Soledad's Journal

Well, the last batch of biscuits is baked and the Great Christmas Baking Frenzy is finished - save for a bit of decoration I'll be doing in the weekend, that is. The final count is 42 sorts, 3 more I've decided not to make, for various reasons, and I'm truly relieved that it's done. A few days of peace before Christmas will be welcome.

It was a wild ride, though, which I've enjoyed enormously.

( And something behind the tag to get us into festive mood )

I sent the link to our choir leader who's just had complicated and very painful surgery a couple of weeks ago; she wrote me back that it was a true lifting of the soul for her. Wish the same for the rest of you folks. *hugs to everyone*

Ever heard about it? It's a method I developed to avoid waste when baking ungodly amounts and variations of Christmas cookies. I hate waste. I spent my childhood in quite unromantic poverty, so I was taught early on to be careful with foodstuffs. Grandma was fairly particular in this aspect - of course, without her financial acrobatics we wouldn't have had much to eat back then.

Anyway, it works like this. Let's say, I want to bake marzipan pretzels, like those below:



They are lovely, delicious, and a small amount of dough yields a great many cookies. Unfortunately, the ingredients, especially marzipan and eggs, aren't exactly cheap on these shores, and the double batch I baked (half of it for a colleague) requires 5 egg yolks but no egg whites.

So, what should I do with the egg whites? Simply throwing them out is out of the question - Grandma would come back from the afterlife and knock me out cold; besides, I hate waste, too. I could make meringues, of course, except that no-one needs so many meringues in a year; plus we don't like them because they're abysmally sweet and besides, I can never do them right.

The solution is to find a recipe that requires egg whites only, like the one below:



Which was the other thing I baked today while the dough for the marzipan pretzels was happily chilling in the fridge. Of course, the second recipe only required three egg whites, so I still had two left. I froze them in a small tinfoil dish and will thaw them out and use later, eventually. Perhaps our neighbour lady can teach me how to make a small batch of meringues, after all. Which I'll then take to school and feed to the kids during a visit.

In any case, I spent the whole morning in the kitchen and was too dead on my feet to do anything else. But I'll go out of the house tomorrow, yessss, precioussss, we will!

PS: Those of you who haven't heard yet Dan Vasc singing "I See Fire, should do so. I've listened to the original version and prefer his by far.

... and my heart is pulling me in opposite directions. On the one hand I'm immensely grateful that I no longer have to go through all that useless shit Boss Woman has put me through during the last decade and a half. That will be a delight.

On the other hand, I'm beginning to realise that I won't see my colleagues - most of whom I like very much - on a daily basis. My social life, such as it is, happened mostly at the workplace (unless LJ counts), and having that taken away will need a great deal of adjustment. I wish I had such long-time friends as Mum has, but my so-called friends only ever stayed in touch as long as they wanted something. I'll have to make conscious efforts not to become an hermit.

Fortunately, I'll remain a member of our choir, so that means meeting the girls twice a week, and that is something. But I had to confess that as much as I'm looking forward to leave Boss Woman and her tyranny behind me, I'm getting a tiny bit scared.

( And just to make us all feel better... )

Yep, I've crossed the two-week border, thank God. Of course, the last weeks manage to be insanely busy, as the replacement of my retired colleague (the one who refused to speak to me) managed to fall ill after a mere week at work, so we have to do his job as well. It's ironic, isn't it? During the last week of my colleague I had to do her work; during my penultimate week I have to work for her so-called replacement. *is pissed*

Also, another colleague who isn't a crafty person (to put it mildly) asked me to make some stuff for the charity fair with her 5th-term class. A good thing that my crafty projects are finished, so I could jump into this one headfirst. The kids were very enthusiastic - we're making little Christmas Elves out of used Nespresso capsules and pressed paper balls. So far they look good - and the girls are only coming next week!

I know I promised pics of the last Christmas-themed pocket letters but I was early out of the house and had a very stressful day. Tomorrow, I promise. Or, at the very last, during the weekend.

And, finally, some more Dan Vasc goodness. The link will take you to a playlist of 7 songs, all covers originally sung by female singers. His vocal range is truly amazing.