Not Sorry to See This One Go!

I got an email today from King Arthur Baking, urging me to “Start the year right with our keto-friendly pancakes for breakfast”!  A very sensible suggestion… except I’ve already planned to make cinnamon rolls and I cannot bring myself to feel that anything keto-friendly is a better idea.

Yes, my diet is going to have to start occupying a great deal of head space soon… but not just yet. For now, I’m still busy trying to suck all the fun out of the holiday that I can.

A very Happy (and hopefully improved) New Year to everyone!

Past Meets Future

 

 

 

We’ve all had those moments, Spock…

Love and Joy Unto You

Meet you inside for hot chocolate, a crackling fire, and "ambient Christmas music".

Wishing you a lovely, serene, and special day.

On Appreciating a Difficult Christmas

For the first time in quite a few years, I will not be traveling up a mountain for a snowy New England Christmas. I may not actually be celebrating with *anyone* on Christmas Day. (Thanksgiving was warm enough for outdoor dining but the odds of Dec. 25th being temperate are not that good.)

Somehow, tho’, a pandemic makes it easier to face a holiday alone - you’re not going solo because nobody loves you, or you were forgotten about… you’re alone because nobody’s leaving their house! It’s not personal, no one is slighting anyone, we’re just all hunkering down for this one. And you know what? It’s not all bad.

Sure, I’m going to miss seeing loved ones but with a far-flung family like ours, that's not unique to 2020. Other than that, however, I'm really not feeling put upon by this Christmas. Somehow, with half our holiday traditions de-railed anyhow, 2020 feels like the perfect year to bust out! It’s not that I’m going bah-humbuggy - I do cherish holiday traditions - but some years, you want to mix stuff up a bit... and when better than now? 

The first alteration I decided on may, I suppose, be less of a change than a reversion. For a number of years, I’ve been using those battery-powered, “6 hours on, 18 off” self-timed window candles. I love the convenience of them and they’re great when you’re away and don’t want to announce that fact with a dark house for days on end, but… they are serious lacking in decorative oomph. That tiny little flickering flame simply cannot produce the magical glow I remember from my childhood. They’re comparatively dim, can’t really hold their own against any other lights you might want to put in your window, plus they’re pretty much a one-trick pony when it comes to color. Generally, I’ve accepted the trade-off of pretty for convenience but since I’ll be home anyhow this year, I’ve brought back the magic! My windows are alight with bright, colorful bulbs - and I am happy about that.

I may have upped my Christmas lights game (tho’ stopping well short of channeling Chevy Chase) but at the same time, I’ve also turned to more muted decorations around the house. The poinsettias are in craft paper bags rather than shiny paper, sparkly bows have been replaced with simple plaids, and anything glittery is getting the year off. It’s all pretty, but definitely a different look.

Holiday menu selection is also getting a shake-up. Roasting an entire turkey for one would be silly and with no one around to give me disappointed looks, the sky is the limit for an alternate festive meal. Mexican street food, take out…, hot dogs…, filet mignon…, Cheerios…, whatever the heck I feel like eating for dinner, that’s what I will have! (And all the remaining small batch cookies will be MINE!)

Even my Christmas music listening has received a make-over. I have a fairly astonishingly large collection of holiday tunes - each and every one of which I love - but this year I seem to be ignoring my iTunes library in favor of the “ambient Christmas music from the next room” selections on youtube.  I would never have thought it… but I’m quite enjoying the change.

Mostly, however, I’m looking forward to pacing my holiday the way *I* want to. Because I am just one, I always end up being the accommodating one, letting timing be dictated by the people with more complex schedules. This is perfectly fair but it will be nice to be in charge of my own holiday itinerary for once. (“Don’t feel like moving, Jz? Then don’t! Just sit there and enjoy the lights.”)

I’ve lined up books to read, shows to binge, jigsaws galore... and snacks.

Basically, I’m adopting this as my Christmas 2020 plan:

and I’m looking forward to making it reality.

Holiday Shipping

Shipping: A term used to describe fan fictions that take previously created characters and put them as a pair. It usually refers to romantic relationships, but it can refer platonic [sic] ones as well. (Just think of “shipping” as short for “relationSHIP”.) - Urban Dictionary

Yep, I was definitely a shipper for these two.

Probably because I was projecting but...

Actually... hell yeah, I was projecting!

Outta my way, woman!

That flannel would look much better wrapped around me.

Small Batch Christmas, Cookie No. 3

Holiday Checkerboards!

I am a complete sucker for checkerboard sweets, even tho’ I can't usually make them come out even to save my soul. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me when I saw how cute these are. (You always need a little something for color, right?)

The good news is that this dough wasn’t as challenging for me to work with as others I’ve tried in the past, so my checkers actually don’t look half bad! However, the melted chocolate portion of the program once again served as a reminder that I should not quit my day job. No nice smooth dip for me, more of a chunky, frosted look. (Every year I think, “I’ll get this this time!” … and every year, the chocolate wins.)

I think I’ll skip it on the rest of them and just dip them in my magnificently-matching sparkly Christmas sugar to cut down on disappointment.

BUT…

Fussy chocolate whine aside, this makes a nice, tender sugar cookie that is very tasty and that’s what counts, right? (Plus, did I mention, CHECKERS!?!)

I’m building quite the festive little cookie plate with these small batches!

Holiday Checkerboard Cookies

makes about 18 cookies

Recipe by: foodnessgracious 

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

 4 oz butter, softened
1 cup sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1-2 drops green food coloring 

1-2 drops red food coloring 

1/2 cup white chocolate chips 

Christmas sprinkles 

Instructions: 

Preheat the oven to 350º F. 

Line a large baking sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Cream the softened butter and sugar until light and creamy (high speed for about 3-4 minutes)  Add in the vanilla and the egg and beat again, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.

Combine baking powder and flour, then gradually add the mixture to the butter mixture on low speed. Once all of the flour has been added, mix until the dough comes together into a ball. (Mine wouldn’t come together until I got in there with my hands, but it did!)

Transfer to a surface lightly dusted with flour and divide the dough into 4 even pieces.

Take one quarter of the dough and add a few drops of green food color to it. Knead the dough until the color has worked its way through and it looks a nice even shade of green.

Repeat this process with one of the other remaining dough quarters, using red this time. The remaining two quarters of plain dough will stay uncolored.

Shape each of the four balls of dough into long blocks about 8 inches long. 

Place a block of the plain sugar cookie next to a block of the green cookie dough and gently press them together. Stack the other plain sugar cookie dough on top of the green cookie dough and finally place the red cookie dough on top of the other plain cookie dough.

Carefully mold the block of dough together and wrap in plastic wrap. 

Place it into the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

Once the dough has firmed, cut the block of cookie dough into individual cookies about a half inch thick.

Place each cookie onto the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes or until the cookies are slightly golden around the edges.

After the cookies have cooled, melt the white chocolate and dip a corner of the cookies into the melted chocolate. Add some Christmas sprinkles and let the chocolate set before putting cookies into containers.

Small Batch Christmas, Cookie No. 2

OK, this one wasn’t truly a small batch… but the dough freezes for up to 3 months, so the cookies can be baked one small batch at a time. And… I just really wanted to try them.

So enthusiastic was I, in fact, that assembly was well under way before I realized I was out of ground ginger, dark brown sugar, and only had blackstrap molasses…, so I was punting right left and sideways before I'd even gotten half the ingredients in the bowl. I was undeterred, however - this cookie was going to happen! I substituted some pumpkin pie spice and allspice for the ginger (I would have done all pumpkin pie spice but I ran out of that, too *le sigh*) and went with light brown sugar and the blackstrap molasses. (I was basically just swapping the light and dark of the sweeteners, right?)

Happily, this cookie is not fussy. The allspice did make mine darker than those shown in the original recipe, so it looks more molasses-y than ginger-y but they are still shiny and cute, and very tasty little morsels.

Small Batch recipe #2 is another win!

Ginger Pennies

      Yield: 10 dozen bite-size cookies

From: Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), at room temperature
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Zest of one lemon (optional)
• 3 tablespoons candied ginger, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup turbinado sugar, for dipping

Directions:

1. Mix the dry ingredients: 

Whisk the flour, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

2. Combine the wet ingredients: 

In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar together for 3 minutes at medium speed, or until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed.

Add in the molasses, egg, vanilla, lemon zest, and candied ginger, beating until well combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. (I’m not a big lemon fan, so I omitted the zest.)

Gradually add the dry ingredients. (I don’t have a stand mixer, so I moved to a wooden spoon for this step.)

3. Form the logs:  

Lay out 3 sheets of plastic wrap and, working with a third of the dough at a time, form 3 logs that are roughly 12 inches long and an inch and a quarter wide each. The dough is fairly soft, so don’t try to roll it until you get it encased in plastic. (Don’t ask me how I know this…) 

Place the logs on a baking sheet or tray that will fit in your freezer, and chill for 1 to 2 hours, or overnight. The dough will keep in the freezer for 3 months or longer.

To Bake:

Once the dough has chilled and you’re ready to bake cookies, (yay!) preheat the oven 350°F and line your baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

Pour some turbinado sugar into a shallow bowl. Slice the rolls into 1/4-inch-thick cookies and press one or both sides of each cookie into the sugar. Place them on the baking sheets, sugar side up if you only did one side.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookie are lightly browned. Cool on the baking sheet. 

They will keep for at least two weeks in a tightly closed cookie tin.

Festive Future

Sad to say, I missed Ugly Christmas Sweater Day…

       …but not everyone did!

I would say I was distracted by the joy of having uninterrupted, free-flowing water but just about at the same time as that glorious event took place, I received news that a friend & coworker had been hospitalized after a stroke. That took all the red off my lollipop, for sure. 

So the rest of us in my department have been taking up the slack, in between bouts of worrying and praying. No time for much else, even ugly sweaters!

But the worst is over, the invalid has been sent home, and holiday joy is seeping in through the cracks, despite everything. I may break out the sweaters for holiday loungewear, after all!

Small Batch Christmas, Cookie No.1

This one is truly “small batch”. The recipe says it makes 10 cookies but even with adding a third of a cup of diced cranberries, I only got 9 out of the deal. However, sometimes that’s all you need, right?

This recipe was more of a test run for the future, when I’ll be once again sharing goodies with my lactose & gluten intolerant loved one. There's a lot of good gluten-free stuff out there but there's also a lot of it that misses the boat completely. I often find myself reading gf recipes and thinking, “this is either going to be a marvelous find, or a waste of almond flour.” When they work, tho', they're great, so I'm always game to try!

Which leads me to this inaccurately named 3-Ingredient Almond Cookies. (OK, salt and water maybe don't really count - but I am the Queen of Pernsnickety.) I honestly wondered if this could possibly taste like much, given how little is in it, but... (see above)

As it turns out, the name was the only thing I could grumble about with these cookies. This turns out to be a fantastic recipe to have up your sleeve. Incredibly easy to throw together (5 minutes max, including digging in the freezer for the almond flour), mess is minimal, and the result is a very yummy little batch of DF/GF almond macaroons - with some highly versatile variations. (I’m going to try the chocolate chip version, but use chopped Andes mints instead.)

You could even throw together the dry ingredients and freeze the mixture in a small ziploc bag for a truly effortless dump & bake emergency cookie.

Yes, indeed, I’m very pleased with my first small batch test drive!

3-Ingredient Almond Cookies {Vegan, Grain-Free & Paleo}

Recipe from Powerhungry.com

Ingredients (>3, ahem)

1 cup blanched almond flour (not almond meal) 

3 tablespoons coconut sugar (I used brown sugar)

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄8 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 tablespoons water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat.

2. In a small bowl, whisk the almond flour, sugar, baking powder and salt (breaking up all lumps.) Add the water and stir until blended.

3. Drop by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart.

4. Bake 13 - 16 minutes, until golden brown and set at the centers.

5. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer cookies to a rack and cool completely.

Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days, the refrigerator for 1 week, or the freezer for 2 months.

Variations:

Chocolate Chip: Add 1⁄4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips to dough.

Thumbprints: Indent the top and add a dollop of jam

Dried Fruit Cookies: Add 1⁄3 cup very finely chopped dried fruit to dough.

Sesame Almond Cookies: Add 1⁄8 teaspoon almond extract to dough and sprinkle tops of cookies with sesame seeds before baking.

Toasted Almond Cookies: Add 1⁄4 teaspoon almond extract and 1⁄3 cup toasted sliced almond, coarsely crushed, to dough.

A Christmas Without Cookies?

I was talking with Tiny Woman yesterday and we got on the subject of Christmas and cooking (possibly because I was moaning about all the cooking I’m not getting done, since there’s no water to wash dishes?) and she informed me that she wasn’t intending to do cookies this year anyhow. 

“Just one batch of sugar cookies for the kids to decorate but that’s it.”

Right on the heels of that conversation, greengirl emailed me to commiserate about my well woes and she closed with, “No cookie exchange, huh?” 

Yep. There’s a cookie shortage this year.

For a moment, I was tempted to dub this “The Christmas Without Cookies”… but then I thought, “No, dammit! I am not going to let this flippin’ pandemic preempt all the joys of the holiday season! I am simply going to adapt!” (*insert emphatic nod*)

I contemplated what kind of cookie compromise could be reached and finally hit upon an idea. My recipe stash contains a number of cookies that I think sound terrific but that I’ve never tried because they don't make a lot. (If it doesn’t make at least 36 cookies, I don’t bother with it at Christmas - and if it’s not Christmas, I don’t bother with fussier cookies.) So, I’m going to go through those recipes and pick out 3-4 that I most want to try, and I’m going to make this a Small Batch Christmas!

It won’t be a proper swap but I will share the recipes with you…

Because it’s just not Christmas without Cookies.

(I’d love to tell you what days to watch for the recipes but honestly, I’m way too out of control at the moment to make any kind of reliable declaration about that. Just keep an eye peeled, ‘k?)

Water Torture

 Nope. Still not fixed. 

It's been a perfect storm of unhappy coincidences and I won’t bore you with the long, drawn-out story, suffice it to say that I'll be getting a new well soon… and my nerves are shot. 

On the bright side, I’ve gained much knowledge about the different ways to prime a pump. (Kraken now calls me “The Pump Whisperer”) 

The down side is that the God of the Pump is a sadistic fiend who requires sacrifice. The only primes it will accept in offering are the ones that have left me completely doused in water, hair dripping and slippers squelching. (Generally with squealing also involved.)

I tire of its little games.

So forgive me for being distracted and uninvolved in blogland. It's not personal.

(At least I can focus enough for the holiday Trek memes to begin!)