Miscellany of a Cheshire Cat

Gingersnaps and Russian Teacakes are baked. I think there are about 35 dozen cookies in the house at the moment. Irish coffee cookies and cut-out cookies still on the list. Note to self: Before next December I need to find a better Russian Teacake recipe. The Joy of Cooking one drives me batty. However, I did get some cookie scoops and using a scoop to portion and initially form the dough appears to speed things up. Hurray!

I went to 2 Yule events in 2 weekends – Bhakail and Coill Tuar. Both feasts were amazing! Bhakail’s Yule was entertaining since it snowed most of the day! YAY SNOW! The feast was epic (EPIC!) and executed better than any feast I’ve ever been at and the largest I’ve ever seen attempted, but most of the rest of the day felt awkward. No matter where I stood I felt like I was in the way of traffic and I couldn’t get from point A to point B easily. Everything I tasted that day – from the ample day board to the samples of tasty brews to the feast – was delicious. The Feast (I feel like it deserves capitalization now) was Alysten‘s first as head chef and she has no where to go but down. She was given an epic challenge, especially for a first feast, and she met it epically. She had a lot of help but she lead the team well sheer determination and perhaps inspired insanity.

Coill Tuar may have the edge in my heart because there were more people there that I’ve known for 10-15 years. It was wonderful to see people during the year whom I usually only see for 1-2 weeks in August. And Coill Tuar’s Yule actually felt more organized and that there was more to do, but that may have been in part due to not having as many “must have” activities shoved into the schedule by various parties. Plus, Fenice, our amazing Pennsic Lamb Feast Queen, prepared the feast and everything was just succulently amazing. Yes, I’m biased. I can’t help it. But there’s something cool about walking around the parking lot for an event thinking, “The last time I saw these cars we were all at Pennsic!” Then I caught the scent of the kitchen and thought, “Smells like Pennsic!” To her credit, Fenice’s cooking is even more amazing when she has a small, basic kitchen in the back of a Masonic lodge. And, believe it not, she brings even MORE cooking gear to prepare a feast than she brings to Pennsic.

In other news I got spam today that might not have been spam – someone in Central California wants me to buy ammo. And even at spam prices, ammo is more expensive than I expected. Right, to the trash with ye!

My Mini Clubman has blown out another rear speaker and a new one is on order. The service department wants to blame all my riotous NPR News listening. I think this is b.s. since this is the second time this speaker has been replaced and the first time was within a month of buying the car. (And the latest rattle has been going on for most of the year since, honestly, but I couldn’t tell if it was the speaker or that they reassembled the seat belt assembly wrong.) I suspect there’s a wiring problem that they’re not taking the time to investigate. I promise next time it rattles I’ll take it to service sooner. I miss my Subaru. I never had any of these problems with my Subaru. I adore the Clubman but today’s service visit brought back unpleasant memories from a year ago (when I had to have my new car back at the dealership multiple times for installation of ordered features, replacement speakers and realigning the 3rd door – 3 separate trips unfortunately). I dislike being irked by the service on something I paid so much money for. (At this point, the Fop will be shaking his head, sighing that such frustrations that I dwelt on for so long a year ago have reared their tiresome heads and that I’m likely to dwell on them again for a bit. Probably I will. Sorry, love.)

I’m not ready for Christmas or any other holiday. I haven’t even started making caramel corn! But I’m too tired to keep going tonight so caramel corn will have to wait for another day.

baking, car, clubman, coill tuar, mini, service, spam, yule

I adore Swedish pancakes. They are tasty, not too sweet, not too heavy and really quite simple. (Okay, they do require a special pan, but cast-iron is easy to care for once you get it going.) The Fop doesn’t share my adoration so I end up making them for myself when he’s not around. My recipe for Swedish pancakes comes from my mother and probably is actually from one of the cookbooks on her vast wall of cookbooks…

Swedish pancakes

One batch makes approximately 19 pancakes.
The batter can be stored in the fridge for a few days – just stir it well before using it.
An eggbeater or whisk is ideal for mixing up the batter.

Visual aids can be found in my Swedish Pancake Flickr set. (Who knew I’d ever have a Swedish pancake Flickr set?)

pancakes, swedish pancakes, cooking, recipes, breakfast

Marathon baking requires the proper footwear. So I put on my sneakers and started baking. On Sunday. It’s good that I wear my sneakers for this. I’m done now. I have slain many pounds of various sugars, flour and butter. And popcorn. For my next trick, I’ll go gift shopping. On second thought, can I just bake more? I really really really love marathon baking. It’s just totally fun. Being sick last week put me behind schedule, but I finished up tonight and everything’s all packed up ready for driving and shipping as the case may be. I have a couple tiny little burns on my fingers, and I did drop an entire cookie sheet of cookies (with the onset of tiny burn number 1), and I might have RSI in my shoulder from stirring so much boiling sugar…

But those minor incidents aside, I’ve had a very successful baking marathon! And I really have done very little else other than bake so far this week. Which wouldn’t be a problem if I hadn’t lost last week to a cold. Tomorrow I need to go do some strategic-strike gift shopping for family and wrap gifts. Friday, if all goes well with health and weather, I’ll leave for my traditional holiday road trip to the North with the hot little car. The Fop will join me Monday night in New Hampshire. Christmas in Maine then we’ll meander home again.

Monster Cat will be traumatized by our absence, I’m certain of it. He’s already terribly confused by me spending so much time in the kitchen. (Though he is comforted by cereal milk. Ahhh… to be a cat.)

baking, cooking, holidays, marathon baking, travel

Via the power of cell phones, my brother and I discovered that our parents are apparently without power and phone up in Maine. Ice storms are messy, messy things.

My cold is drifting away. Slowly. Somewhat painfully. The coughing is going to kill me.

I shopped for holiday goody baking. I’m behind schedule compared to last year since I’ve been sick all week but I won’t have that pesky work stuff in the way this week. (My gift shopping, on the other hand, is a lost cause. I’m going to have to go to… the Mall.)

Venice, Italy is a peculiar place unlike anywhere else on the planet. One of the things that makes it particularly peculiar is “acqua alta” – high water – when astronomically high tides flood the city. This month’s acqua alta is the deepest the floods have been in 22 years. Boston.com’s “The Big Picture” features some incredible photos. One of the lowest areas of the city is St. Mark’s Square. Coincidentally, this is also one of the most popular tourist zones and a bustling retail area. Lisaf and I were in Venice for acqua alta in 2003 and it was indeed really peculiar. You can get some really interesting photos of St. Mark’s and the various architecture of the square reflected in the pools of water. Venice is not warm this time of year – being on the water gives the air a damp, brutal chill to begin with. Having the water this high, well that must make that chill even worse.

In other news, we have Teddy Bears in Space. How cool is it that students made space suits for their little bears and then sent them almost 20 miles up into the atmosphere? The photos at the link above are really remarkable. Beyond that, how cool is it that middle school aged students are launching things nearly into space? They are currently “designing a system to launch a rocket from a balloon platform to out space for under £1,000 a go.” Incredible! Don’t you wish you’d thought of that?

Photos: 1. St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice as reflected in a puddle from the acqua alta in November 2003. 2. A lion overlooks the canal in Venice.

acqua alta, baking, cooking, health, holidays, ice storm, maine, miscellany, random, space flight, teddy bears, venice, weather, weekend

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I am unexpectedly NOT spending 5-6 hours in the car today. The Fop has been sick all week and is still dealing with the crappiest of cold symptoms. Apparently I’m a good and doting wife because I’ve kept him well-stocked with tea, orange juice, clementines and toast. My hope is that he’ll improve some by tomorrow… or else.

I’m also a superstar. Since we didn’t determine that we weren’t traveling until this morning, there’s no turkey in the house (save from in many, many delicious turkey pot pies, but we had one of those last night). I have however planned a tasty roasted chicken breast dinner with stuffing, home-made apple sauce, salad, roasted squash, mashed potatoes, fresh bread (Julia, the bread machine, is baking that right now) and home-made vanilla cream pie. There are also French Waffle Cookies hanging about since that’s what I’d prepared to take up to the in-laws’. I may skip the potatoes or the squash but I am still feeling my improv skills are rather fabulous.

I will admit that I did call my mother to ask about the shortening to margarine substitution in the pie crust. She, of course, always has shortening in her house and would have given me some if only it weren’t for the large number of states between us.

I also took in the last of my roses today. At least I assume they’re the last since we’ve had a dusting of snow and many nights of frost. These buds did well to survive as long as they did, poor things. Now if I can just keep Monster Cat from chomping on them.

The vanilla cream pie is setting up in the fridge, the chicken and applesauce are thawing, Julia is baking away (reminder to self: the large, 2lb loaf more than fills the bread machine to capacity and may cause a mess), and the cats are lounging about contentedly. If only the Fop weren’t sick…

cooking, gardening, photographs, roses, thanksgiving

I made pumpkin pie and applesauce Saturday and started some hot peppers in the dehydrator. The applesauce came out very tasty, if I do say so myself… and I do. Not bad for my first applesauce! I used a little less sugar than the recipe called for which turned out just right. Later this week there will be beef stew. Grocery shopping was quick and productive. And the house still smells marvelous from the cooking earlier. Of course, I’ll have to get more apples at the farm stand this week so that I can make more applesauce to freeze… we kinda hit the batch I made today hard. Oh shucks. Yum.

Sunday was less productive. The chill of autumn has set in so I had a fuzzy-slippered, wool-socked and sweatered day. I know that I need to eventually turn on the heat, but I really like the house this cold. (I’ll probably have to turn the heat on when the Fop gets back from his business trip this week.) Sure, it was very, very difficult to get out of bed this morning, but it being Monday had a lot to do with that as well. Something about this weather just makes me gleeful. Now if only I got the bright foliage colors to go along with it.

Of course, now that the weather has turned cold, a certain little gray cat is insisting on being in my pocket. This is fine when I’m on a conference call just following along with an on-screen presentation. It’s less convenient when I’m trying to work. He has been in and out of my lap a dozen times this morning. Currently he has blocked my trackball with himself and is pressing his forehead into my right forearm. Purring. But I know what he’s really trying to do is get me to lift my arm so he can get in closer to me and get more attention. It’s hard being Monster Cat’s thumb-monkey.

apples, baking, cooking, weekend, autumn, weather, tennyson, cats

I may be missing out on lots of New England Autumn Colors, but I do have some colors of my own to show off. My pepper plants are producing some lovely colors. Spicy, colorful tastiness!

In other news, I am having a terribly domestic weekend.

This weekend has yielded an apple pie, a pumpkin pie and 6+ dinners worth of meatballs. The pies are almost gone thanks to very helpful people last night. The meatballs are stashed in the freezer except for the ones I saved out for tonight’s dinner. I also froze 3 packages of Anaheim and Hungarian yellow peppers. I also reorganized the pesky Corner Cabinet of Entropy. Two IKEA lazy susans are finally in place which should help fight the entropy. Maybe.

I even made breakfast today with possibly the most amazing challah I’ve every tasted. Yes, Annyswolf‘s honey vanilla challah is positively sublime. Thank you so much for sending it along to bonk the Fop with! (Long story… with a tasty challah ending.)

baking, challah, colors, cooking, domesticity, gardening, hot peppers

I mentioned I got flowered and ballooned at the airport on Thursday. Here are a couple of the roses. I adore the color and sweetheart roses are just so beautiful. I’m also pleased to announce that it’s Saturday and I don’t feel like crap. HURRAY! I downed Emergen-C all week and I really think it helped. I still feel pretty run-down – we probably shouldn’t have hit a late movie last night – but overall I feel good.

Since tonight I’m being taken out for a belated birthday dinner, I decided to make a tasty belated birthday brunch today. Bacon and Swedish pancakes, plus eggs for the Fop. I finally got a splatter screen thing to put on top of the pan while frying things that like to spit like bacon and I’m happy with how much less clean up is necessary. Swedish pancakes are really the most awesome pancakes on the planet, for the record. And apparently eggs scrambled in the bacon pan are also full of awesomeness. Who knew? Well, I certainly didn’t! Eggs and I don’t have what you’d call a good relationship. We only get along when there’s quite a bit of flour or milk involved. And, thanks to the bacon, my cast iron frying pan is almost happily re-seasoned after much neglect. My Swedish pancake pan is seasoned so well it’s non-stick. Ah… breakfast happiness.

birthday, breakfast, cast iron, cooking, flowers, photographs, roses, sweetheart roses, cooking

By popular and somewhat rabid demand, below is the caramel corn recipe of doom! If you’ve never boiled sugar before, this is an easy recipe, just remember it’s really hot! (No licking the spoon!) But it’s also simple to clean up since sugar dissolves nicely in water. Enjoy!

Aunt Ellie’s Caramel Corn
From Marcia Mullen -> Rachael Emmons -> Carla Emmons -> YOU!

Boil 5 minutes:
1/2 c corn syrup
1 c butter
2 c brown sugar
1 t salt
Add and stir:
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla
Pour over 7 quarts of popped corn.
Bake 1 hour at 250 degrees stirring every 15 minutes.
Pour out onto cookie sheets or large tray to cool.

Notes:
Time your boiling from when you get pretty good sized bubbles, not just the tiny ones that come up the sides.
Air-popped popcorn is the best choice and will stay fresh the longest!
7 quarts of popcorn makes for very well-coated caramel corn. 9 quarts or more yields a more moderate coating.
Your pan can be heaped a bit with popcorn because it sticks together nicely once the sugar mixture is poured on. (I put half the popcorn in the pan, pour half the sugar over it, stir, add the rest of the popcorn then pour the rest over the pan and stir.) Just stir in slow-motion!
Stir in almonds or almond slivers for yumminess.

caramel corn, cooking, photographs, popcorn, recipes

That’s right – this week online retailers will be doing just about anything to get our business. I’ve received no fewer than 6 offers to upgrade to 3-day-type shipping for the cost of standard shipping just this morning. Happily, I successfully planned ahead this year and ordered everything I wanted from online places well in advance. Hurray! I still need to spend this evening at the Mall of Doom, but at least I won’t be waiting for packages and hoping they arrive before I have to leave for New England.

Oh wait, I WILL be fretting over packages arriving this week. Why? Because the FedEx delivery in my area at this time of year is completely inept. Saturday, a nice man drove over 2 packages for us that had been mistakenly delivered to his house. This morning, I tracked another package I am expecting only to discover that FedEx thinks it was left at my front door. Wrong. I called the company I ordered from and they quickly marked it as lost and will re-ship it overnight so I should have everything Wednesday. This is not the first year this has happened either and it’s always FedEx. UPS has never been a problem, even though some days they deliver twice (which seems inefficient but I get all my UPS packages on time and at my house so who am I to judge?).

Three batches of little cakes left to do.
Four batches of fudge last week.
Five batches of cookies yesterday.
Six batches of caramel corn Saturday.

No, I am not going to continue to try to make my holiday cooking into a sugar-laden version of the 12 Days of Christmas. Perhaps another year. ;)
But I’ve used seven pounds of butter and about ten pounds of sugar, so I *could* keep going with the 12 Days if I really wanted too.

The Fop took the train down to DC last night to spend a couple days in the actual office. He’ll be back Tuesday night. I’m a little pouty since I’m leaving Thursday afternoon for Christmas so I won’t get to see much of him this week. Of course, it also means I have the bed and the house pretty much to myself. [insert evil grin here] Okay, this just means I get to crank NPR in the morning (oooh, I’m so hardcore) and have popcorn for dinner. But this makes me happy enough that I can stop pouting.

I need to clean out my wonderful car for my holiday road trip too… I’ve been assured that there still will be snow up there when I get there! Still none here, but we’ve got serious wind.

baking, cooking, fedex, holiday prep, online retailers, road trip, screw-ups, shipping