See this?
It talks to me.
It says, You should be able to make me.
The Japanese Lantern has five sides, each with a seam down the center, which fade from brilliant orange to perforated skeleton as fall becomes winter, and (damn it) I want to make one... I'm just not sure how I want to go about it yet. Until I figure it out, it is just one more distraction as I try to do other things (like laundry and dishes).
Little e is feeling under the weather. It's one of those creeping yuck type viruses. The first three days we thought she was growing, until the snuffliness started, and then the cough, and now the limpet action.. oh ya, this be virus. Do you know Limpet Action? It's when your normally outgoing, independent child, suddenly wants to burrow into your leg, or better yet, be carried everywhere. We did venture out for a bit this morning, but I think we'll spend the rest of the day ensconced at home.
Last night I sorted all my fabric scraps for Wednesday's fourth grade art class. The scrap box is now like a box of possibilities waiting for their cue to shine. Oh, and all of those bits of fabric have previous lives, most of which I could tell you about if you asked. Mmmm... scraps of good fiber!
Today is St Nicholas Day, and the jolly saint filled our shoes with goodies. We each received a book with a dragon in it and a sweet treat.. oh, and my shoes were filled with packages of sequins! A lovely way to start the day!
This felt like a busy week, but perhaps it is just par for the course.
There were frequent trips to the post office (Yay!), lots of school volunteering, and our Christmas prep is well underway.
Its a three day weekend, so I'm under those three-day delusions about how much I can get done. I'd like to get the garland hung, the outdoor decorations up, the kitchen reorganized with the Christmas dishes, and finish up some gift buying loose ends. Oh, and marshmallows.. I'd like to make a couple of batches of candy so I can wrap up and send out my mailed Christmas packages. (Shocking, I know!)
But, I also need to sort and cut fabric for next week's art class with the fourth graders. This Wednesday's meeting went so well, that they finished steps I thought they'd do next week! They are a fabulous group, and I can't wait to see their quilt squares.
It is here.
December.
November finished with a burst of productivity that has left me feeling a bit blurry eyed today. (Of course that may have something to do with staying up to fill advent stockings and then not being able to sleep because my brain kept on buzzing.)
But. The advent stockings are done. My sewing room is in functioning order. All of the special order dice bags are made and mailed. I am not doing anymore shop sewing for the rest of the year. The rest of the sewing I do this year is for love, not money.
Which brings me to this bundle. This is my third year participating in Meg's Holiday Traditions Exchange. The idea is to send an ornament, a recipe, and the description of a holiday tradition done by your family to a partner somewhere in the world. This year I sent my partner an advent calendar filled with found and handmade objects, and of course a bit of chocolate. I was playing a bit with the requirements of the exchange, but I don't think my partner minds.
I have a few food notes about Thanksgiving before this year's autumnal feast zooms into the past.
This year I made my usual pair of pumpkin pies, a cranberry jelly mold, a chard and sweet potato gratin (to prove I can cook without sugar), and possibly the best pecan pie I've ever made.
The cranberry mold (see above) is from an old Gourmet recipe. In the original you boil up pounds of fresh cranberries with some sugar, add some gelatin and poof you have a lovely, trembly jelly. But, I tell you pounds of cranberries cost bucks (especially when you double the recipe like I always do), so now I use a combination of some fresh berries, but mainly pure cranberry juice. Much more economical, and quite a bit easier.
The gratin was from Smitten Kitchen, and my only alteration of the recipe was to make an extra cup of white sauce. My sauce became too thick (because I didn't read the directions carefully enough, whoops), but once I added more white sauce I was living pretty. I did the whole assemble it the night before, and bake it off in the morning. Perfection, I tell you.
Now, the pecan pie. I had this package of ultra dark, but not very sweet, molasses brown sugar, and it called to me to be made into pie. I subbed in this dark, dark sugar and a 1/4 cup of molasses for part of the sugar and corn syrup in my pie recipe (yes, I know corn syrup is the devils nectar), and I threw in an extra 1/2 cup of pecans to totally through caution to the wind. Oh my... it was rich, and dark, and only vaguely sweet, and oh I wish some had survived the dinner.
And then there was the next night.
The Dinner After, the Harvest Dinner, the Dinner Part Deux.
This is our chance (those of us who dare) to try some non-traditional recipes of Autumn. For this I made two pumpkin cheesecakes and a gingerbread pumpkin trifle. The cheesecakes are my traditional offering for this night's feast, but the trifle was something new I wanted to dabble in. I made it exactly as Gourmet describes, except I made less whipped cream as the garnish. It was perfect. The gingerbread is perfect, and the pumpkin mousse adds a lovely compliment. Plus, it's not a terribly sweet dessert.
Oh my goodness, what a whirl.
Thanksgiving has come and gone in a blur of family, food, dirty dishes, and good times.
Grandpa D, Grandma K, and Nay-nay found time to make felt ornaments with us between meals (oh, we ate a lot this weekend!). It felt very good (oh, dear, an inadvertent craft pun. How scary!) to sit around the dining room table and make things together.
And now, our company has gone, the sewing table is nearly back together. I have a passel of projects to get done, and December is hiding like Big Bird behind a lamp post. I can totally see it there, but I will still startle when it jumps out at me.
Oh, and there's only one more day for placing dice bag special orders, you know.. if you were going to.
