Saturday, December 20, 2008

Travel Weather/Decorating Holiday Cookies

HURRICANES AND WEATHER
If you have travel plans to Boston, New York, Minneapolis, Seattle, or Portland (either one), there may be travel delays. In fact, for any air travel, you should be checking for delays due to weather because much of the northern tier of states will be dealing with wintry weather today and any flights going through those areas will be affected.

Meanwhile, it is another warm day across the south. But, a cold front is moving through the southern plains and that will cool things down for a couple days.

For Houston, a mild day with the cold front arriving this Saturday evening. It will be cloudy with some light rain Sunday and Monday. Sunday's highs will struggle to break 50. Monday will be even colder with lows in the low to middle 30s and highs near 40. Winter weather advisories may be issued for this time frame. So, stand by for further developments. Temperatures warm a bit. Christmas Day low will be about 50 with a high near 70--a comfortable day.

SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY
Let's do frosting or glaseado, pronounced glah-say-AH-doh. I love to eat the glaseado on the cake.

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AND MORE
We had a little gathering last night for our neighbors' children. It is called Cookies and Carols. My mother played carols on the piano and we visited the homes of neighbors and sang boisterously--Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. Most of the kids rang jingle bells as they sang. We also decorated cookies--thus the word of the day--frosting or glaseado.

I don't have a recipe for homemade frosting but I do make my own sometimes. In a pinch you can use a jar of frosting and just add your own food coloring. Just remember that those few drops of food coloring make it more runny. To make homemade, I use about 2 and half cups of confectioners sugar, a half stick of butter (1/4 cup), a little vanilla (if you want the frosting white--don't use any vanilla), and a little milk. You can adjust the amount of sugar and milk as needed for the desired consistency. Add only a little milk at first and leave room for the food coloring drops (i.e. don't make it too runny before you add the food coloring). Happy Baking!!!

Cecilia Sinclair
Wonder Weather Woman