From the April archives

I'm hoping to do a post every month this year looking back at the archives of my Christmas kitchen.  I started in March and anticipate that it will be as much fun for me going through my own archives, as I hope it will be for you, my readers.

Mrs. T's Christmas Kitchen began publishing in 2007, so here is a post from that very first April, concerning kitchen gifts remembered.  

When I was growing up, we both gave and received wonderful kitchen gifts at Christmas time.  This post tells about some of them and may inspire you for your own kitchen gifting this year.

As I look back over the archived posts, I see that April seems to be a pretty lean month for me as far as posting.  No April posts in 2008, 2009, or 2010.  In 2011, I had just two.  One was a Rudolph Day post and the other a quote.   Rather than send you to the archives for the quote, I will just share it here:

"No matter what the calendar tells us, somehow in a crafter's heart and hands it is ever 'a little bit of Christmas'."
~ Crafts'n' Things magazine, April 1993

Inspiring, don't you think?  And so true.  I made the above bow at another season entirely, in response to a "junk bow" challenge on a crafting forum, to use up bits and pieces of craft material leftovers.

For April 2012 I had only one post, another quote.  This one is from Cook & Tell, December 1982:

"Food, love, and remembrance are stars in the Christmas constellation.  In order of magnitude, love is star number one.  Without it, remembrance is only ritual, and food is mere sustenance."  -- Karyl Bannister

An important thought.  I have lost contact with Karyl, and wish I knew what has become of her.  She had a great deal of insight and wisdom as well as wonderful recipes and delightful wit.  I chose the photo below to illustrate that post because it pretty much says it all: a dear little cookbooklet with the title Best Loved Foods of Christmas.  I recall my mother bringing this out every year!

In 2013, I failed to post in April.  2014's lone post was this delightful Almond Chocolate Biscotti.

photo from Taste of Home

 I had intended to add this recipe to my 2014 baking list, but apparently that didn't get done.  Maybe I can add it to 2017's tentative list, as this festive biscotti recipe does look good.  It's made with a chocolate cake mix.

My only other April post was Best Wishes -- another vintage card,

which featured another card from the bundle sent me by my friend Ann in New Zealand.  See the linked post for exterior views of the card.


And thus ends my April archives post.  Methinks I need to do better about posting in April from here on out!  I do have many, many ideas for posts.  Just not enough time!