holiday baking

Though chocolate is my favorite sweet, around this time of the year I love to bake with those warm, delicious holiday spices. You know the ones I’m talking about: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg.  

Along with their unique flavors, I love their warm, comforting aroma wafting through the house.  It wakes me up from the cold-weather coma that sets in in December and January. Ok, that might be a bit dramatic, but I’m still trying to grapple with the fact that winter is here. This week my daughter and I did our best to fight cold outside by staying in the kitchen to bake gingerbread with cinnamon icing. It was perfect.

The idea for L.C. Finns extracts happened, as many great ideas do, over beer. Chad Gillard and a foodie friend, Lee Zwiefelhofer, were talking about what food-related items they wished were available. Both are dads of small kids, and Chad was looking to start making an item that wouldn't require such intense weekend hours as he was used to at Mill City Farmers market, where he sold his popular Danish apple dumplings, Aunt Else's Aebleskiver. Chad and Lee came up with an idea for locally made flavor extracts made from top-quality ingredients.