Snickerdoodles

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I don’t have the counter space to roll out Christmas cookies, so I decided that I would make snickerdoodles instead. They’re surprisingly easy, if time-consuming, and very tasty.

Here’s the recipe I used:

1 cup butter (or shortening, but actual butter is healthier than shortening in the long run. And tastes better.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoons baking soda
cinnamon and sugar mixed to taste

Preheat oven to 400F. Mix together butter and sugar until smooth, then add eggs, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Stir in flour until well mixed. Roll into balls about 1″ in diameter and roll in cinnamon and sugar to coat. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake 8-10 minutes. Cookies are done when they are just barely browning.

This recipe made almost five dozen small-ish cookies, probably more like 3 dozen if you make them bigger. I strongly suggest lining your baking sheet with parchment paper to make them easier to remove, and to keep the bottoms from burning.

And in my oven 8.5 minutes was the perfect amount of time.

Fuzzy got to sample one, but the rest are being packed off to my adopted soliders in Afghanistan. Next up: chocolate chip.

Love Changes Everything

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Or maybe it doesn’t. But Meg of MegFowler.com is all about sharing the love, so she’s created this Love List. Yes, it’s a meme. Meme’s are fun. My answers are below. The blank meme resides below the fold for ease of snippage. Do share. But credit Meg as the Source.

Things YOU Love: Hats, jewelry, books, my various computers. Shoes.

Song you love: A perennial favorite is Joy to the World (the Three Dog Night tune, not the carol.)

Food you love: Pumpkin ravioli

Thing you love to look at: Stormy skies

Sound you love: Wind chimes on a blustery day

Thing you love to laugh at: The antics of my dogs

Gadget you love: Does an mp3 player count? No? Then my garlic press.

Person you love: Fuzzy.

Software you love: NeoOffice and OpenOffice

Word you love: Twilight

Thing you love on the internet: the ability to make friends in far away places. Or PostSecret.com

Place you love to go on vacation: Mexico. France. The beach.

Sensation you love: Cool rain on sun-heated skin.

Animal you love: Dogs.

Book you love: Bread Alone, by Judith Ryan Hendricks

Emotion you love: Giddy joy

Occasion you love: Christmas. I’m still a kid on that day.

Quality you love in people: Generosity, passion, intelligence, humor.

Thing you most love to shop for: Books, stationery, and clothes.

And finally…

What you love about today: It’s cool and misty, and the twinkle lights are shining, and there’s a salty tang in the air even though we’re hundreds of miles from the sea.

GO!

LOVE!

Continue reading →

Tradition, Tradition

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Holidailies 2007

From the Cafe Writing December Project: List seven traditions – big or small – that you and your family observe. You don’t have to explain them, but it’s more fun for readers if you do.

* * * * *

As it’s December, and I’ve just strung my house with lights, and my lit tree is resting in the window, as yet bare of ornaments, I offer seven of my family’s Christmas traditions.

  1. Resting Tree: We generally let the lit tree sit undecorated for a few days, even though it’s plastic, just so we can get used to where it is, and get a feel for the best side and worst side, etc.
  2. Ornaments: From childhood, my mother and I would take out all the ornaments and talk about each one as we hung them on the tree. Most of our ornaments are hand-made or specially chosen, and none are plain glass balls.
  3. Pfefferneusse: My mother and I share a box of pfefferneusse cookies every Christmas. These spice drops are perfect with coffee, and represent a shared history.
  4. Aglio Olio: It’s a garlic and olive oil sauce that you toss with fettucini, and it represents our family’s Italian heritage. For most of my life, my mother always made it on Christmas eve.
  5. Stockings: As we’ve grown older, we’ve pretty much stopped with huge presents (except between Fuzzy and myself) and embraced the challenge of only buying items that can fit in a stocking. Some years, this is extremely easy, other years, rather difficult, but it’s always fun, and it limits the amount we spend, as well.
  6. Brie: I am a cheese fiend, and one thing always in my stocking is a small round of brie. Yay for runny cheese!
  7. Tinsel: We no longer use it on our tree, either at my own house or at my mother’s in deference to the memory of my deceased uncle Merrell. I wrote about it in 2005 for that year’s Holidailies. The entry is here.

Seeing Red

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It’s a cold gray day here in Texas, and I needed something cheery, so I put on last year’s Christmas mix cd that I made, an entire cd of women singing Christmas songs, and forwarded to this lovely non-soprano, belty version of O Holy Night. I was singing along, rocking the proverbial rafters, waiting for my tea kettle to commence whistling, when a flash of color outside caught my eye.

I turned toward it, and was caught, breathless, watching a pair of cardinals feeding from the tray of wild bird food we keep on the picnic table (with a smaller table positioned over it as a concession to weather. The female was eating, the male, in his crimson glory, was perched on the top table, guarding her and waiting his turn.

I watched at the window, and he turned as if he could see through the glass and mesh and see me. For a heart-beat it seemed as if we communicated, and then the female left, and he moved down to the food, sampled a few seeds, looked toward me once more, nodded his little bird head, and disappeared.

Only after that did I think, “Damn, I should have grabbed the camera.”

Friday’s Feast – 0711.30

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Appetizer
What is your favorite carnival/amusement park ride?
When I was a very little girl, I was completely in loved with the nausea-inducing fun that is the Tilt-a-Whirl. Later, I fell in love with the vintage wooden roller coaster at the Santa Cruz boardwalk. I still love them both, in a nostalgic sort of way.

Soup
How do you react in uncomfortable social situations?
It depends. I’m only a situational extrovert, so I tend to avoid huge gatherings as much as possible. When I do have to go, I tend to observe for a while, and then be extremely selective about who I talk to. When I’m very nervous, I clam up. On the other hand, if I’m watching someone mistreat someone else, I’ll generally speak up.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how much do you enjoy discussing deep, philosophical topics?
With the right people, I enjoy it immensely – a strong 9 or weak 10 – with the wrong crowd, the sorts of people who take such conversations personally, about a 2.

Main Course
Did you get a flu shot this year? If not, do you plan to?
No. And no. The one time I did, I had a very bad reaction.

Dessert
Approximately how many hours per week do you spend watching television?
I have DVD’s or Bravo or whatever movie seems vaguely interesting playing all the time while I write, but I’m not really watching anything as much as using it for background noise. Television I pay attention to is maybe – MAYBE – an hour a night. But at least half the time I let stuff pile up on the DVR or TiVo and watch a mini marathon when I really need to escape.

Clothing4All: MockTurtleneck

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There’s nothing better on a cold evening than a basic black turtleneck, but when you’re five feet tall, a mock turtle is a better choice. In a world where clothing – and especially women’s clothing in non-traditional sizes – can be either horribly expensive or difficult to find (at least basic pieces) it’s good that there are companies like Clothing4All, where the prices are reasonable, the sizes are realistic, and the quality is excellent.

I ordered my black mock turtleneck just before Thanksgiving, and it arrived fairly quickly. I had the option of having it monogrammed, or having my name embroidered on it, but with the exception of graphic t-shirts, I don’t really like clothing with writing on it, so I chose to skip that option. Since I’m busty and round, I ordered a men’s extra large, and really, just a large would have been fine, since this one fits me like a dress.

It’s so soft that I really didn’t need the tank top under it when I tried it on, and the neck is loose enough not to feel choke-y, but snappy enough to retain it’s shape.

The ordering process was simple – a few clicks to select the color and style and I was on my way, and I received an email notification when the garment had shipped. The price was reasonable, too – under $20.

I’ve been buying a lot of clothing lately, because I’ve lost 32 pounds (and still have more to go), and I suspect I’ll be shopping at Clothing4All again.

You should definitely check them out.

Clothing4All Mock Turtleneck

“Roughing It” Has Nothing to Do with Texture

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Last night, chatting with the Divine Ms. J, she mentioned that she planned to go backpacking through Europe with friends next spring. “They’re good at it,” she said, “they have all the necessary camping gear, and everything.”

I know that this is supposed to be a romantic thing – backpacking through the woods, hiking around foreign countries, meeting people and staying in hostels, but the thing is, to me it sounds utterly awful. Give me a hot shower and a tour bus with a bathroom. Give me indoor plumbing and soft cotton sheets.

Don’t get me wrong. I like nature – I do. I prefer it to be aquatic, however, not woodsy. Also, I have no desire to sleep with it. I’ve often said that my idea of roughing it is a hotel without room service. And I repeated this to Julia during our conversation.

She laughed, and said she liked to try new things.

So do I, actually.
I just prefer them to end after dinner, and include indoor sleeping accommodations. And free wifi.

Still, I have to admit, I like camping stores. I like the smell of leather boots and suede jackets, and I think hunters’ caps are hot on the right guy. (So is flannel, if it’s woodsman flannel, and not unwashed geek flannel.)

It’s just…if I want to sleep in a tent, it will be the kind that is built from pillows and blankets and is located on the living room floor.

Shopaholics Anonymous

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There seriously needs to be some kind of addiction treatment for shopping.

I blame Julia, actually, because even though I was oh-so-good during her shopping extravaganza on Sunday, today saw me backsliding with a vengeance.

It began with eyebrow waxing at eleven, and was followed by a trip to Barnes and Nobel, except shiny stuff at LB caught my eyes, and I needed tights for this new dress I bought, so I walked in for tights and walked out with two pair of black tights and two pair of jeans, and oh, yes, I still went to B&N where I bought five gift cards, two magazines, and a grilled cheese panini. Oh, and a mocha. Of course.

Then Julia wanted to check out LB as well, and as well as buying a cute jacket-style top, she surprised ME with new Christmas pajamas. “Naughty Girls Get Better Presents.” Indeed.

And did I mention that I also bought shampoo at the salon? (Well, I was out. And technically hair care products don’t count. No, really, they don’t.)

And y’all thought my COFFEE habit was bad!

Mega-weekend Wrapup Thing

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My trend of not blogging on weekends continues. Actually I haven’t done any writing since Wednesday afternoon, except for work, and I’m behind with that but only a little, and will make it up in the morning.

I’m still not feeling terribly writey, though I have a bunch of things to write about – like a new turtleneck, the fact that I bought the Project Runway dress from Sarah Jessica Parker’s BITTEN line, and this wine I was sent to try – but not tonight. Tonight, you get bullet points.

– Thanksgiving: Quiet, but pleasant. We puttered, napped, read, and nibbled on our turkey and stuffing from Tom Thumb. It wasn’t my family recipe, but the cranberry sauce was quite tasty, my pies rocked the house (even if I did manage to get pumpkin custard in my hair), and we had snow. Okay, it was technical snow only, no stickage or anything, but still. White flakes fell from the sky.

– Black Friday: We hadn’t planned to go out at ALL that day, but when we unpacked the Christmas tree, which is pre-lit, half the lights didn’t work. Fuzzy changed fuses, and went through every bulb, and what was weird was that the lights were out in chunks between sections of the SAME STRINGS that were working fine. So we went to Target in the afternoon to buy a new prelit tree, since restringing the other was not worth the trouble. And since we were out, Fuzzy got his Christmas present early: An Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle (he has since suggested that what *I* want for Christmas is my very own controller. In pink, of course. He is wrong. This is not on my list at all.) While at Target, we also picked up some Christmas foo for various friends.

– Saturday: The Divine Ms. J arrived mid-afternoon, and we greeted her with twinkling lights in the hedges, gentle hugs, and warm food, followed by pie. We hung out that evening, eventually attempting to go see Prairie Lights, but the rain caused them to be powerless, so we went to dinner instead, then came home and watched Transformers on DVD.

– Sunday: Julia convinced us to go shopping. At a mall. I don’t do malls, generally, and bought NOTHING, actually, but it was fun watching her shop for her husband and returning soldiers. Note: The sales clerks at Hollister in The Parks mall in Arlington are awful, and the store itself is dark and creepy with fake trees in odd places, and too little lighting. However, Shiraz and Coby at the Banana Republic in the same mall are adorable and sweet, if grammatically challenged. I have done my mall quota for the rest of the decade, thank you. No, wait, I did spend $75 on BITTEN clothes at Steve & Barry. (Two sweaters, one pair of “goal” jeans, and the Project Runway dress). I might be willing to return to said mall JUST for that store, but only if we enter through the doors near the ice rink, so I can go directly there.

– Monday: Did research for work writing. Battled ants in the kitchen. Thankfully these ants are of the non-fiery variety. However, there were many, and the infested my butter cookies. Back to Target this evening for extra power cords and adapters for the lawn guys who come tomorrow to hang the lights on my roof. Yay roof. Pictures will follow Wednesday-ish.

– Christmas: My shopping is mostly complete. I need to finish buying little things for my soldiers, I need to buy stamps and fusible interfacing for my mother, and I’m waiting desperately for my step-father’s big present. As for ME, I’ve added a link to my Amazon wishlist in the sidebar here at Escribition. I don’t expect presents from anyone, but if you’re desperate to get me stuff, you should know what I like. (I’m also a fan of Possets and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab as well as Aveda.)

– Decor: Tree is up, but not yet decorated. Fireplace is bedecked. Christmas is slowly infusing the house.

– Reading: Just finished Sex, Murder and a Double Latte by Kyra Davis. It was funny and interesting: mystery meets chick-lit. Next up is another mystery. Reviews will be on my book blog, Bibliotica soonish.

– Upcoming projects: Cafe Writing will have new prompts early on Saturday. My fellow fashionistas and I are continuing our commentary of this season of Project Runway over at Electric Tangerine. I’ve also just registered for the 2007 edition of Holidailies.