Weekend of baking

That was mostly what I did this weekend. It was good. I needed it.

This is the finished cookie plate; this is half (or slightly fewer) of each batch of cookies (I made five)



Clockwise, from top right:

Amish apple-butter bars

Chocolate sables, dipped in melted Ghirardelli white-peppermint chocolate

Brown sugar blondies with caramel chips

Pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies

Mint meltaways

I think my favorites are the chocolate sables, with the pumpkin ones a close second. (The blondies are the least good - too sweet for my taste).

These will go over to my department, and most of the rest of the cookies (I will extract a few for my own use) are going to be packed up and frozen down at church. I mentioned my idea of doing that to the secretary (who is also partly in charge of procuring food for the Jesus' Birthday Party thing) and she was excited when I said I'd have leftover cookies. I only dipped the sables I'm taking over to school; I think I will come down a bit early next week and do the rest out of the freezer. (I wasn't sure how well the chocolate would freeze)

The sables are very good and I always forget how easy refrigerator cookies are - once they're chilled you just slice them, and there's no mess. I also realized this go-round how good it is to use a hand-mixer (I don't have a stand mixer, no room, but the little plug-in hand mixer works fine) to beat up the butter and sugar and eggs. And then I switch to a large spoon to work in the flour....It's less hard work to beat up the butter with the electric mixer.

The sables did seem a little plain, and I had bought a bag of the peppermint-white-chocolate Ghirardelli chunks and didn't know what to do with them, and I had the idea of dipping the sables in them:



One of the better random ideas I have had; they look fancier and they taste good with the peppermint on them.

I also baked a cake for Monday's CWF potluck. This is the good old Maraschino cherry cake that my mom used to make quite frequently. (in a half-quantity - to make one cake layer - she would often make it along with two layers of Wellesley Fudge Cake and make a chocolate-cherry-chocolate layer cake for people's birthdays.). I'm going to put cream-cheese frosting on it.

And so it looks more Christmassy? I went out and bought some of those "peppermint leaf" jelly candies, and I'm going to arrange them to look like clusters of holly leaves with cherry "berries" on the top of the frosting. (That's like things my mom used to come up with to decorate cakes simply).



I'm going to frost it tomorrow; the frosting will be fresher if I do it that way, and I will know the cake is completely cool so the top won't tear.

I also wrote out many of my cards and got my "Bunny Staplus" (a holiday-card tradition that the CPAAG group on Ravelry does; it's meant to be a "non specific winter holiday" for those who celebrate Hanukkah* or Solstice or something else)

(*Though I think one year when I got someone I KNEW for sure observed Hanukkah, I tracked down a Hanukkah card for her).

And I got a few others for blogreaders ready to go out. If I've not sent you a card before and you'd like one, I would be happy to send one, just e-mail me your address. I even have a few "international" stamps left (three, I think, after I found out I needed one for the Canadian card) so I could easily send to overseas.

 And this came yesterday:



I ordered this wreath from AtomicCowgirlVintage on Etsy. It came fast. It's similar, but not identical to, one my mom had for years (hers was larger and the plastic was thicker on the leaves). A couple years ago it blew down off the garage where she had it hanging and it broke. It made me sad to see it thrown out and something that is Very Much Me is that I like to buy versions of things I knew as a child because in some weird way it makes me feel secure.

I took down the weird tinselly wreath I had up there (came from Lowe's several years ago). Not sure where I will put that one, if I put it anywhere in the future. (Some people put cheap weatherproof wreathes on their car's grilles but that's not really me)

I also laugh because that's the most "farmhouse aesthetic" type photo (or maybe "hipster") photo I have ever taken, with the cracked paint on my front door (It needs to be repainted, but I'm not sure how it would be done - it would have to be done in a day because I canNOT imagine sleeping in a house overnight with just the storm door - which really doesn't lock securely - between me and a world of randos).

I think I needed this weekend to bake. I joked on Twitter that "baking your feelings" (and then taking the baked goods to share with other people) is probably preferable to "eating your feelings" (which I am sometimes inclined to do). It was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster; being angry Friday over all the various things at work, and then a little lonely on Saturday (I didn't see anyone except the checkers at the grocery) and then a little sad today...hearing about Caroll Spinney's death, and Rene Auberjoinois', and also I can't remember what exactly it was now but something this morning reminded me very much of my dad and I was sad all over again. But keeping busy helps.

And I am posting this again, there's a thing going 'round on Twitter about "post a baby photo of you that has the Same Energy as adult you" and while I don't have a *lot* of photos of me (and really no true baby photos; my mom has some but I find the photos of me as a kid, where I am old enough to remember the occasion appeal to me more). But this is the one I have fast access to that is the one that I think is the most "same energy" to me as an adult:

Another one that would work, but I don't have a copy of it, is one of my brother and me peering into the jar where our newly-emerged Monarch butterfly is getting ready to take off and leave.

And next week....well, next Monday evening I will be on a northbound train. And it seems like my mom is up for doing the full Christmas this year even if it's just me and her (she called me today to ask if I objected to her putting the lights out on the front bushes before I got there and I said no, I didn't care, do it while the weather is still good). I guess maybe she's doing like I am - keeping busy and trying to do the happy things, so as to avoid thinking about the unhappy things too much.

I give one exam (but, a machine-graded one) tomorrow, and have a couple people who had conflicts taking an exam early [one is an athlete, the other is on an important committee that happens to meet when the exam is scheduled]). And then also Bell Choir and CWF, except CWF is mostly just the potluck....and it's earlier than "normal" CWF.

Tuesday I have nothing scheduled and admit I'm tempted to go to Sherman - I need a few things from Ulta and it will be easier to get them here than to try going when up at my mom's. And it would allow me to do a little shopping on a less-busy day (maybe go to Kroger's, too, for the stuff for the meatballs I will make for Thursday....). Wednesday is two exams, plus Elders' and Board Meetings. Thursday is my last exam, then lunch out, then AAUW party in the evening. Friday, I don't have anything, but that will be grade submission/clean office/maybe make syllabi for next semester day. Saturday is graduation, Sunday is church as usual plus the Family Christmas/Jesus' Birthday Party.....and then Monday afternoon I leave for Illinois.