipe only calls for 1 ¼ cup beer, I had some
leftovers to drink. While I normally only drink beer you can see through when
you hold it up to the light, I can’t let good beer go to waste. And this stout
is really good because it’s not too heavy; it’s not unlike Millstreet’s Coffee
Porter.
I also made
a statement with this year’s Christmas cards. I frequently complain that Canada
doesn’t do enough to support its local artists, so I decided to do my bit. This
year I went local and bought hand-printed cards from Inkwell Boutique. The
store itself is really cute and I could have happily bought all the cards I
could possibly need next year in one trip. I also coveted the paper-based
Christmas ornaments, but given that all of my decorations are sitting in a
storage locker back home that didn’t seem too practical. The store’s website
is http://www.inkwellboutique.ca/
Buying
cards made by local artists certainly wasn’t the inexpensive way to go but that’s
not the point of sending cards, now is it? I got to send little pieces of art
to some of the family and friends that care about. Most of the cards I chose were made from the
store’s presses:
I also
picked up two from Anna Stowe, an illustrator from Dartmouth (which is just across
the harbour from Halifax):
So I hope
you all find a way to shop local for the holiday season.
