More Food and a Birthday

 So we had a big birthday here, with Emry turning 9.  He naturally enjoyed his day very much!

Then, we opened our Christmas presents this morning:

And I spent the rest of the day making cookies and getting ready for more Christmas.  I forgot to buy caramels, so I decided to look up how to make them.  It turns out to be quite easy and delicious:

So these caramels will be inside the turtles I made.  

A couple of days ago, I did make another medieval side dish, a leek casserole.  I don't think any of us had ever had leeks before, so it was an entirely new taste.

I actually liked it very much, but I was the only one.  Luckily, I didn't make a ton, and I happily get the leftovers.  It was interesting that the original recipe called for almond milk and rice flour, both things that I don't think of as being medieval.  It was listed as a dish for lent, so it makes sense that it specified almond milk, since back then dairy was not eaten during lent at all.