Soledad's Journal

So, I didn't go for the price-reduced bananas after all. When I got up I felt so flattened that I knew I wouldn't leave the house today. Instead, I took down the dried washing, gave Mum her weekly shower, washed my hair and - drumroll! - made a quick and easy peanut butter traybake. It was an interesting recipe, using mineral water in the dough, but turned out very tasty, even though the consistency was a bit odd. Too thick perhaps; I could barely smooth it in the baking tin. But the end result was very soft and crumbly, which is the best thing for Mum, so it's okay.

I'm afraid I was useless for the rest of the day, though. I took two hour-long naps, one in the late morning, one in the early afternoon (we had leftovers, so no cooking was required), solved half a crossword puzzle, wrote about two lines, and that was basically it.

We allowed us our daily dosis of "Richterin Barbara Salesch" via YouTube and I talked to my friend and former colleague Erna (our art teacher) on the phone to see how they had survived the school's annual Faschingsball, which used to be the lowest point of the year for me while I still worked. Thanks to retirement, I'm now spared that ordeal, but I feel for the colleagues who still have to go through it.

I made them. They are yummy - but not worth the four(!) hours of labour I had to put into them, including the preparations. I've never been this exhausted after baking, not even on days when I baked four to five sorts of Christmas cookies on a single day. So yeah, I'll stick to Black Forest Cake next time we get an appetite something in this flavour.

At least Mum loved them, so there's that.

So, I've gave the fancy ma'amoul recipe a try. Mostly because I had some date paste, ground walnuts and semolina flour that needed to be used up. Well... if I ever make ma'amouls again, I'll certainly return to the idiot proof Iranian version. These aren't bad per se, just not worth the effort that went with the making.

Not much else got done today. I called my cookie customers to tell them that I'm done and they can fetch their biscuits any time they want, watched some telly and was basically lazy for the rest of the day. Lazy is good. Especially when one doesn't need to cook. *g*

New week, more slave labour. *sigh* Mum checked her calendar and realized that it's (apparently) time to change the bedding. So we filled Louise the Elder with bed linens, pillow cases and the likes. Joy, joy.

I also went to the Auchan supermarket and managed to spend an ungodly amount of money. Well, Mum's Christmas present (two boxes of Lindor chocolate balls and a big box of Pocket Coffee) was included, as well as a jar of pistachio spread for me, so it wasn't really surprising. Two minor annoyances lit up my day (NOT): the wending machine for coffee had been exchanged for a new, shiny model that stubbornly refused to work, so no coffee for yours truly, and I managed to leave the big tub of fruit yogurt behind while trying to stuff everything I had bought into just two shopping bags, so that I could board the tram without too much difficulty. That was the yogurt I wanted to use for müesli. Now I had to sacrifice the tub of cinnamon-and-apple yogurt for the same, which is a sacrilege if you ask me, but there was no way around it. Damn my sieve brain! No surprising, though, I was still annoyed by not getting that coffee.

Anyway, we had leftovers for lunch, so after having started Louise, I had the time to glace and decorate my almond-poppy seed cookies from yesterday. They turned out really pretty. I might take a photo of them (and the pistachio stars) later, unless I forget it again.

So, that was basically it, a busy day, but at least a successful one. Tomorrow I'll make the flourless almond cookies, making a cooked chocolate cream filling for the first time in my life. I hope I won't butcher it, as I bought butter, for just this purpose (otherwise we use margarine for everything), and a whole Tafel of dark chocolate. *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.

I've made another two batches of Christmas cookies - I'm up to 12 now. You can check out the sticky post to see which ones. *g*

I also made shepherd's pie, which means I won't have to cook in the next two days, which is always a win. And we washed Mum's hair, which was long overdue, but it changes our morning routine, so we had to find the right day for it. Yes, we are a bit settled in our ways, how did you guess?

All this ate half the day. I took a nap in the afternoon, while Mum burned off her excess energy with the washing-up. We watched some telly then and were basically lazy for the rest of the day.

Cookie decoration will happen tomorrow. The Orangenbusserln don't have to be decorated, so I've boxed them right away when they had cooled completely. The ginger-walnut ones are not too many in numbers, so I can get creative with them in the next morning. *fingers crossed*

No matter how many times you've done it, there's no guarantees it will turn out well the next time. Last year (and the year before), when I made these nougat and cinnamon balls, they were perfectly round and smooth like a baby's bottom. Today, the dough broke every time I tried to shape it, and the pathetic little parcels I managed to form don't even resemble balls. I have no idea why - I did everything the same way as before. But that's cookie dough for you, unfortunately.

Other than the crippled little cookies, I made the grocery shopping that didn't get done yesterday, we had laundry day and I cooked lunch. I even squeezed in a bit of writing, but other than that I was pretty much flattened. Ah well, I'll decorate the cookies tomorrow and will cook for two days in advance so that I can bake the next two batches (different kinds) on Monday. *fingers crossed*

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.

So, today I finally sat down and crafted a preliminary baking plan for Christmas. Right now it contains 18 items, but knowing my own self there will be a few changes and perhaps additions as I go along.

So, planned are:
1) Cashew-coconut balls (an evergreen favourite for 5 years)
2) Cashew-walnut cookies (new)
3) Ginger cookies with nuts (not yet decided which ones)
4) Ginger hearts
5) Nougat cookies with almonds
6) Nougat-cinnamon balls
7) Toffee-Brazil nut cookies
8) Maple-Pecan biscuits
9) Chocolate-pistachio biscuits
10)Chocolate pretzels with pistachios
11)Marzipan pretzels
12)Orangenbusserln
13)Peanut butter cookies - done on November 9!
14)Maamouls with date filling
15)Kokosmakronen
16)Chocolate-Peanut cookies - Done on November 9!
17)Hazelnut biscuits with jam filling
18)Almond-poppy seed biscuits

#12, 15 and 16 are gluten free, so that my friend Evie can have her part of the yummy goodness.

I've made this cake today. Basically, it's an orange sponge (Grandma idiot proof recipe with orange flavour), vanilla custard (the other half of the custard powder that needed to be used up) and dried apricots (that had been soaked in baking rum and cut into tiny pieces, so that Mum could eat them). It doesn't look very impressive but it's absolutely delicious, and that is what counts, right?

I also made Shepherd's Pie, which means I won't have to cook in the next two days. Considering that tomorrow is cleaning day, that means a lot. And we had laundry days, so we're both suitably dead on our feet. I from baking, cooking and making the long overdue inventory of my baking ingredients, Mum from spontaneously washing up any dishes she could lay hand of. And today there were lots of dishes.

In the afternoon I called H; her eldest grandson turned 10 today and the youngest granddaughter will turn 6 tomorrow. Good grief, how did these kids grow up so quickly! As if it had been yesterday that Theo was born, and he's 10 already! And the girls will start school next year! The mind blows!

The rest of the day was spent in the usual catatonic state: some telly, some inane YouTube videos, some resting. We both needed to gather our strength for tomorrow.