A two-day weekend feels rather short after a five-day “weekend”, but, on the other paw, I didn’t have to go anywhere all that far away, we didn’t have any major cooking (Barely any cooking at all!), and it turned out to be quite relaxing.
I got a new wobble stool for Black Friday (among other purchases), so this weekend, I tested it out, and found it fun, if a little surprising for my back and thighs for the first couple hours. Mobile computing! Or, at least, computing and being mobile at the same time! It’s actually a lot of fun.
We saw Fantastic Creatures this weekend, too, and that was fun, too; it’s not the most deep of movies, but it was visually beautiful, fun to watch, and has already got me spawning worlds of fic in my mind. I’ll call that worth the matinee ticket price.
Other than that — I wrote, we picked apples, we cleaned up the house a bit, hauled some firewood, and went out to lunch at our local Italian bar food restaurant (fish fry and enough Stromboli for three meals). We made cookies and the last of the turkey broth and… well, pretty much chilled. It was a peaceful weekend, and I’ll take it.
In other news, my Patreon has reached the $40 milestone again! I’m excited to get Nimbus out of the tree and see what adventures she gets up to next! (what, I’m supposed to know? I barely know how she’s getting out of the tree! <.<)
I’m contemplating doing a live-writing something sometime during my ~week plus~ work holiday at the end of December (a whole week! And then a Monday!) Details to follow, if there’s interest.
And if you haven’t checked out Selena Page yet, both the Hallowe’en and Christmas stories are available on Smashwords for free: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/SelenaPage
Speaking of the holidays, Christmas is coming, I’ve finished my re/watch of the Librarians, and I’ve started watching Elementary, which might prove to be good knitting-tv (I hope so; I have a few projects to knit on relatively short deadlines!)
And Baking! I think I’m going to try making “fancy” cookies for my foodie aunt & uncle who are in ailing health. I can’t give them wine anymore… (not kindly) so cookies it is! Anyone have a favorite “Fancy” cookie recipe, holiday or otherwise?
I hope you, too, had a peaceful weekend, and that the week is fun and productive for you.
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Maida Heatter’s mushroom meringues. Oatmeal lace cookies, optionally drizzled with or dipped in chocolate. Anisettes, or their lemon cousins. ETA: That linked recipe does not line up with the actual book version of the ones I’ve had — there’s an entire cup too much sugar. The book that produced the ones I’ve had is “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts”, which you may be able to find in a local library or bookshop.
The directions in that version are cut down a fair bit from Ms. Heatter’s version, too. (She’s verbose, which is not everyone’s cuppa, but I like her commentary.) They’re a fair bit of fuss, but not hard, and a novice can make them look pretty good:
I have GOT to make those!
One of the things Ms. Heatter’s recipe mentions is that using a compound/coating chocolate (which the big craft stores that have baking sections sell as bags of little disks — and also non-chocolate variations in a zillion colors if you want psychedelic mushrooms) means not having to fuss about the tempering of the chocolate. This will bother chocolate purists, but it’s simpler for a beginner, and the chocolate is more glue and looks than a major feature. I’d plan to spread the process over a couple of days, one to bake the parts and let them dry, and one to assemble.
Also: French macarons.
Thumbprints (which have a zillion other names) — I like the variations where the dough is spiced and rolled in nuts, and the jam is baked on the cookie (rather than added after). Pfeffernusse. Any of the “nut balls rolled in powdered sugar” recipes. Cut and decorated gingerbread (or sugar cookies). Spritz cookies, if you have access to a cookie press. (The dough can also be shaped by hand, including coloring some of it and making two-color candycane twists, if you want.) Linzer cookies. Checkerboards. Anisettes Molded or stamped shortbread. Anything dipped in or drizzled with chocolate. 🙂
You know, if I got a cookie press, that would be totally different than anything else my family does. I made thumbprint cookies last night! They turned out… okay? Husband thought they were good, I thought they were dry.
The thumbprints I’ve made have had a shortbread-to-butter-cookie base — something buttery-crisp, not a chewy cookie. Variation in the range exists, but if you’re not generally a fan of that style, they’re probably not going to impress you. (I find the jam helps, though it is possible to bake the jam too dry. Or maybe you’d prefer one where the jam is added after baking?) Spritz cookies IME are also buttery-crisp cookies, more on the delicate side. What kinds of cookies do you like?
Everything? Hello Dollies, but I won’t presume to make them for my Aunt; they’re my gramma’s receipe. I like shortbread, just wasn’t sure that’s what they were supposed to be. This helps! I tried almost every jam in the fridge: raspberry, peach, citrus-honey, fig.
<looks up Hello Dollies> Oh *those* deadly bars. Nom. Please do not leave any leftovers where I can get at them, as they will be got, and gone, and oof, my poor tummy. :} They’re not necessarily shortbread, but they have to be something that’ll mostly hold its shape, which rules out all the things like drop cookies that melt and spread. Usually I make a nut-coated variation with a spiced butter-cookie dough and no leavening, dipped in egg white and rolled in finely chopped nuts, and that coating seems to encourage keeping shape vs. the same dough without the coating. <consults book> Two eggs, a cup of butter, half a cup of sugar, and two cups of flour — lots of butter and not much sugar vs. a drop cookie. I imagine some of the moldable cookies, some of the rollable cookies, and some of the cakey cookies could be coaxed into the right shape? Raspberry and apricot are my two favorite fillings for thumbprints, with either walnuts or almonds for the coating. From the one fig jam I’ve had, I imagine that would be sort of dry, but tasty. Citrus-honey sounds fascinating — is that a marmalade? — but I’m imagining something like flavored honey which probably isn’t right. (The weirdest ones I’ve made had a peanut butter cookie base (that slumped a fair bit, but did hold) with grape jam filling, and that was … odd. Special request, that.) <thumbs through cookbook> Biscotti? Rugelach? Tuiles (or any of the other thin cookies that can be shaped while hot and then turn crisp)? Mincemeat tartlets? (Either open ones like tiny pies if you have pans to support that, or closed shapes folded out of sturdy rollable cookie dough? (I use my mom’s hamentashen dough, cut circles and fold them into half-moons around the filling.) Fancy to me can mean shaping, or frosting, or filling …