BitterSweet

Already the holiday season is winding down to a close for me, as evidence by the final night of Channukah passing us by on Friday evening. Clearly I’ve been slacking with my blogger duties - Hardly any posts, many comments going unanswered… It’s not that I don’t appreciate them in the least; I’ve just been running around so much, I’ve barely been given the opportunity to catch my breath. I happen to believe that breathing in general is a very healthy practice, so I’m going to be taking off a little over a week to vacation in sunny old California with my family. I promise to report back with tons of pictures and stories, in addition to all of the projects that have already been finished and simply need writing to accompany them.

So while I’m off seeing the sights, here’s wishing all of you and your loved ones a heart-felt holiday, and a happy new year. It’s certainly been a crazy one, and all I can say is thank you, to absolutely ever last person who is reading this message right now. I don’t care if you’ve never made a single comment or if this is your first time ever setting eyes on my blog - The fact that anyone cared enough to take the time to read my ramblings at all means the world to me. Thank you for helping me rediscover my voice and having the patience to see what would come of it.

Enjoy the winter break, everyone.

Already the prime holiday rush is upon us, giving close to no warning before settling in and now not even a week remains until Christmas day. For many people, that means an onslaught of family and friends, sometimes people you only see this one time of the year. Such joyous reunions to look forward to, touching stories saved up for this very occasion… And so much to do to keep everyone happy. This means cooking, cleaning, and entertaining for days on end. Personally, I can’t keep up that sort of facade for more than 12 hours, so I don’t know how the rest of you do it - Any one who can host an event for an extended period of time has my deepest respect.

With this thought in mind, I was bustling around the kitchen as per usual, banging out a few trays of cookies to be handed out at school later in the week, when the doorbell rang with loud inpatience. Who could it be, I wondered to myself? Although we do spend time with the relatives throughout the handful of days alloted to Hannukah, most everyone lives amazingly close, so we don’t usually have anyone stay at our house. Abandoning the scorching the oven, I cautiously opened the door and glancing around quickly so as not to invite some mad sales person in by accident. What a surprise I saw; It was Uncle Billy, here to celebrate the holidays with us! …Invitation? What’s an invitation when you’re all family? Ohh, clearly nothing at all…

Not a moment had passed upon walking through the front door before Uncle Billy had caught a whiff of my baking and was hurriedly moving toward the source of the scent. Struggling to hoist his excessive luggage in behind him, it was a few moments before I could catch up with his rampant sweet tooth. By the time I made it into the kitchen with an inviting smile plastered on my tired face, he was already making short work of my ginger snaps.

Try as I might to explain, Uncle Billy couldn’t grasp the fact that these cookies were not gifts for him, but destined for friends at school… Well, they were… With crumbs caught so very unattractively in his goatee, he polished off the sizable stack of sweets in front of him and began looking around ravenously, seeking out other goodies that had clearly been prepared in anticipation of his arrival, despite the fact that he had failed to even give us fair warning. Thankfully, while he was busy scarfing down my latest tray of cutouts, I had time to stash the rest before he could claim them for himself.

Disappointed by the lack of edible delights available at the time, he resigned himself to the television in order to watch some football, no doubt. Or so I thought…

Searching around for a quick dinner idea to throw together that would keep us all fed, I decided to scavenge through the pantry for inspiration. Apparently Uncle Billy had the same thought as well! I have no clue how he managed to get by me into the other room, but the damage that he had already done was nothing short of impressive. Full boxes of crackers and packaged cookies were laid to waste; Only plastic wrapping and cardboard skeletons to indicate that they had once contained food.

Seeing him making eyes at even the canned pumpkin sitting beside him, I thought it might be best to hurry him out of there so that the rest of us didn’t go hungry that night. Attempting to keep him busy and out of my hair (And food!) for long enough that I could cook a real meal for us all, I set Uncle Billy to work on a mission to program the VCR. Nobody can do that, so I figured that should give me atleast an hour or so before he realized the futility in his efforts and gave up.

Finally having a minute to breath, I thoroughly enjoyed the warmth of the stove and quiet tick of the clock, stirring a thick stew and simply appreciating the calm. Seeing that my concoction was nearly done, I went back to the laundry room where a few herbs were set to dry, and where I could gather some other seasonings ready to go. What I walked in upon was so disturbing, I very nearly spun around on my heel and closed the door without a word…

It was Uncle Billy, at it again, but this time he was munching on a sprig of raw sage. I kid you not. No one could be so hungry, not even if he had multiple stomachs! Maybe it’s time we invested in some locks for the cabinets, atleast for the time being…

I can’t believe there’s still so many days until Christmas. Now the stretch of time seems agonizing in comparison. I’m just hoping that we aren’t eaten out of house and home before then… Good luck to everyone else and your insatiable house guests!

Paging through one of the first Christmas-oriented baking catalogues a month ago, I found one recipe in particular that held my interest. Upon first reading the name and skimming through the list of ingredients, I thought to myself, “Could they have made it any more un-vegan? This is one of those things that I don’t think could ever successfully be veganized.” So I continued looking through the pages of useless cooking contraptions and increasingly repulsive recipes with this thought hanging in the back of my head. Reaching the back cover at last, I returned to this egg nog tea cake recipe (Eggs! Milk! Butter! The only thing that would have made it less vegan-friendly would have been bacon, perhaps!) and took a closer look. Why should this be any different from the other recipes I’ve converted in the past? It became a challenge I simply couldn’t turn down, so I took the bull by the horns and went for it.

My first change was in the final form it would take. I knew immediately that cupcakes would receive a much warmer welcome than some ugly, multiple serving loaf cake. Everyone deserves their own personal cake in the season of indulgence anyways, aside from the popularity of cupcakes in general. Making this conversion from an approximate total of two loaves yielded a copious amount of sweet cuppers; Exactly two dozen were to emerge from my oven from this one batch.

By no means is this recipe diet-friendly… But what good would anything egg nog be if it were ‘light’? I understand that it may appear to contain disturbing amounts of margarine and such, but just remember how many cupcakes this makes! It’s not so bad spread out, unless you find it hard to stop at one…

Not-Nog Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups Margarine
2 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Teaspoon Salt
6 Ounces Vanilla Soy Yogurt
1 Tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer
3 3/4 Cups AP Flour
2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Cups Silk Nog or Holly Nog

Begin by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and throw cupcake liners in to medium cupcake pans. Combine the Ener-G powder with a 1/4 cup of water and set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream the margarine with the sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt. Add your container of soy yogurt and beat thoroughly before introducing the egg replacer / water mixture shortly afterwards. It will probably be fairly lumpy at this point, but just make sure that you don’t have any obscenely large clumps of solid margarine and you should be fine.

Move over to a separate vessel for a moment and combine your flour, baking powder and soda before slowly adding these dry ingredients to the contents of the bowl waiting in your stand mixer. Doing this is batches is a good idea: Alternate pouring in more flour with the Soy Nog of your choice so that it doesn’t dry out. Be sure to fully incorporate each addition, but be careful to not over-mix.

Pour batter into the cupcake liners about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way full, slide into the oven and bake for 20 - 22 minutes. The cakes shouldn’t look browned, per-say, so keep a close eye on them and check for doneness using the toothpick method.

Topping

Ingredients:

2/3 Cup Margarine
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup Light Corn Syrup
Pinch Salt
2 Tablespoons Rum
1 Cup Sliced Almonds (Roasted, if desired)

In a medium sauce pan over medium/low heat, melt the margarine with the sugar and corn syrup and stir until everything is dissolved and no longer grainy. Bring up to a boil and continue to cook for several more minutes until the temperature reaches somewhere around 200 degrees. Remove pot from the heat and add in the rum and nuts, working quickly so that it doesn’t harden before making it to your cupcakes. Distribute evenly over the tops of each cupcake and allow to cool completely before serving.

Dear Mom,

As another birthday comes and passes, I just wanted you to know how thankful I am not only that we have an opportunity to celebrate another full and eventful year, but how meaningful it is that I could be here to join in. I’ve missed out on a lot these past years, including your actual birthday, but most of all, I’ve missed you.

Another year, another 52 weeks, another 365 days; However you want to quantify the time spent that has brought us to this point is unimportant. It’s what you’ve done and the memories of that time that will ever matter. It’s always a story unfinished, a work in progress, and for all my memories of the past and those to come in the future, I owe you my life. Of course, all daughters could say the same of all parents, but you’ve done more than your share to keep me a part of this world. Going above and beyond the call of duty, I don’t take for granted that you pressed on when so many others would have thrown up their hands and walked away. I wish I could have done something spectacular for your birthday, but I don’t think any expensive gift or ridiculous outing would have proven anything more than my genuine appreciation for your successful voyage across the seas of time.

This is getting a bit too mushy for me, so I think it’s time I cut my little monologue short and cut the cake instead.

I love you mom. Happy Birthday.

At this point, I can only imagine that my poor oven is about ready to go on strike. Groaning and rattling at every request for increased temperature, it has hardly had an hour to cool down. Walking into the kitchen, the atmosphere feels the same as walking across the equator, only drier heat and with sweeter smelling air by far. In the past three or four days alone, I’ve been working on cupcakes, brownies, birthday cake, gingerbread… And that’s not even half of what remains on my “to-bake” list. The next week will bring only more birdays, more holiday cookies, desserts for family dinners, all of which will be due on very inflexible deadlines.

I don’t mind the rush [yet], but the frenetic energy filling the house can sometimes cause small mistakes or simple oversights as one rushes to get everything done. Brain farts, if you will. The gingerbread I mentioned had been destined to become the structure of a small house, but in my haste, for some inexplicable reason I decided to use a brand new, untested recipe. Bear in mind, I do have a solid, tried and true method for crisp and delicious gingersnaps, perfectly suitable to be enlarged to create sturdy walls… But somehow I didn’t make that connection at the time. Suffice to say, the results were less than satisfactory, and my plans to build a cookie-based home will have to be put on hold until January when things calm down a bit. Such is life, although I won’t deny my disappointment by this twist of fate.

Trying to exist independly of my overworked oven for atleast one afternoon, I turned to a different tried and true method for gingerbread. Upon request, I revisited this pattern, but making small modifications to turn the faux-gingerbread man into a sweet little bear instead. All that was really necissary to complete the transformation was the addition of ears and a nose, but for some reason I find this second attempt somehow more endearing. I guess I really am more of an animal - person than a people - person.

Now if you would excuse me, I think I need to start pre-heating the oven…

When I participate in craft swaps, I’m usually most excited about choosing and creating special trinkets specifically designed for my partner to enjoy. Waiting to find out if they like what I send off to them keeps me on my toes from the day my box goes to the post office until I finally get word of its arrive. This time however, I must greedily admit that it was rather different the moment I heard that my partner this time around would be Michelle. After all of the anticipation, I discovered just the other day that my package had been accidentally been delivered to my neighbor. Weird, I know, but I didn’t give it a second thought once I realized what I treat I would soon uncover. Instantly tearing through layers of paper, cardboard and tape, I was thrilled to be unwrapping what could be considered my first holiday gift!

Understand for a moment that I never get very excited about ending up on the receiving end of any situation. I remember only two years ago begging my family not to buy me anything for Chanukah, not even a card, but that instead they could write me holiday wishes on scraps of toilet paper if they must. It’s not that I don’t love and appreciate getting things, recognizing the thought and hard work that goes into them, it’s just that I have difficulty accepting things. Clearly I’ve made good progress since that time based on my reaction to this package; I wanted it more than you could even imagine. I couldn’t possibly have opened it all fast enough, and what I found would leave me mesmerized for hours.

The first thing I pulled out of the box was this enticing package of vegan cookies, which I learned were locally produced, to boot! Chocolate espresso, I don’t think there were ever two flavors that were better paired together. Being quite the coffee fiend myself, it might be hard to share these if my family spies them hidden in the cupboard!

Mmm, an excellent accompaniment for the cookies - Cocoa spice rooibos tea, with what has to be one of the sweetest tea strainers I’ve ever seen. I immediately thought of a butterfly net upon grasping the handle, but this one is even better, because I would much rather catch pieces of loose tea than those fragile creatures! My imagination ran wild with this piece… I might end up finding a different use for it in the future. We’ll see what happens…

My mom was overseeing me revealing of the contents of the box at this point, and she got especially excited about this tea. She’s a big tea drinker herself but tries to stay clear of caffeine, which makes rooibos her usual tea of choice. I may have to jealously gaurd this to get even a cup for myself!

Oh, and such fine craft supplies! I’ve never even been able to find hemp in any of my local yarn or craft stores, so this was such a treat. I can barely keep my paws off it, but first I’m trying to finish off my current works in progress so that I don’t get too far behind my holiday gift schedule. If I’m not careful though, I might end up knitting it in my sleep; I just can’t get it off my mind! I want to wait until I find the perfect project though, so as not to waste this pristine skein.

I was very excited about the row counter in particular. It’s something I’ve been wanting for a long time, but not been able to commit any money towards it when I can just keep tallies on paper for free. This one is especially lovely, making use of the loops to count with gorgeous glass beads bringing the piece together. I never even mentioned my desire to possess such an object, so Michelle must have been reading my mind, or made an extremely good guess!

In such an adorable box that I couldn’t exclude it from the picture, there was also a small baggie of lovely, iridescent black beads. It’s hard to see from the above photo, but they really are breath taking in person. They inspire my to do more bead work, because it really has been a long time since my last piece…

Speaking of bead work, Michelle sent along even more inspiration in the form of a knitted wire bracelet with translucent brown and green fragments. So delicate and sophisticated, I can’t wait to get an opportunity to show it off - It will certainly match well with a lot of my clothes, as I tend to sport a darker palate. I must say, I really love the magnetic clasp, too… I need to find some of those for myself. So nifty!

Finally, as if that wasn’t enough, three adorable pins awaited me at the bottom of the brown cardboard box. I particularly love the lamb, but each of them is too cute to forget.

Oh, and I didn’t even mention the touching letter that she wrote me! It was so kind and personal, I felt as if she had known me for years. I don’t think I really deserved to be spoiled like this, but my goodness, how I loved everything that was sent my way! Thank you so much Michelle for being such an amazing partner, I couldn’t have even imagined a better conclusion to this swap. Maybe it’s a bit premature to even be thinking so far ahead, but if there were a second Vegan Pal Swap… Count me in!

According to the forecast only a night ago, I was under the impression that we were to expect flurries starting early in the AM, continuing through the morning commute, and later giving way to freezing winds. Excited as ever to witness the ephemeral fluffy stuff falling from the clouds, snapped awake early and tore away the covers at first light. Tripping over my own awkward feet, I rushed to the nearest window where I peered out and saw… Nothing. No snow. Not even clouds in the sky. What a complete disappointment!

This is already the second false alarm, but I really believed it would be different this time. It’s colder and well into the month of December, so the prospect of snow is entirely plausible. It would have been the perfect day for a delay or cancellation of school, since I was utterly unprepared for two tests that awaited me… I’m sure that alone influenced my rising hopes for a blizzard, but beyond that shallow motive, it’s seriously time for snow! What’s the hold up here?

Well, whenever the clouds finally decide to let loose its fine powder, atleast I know I’ll be prepared, along with my loved ones. Don’t tell, but this particular article of winter wear pictured above will become a holiday gift for a friend in a short couple of weeks. [Truly, it's more like days at this point!] While it’s nothing fancy, this comfortable hat is sure to protect those sensitive ears from the harsh conditions outside.

My hands are itching to knit more lace objects, but sadly, that won’t create such a functional garment when you’re facing temperatures in the single digits. Accepting that fact, the next best thing would be cable work, which provides sufficient interest to hold my attention long enough to knit a project through to completion.

From Stitch and Bitch Nation, the Basic Cable pattern is exactly as the title implies - Easy enough for a beginning knitter, but still capable of producing an attractive little cap. I love how fast it was to finish the whole hat as well, because as the resident knitter in my circle of friends, I feel as though it is atleast partly my responsibility to provide warm accessories so that no body freezes to death. With this pattern in tow, I could probably complete a dozen before the snow finally decided to grace our lawns with its presence.

Until then, I’ll just be looking towards the sky with needles at hand, waiting…