Soledad's Journal

I've made the coconut-and-cashew cookies today. And the toffee-Brazil nut ones. Only that I used hazelnuts instead Brazil nuts because I got a 200-gram-bag of chopped hazelnuts from H. as part of my birthday gift, which spared me the effort of hand-chopping 100 grams of Brazil nuts. I really need to invest into a chopper; a good one. Chopping any kinds of nuts by hand takes forever and is a killer on the back.

Anyway, my cookies turned out very well (Mum approved of the samples) and half of them are boxed already. I love those recipes where the decoration happens before the baking, so as soon as the cookies are cooled they can be put away. For the other batch I'll have to brave the ladder and get my tin cookie boxes down from the highest shelf of the kitchen cupboard. I'll do it tomorrow when my legs aren't shaking from exhaustion; less chance to fall off the ladder that way. *g*

I also made a very cauliflower-heavy lunch today (noadvertising, close your eyes!): a cauliflower Strudel, and a vegetable soup based on the boiling water of said cauliflowers. So, counting in the leftover chicken paprikash from yesterday, I won't have to cook in the next two days, which is always a relief.

Surprisingly enough, the muse dropped by for a short visit, too. I'm well content with today's achievements.

After an exceptionally lazy day yesterday, when I didn't do anything else than making breakfast and supper (we had leftovers for lunch), today I was back in the thick of things.

Firstly, I went to the grocery shops because Lidl had very tempting offers. Bought three packages of chicken meat, two of specific mixes for chicken paprikas and one of chicken breast fillets. Then we did the laundry. Then I made the chicken paprikas for tomorrow, except the pasta. Then I somehow even managed to write a full page - I still don't understand how. I also took a nice, long nap before we watched the GBBO... and now the day is basically over.

But tomorrow I'll start the Christmas baking, yesssss, Precioussss!

Mum's results arrived today vie e-mail and they are very good. Only in two places does he have slightly elevated results, and even those are mild. I mean, a 9 above the ideal zone of 6-8 doesn't sound tragic. Her GP didn't sound the alarm, either, so things are good.

I also survived the big window cleaning action. This new cleaning lady seems nice and thorough, I hope she'll stay with us. Of course, the real hard part was the moving around of the furniture again, which is always my job, but at least the windows are all clean and she even washed the kitchen cupboard, which is also above my reach.

Naturally, I was quite dead for the rest of the day. At least we still had leftovers, so I was spared the cooking.

The one I made yesterday but didn't get around to take a pic. Here he is - actually a pencil holder, but one with a personality, methinks:



The light wasn't the best, his coat is actually a much darker, brighter red, but with today's weather it couldn't be helped.

Aside from my pitiful attempts as a photographer, I cooked for two days in advance (the next two days promise to be brutal) and cleaned and rearranged my pantry. Which, in our case, consists of only four shelves mounted on the wall in an otherwise completely useless niche. The architect planning these ten-storey concrete monstrosities clearly was a man who never had to cook. Imagine hundreds, no, thousands of flats without a pantry...

Today I've labelled all 24 of my spiced oil mini-bottles, plus the four spiced vinegar bottles. The vinegar still needs two weeks of setting, but all I still have to do is to fill it into the bottles. It is a true relief getting there.

In other news I've done the last leg of the big cleaning, and we had laundry day. Am dead. Deader than dead. At least I didn't have to cook today, which would have been just one step beyond my endurance. Yes, I'm lazy and spoiled, I know.

Oh, and I managed to do a bit of writing! That's the advantage of picowrimo session: it applies a bit of positive pressure on the lazy muses.

One of my young (ex-)colleagues called me today. It was really nice. Feels good that people still haven't forgotten me completely.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow when all I'll have to do is to cook. I think Topfenknödel will serve as lunch. We till have some leftover soup.

... which means central heating is shutting off automatically. Consequently we are freezing in the flat. 17-19°C are nice and good if you are outside and moving, which I did all morning, despite the strong wind, but not so much so when you're sitting within your four walls, doing very little in the way of moving. Especially Mum, for whom moving is a challenge in these days anyway. *sigh*

Aside from the weather, we were just home, being moderately domestic. I did the big grocery shopping in the morning - all morning, as I had to go to three different supermarkets, plus the pharmacy, the selective rubbish containers and the bottle bank, respectively, with increasingly heavy shopping bags. But I managed it valiantly and was home around 1pm. After which I had to put away the groceries (which took longer than the actual shopping... well, almost) and promptly decided not to wrap the remaining Christmas candy today. Instead, I put up my feet and watched stupid YouTube videos. I think I'm getting seriously addicted to the inane stuff. *is worried*

At least no cooking needed to be done today - nothing beyond instant soup, that is. I bought a Zwiebelkuchen at Lidl, which we had with the leftover spinach and that was it. More worrying is the fact that our trusty little coffee maker is about to give up its spirit. I know a shop where I might be able to buy a similar model, but even if I do, I won't get there before Tuesday. This is very inconvenient. The thought of living on Nescafé for four days, is positively frightening.

Well, that was it, basically. It seems I'm unable to do anything useful after a morning spent outside the house. Useful things will have to wait till tomorrow.

I intended to do the second part of the big cleaning frenzy tomorrow. After making the last two batches of Hungarian Christmas candy today I changed my plans. Tomorrow will be candy wrapping and perhaps some more minor crafting. And resting. On Thursday there will be the big weekly grocery shopping tour. On Friday, there will be resting and cleaning preps. And finally on Saturday - or on Sunday, for that matter - the cleaning will take place.

One has to know and respect one's limitations, after all. And I'm fairly dead at the moment.

So, basically all edible stuff for the fair is done. I also wrote the labels for the last batch of Christmas candy and sorted out the wrapping material available. Which, as it seems, won't be enough. I'll have to search my craft cupboard - a fairly intimidating task - for something, anything, to wrap the last 42 pieces of candy. I just hope I'll find it. I mean, I know there is stuff I could use somewhere - I just don't have the faintest idea where it is. If nothing helps, I'll have to buy some silk tissue paper at Pepco or Tedi on Thursday, but I hope it won't be necessary.

After things were done and the physiotherapist lady came and went, I made a few phone calls. Chatted with H and my friends Evie and Elise. So, there was also social life. I'm tired but content with my day.

Q: How many Vulcans are needed to change a lightbulb?
A: Two. One who changes the lightbulb and one who asks what's so funny about it.

Q: How many Romulans are needed to change a lightbulb?
A: 145. One who changes the lightbulb and 144 to restore the honour of the ship.

Me, I managed to change the lightbulb in the bathroom alone. Go me!
It's funny with these new, environment-friendly, energy-saving bulbs. The old ones simply burned out and went dark. These new ones loose luminosity gradually until all they can produce is a dim glow. Last night the bathroom had the atmosphere of some horror movie. *g*

Other than saving the honour of our ship, I went to Lidl today and actually found some Belbake orange peels. The lemon peels were already sold out for the time being; I hope they'll restock eventually because I need these things, big time. They are only available around Christmas (apparently, the end of October counts as pre-Christmas time now), but I use them all year long for baking. So, fingers crossed for the restocking.

We also had laundry day, postponed from yesterday when we weren't at home. Fortunately, I didn't need to cook: H. had packed us a good chunk of her yummy cheesecake, which we ate after a lunch of instant soup and sandwiches with our coffee. I made the labels for the ginger syrup bottles and for the spicy vinegar; all I'll have to do is to glue them on, once the vinegar has rested four weeks and is transferred to the bottles.

Other than that I spent the rest of the day lazing around, watching stupid YouTube vids and watching some telly. Oh, and I started emptying the balcony, as tomorrow there will be cleaning.

I've finally brought up the energy to make the spiced oil for the fair. It isn't a complicated process in itself: put the spices into the bottles, fill them with oil, screw on the lid and it's done. It was the sterilizing of the bottles that took time: first in boiling water and then drying them completely in the oven, otherwise the oil could get mouldy. Also, these were tiny little 50ml bottles, so that made things a bit complicated, considering the sausage fingers I'm "blessed" with. One lid broke a bit, which I fixed with super glue... getting half the stuff all over aforementioned sausage fingers. "Fortunately" I had a bigger bottle of which I had to scrub the label - with a metal mesh sponge, as these things are probably also glued on with super glue - and when I finished the job 40 or so minutes later, I had managed to scrub the glue from my fingers as a side effect. Life is fun. [insert sarcasm]

While working on the spiced oil bottles, I found three 100ml flat bottles I had forgotten about. These are the ones for ginger syrup. So I decided to make more ginger syrup, since I had some grated ginger in the freezer. Well... let me tell you, grated ginger isn't the right source material for this thing. It soaked up all the liquid, and I had a hard time to press as much of it as possible through a sieve. I also had to fill it up with lemon balm syrup, but even so, I only got enough to fill two bottles. Ah, well, perhaps later I'll make a tiny amount for our own use.

That pretty much ate my whole day. Luckily, we had leftovers from yesterday (honey chicken, parsley tomatoes and a mixed salad), so I didn't have to cook. Even so, the dirty dishes piled up in the kitchen. Mum, who insists to do the washing-up, was mildly shocked (even though I wash up everything I can during the process) but attacked the pile like a trooper. The funny thing is, she was more energetic than usual afterwards, even though she felt very tired.

Weather-wise we are having rainy days; only outside the flat so far; let's hope it stays that way. *fingers crossed* I'm still not happy about having to do the grocery shopping in rain tomorrow, and our excursion to H's place on Saturday would be also nicer in dry weather. But as long as the water stays outside I'm not complaining (too much).

... because today was really slow, with only mundane things to fill it. I like mundane. Mundane is safe.

Anyway, it started with H. calling us to postpone our visit to Saturday because the younger generation (my goddaughter, her hubby and the two kids) will be home on Saturday and so they can take us home after our visit. Meaning that we won't have to take a cab and thus save a batch of money. It was nice of them to offer, and so we agreed. In this way I can work on H's birthday gift some more: print out more recipes, add more decorations and all that.

Also, the physiotherapist lady had called yesterday if she could come today as she had to reorganize her schedule due to the upcoming national holiday. We said yes. It is actually a good thing for me as this way we can have lunch tomorrow at the usual time before I'd leave for choir practice.

I cooked for two days tomorrow: Tunfischauflauf, which is a casserole dish made of canned tuna, canned sweet corn, chopped tomatoes and grated cucumber, with a cheesy bechamel sauce poured over them and the whole thing baked in the oven. Yum! Also: no cooking tomorrow, yay!

Other than that, I was lazy today. I watched some YouTube videos, took a nap, watched some telly, and now I'm about to type up and print out some more recipes.