|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
holiday pushback
December 15, 2009
I managed to screw up yesterday and obliterate a post I'd spent two hours on, so I'm going to try to re-create, but we all know how hopeless that is.
I've been really trying to propel myself through the season, striking all the proper Christmas notes and acting appropriately merry. I've accomplished a lot of very Christmassy things, too.
But I rather wish I could connect with it all. It seems so empty. I feel strangely absent, even as I'm doing the stuff.
Still, I press on. This weekend's output was strictly Spouse's choice. On Saturday, at his vehement urging, I made chocolate-almond toffee bark. I chickened out and took it off the heat too early, so it was chewier than I'd intended. But he seems to be happy with it. Probably because I didn't toast sliced almonds--I used whole roasted & salted almonds, and rubbed most of the salt off with paper towels. They had much more of a roasted, not toasted flavor, and the little bit of salt really works with the toffee and the chocolate. Oh, and I custom-blended the chocolate for him, two parts milk to one part semi-sweet, so it would be just the way he likes it.
And Sunday, I did something I: A) haven't done for 26 years, and B) swore I'd never do again. I made the Polish pastry kolacky (prounounced kuh-LOTCH-key in these parts). I made these once, Easter of 1984. My husband's Polish mother tore them--and me--to shreds, and I swore I'd never try it again. But time passes, and they are a particular favorite of Spouse's, and she isn't around to humiliate me over it. I found a very easy recipe for the dough in my Southern Living Cookbook, and I gave it a shot.
Not a total failure, but the filling itself was a kind of a disaster. I used seedless raspberry preserves, and it turned liquid and ran all over. Weirdly enough, though, they still tasted great. And Spouse has gotten through most of them already, so they can't be too bad.
So--enough of a success that I am willing to try again. I talked to a couple of my Polish co-workers, and found out the proper fillings to use, so I think I'll do better next time. But the flavor of Dickinson's Seedless Cascade Mountain Raspberry Preserves is so vibrant, I'd like to take a chance and use it again, so I may just take what's left of the jam and thicken it myself to make the filling.
Other stuff I did over the weekend:
More Christmas Shopping--got the co-workers on my team a token gift. They are each getting Christmas coffee mug filled with candy--a Russell Stover's Solid Chocolate Santa and Peppermint Bark Snowman, and peppermint hard candies. I also picked up a $25 Culver's Card for my nephew, and got a coupon for a free butterburger basket for spending over $20. I threw it in with his gift for an extra treat.
Went to Farm and Fleet on Friday, and got a new battery and winter wiper blades for the Retro-Rocket. The old girl needed both pretty bad. Got a bunch of other stuff, too--that weird mix of stuff you get at Farm and Fleet. Motor oil and wrapping paper and dog treats and a candy thermometer and M&Ms and almonds and genuine Spangler candy canes.
Went out to dinner with Spouse and Nephew. It dawned on Spouse that once Nephew moves up to The Bay for school, we won't get to see him much. So we took him out for a steak dinner at South Woods, up by Milwaukee.
Had one of those heart-wrenching milestone moments with Nephew. I went with him to shop for the first piece of real jewelry he's ever bought. He's been telling me for weeks about this gift he's getting his girl, but the more he talked, the more obvious it became that he was absolutely petrified at the prospect of going into a jewelry store. When I offered to go along, the relief was almost comic. I clued him in on warranties and sizing and other jewelry store stuff, and explained that while doing your preliminary shopping on the internet is fine, you really need to see it in person before spending that kind of money.
I'm not crazy about my "special little guy" buying a girl a diamond ring, but he assured me it's a "right-hand only" ring, and that he's got both his feet on the ground. It's quite a lovely piece, the price is appropriate for a college freshman, and he'll be fine now that he got his feet wet, so when he goes in to buy it this week, he'll be fine. What else can I do but sigh, and shed one or two tears over my little guy growing up?
I've been such a slacker at home the past few days. Work is really kicking my ass, and it's starting to show. I just want to take it easy and not push so hard in ONE aspect of my life. This is the month that sucks the most resources from me both at work and at home, and it's a month where I have so damned little in the way of resources.
I just realized: this is my 20th consecutive December with a job that is at its worst, year-end. And it doesn't seem to matter what job it is--there have been several. Are all jobs hardest in December? I don't know, but I have a wee hunch that it's a huge part of why Christmas never seems to work for me.
I'm on my ninth Ruth Fielding book, and I have to say that one thing really sticks out as untranslatable--the jokes. And I have no way of knowing if the jokes the characters tell were real knee-slappers 93 years ago, or if they were incomprehensible duds then, as now. At any rate, it slows the action down every time a character decides to be "funny".
Also--was drowning the number one cause of death back in the teens? It seems like nearly every book so far has had at least one near-drowning in it.
Reading: "Bagombo Snuff Box", by Kurt Vonnegut and "Ruth Fielding In Moving Pictures: Or, Helping the Dormitory Fund", Copyright 1916 (Ruth Fielding #9)
Surfing: Stupid games. Spending so much time just trying to get into Farmville and Pet Society, I've none left over to actually play.
Listening: I burned myself a copy of the CDs I made for my aunty, and I'm listening to them in the car. Everything from Barenaked Ladies to Ella Fitzgerald, Gene Autry to Dido.
At Random: click here
|
|