Wrong day misfits, now confusion of the season, bergamot wannabes, The Bishop's Wife

Because of the holiday falling on my delivery day my misfits came Monday. As if I didn't already get confused enough when there's a holiday.

Note the bergamot wannabes in the background starting to take shape, sssh, don't jinx them. Even that busted up one may be fixable, wabi sabi, with the last finishing stage, tissue paper and white glue.

Meanwhile back in the food world, cans for the food pantry, scallions to add in all over for crunch, apples because mid morning requires an apple, cheese to stock up again, red lentils likewise. This is a short week, so a small box, because I still have plenty from last week's delivery. 

Also Handsome Son will be here bearing food on Thursday, so there will be reinforcements. I'm doing the corn, peas and roast potatoes, and he's doing practically everything else, yay.

I appear to have neglected to do any Christmas decorating, because I forgot to ask him to lift down the box from the high shelf. I'm not feeling very pressured about it though.

I will remember to watch my favorite movie of all for the season, the one that gets it. The Bishop's Wife. 

Breaking from ants and plants:

News from the cactus front. Down to two buds after some clumsy gardener knocked one off while watering next to it. Boud: boo hiss. Cactus: never mind, I'll be fine.  All alone. In the dark. 

News from the ant front. After I put down the borax and confectioners sugar mix, there was a rush of tiny ants, then none at all.  Gone. For now anyway. Boud 1, ants 0. Just now.

Happy day everyone, plants can be passy aggy, too. And ants.

Quiche, the Bishop and a Sock

I mentioned I'd given an artwork to the neighbor who visited and who's very happy with it. I managed to find a picture. It's the  left here, entitled The Cellist, stitched on linen, among various other stitchings.

This is a setup I did when I was demoing various fiber arts at the library, this one on goldwork. Bottom right is a slightly crazed photo of me they used to use for promos.

And, speaking of neighbors, I free cycled this giant ceramic planter for Gary, to someone strong enough to lift it.

Yesterday was about cooking a rapid quiche, using three cheeses, sharp cheddar, mozzarella, and feta crumbles. No added salt, plenty in the cheeses. All the rest of the spinach, three eggs.  One slice with a piece of toasted multigrain, pretty good supper. Near Christmas, so it's Cheeses of Nazareth.

 

After which, the Annual Watching of "The Bishop's Wife", the only Christmas movie I like. Especially the skating scene!

Look at that cast. Speaking of which, I cast on a sock, and let's hope this yarn works better for socks than it did for gloves. So far so good.

And here's today's poem, about which I have mixed feelings.

Not a great idea to just endure a season instead of plunging in and seeing what's good about it, but I may be in a minority there, a lot of people being ready to get past the solstice and count the lengthening days.

Happy day, everyone! Whatever length the daylight. Here's a tribute to all Sags everywhere, including Gary and his daughter, much more to my taste.

Cheers!

Merry Eve. Or TGIF. Your choice.

Christmas Eve here, solo day, lovely. Aside from laying the table for tomorrow's dinner, finding the serving spoons, little containers for condiments, it's a day of loafing.

Lunch baked cod steak, first in years, on a bed of spinach and scallions, buttered Yukon gold potatoes. Simple, good.

Then the annual viewing of

Favorite, well, only, really, Christmas movie for me.

So happy day, everyone! 

Almost there, almond crescents, and Maggie Rudy

 

And I'm taking a leaf out of Shammickite's comment, to make almond crescents. She has a blog you might want to read.  I'm always glad when she posts.  About art, food, the state of the world, all sorts of things.  Go HERE

 Meanwhile back at YouTube, I found a recipe which was simpler than a few others I studied. I've left enough info for you to track it down.

Her results:

My start, grinding almonds to meal, adding in a bit of vanilla essence and lemon zest, not in the recipe but why not.

My dough is drier than hers, so I squeezed a bit to see if it would hold together, and it will. I'll just work it in my hands when I form the crescents, and trust it will work. 

Flours vary, I made my own almond meal from fresh nuts, might be different from hers. We'll see.

So after the half hour fridge time, the dough was really too dry to shape. So I added some whole milk, in little blurts, and made it more workable. I was beginning to have some doubts at this point, having noticed the baking time she says in the video is several minutes' different from the time in the notes below it.  Also I wonder about the oven temp.  And maybe the quantities.  But nemmind. Even Homer nods.

As you see before it goes in the oven

I got 18, and they may be bigger than the originals, so I'll bake them a couple of minutes more.

Some of them, after baking, became more like half moons than crescents, so I shaped them a bit with a wooden spoon. 

We'll see how they cool. And the dredging with confectioners sugar at the end will cover a lot of sins.

Later, after baking them five more minutes, and still not baked, I left them in the hot but turned off oven, while I went to the library for vital supplies, see below. This trick, the oven, not the library, often works to finish baking without singeing.

Came home, still not baked. Put them into a 380 oven for five minutes. Not done. Five more. Now they're more like it. Not without some imprecations not entirely in the spirit of Christmas.

And ready for Christmas serving. I bet Shammickite didn't go through all this, probably made hers with a lot less drama and more success.  Oh well.

 

A mouse ready to make inroads. Mice seem to feature a lot in holiday scenes.

Here, with two wonderful books, why I went to the library, is the cook's trial of the almond crescents

 

Verdict: very good, very almondy, slight whiff of lemon and vanilla, this is beginning to sound like a wine review.  Soft inside but definitely baked, firm outside.  They're unlikely to be repeated, since there were a lot of unexpected spills and thrills in the making, but they're very good anyway.  And there's plenty.  I notice that a lot of Christmas baking involves showering snowstorms of confectioner's sugar around.

 

Maggie Rudy is a wonderful artist, creator of children's books, makes dioramas with all her own creations, expressive mice in narratives, and if you go to her blog MousesHouses,  HERE   you'll see why I love her work.  Just a title and an illustration in each post, and all wonderful.

 

So I thought I'd like to read a couple of her books, don't know why they're marketed as if they're strictly children's books, since, to my mind they're artworks that belong in the pantheon, but, anyway. Unless you have an elastic definition of children.

And you see  there tomorrow's movie choice, the only really Christmassy movie I like, The Bishop's Wife, just lovely.  Every year I watch and wish an angel could get me to skate like that. It's totally Christmas for me.  Recently in our knitting group, one member said her tradition is to have Christmas breakfast, exchange gifts, then watch The Godfather!! She has some reason she says it's a Christmas movie, which I forget now.

Tomorrow I make the other Christmas dessert, apple crumble, which Handsome Son is bringing icecream for, along with the main course, on Friday. Yes, he gets the right day off!  The store closes for Christmas. So everyone gets the day, instead of  working to serve other people who get the day off. He works all the other holidays, so this is a treat.

Favorite Christmas movie

This is the time for the annual viewing of The Bishop's Wife, the only Christmas movie I never get tired of, from the skating scene to the magic sherry bottle, to Debby throwing a curve in the snowball-fort fight.

So on my tiny upstairs TV, I watched, sipping my golden milk. Perfect.