Pondering the world

Happy Valentine's Day!

Year of the Dragon--Chinese New Year 2012

Just in case you didn't get enough celebrating, Chinese New Year starts on January 23rd in 2012--the year of the dragon.

There's all kinds of fun stuff out thereabout Chinese New Year--clip art, cards, games, puzzles, recipes, and much more. Go wild--make your own fortune cookies! Spend an evening's intellectual stimulation to learn about something new. It looks like there will be several celebrations here on January 28th, so maybe we'll get to see a lion dance this year. Albuquerque has a fair-sized Chinese population, although not nearly as large as Portland or, of course, San Francisco. Some day I'll go there and get the full Chinese New Year experience.

Until then, I wish everyone "gung hey fat choy," hoping that is a close approximation to Happy Chinese New Year! (If that's not what it says.... sorry.)

 

 

experiments in fruitcake--the results are in

Some fruitcake is definitely better than others, even from the same batch. Testing the results of three fruitcakes done slightly differently felt like Goldilocks--this one is too dark, that one is way too dark, and this one is just right.

Baking for an hour and thirty minutes was good. The extra 15 minutes on the second one proved to be just a little too much. And brushing with honey and baking the full two hours on the third just made sure the raisins were nearly burned and bitter.

Soaking with brandy for the full month is crucial. Dampen cheesecloth, wrap up the fruitcake in it, wrap the whole thing in foil. Repeat every four days for a month. Otherwise, just take that dense block and use it as a doorstop.

Christmas has left the building

Today is January 6th. It's the 100th birthday of the State of New Mexico. It's Three Kings Day. It's also the day I put all the Christmas decorations away.

We're a little late this year. Usually we take everything down on New Year's Day, but we've been installing flat-panel televisions and completely repainting one of our rooms, so the Christmas un-decorating was a bit delayed.

What's amazing is how long it takes me to put up the decorations (4-5 days) but only one day to take them down. I spent 30 minutes carefully arranging the silk poinsettias in six planters up the front steps, but it only took about two minutes to yank them out. (Except last year--it rained and then froze, so I had to take the pots inside to thaw out before I could take them out. Then they were muddy.)

Back to life as normal. We'll get back to painting and cleaning and getting the yard ready for spring, and Santa can get back to whatever it is he does the rest of the year. Which apparently involves Hawaii.

 

shotgun shell decorations for Christmas

I love themed stuff. Whatever your hobby or interest, you can work it into your decor, even your holiday decorations. This shotgun shell wreath (with instructions!) is on instructables.com.

I was searching for "Christmas tree stars" for another project and found this treetop star made of used shotgun shells in a post about weird tree ornaments.

I don't remember all the words, but when I was a kid, we sang a variation on a well-known Christmas song:

"Jingle bells, shotgun shells,
rabbits all the way..."

I LIKE the White House Christmas card

Maybe it's because I'm a fan of dogs. Maybe because this is a lovely room. Maybe because it looks peaceful and cozy. Maybe because it has a fireplace (I don't have a fireplace.)

Actually, the "card" I liked better was a parody on a political news show that pictured Bo, the First Dog, in a friendly pose with the caption "Bo Humbug." I like it!

December 25th is a hard deadline

Either you make it or you don't. Your gifts are purchased, wrapped, mailed and cards are in the mail--or not. There's a little flexibility--"well, I mailed them but they didn't quite get there on time because..." or whatever this year's reasonable excuse is.

Years ago, I was really on top of things. I actually started thinking about Christmas gifts in September, buying and wrapping in October, writing and addressing Christmas cards in November, and having everything mailed out the week after Thanksgiving at the latest. Somewhere along the way, life got more complex and the Christmas deadline less important in the grand scheme of things. Now everyone expects things from me to be late. I'm pretty sure of that, anyway. I'm batting a thousand for birthdays this year--I've been late for every one of them.

Maybe the hard date of December 25th is like the Pirates' Code:  "more like guidelines, actually."

Best gingerbread house ever! (The Burrows (Weasley family house from Harry Potter)

I had a little time to cruise the Instructables site and found the best gingerbread house ever--The Weasley family home, "the Burrows," from Harry Potter. It doesn't have any icing, gumdrops or any of that other stuff, and it looks so real! The creator has an amazing blog, A Can of Crafty Curiosities, with lots of great crafts and lovely drawings.

This one has my vote for best gingerbread house of 2011!

experiments in fruitcake

The fruitcake recipe made three 9x5 loaf pans, enough to conduct a little experiment. The recipe called for baking for 90 minutes, glazing with honey and baking for another 30 minutes. On one of them I did that, even though I'm not a big honey fan. That one came out rather dark on top. I also wondered if that was a little too much baking time. (Would it be too dry? Silly question--see comment below. If I were a little more scientific, I would have used my instant-read thermometer to check on the internal temperature, but I forgot.)  I baked the second fruitcake for only 90 minutes and skipped the honey. I baked the third fruitcake for an hour and 45 minutes and skipped the honey. All of the fruitcakes are wrapped in brandy-drenched cheesecloth and get re-soaked every four days. Each is labeled and we'll do a taste comparison among the three.

If you've ever thought about tasting fruitcake when it comes out of the oven--before it's been moistened with brandy for a month--don't! It's a lot like the hardtack carried on sailing vessels, which needed to be soaked in rum to be edible. After being wrapped in brandy-soaked cheesecloth for 10 days, it's already becoming the fruitcake I love.

I'll let you know the results of the experiment. Or maybe I'll just eat them.

when Christmas takes a bite out of you

I've been testing gingerbread man cookies.  While cruising through Now We're Cooking  the other day, I found these novelty cookie cutters.

Sometimes Christmas feels like this. If the poor guy without a head is "Fred," what's the name of the other two? And ABC doesn't mean what you think it does--it's "already been chewed."

Maybe I don't really need the specially shaped cookie cutters--the regular intact gingerbread man cookie cutter will do. Then I could just bite off an arm, leg, or head and decorate appropriately.

Did I just say "bite?" I meant "cut."  Of course I did ....