Cooking finally returns again with prep for Friday night dinner

I made a bigly pot of pumpkin soup, some of which will appear on the table tomorrow evening, and there will be fish cakes made with fresh flounder and various spices, with green peas and roast potatoes.

And then I thought idly, since a friend made noises about coming over for a cup of tea in the next day or two, she having been way under the weather, in the hospital, and struggling to get back, I should make a little something to serve her with a cup of tea.  It won't be a whole meal, like my usual afternoon tea invitations, she's not up for that, but a nice little something is good.  And I need a dessert for tomorrow evening.

Leafed through Martha Stewart in search of simple, quick cookies.  Found quite a few, and bookmarked them studiously, before being totally led off the straight and narrow by finding a recipe for lemon bars...far from simple and quick, but oh well, it's been a hard week and they're so good.  So this happened.

I will be freezing a lot of them, partly so that I don't plow right through them, and partly so that a visitor will in fact get something edible with a cup of tea.  Some will cross the street to friends, too.

There was a tense moment when the dish, with the pastry crust in it, was in the freezer for a few minutes, and then had to go right into the hot oven.  I was fervently hoping the glass would stand up to this, though it claimed it would, and to my amazement, it did.

At this point I think I have had the last of builders trotting about inside the house fixing this and that for me, and though I plan on replacing all my windows at some point when the HOA gets some contractors lined up, that will be another noisy dusty passage, still, just for the moment, I have the place to myself.

Except for neighbors dropping in, four in one day this week, a landspeed record, it's what the renovation does. Breaks down barriers..but they all needed to talk, so I guess that's okay.  It's been a tense few days, and the roof noise hasn't helped with anyone's calm and accepting spirit. Not to mention the problems the roofers have uncovered in various houses, largely relating to wiring and squirrels, a bad mixture.  I was lucky in that nothing in my roof was written up and declared a danger to civilization.

So, Sayers' Clouds of Witness going in audiobook this evening, all's well, and another bunch of handwarmers under way, too. Several local friends are thinking of wearing the safety pin, now that they've seen me with one and asked what on earth I was up to.  

One was worried that I would be a target, and I said, well, already been criticized about it, by someone who was determined to be mad at me, never mind.  Important to stand up even in this quiet tiny way, or the bullies will have won.

The Safety Pin Movement and more protest knitting

One of the challenges which will face us in the coming few years is to maintain the alertness to injustice we might see around us, between changing federal legislation and the everyday prejudice which has taken on a new lease of life thanks to recent speechmaking. Right now it's easy to be indignant, especially as we see the cabinet unfolding in DC, but keeping it up is a longer challenge.

One thing I've done is to become one of the people who will daily wear a safety pin, on my coat.  This movement started in the UK after Brexit, when there was a similar wave of hate speech and action toward minorities.  The symbol is one of safety, that the wearer is friendly to all minorities, religious, racial, gender based, no matter, and that goodwill can be expected from her. Simple quiet but eloquent.

So here's my coat now, and the pin will stay on it.  Would you consider joining this quiet movement?  you join by putting on a pin, that's it.  And no matter where we live, it's good to declare our willingness to tolerate and embrace all other people.  This includes people I might fervently disagree with.  I may try to persuade them to see other ideas, but I will do so agreeably and without resorting to self righteousness in the process.  And I'll try to see their viewpoint, even when it's hard to do. Anyway, that's the goal.

At home, the protest knitting  goes on, and I will soon be making contact so as to have a way of distributing these items as they are made.  A better name for these gloves is handwarmers, I think, and this current pair will work for men, too. I have a big hand for a woman, so my gloves would fit a man up to medium men's size, and stretch a bit further than that, too.

Handsome Son was puzzled about the protest name, and wondered if there was something about the pattern that expressed a protest!  I explained that no, it was just the act of doing and giving them that was the protest. It's not secret messages knitted in or anything.