Soledad's Journal

It was an... eventful day. I had to get up at stupid o'clock to hop over to Lidl, since they had finally stocked up on grated lemon and orange peels and I had to get those before my generation (the only one still having time and energy for baking) snatched them away. I bought ten little packages of each; not that I'd need so much for the rest of the Christmas baking, but I use them all year long, and pre-Christmas is the only time thy are actually available, at least over here.

( And then the drama started )
When I finally got down (having done some more food shopping and visiting a craft shop), we ate the leftovers, and I intended to take a nice, long nap. Halfway into it, my friend Evie called and reminded me that she will come tomorrow and ferry my remaining wares to school. This had been the original agreement, but since we never discussed it since then, I thought she had forgotten about it (she had lots of school- and family-related stress lately). Clearly, she had not. So I called Eenie and told her the good news that she wouldn't need to pick me up tomorrow, which was a relief for her. She would have done it, but she'll have a tightly packed day tomorrow, so it's good that she wouldn't have to come my way, too.

Two more day till the fair. I'm very excited. I hope my stuff will sell like hot buns. *fingers crossed*

... among other things. I actually started with the grocery shopping, during which Mum was soaking our unmentionables. She insists on doing so - apparently, Louise the Older (=washing machine) won't clean them thoroughly enough otherwise. Ah, well, jedem das Seine (oder Ihre), as the Germans would say.

After a late breakfast we put Louise to work and I started decorating the last batch of this week's cookies. They are really, really pretty. I must not forget to take pictures (unlike last week). I'm so happy with the outcome!

No cooking was done - we had leftover carrot soup and I bought doughnuts at Lidl. That was more than enough. Even so, it was almost 5 o'clock when I finished my decorative efforts and had Louise emptied, too. After which I took a nap. A short one but a nap nonetheless, which elevated my mood considerably. Plus, I didn't fall asleep repeatedly during the GBBO, which happens when I don't get my afternoon nap. *g*

So that was, basically, it. Tomorrow I'll add some last details to my cookies, fill my spicy vinegars into their 200ml flagons and everything will be done for the fair.

... was a blast. Granted, I didn't follow the method description entirely because the chicken thighs I bought were quite large and I was afraid they won't get tender enough that way. So I fried them first the same way I'd do for chicken paprikash and returned to the recipe after that. But the meal proved excellent. Mum was impressed. Plus, we have enough leftover so that I won't have to cook tomorrow, freeing me up for baking, which is a double win.

Planned are the ginger hearts and the nougat cookies tomorrow and another version of Orangenbusserln for the day after. We'll see how much I'll manage.

Not much else happened today. Cooking took all morning; I also performed small kitchen tasks like grating zucchini and putting away stuff that had been waiting to be done for days. We watched some telly and H. called; we discussed Christmas baking for about half an hour. She's an avid cookie baker, too. *g*

As for writing, no actual words today. But I was toying around with an idea that had occurred to me last night - for a later installment in the EMV series.

I did the big grocery shopping. It took me the entire morning - two separate tours - and I actually enjoyed it, as always. Mary Berry's easy, creamy Tuscan chicken is definitely happening on Wednesday; I got all the ingredients, even the baby spinach. Yay! It's a good thing that the weather is so reasonably cold at the moment; I can store a lot of things on the balcony when the fridge is full.

Right now, it's raining, but a slow, mild rain that (hopefully) remains outside. *fingers crossed*

I didn't do anything else today. Shepherd's Pie leftovers got postponed for tomorrow. We ate soup (also leftover from yesterday) and some scones I bought during my second shopping trip. Then I was just lazy.

Also, no writing today. I originally wanted to type up some of the hand-written stuff but time somehow drifted away from me. Ah, well, fortunately I don't have a deadline.

We both are. Mum had one of those nights when she wakes up every hour for no reason; and me, I woke up about four times in six hours - also not very relaxing. I don't know why it happens sometimes, but we are suitably dead on our feet on the next day.

Accordingly, we only did what was absolutely necessary today. Meaning laundry, since it's Saturday, and I decorated the ginger-walnut biscuits. They turned out really well, every bit as pretty as I had hoped. Tomorrow, if there's enough light, I'll take some pictures.

And that was basically it. We ate leftovers, watched some telly, took naps that weren't enough by far... that sort of thing. We are still terribly sleepy, though. *yawns*

I took my spiced oils to school in the morning because weather forecast promised rain for the early afternoon. It turned out a lucky decision, as our art teacher is ill and wouldn't be at school in the afternoon. But this way I could place my wares with the rest and be done. Everything else needs cold storageing and can only be taken in on the day of the fair.

We had leftover soup and salad and I bought a Zwiebelkuechle on my way home, so no cooking was necessary. Instead, I took a nice, long nap - one that lasted an hour and a half and I was still half-asleep from for another thirty minutes afterwards. *g* We then had lunch, watched some telly, I called our art teacher to see what ails her, and prepared things for tomorrow's baking session.

That included climbing a ladder (albeit a short one) to get my cookie cutter collection off the pantry shelf - well, the Christmas half of it. I really need to count how many of the things I have one day and perhaps dispose of the ones I basically never use. But I have an inordinate fondness for cookie cutters. ;)

So, that was my day, with a tiny bit of writing squeezed in before my nap. I'm content with it.

Right now it's 3°C outside. It seemed warmer from within because the weather was nice and sunny, so I almost left for choir practice with my lighter waistcoat. Fortunately, I told myself that I can always take off the thermal one if it proves too much - but I couldn't put on something else if the one I'm wearing doesn't prove enough. So I left wearing the thermal waistcoat and was grateful for my foresight. It was nice indeed but really chilly.

I still don't like our Christmas concert programme, even though I've got a small part of contralto solo in Coventry carol. The only piece I really really love is Panis Angelicus - that piece nearly makes me cry every single time. I miss German Christmas songs from our repertoire. Our school specifies in teaching German, so it would be only fitting, but for some reason our choir leader believes that German isn't a language fit for music. Eenie (who is also a German teacher) and I disagree but we don't make the decisions. Too bad; Maria durch ein Dornwald geht and Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen, for example, are stunning in multivocal version. :(

Anyway, not much else happened today. Mum had a visit from the physiotherapist lady, I decorated my Ingwerkracher and put them out onto the balcony, so that the icing can harden before I put them into boxes... and that was basically it.

... hadn't been planned. I originally wanted to decorate and box my rebellious cinnamon and nougat cookies, cook for two days in advance and measure the ingredients for the marzipan pretzels and the two different kind of meringue-based cookies (Kokosmakrönchen and Ingwerkracher, respectively) that I had planned to bake tomorrow.

After I had cooked the rice, chopped the chicken breasts and grated the zucchini for the stir-fry, though (a modified Mary Berry recipe), I decided to go on with the baking. Tomorrow I'll have to do some more grocery shopping, plus I have to try and fetch Mum's medicine that I hadn't got in the pharmacy where I usually go, and I imagined how nice it would be to just rest after that. So I went on straight with the baking.

The meringues were easy as always. But shaping 83 pretzels by hand seemed a gargantuan task, so I asked Mum if she felt like helping with it. She did. So I dragged our highest chair from the study to the kitchen, further elevated it with two pillows (necessary for Mum to be able to stand up from the chair) and we went to work.

Of course, Mum had never before shaped pretzels by hand. For the savoury version she once used to make, she had a cookie cutter. It took some time till she got the hang of it (I had to reshape the first dozen or so pretzels), but in the end she got really good at it. We were done in less than an hour, including baking the first two tins. Yay!

So, now I am done with half the planned Christmas baking (save for a bit of decorating tomorrow or the day after) and really proud of myself.

That is what today was: restful. I originally intended to do the grocery shopping, perhaps even a bit more baking, but when I got up I was completely lethargic. By the time I've made the bed and prepared the bathroom for use, I realized none of those was going to happen. So I put the street clothes I had already laid out away again and decided to be lazy all day. Clearly, I had overdone things in the last two weeks.

So I did - basically nothing all day. Nothing save for the usual Mum duties, for putting the last batch of cookies into their tin boxes, for a tiny bit of writing and making carrot cream soup for lunch. I did have two naps, an extended one for almost two hours and a short one of about half an hour, and now I feel almost human again. The rest of the day was spent with watching crap telly and the usual stupid YouTube videos.

It might seem like a completely wasted day. But it put me onto the map again, and honestly, it felt very, very good.

Which will be the main event for the upcoming week, I'm afraid. I've made maple-peanut cookies today and pistachio-chocolate ones. The latter need to be decorated tomorrow, but when that's done, I'll have 1/3 of the planned baking behind me already.

Not much else happened. The day flies by when you have to chill five different portions of dough in-between actually working on the things. I did a tiny bit of writing, watched some crap telly and a few YouTube videos, talked to my friend Evie on the phone and that was basically it. Especially as I discovered a forgotten portion of cookie dough in the fridge while preparing supper, so I had to switch on the oven again... As the Germans would say, "Alter schützt von Torheit nicht", aka, old age doesn't prevent you from being stupid.