Pin It Down

In my favorite Tift Merritt song she says "when you try to pin it down, that moment slips away" which is pretty much how I feel about my time at the moment. I'm currently working 7 days a week, and usually when I get a moment where I'm not trying to feed myself, clean something, or dress myself I tend to stare off into space...or at the T.V.

Which is totally lame. So lame! I have like two blog posts up in my head and it's been weeks and I've not managed to freakin' get them written! Uber lame yo! So trust me, it's bothering me as much as it's bothering you. So here's a bone to help me sleep at night and to soothe the masses before they storm the gates:

Downton and What I Made for my Ladies
Episode One, So-Good-I-Can't-Believe-It's-Legal Brownies
Episode Two, Madeira Cake
Episode Five, Ginger Molasses Cookies
Episode Seven, Spinach and Artichoke Linguine
Finale, copped out and got appetizers from the Middle Eastern Bakery in Andersonville. Their hummus is so smooth it's almost fluffy and makes me want to cry.

And speaking of the Finale....seriously??!!

THAT is how you end Series III of Downton? Seriously??!?!

The love/hate relationship I have with Downton Abbey is ridiculous. But that ending crossed the line from "large group of people who are living through WWI/get-sick-you're-screwed so ratio wise this many people have to die, whatever." to "this family is cursed and you're all f*cked.".

Fortunately I have a year to forget my outrage and get sucked back into the emotional masochism that is this mini series. 

Curses.

Notes to Myself

-Always try to time your colds to peak on the weekend so you have an excuse to lie in bed and watch the snow.

-Next time get more than three bulbs. Only one out of three and no blooms yet!! WTF paper-whites. WTF.

-Two old quilt squares + a battered angora hat for the inside= a quick, resourceful, and well insulated tea cozy.

You crafty fiend.

-Eat more citrus. Scurvy is no longer fashionable. Plus you have a recipe for baked grapefruit burning a hole in your recipe folder so get off your ass.

-Don't put a wooden spoon anywhere near your blender again. There are other ways to get more fiber in your diet and you're lucky you didn't get a splinter. Damn tasty hummus though!

-Re-visit that Eastern European deli around the corner, that smoked sausage was off the chain. But maybe learn some Czech so you can read the labels and point less. And start reading Le Carre again, gnawing on some rostiljska kobasica while thumbing through Little Drummer Girl will be deliciously dorky.

-Buy another can of black beans. Maybe check out that little Mexican grocery store down the block, get duplicates of your keys made while you're at it.

-Next time remember that these cookies need barely ten minutes to cook in your furnace of an oven. Get more milk for dunking the rock hard first batch...

-Remember not to turn the oven on when you're letting no-knead bread dough rise inside. There are very few things as sad looking as a ball of half-risen half-baked bread dough. Maybe a wet fluffy cat. Or a lone sock on the floor of the laundry room.

"I feel nice, like sugar and spice."-James Brown

Sugar and spice are awful nice aren't they? Makes me think of a gingerbread cookie. Mmmmm...

But I was actually thinking about this song because it's what popped into my head when my yoga instructor asked us to set an intention for class. Probably not exactly what she had in mind...but whatever, I sang it quietly in my head anyways. It always makes me happy. Like dancing about and singing along happy which as I'm not in a musical I don't do that often. But I love to dance in my kitchen, barefoot, with the music turned up. It may mean more splatters on the floor, or possibly even walls, but it's worth it.  I made a batch of brownies last week and wondered if they tasted better because I was having such fun making them...

I always find myself in the kitchen if I'm feeling a little blue. If it's just mini blues I'll be reaching into the freezer for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or making a brownie in a mug to eat with a chick flick and a box of tissues. But if it's the linger-y kind that's hard to shake I'll be singing along to Motown songs or Patsy Cline.

I'm not particularly blue at the moment or anything, never fear. I've just been reflecting on how the act of cooking is such an important part of my life. I fully enjoy and appreciate the product, but it's something in the concentration and movement and process itself that really does it for me.

Weekend breakfasts especially have a sort of soothing repetitive quality. I don't vary my breakfasts too often so its a known routine of kettle on, pot to boil, toast toasting, butter softening, and in a few minutes you have tea and soft boiled eggs on toast to welcome you to a new day.

Or my current favorite breakfast of a Dutch baby pancake with lemon juice and sugar that I've repeated so often I don't have to think too hard to make it anymore.  It looks like the surface of the moon in the Wallace and Gromit movies and deflates just like a souffle when you take it out of the oven, which I find ridiculously amusing. It also gets stuck to the bottom of my non-skillet pan which is annoying but as I'm the only one eating it I don't give a hoot.

Though maybe I'll give the glass pie pan a whirl next time I make them...after all it's a damn shame to have some stuck to the bottom when I could have eaten it. Since this recipe makes two and I am one I get to use the rest of the batter the next morning...or for dinner if I can't make it 24 hrs.

Dangit I'm totally craving it now.

But pancakes three days in a row is not the best idea, vinyasas are a much better sort of repetition sometimes. Especially when you're singing along to James Brown.

And A Happy New Year

What?
You don't ring in the New Year by beating pots and pans with spoons?? Clearly you aren't half Keating. But I'm glad we're friends so I can urge you to try it for 2014. I converted three people that night. And they weren't that drunk.

Miss H was fierce and I was fancy because I had on a sparkly headband. Instant fancy!
With tons of food and fun and games it was an excellent start to the New Year and I have to say I'm all a fizz to see what happens this year! It's so exciting!

I don't go in for making lists of resolutions but I have thoughts about how I'd like this year to be, not really goals but how I want to feel and be as a person. I really shook my life up last year, I was brave and walked away from a place that was bad for me into the unknown. I woke up and fought, just like Woody told me to. And with a V for Victory I end 2012, the Year of Woody, lovin' everybody.

I like going home for Christmas and getting back in touch with that older part of my life before coming back to the city to revel in the present for the New Year. It really puts things in perspective, showing you their values.

And I do love the old part...

Quiet and familiar.

Just as I left it, almost. And yet so different.

It was a more subdued Christmas somehow, feeling the need to pull in a little, even the Misses Lizbeth and Amy said they felt that way this year. Not in a bad way, just different from some other years. All the same it was wonderful, all the new things and the old ones too.

And of course we ate well. We had steaks for Christmas Eve (as ever, nothing says "I Love You" to a Sandin like red meat, thanks Grandaddy!) and our menu for Christmas Day: Breakfast Burritos, Roast Chicken and Vegetables with an Asian Pear Salad for dinner, and Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce for dessert.

Smashing.

This is the breakfast of champions.

I'm not sure I would have managed all that wrapping ripping without such hearty fortification! I was still slightly full when dinner rolled around which is quite shocking as well as appalling as it was a really tasty dinner and I wanted to eat lots of it.

It was made extra exciting by the meat thermometer exploding in the oven while the chicken was roasting. Eep! But no one choked on a piece of glass, thankfully, we just chewed very carefully. I just couldn't manage seconds. But never fear, I rallied for this:

I love this dessert and no Christmas should be without it. The cake itself is a very nice gingerbread but the true glory is the lemon butter sauce we drench it it. It's heaven and you actually find yourself cutting a second piece of cake to use up the sauce left on your plate from the first slice. It's that kind of a sauce people.

Miss Linda's Gingerbread with Lemon Sauce

1 c molasses
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c sugar
1/2 melted butter
2 c flour
1 c boiling water
2 eggs, separated and the yolks and whites beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix the molasses, baking soda and spices together.
Add sugar, butter, flour and hot water beating together well.
Add yolks and fold in the whites.
Pour into greased 8 c ring mold, the batter looks thin it's okay!
Bake for 35-40 minutes.

and don't you dare skimp out on the sauce or I'll smack you.

Sauce:
1 c sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 c water
1 egg, beaten
1 lemon, juiced
2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 c butter

Mix the sugar and cornstarch together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Gradually stir in the water, egg, lemon juice and zest, and butter. Keep stirring until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Keep at a boil for 1 minute then remove from heat and pour into a small jug to serve. Makes 1 1/2 c.

But I have to say, my favorite part of Christmas was falling asleep to the quiet hiss of snowflakes falling on the skylights and waking up to a wintry wonderland.

It was falling fast enough my plans for the day were cancelled and I snuggled up with Miss Linda on the couch to watch movies and knit.

Dr. Karl kept peering out windows shaking his head and tut-tutting at the rate the snow was falling which made us giggle.

I had him make me "children's coffee" which is just really milky sweet coffee which I drank out of a bowl just like him.

And we managed to make it all the way through the Lord of the Rings, again.

By nightfall the snow had slowed and Miss Noh and I went for a walk in the wintry wonderland of our hometown.

We still have a pathetic amount of snow up here in Chicago. I'm quite glum about it and keep glaring any time Miss Linda tells me of how they've had even MORE snow since I've left. Jerks.

Whatever.

I'm still ridiculously cheerful about the start of a brand new year and will just have to keep my fingers crossed for a Snowmageddon 2013. Bring on the thunder-snow!!

SANTA.

Elf photo courtesy IMDB

Soooooo, sometimes I get a little...excited. 

Usually about food, industrial sewing machines, or Dala horses. And I'm 26 so have learned to keep my excitement to a level that is socially appropriate, such as clapping, giggling, or shaking a person (gently) if it's a really big deal. But that all goes out the window when Santa is involved. Because it's SANTA!

And last weekend Miss Linda had to deal with a ridiculously excited me on the phone, incoherently babbling about a "train" and "Santa" and "amazing". I finally calmed down and explained that I was waiting on a train platform with a bunch of kids for Santa to come on the Holiday Train.

Because that's what happens when it's Christmas time in the city, Santa sits in his sleigh with his reindeer ON TOP A FLATBED TRAIN CAR (does he wear a seatbelt??)

It's amazing. Elves come out and help people onto the train, passing out candy canes with carols blaring out of the loud speakers.

My apologies for the atrocious picture quality but you just needed to see how decked out the train car is. I can't make this shit up.

I'd heard rumors of the Holiday Train for years but I had yet to even catch sight of it! Needless to say I was just as excited as that little boy when that train finally came around the corner in all it's glory.

It was the kick off of the holiday season for me, I came home and decorated my tree,

hung up a star, and set up my angel chimes.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!!!

My Dalas are out in force and I've got a new Tree in a Can making my apartment smell pine-y.

But I didn't light it today as I was making applesauce and roasting eggplant and I thought the combination of those smells might not be a good idea.

It's odd to not have snow yet, though today was grey and cold so it was nice to snuggle up in pjs and drink cocoa. I watched all the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Christmas episodes (The Cardboard Box has some absolutely hilarious scenes which someone has so kindly clipped into a video here) and listened to the Thin Man radio plays while assembling my early Christmas present from my parents Santa:

Tada!!! One of the delights of being in your late twenties is being able to replace your shitty IKEA furniture with better IKEA furniture. The old one had been on my hit list for ages and kicking it to the curb made my day. I got some other goodies too, and had a lovely time with Miss H walking around "Sweden" and singing along at a choral concert afterwards.

Miss H tried very hard to fit this kitchen in the cart. She has such exquisite taste! 

I also got a present for this wee man! He's sleeping four solid hours at a time now which I'm pretty sure puts him on the Good List.

I love Christmas!!! I haven't even make any cookies yet, and don't even get me started on getting people presents, but it's such a lovely time of year!! If I'd been in the park in Elf when Santa needed cheer to get his sleigh off the ground, the grumpy mad would not of needed to sing my cheer level is so high. Maybe I should have it checked...

But seriously, it's a good thing I'm in such a festive mood as I've been pretty busy at work since Santa outsources his workshop these days and I'm making everyone's Army tarp messenger bag dreams come true like the good little elf I am. Which means I'm not eating my dinner until eight at night which means I almost choked on my omelet while watching today's New Girl. Lordie that was a funny episode! Also, I hate omelets. I'm not sure how I keep forgetting this. But it's all true. At least this one was buried under enough tasty toppings to make eating all that eggyness worth it. Oy.

But anyways, I have a bunch of shit to do before going to bed so wohoo, here's a blog post people! It will be a Christmas miracle if another happens before I head to Ohio so Happy Hannukah, Happy St. Lucia day, Happy Birthday to Dr. K and D-Mon, and Merry Christmas to one and all! Be Good!