(Real-time post)

Yes, here I am, this is real-time and not an "embargoed" post.

It's been a good break so far - one thing I've found is that it takes me a couple of days to relax into "vacation" mode. I couldn't do that over Thanksgiving (the time was too short and I was also thinking of all I had to do when I got back) and I admit at times I was a bit snappish and short during that break. But this time, it's between semesters, I have time to relax, and it's a lot better.

I've been knitting away - it's really lovely to have long stretches of uninterrupted time to just knit. I've got two sets of socks going, finished the Sockhead hat. And I made a stuffed platypus. (As always, pictures will come after I'm home again).

I've also been baking and making candy. Some of the things are the good old familiar things I do every year, and without which it would not feel like Christmas - I made my grandmother's cut-out cookie recipe, and I am waiting for the butter to soften to make the almond bars I always make. But I'm also trying a few new things. I tried making "pretzel bark" (like almond bark, but with pretzels). Not entirely successful. I also made the Lebkuchen and they turned out very well - after I realized that in older British recipes (it's a long story, how I got a German cookie recipe out of an older British book) that list flour in ounces, they mean ounces of WEIGHT, not of VOLUME. I wasn't thinking about that and at first the dough came out unworkably sticky. (For the record, a cup and a half of self-rising flour weighs somewhere around 7 1/2 ounces - or at least, for the atmospheric conditions of the day I made the cookies, it did - so it wasn't the "12 ounces" the recipe specified.).

I also did a batch of something called "buttermilk candy" which is actually kind of like a caramelized-sugar fudge - you mix buttermilk and baking soda, then after 20 minutes add the sugar and corn syrup, cook heck out of it (adding butter once it starts boiling) and then after it's cooked to soft-ball and then cooled back to 110 F, you beat it and beat it until it loses its gloss and starts to set up.

Making fudge is sort of an exercise in faith. At first you think, as you are beating, "Oh no, I started beating too soon" or "Maybe I didn't cook it long enough" even though you KNOW you cooled it enough, and even though you both used a candy thermometer and the old drop-a-bit-in-cool-water method, you doubt. But if you keep beating, all of a sudden, the stuff starts to change color and look more opaque than clear (and then you need to move fast, to get the nuts in and get it in the buttered pan, before it totally sets up). I also forget how much labor is involved in making fudge from scratch, at least the old fashioned kind that's just made from sugar and milk and butter.

We've also got the tree in, if not decorated just yet. And today my mom and I made a trip to the local pet shelter- my parents, though they don't think they are going to get another cat, make regular donations out there to help them out (my dad roughly estimates how much they'd have spent in the past 4 months or so on a cat if they had had one, and donates that much). They have a cat-viewing room where you can go in and pet and visit "mature" (not kitten - none of the ones today were very old) cats who are ready to be adopted. So I got some kitty loving today...there was one cat, probably part Maine Coon, who was a really pretty beigish orange and who purred like crazy when you petted him. (I hope he finds a home soon).

So, thus far, it's been a good break, even if we're not going to get snow for Christmas. (It's been raining - that cold wet rain that almost seems colder than snow.)