Christmas Day 2016

Merry Christmas!
We're having a modest Christmas. We bought one or two things to give to each of the sons and the gay pseudo-son, and Twitch gave us a marble mortar and pestle. I had amazon.com send a thing to Light and her boyfriend, and to my Mama. And that's it for Christmas. We finished a delicious early afternoon feast, most of which Superman cooked. Ain't he wonderful? I made the sweet potato casserole and pumpkin and pecan pies, and he made everything else.

I have this wonderful cookbook on my Kindle, An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery.* I bought it about this time last year but hadn't yet made any of the recipes. Well, I chose a few to make side dishes for our Christmas feast. We had braised carrots, rosemary skillet peas, and the most wonderful savory bread pudding! Savory bread pudding is pretty much the same thing as dressing (or stuffing if you prefer) but this recipe has ingredients I've never used in dressing. It was the hit of the day, if you disregard the turkey and the pies. Really, all of it was delicious.

Superman has had a marble mortar and pestle for years, but the pestle broke a few years ago. It's hard to use that pestle when it's only half as long as it should be. One's fingers are in danger of being mashed against the side of the mortar. So Twitch gave him a new one. And there was much rejoicing.

The gingerbread house is on hold until after Christmas. I'll probably start playing with it again tomorrow. I made a few of the pieces but the big one fell apart when I tried to take it off the cookie sheet. Then I looked in my old recipe book and realized the recipe I printed off from my computer files is the wrong one! This cookie is actually easier to eat, softer and more fragile. The other recipe makes a very hard cookie which is superior for construction. So bully for me, I'm going to use that tomorrow. I'll post a picture when it's finished. My new goal is to have it finished by New Years Day.

*This book can be had from amazon.com in Kindle edition for $5.99 as of this writing. It's also available in hardcover, but I suspect it's out of print, since the hardcover edition sells for $139.96.

Well that was interesting

In an effort to exercise my creativity, please my family, and holiday this shit up, I've decided to build a gingerbread house. This is no small feat. I go big for this shit. For instance my gingerbread house windows look a lot like glass because I use hard candy melted into the window spaces. In past years (and it's been years since I made one) I used butterscotch candies. This year I want to do something more transparent so I decided to make my own hard candy. It's not really that hard, except I just messed it up. You're gonna get a kick out of this.

Looks great, no? I melted together sugar, light corn syrup and a little bit of water and boiled that cauldron to the hard crack stage, approximately 300F degrees. A little bit hotter than 300, actually, and it's too hard. Also that's way too much. But that's not the kicker. Candy has flavor, right? The recipe called for 1 tablespoon of extract flavoring, recommending anise, lemon, orange, or peppermint. Don't like anise or peppermint, didn't want lemon, don't have orange. But I do have some cinnamon oil, and wouldn't that be good!?

As I pour the cinnamon in I think to myself "Self, cinnamon oil is a lot stronger than an extract." As I pour it in the pot. All the full tablespoon. For your edification, let me say that one tablespoon of cinnamon oil is a lot. The pot of candy is steaming pretty hard, and the oil, wow! Goes right into my sinuses. And my eyes. And I think to myself, "Shit!"

I poured the goo onto the prepared pan. Damn, that's a lot of candy. It puddled thick on the pan. I don't know if you can see from the picture, but those chunks of candy are probably 1/4 inch thick. Cory came into the kitchen and said "Wow, it smells like Big Red in here." Somewhat fearfully I tasted it. The stuff tastes strong, but it didn't kill either of us. Superman just returned from the supermarket and had a bite. He likes it.

Superman brought me some more ingredients so I can make another batch, this time smaller and much less flavored. Think I'll use vanilla. Vanilla candy sounds good, no?

We don't celebrate Christmas much around here. We eat a modest feast, exchange a gift or two, nothing extravagant. Years ago when we were active in the church Christmas was a big deal. Now that I don't worship regularly and the kids are grown Christmas doesn't seem so important. I just don't care much. My brother Mike shares similar sentiments. Talking to him the other day, he told me he actually decorated this year! He provided proof.

I hadn't planned to decorate (the gingerbread house being categorized as "holiday baking" not decorating) but he inspired me. Today we decorated. Here's proof.

I've had a rest now, so I'm heading back to the kitchen to try again. If I'm successful I plan to post again with the results. 

UPDATE: The second candy batch worked much better. Smaller batch, subtle vanilla flavor, and lighter in color. The actual gingerbread house is next, and that will take a while to figure out. When and if I get it finished I'll post about that in a few days. 

December 4th

It's about time for another haircut. I just noticed my picture in the sidebar here and I'm wearing my hair shorter than that now. If it's long enough to need a brush, it's too long.  Right now it's too long.

Happy National Cookie Day. I baked cookies. If I wasn't so lazy I'd go take a picture of them for you. Transferring a photo from my phone to the computer... I'm not exactly sure how to do that. Anyway, I modified a recipe for Hermit cookies to make them fortified with extra protein and other healthy stuff. Want the recipe? Here it is!

Fortified Hermit Cookies

Ingredients:

·         ½ cup butter, room temperature

·         ¼ - ½ cup brown sugar, packed

·         ¼ cup un-sulfured molasses

·         2 large eggs

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract (or more, to taste)

·         1 cup all-purpose flour*

·         2 cups uncooked rolled oats (old fashioned)

·         ½ - 1 cup non-fat dry milk powder

·         1 tsp. baking soda

·         ½ tsp. salt

·         1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

·         1 tsp. allspice

·         1 tsp. nutmeg

·         1 cup raisins (golden raisins, sultanas)

·         1 cup chopped dates

·         1 cup chopped pecans (or nut of your choice)

·         1 Tablespoon flour

Directions:       Preheat oven to 350°F

With electric mixer at medium speed, cream together butter, brown sugar, and molasses. Add eggs and beat until thoroughly mixed. Beat in vanilla extract.

In separate bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, oats, milk powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. At low speed, gradually mix dry ingredients into wet mixture until they are thoroughly mixed. In a small bowl combine the fruit and nuts, stirring in 1 Tablespoon flour to coat. Then stir the nuts and dried fruits into the dough.

Drop cookies by tablespoonful onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, about two inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are set but centers appear moist. Cool on baking sheet two minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

*If using self-rising flour, omit the baking soda. 

This might work pretty well. I've made some adjustments on the amounts of powdered milk, flour, sugar, and oats. Quick cooking oats (but not instant) will work fine, I think. Leaving out the powdered milk entirely will also probably work. I keep powdered milk in the house all the time, as I like to drink it. No one else around here does, and I suspect many people don't have it on hand. But it does add nutritional value to these cookies. Also, probably any dried fruit will do. 

But that's not really what I came to talk about. Today is Diva's 19th birthday. I haven't communicated with her at all today, or for the last several months. I'm not entirely sure where she is. Last I heard she lived in Greenville, about 50 miles or so north of our town. But I don't know where in Greenville she lives, or even for sure if she lives there. I think she's still in South Carolina. 

Here's the thing: she's crazy. I gave her the nickname "Diva" for the blog many years ago, and she has continued to exhibit these dramatic qualities, more so every year it seems. Our relationship is toxic. Or was, since we don't seem to have a relationship now. She's not good for me, and as much as I wish things were different, I'm not really good for her either. So here we are. 

We adopted her because we wanted another child. We wanted her. She was only 14 months old when she came to live with us. As she grew, and especially into adolescence, she was more and more difficult. Not normal "difficult adolescent" difficult, but crazy difficult. Violent, uncontrollable. Perhaps we could have handled things differently, but we did the best we could with the knowledge and abilities we had. Things didn't go well. The older she got the worse it got. She lied all the time, stole from us... there are a lot of details in the archives of this blog. I don't want to think about the details because it stresses and depresses me. 

And here it is, her 19th birthday. I want for her to be a pleasant person and for us to have a loving relationship. I'd love to call her up and have a lovely chat and wish her a happy birthday. The reality is that if I contact her at all, I'll be caught up in the Diva Drama Tornado. Superman is over it. Sooo over it! I've contemplated this for a few weeks and decided that the best course of action at this time is inaction. So I haven't looked for her on Facebork (she unfriended me years ago) or posted anything there about her. She doesn't know where this blog is, I think. 

I mourn for the loss of the ideal. And I wish her well. I hope she's doing well, hope she is successful, staying out of trouble, learning good lessons about the world. 

Happy Birthday, Angel.