Soledad's Journal

I was very effective today baking-verse, despite the fact that I started after noontime, since Mum and I made our weekly trip to the corner café first. Fortunately, I'm usually well-prepared, and so was it today. I did all the measuring, the mixing of dry ingredients, etc, yesterday evening, laid out the necessary utensils and all that, so I could start right away.

Which means that I'm almost done. I've baked everything - and St. Honoré was looking down at me graciously, since everything turned out fairly well - all that's left to do is to fill the flower-shaped biscuits with jam. I decided to leave that for tomorrow, after I've done the grocery shopping. I might even make some savoury scones for ourselves; after all that sweet stuff it would be nice. But I'll skip that if I feel too tired tomorrow.

Not much else happened. It was well beyond 3pm when I finished baking, and for a while all I could do was vegetating in front of the telly. But having succeeded gave me a lot of energy, so I'm looking forward completing the task tomorrow.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was giving the piping bag another try... this was, if I'm not mistaken, the second or third try in my entire life. And, like before, I failed spectacularly. My dough was a bit too hard, so I couldn't even squeeze it through the dratted thing. I then switched to those plastic syringe things you fill doughnuts with. In theory, that ought to have worked - only that my gizmo proved faulty and the cap sprang off of it about three or four times by every single cookie. It was a hard and frustrating struggle; in the end, I threw it aside and formed the last six cookies by hand and made swirls on their surface with a fork.

These are the results.

As you can see, they are extremely uneven and rather shapeless. At least they are yummy, although if I ever make them again, I'll leave out the butter cream and only fill them with jam. Butter cream isn't my thing - way too sweet.

I spent the entire morning (up to 2pm) struggling with the things. Thank God I didn't have to cook, as we had leftovers, so I could collapse after lunch in peace. An hour-long nap was necessary after all that struggle. I did a tiny bit of prep work with my felt rests, but other than that it was telly and recovering. *g*

BTW, should the actual picture not show on Pinterest, click on the "show larger" button, and it will show up in all its lopsided glory.

My friend Eenie supplied a jar of peanut butter for the Christmas baking, to help with the costs. Only that it was a 375gr jar - and I needed 50gr of peanut butter for the cookies. Poor opened jar had been waiting patiently in the fridge for a purpose, until I realized that it would reach its "best before" date on April 30. So, last night I surfed the 'Net for peanut butter recipes and, among others, I found this one. So I gave it a try. Since the peanut butter I had was smooth, I added some leftover homemade hazelnut Krokant for the crunchy texture and sprinkled the chocolate on top with the other half of it.

The peanut butter slices turned out heavenly. They remind me a bit of Halva, which I love, only softer, more crumbly. The fact that they don't need baking only added to their attraction. However, they are also rather rich; the two of us alone could never have eaten them. So I offered a third of them to our neighbour, who happily accepted. Having two adolescent kids to feed is hard work, I guess. *g*

Not much else happened. I skipped choir practice because I was tired from yesterday and totally unmotivated. But I did make another pincushion; only three more to go. I took Mum out for a short walk, and I talked to Ilonka (a former colleague, now also retired) and to H. on the phone. And I took a nap. So, all in all, it was a good day.

Well, not real blues, not exactly. Just lots of nervous tension, not knowing what to expect from tomorrow. I've emptied the balcony, putting everything out onto the corridor, so that one can actually move around (I can with most of the stuff still there, but a stranger might not), did the same in the kitchen, Mum did something similar in the living room, and I'll do what still needs to be done in my bedroom and the study/workshop/whatever, still called Granny's room. And then we wait. (I hate waiting!)

At least I did get an idea that allowed me to finish Chapter of "Hunter, Prey", and I also did some crafting. I repurposed the failed pincushion to a felt gift box that will serve well around Easter, or so I hope.

H. called in the evening, so there was family life as well. I just wish we had Monday afternoon already, so that I'd have the cleaning - with or without help, we'll see - behind me. *sigh*

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the recipe of the poppy seed-almond-lemon cake I baked yesterday, it's here.

And here is a suggestion how to gift-wrap them.

Both are in German, but I guess other people are better with Google translate than I am. The recipe is from a booklet called "Geschenke aus der Küche" (=gifts from the kitchen), which I bought in Vienna ages ago and totally forgot about. There are some other things I'll try out, I think.

So, I've made the meringue cookies, and they were every bit as yummy as I remembered from my childhood, when Granny used to make them.

Look at this:



Aren't they cute? I used a simple teaspoon instead of a piping bag (I'm hopeless with those), but the results are nearly the same, I find. Mum was very happy with them and sampled them copiously, so I'm happy, too. I'm always happy when something appeals to her; she's way too thin, despite having a reasonably good appetite.

We also had laundry day, and I've finished another lavender sachet and sewn on the felt appliqués to another two. We watched "The Repair Shop" around noon and "Salvage Hunters - The Restorers" in the afternoon, and that was basically it. A good day.

Still exhausting, but at least more fun. It did include some me-time, after all.

So, we had laundry day and Mum insisted on ironing the starched doilies and doing the washing-up two or three times (she can't resist when she sees as much as a coffee cup in the kitchen sink), but it wasn't all that bad. I managed to finish one lavender sachet and stitched on the felt appliqué on another one. This is a project with a December deadline, so I can take my time.

I also managed to do some writing that I've been pushing farther and farther in front of me for weeks. It's a necessary but somewhat boring part, where I try to deliver a massive infodump in a manner that wouldn't cause any potential readers to fall asleep. Still not sure I've manage it, but at least I have a draft now.

Then I baked a... well, a traybake perhaps, using ready-made puff pastry, custard powder and some canned peaches that needed to be eaten before reaching their BBF date. Sadly, I managed to bake the pastry too dark and to nearly burn the custard, but the outcome was still yummy, so I declare that a success. *g*

In the meantime Louise Sr. (the washing machine) has rune her cycle, so I had to hang up the washing. Then we watched two consecutive episodes of "Salvage Hunters - The Restorers", after which I fell asleep for an hour. Clearly, that was badly needed.

I then switched my desktop PC on to type up some more of Chapter 2 of EMV III, but my friend Evie called right after I had begun, so I didn't get the whole thing done, despite not being much left. But I don't mind; talking to a friend is always lovely. The transcribing can be finished tomorrow.

I didn't sleep well last night. Partly because I got so worked up about the insurance lady, partly because I watched tv for too long ("The Elephant Hospital" anyone) and probably overtaxed my poor, old eyes. In any case, it took me time to fall asleep, dreamed stupid things and woke up at least three times during the six and a half hours my night lasted.

I was accordingly dead today. Fortunately, the only actual work to do was the laundry (which was mainly done by Louise the Elder, I just had to hang up the washing afterwards) and to make Tütensuppe for lunch. We ate the other half of the cheesecake (it was just a small cake) for seconds, so it was okay.

I've worked a bit on Emma, the second baby elephant, watched "Salvage Hunters" and took three(!) short naps during the day, about half an hour each. Well... I did lie down but couldn't really sleep. At least my poor eyes could rest a bit. I also treated them with eye drops and eye salve, so they feel more like eyes and less like pieces of scratchy, glowing glass now.

Tomorrow I'm planning to bake walnut cookies with caramel cream filling, so I've dug out my molds and washed them (all 50 of them), since they haven't been used for... I can't even remember for how long. I think Grandma was still alive when I last gave them a try (and she died in 1996!). But now I've found a nice and easy recipe on YouTube and will try it out. I still have some 3-year-old walnuts in the freezer that need to be used up, and a jar of caramel cream I bought at Aldi a year or so ago, so it's a win-win situation: I get to bake and I can declutter my pantry and freezer a bit.

Now I only need to come up with an idea about what to cook together. Preferably something for two days, as on Monday I'm expecting the financial consultant guy, and - unlike the insurance lady - he's proved very reliable so far. He'll come around 11.30, so cooking would be a bit problematic on that day.

We had laundry day, which always means a lot of moving things around - Louise (our washing machine) opens on the top, and said top has all sorts of things stored upon it during the week. It would have been the day for Mum's weekly shower as well, she didn't feel like it. The recent warm front and then wet weather was bad for her joints; she's a bit down at the moment.

We had the last of tomato soup and spanakopita for lunch; I also made a Quarkkuchen (=German-style cheesecake) with raspberries for afters. It's the world's easiest recipe, with minimal fat and sugar content and quickly made, not to mention delicious. Mum was in a much better mood afterwards. *g*

No more decluttering today; I felt horribly tired all day, but every time I decided to take a nice, long nap, Mum discovered something on the TV that we both like watching; "Richterin Barbara Salesch" and "Salvage Hunters - The Restorers", in particular. So, I only got a fairly short nap afterwards, which was by far not enough. Getting old is no fun. *sigh*

At least my little monkey boy/rag doll is making progress. He has now his head and both arms firmly attached (well, the head is a bit wackelig), so I can move on to the trousers next. Still no idea how I'll manage the shoes and the cap, but I'll try.

And now I'm going to post the first chapter of EMV II to AO3.

This was a fairly successful day. I've managed to decorate my Almond and poppy seed biscuits and my Orangenbusserln, which are, basically, shortbread cookies with finely chopped aranzini, orange peel and orange juice in the dough.

I wanted to make them look a bit like the mandarin oranges they sell together with leaves (I never buy them because, honestly, they are expensive enough without paying for the weight of additional inedible parts, but they look pretty). Obviously, I failed. But it was a heroic attempt; not to mention fiddly.

At least the poppy seed biscuits turned out really pretty. This ready-made icing I had bought might have been outrageously expensive (well, it was), but it has the lovely metallic effect the package promised, so I don't mind the price.

In other news, LJ support answered my mail. They extended my paid account by 3 months and suggested ways I might be able to use to pay in the future, as they won't be able to make such gifts again and again. That's fair. I'll ask someone who's better versed in financial things for help, now that I've got 3 months to do so. I won't re-upload my deleted icons before the whole thing got fixed for good, though.

The rest of the day was spent with boxing the biscuits, cooking lunch, completely rearranging the flat for tomorrow's cleaning frenzy (after which I'll have to undo the whole thing again, but that can't be helped) and a nice, one-hour nap around midday. I even managed to write my obligatory couple of sentences half an hour ago, so everything is done for the day.

Blogging-wise Advent is a really easy time because a) I don't have to think of a subject line for 4 entire weeks and b) I can use the same icon for all those 4 weeks. What can I say? It's balm for my tired mind not to have to decide these two things every day. *g*

Today was another one of those "let's scandalize Grandma" Sundays, as I had a lot of work to do.

( More baking stuff under the cut )

So, this was another busy Sunday. We didn't forget that it was the 1st of Advent, too. I took down the ragged old Advent wreath from the wardrobe, together with the Nativity scene (complete with illumination and a music box) that we had bought in Graz countless years ago, and even lit a candle. Oh, and hung the fairly bizarre Santa head that I made of an old CD on the entrance door, so I'd say we're suitably Christmassy all right. *g*