Sunday 29 November 2015

Tree, Halvah, and a gift to myself


The tree in the sun room has a Teddy bear tree skirt and a wild assortment of teddy bears around the base. Actually, just earlier the bears had to squish together so my granddaughter could put the Nativity set up. It always has a spot right underneath the tree. I should have waited to take the picture until she was done.


Are you familiar with Halvah? It is a sort of cake made with ground sesame seeds and honey. It's a tradition around here at Christmas and this year we chose one with Pistachios.  Yumm! ( We had to sample it!)



I was in the thrift store on Friday and bought myself a Christmas present. I wasn't going to buy any more china ( running out of space) but this set is so delicate and pretty I gave in. The words underneath are  Seltmann weiden  Germany USZ. I looked it up and it would seem that this marks it as made between 1946 and 1948. ( The USZ stands for U.S. zone)



Thanks for coming by.   I hope you have a great week ahead. 

  Granny Marigold

13 comments:

  1. My but you do go all out with decorating. Where do you store it in the "off" season? Interesting about the Halvah...as a child I thought it was such a big treat but now as an adult, I am not fond of it at all. (Leaves more calories for the cheesecake, LOL). But I must say that you did buy yourself a most beautiful Christmas present indeed! Lovely, lovely! Something you will treasure for a long time. Enjoy!
    Ellabie

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your tree and teddy bears, and the china is irresistible!
    We are making good progress here today with our decorating, but no tree yet. That will be the last thing. And I did have to watch the football game this afternoon - Seahawks won!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can understand why you couldn't resist the china. It's so pretty! Your tree is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your delicate little china set!
    I have heard of Halva, but had never paid any attention to what it actually is. I looked up some recipes (there seems to be a million different ones) and found a very easy one that fits in with our eating regime. I just may have to give it a try!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let me know how it turns out. I'm not brave enough to try to make my own.

      Delete
    2. This is the recipe I would try http://www.doyouevenpaleo.net/halvah-tahini-cookies/

      Delete
    3. Well I made that recipe tonight....I use tahini in our pumpkin porridge and a nut/coconut/date bar that I really like. Tahini on it's own has a bitter flavour to me. Maybe some tahini is thicker than the one I used. So I mixed the tahini and the honey together, then split it in half and added the cocoa (didn't have cacao) to one half and the tapioca flour to the other. Each was still very runny. So I added more of the cocoa and flour to each batch to try and thicken it up. Still pretty soft. Plopped a blob of each on the cookie sheet and used a toothpick to swirl them into each other because there was no way to make a ball of each like the recipe said, just too runny. I cooked them for 10+ minutes and it was still like raw batter, so cooked them for probably about half an hour. They did cook, and crisped up as they cooled. I found the tahini flavour too overpowering in the final product, so won't bother making them again. Mine were more interesting to look at than her's though! I hate it when a recipe just doesn't go together as described.

      Delete
    4. I'm sorry that recipe wasn't great. I hate it too if I put in the effort to make something that I hope will be good to then have it barely edible. BTW what is the difference between cocoa and cacao ? Must look it up.

      Delete
    5. I think one is raw and one is the same product roasted. I might try the recipe again replacing some of the tahini with almond butter, just because it was easy to make and had limited ingredients (my kind of recipe!) I'll let you know if I do, and how that turned out.

      Delete
  5. Your tree looks lovely. Growing up we always had Halva at Christmas too. I can't say I crave it but a taste is always good!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your tree is lovely, hoping to get ours up sometime this week. I've never heard of Halva, looks good though. I love your new china, very delicate and pretty. Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ohhh, Those dishes are so pretty! And so is your tree! I have never heard or tasted Halva but it must be good! Nancy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your tree is lovely! I have never heard of Halva, it looks interesting with the pistachios:)

    ReplyDelete