Happy Solstice! Midwinter's Day, the high point of the winter season, when the sun stops it's southward slide and starts to rise and set a bit more to the north every day. On this day, tomorrow and yesterday are the same!
Slowcala was talking about her Christmas goodie baking and it sounds like she is an excellent baker/cook. I am not. I can get a good simple meal on the table, and my apple pie is pretty tasty, but when it comes to producing really special things, I've got two left hands. This year, for who knows what reason, I decided that I would try to make those very pretty cookies decorated with Royal Icing, cookies with "stained glass" (hard candy) inserts, and those cookies that look like pinwheels of vanilla/chocolate. (My usual xmas baking is "Slice 'n' Bake" chocolate chip from the supermarket.) I won't go into the gory details. Suffice it to say that the decorated cookies were hidden in a container in my bedroom and eaten in secret. You just wouldn't think xmas cookies could look that bad....
The stained glass cookies...I can't bring myself to talk about that yet. Did you know that burned Jolly Rancher candy smells a lot like overcooked broccoli? And that the smell lingers for DAYS?
The pinwheels came apart as they baked. Sort of like fireworks. They are deeply buried in the deep freeze, my secret shame. Should be good eating in July.
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I also took a stab at making those intriguing "Hot Cocoa Bombs." First, a little backstory. I work as an editor for a scholarly press that publishes a lot of books on psychology, economics, history, etc. My Google searches very often include the names of terrorist organizations, looking up the names of serial killers, looking up the correct spelling of explosive chemicals and the like. Beyond that, and as if that wasn't enough for the NSA to screen my correspondence, I used to get paid through India. Every year, agents would question my bank manager about me, wanting to know why I was receiving big money transfers from India. Now, imagine what the NSA Computer did when it came across an email I sent to my cousin titled "Bomb Making." It's a wonder there's not an unmarked large black SUV sitting outside the house now. *twitches lace curtain aside to check*
Anyways, The first batch was a holy disaster. I have never worked with melted chocolate before and it was...a learning experience. I think every spoon in the kitchen ended up in the sink. Chocolate everywhere. At least I learned that it washes out of hair, clothes, and cat fur pretty easily.
The second batch actually came out very nice! I've handed those out to friends. Fueled by my illusory success, I decided to throw caution to the proverbial and make a dozen more, 6 white choc, 6 milk choc. The white choc came out pretty nice, the milk choc... Well, we'll be drinking a LOT of hot cocoa around here this winter.
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Very very cold the past couple of nights. Yesterday the low was around 18F. This morning it's about 20F. Very dry and clear weather, although this morning is overcast. I've definitely been eating too many goodies and I think I need a day of good, hard physical work outdoors, so I'm going to drive up the mountain and get a load of mulch. I'm not sure where it will go, but I know it will go somewhere. The "tree trimmer guys" were moving thru the neighborhood this past week, trimming back limbs to near power lines along the road. My friend J got them to dump a load of wood chips for her and she urged me to do the same, but I decided not. I'll probably regret this decision, but the truth is I just don't have a good spot to hold a big pile of stuff like that. I really regret that I never considered things like access and storage when I started making this place. I can't have the stuff dumped on the driveway. A few years back I got a pile dumped on the curve by the Pine Gap and it killed a huge patch of grass and spilled into the new Pine Gap plantings and damaged a lot of young shrubs. J's lucky in that her property is actually "split" by the same road we live on. Her house sits on one side and her veg and beehives sit on the other. She's got a huge paved area over there where an old barn used to sit. I really wish I had thought out the layout of this place better and incorporated some sort of "depot" area, screened from view but easily accessible from the road. It would have saved a lot of work!
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Cookies and Hershey Kisses by PAgirl63 | Dec 22, 2021 4:42 PM | 0 |
| Your cookie story had me in stitches by slowcala | Dec 21, 2021 2:30 PM | 1 |
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