One thing leads to another

Got the gingerbread made yesterday morning and managed to rearrange the freezer space to make room for them. Since the kitchen was already messy from earlier baking, I decided to forgo studio time and continue with Christmas baking, so the whole afternoon was spent making and frying these Chruschikis, which I haven't made in years, because the dough is the hardest dough to roll. These don't have to be frozen; but store well in this tin can, so freezer space was not a consideration. My mom used to store these in a cardboard box under the bed!

Before I started on these, I checked you tube, to possibly see how others handle this dough and I found the solution - a pasta machine. Voila! That was the anwer. I still had to do a bit of preliminary rolling of each piece, but it was so much easier with the machine.

The Chruschiki's I make aren't the light weight, very thin versions that you see most of the time. Our family's recipe is a heavier version which resembles the taste of a stale donut and gets drier and harder the longer it's stored. It's kind of like bakery hard tack! In any case, there's a large tin can (you know the type you buy loaded with popcorn or chips), filled with them. I just fried the last of them this morning and did half the cleanup and and will do the other half after I rest this very sore hip.

My sour dough starter and furry kids have been fed, the days baking is done and the floor is vacuumed. Since the freezer is full,  the rest of the baking is going to have to wait another four to five days.

Jim is off to the doctor, so I have to hold the fort and stay out of the studio because I'm expecting a delivery. The studio is warming up and I will get in there as soon as Jim gets home. Dinner is salad and cheese fondue, so it will be easy.  Meantime there's cooled frying oil to be put put away when it's cool, a very greasy stove top of clean and salad dressing to make. So much for retirement!