silverish, goldish

no resolutions for 2015, just hoping to retire the mantra "get through it". see you on the other side, kittens.

i gave leff the (haribo) world

leff is always taking me places. wonderful places i never knew i'd be able to visit. so this holiday, i repaid him in a tiny way by giving him the world. well, at least the world according to haribo.

there's just something about a mishmash of euro gummies, isn't there? (yes, fine the us is also included with the happy cola, but it's primarily a selection of haribo's european candy.) it's fun and bright and incredibly tasty if you get a fresh bag. (this was a *very* fresh bag! yum!)

here's a list of the u.n. of candy that this bag contains.

ireland has gummy rings!

i would make a very insidery joke here about how mystically windswept getting married in a field in ireland would be, but i won't. (oops, i kind of did. haaa.) (no, not MY wedding. puh-leaze.)

anyway, here are the candies sorted by countries.

i am a serious fan of the soft dragibus and the flores so, many thanks to belgium and spain! also, those jelly babies! i think i might like haribo jelly babies better than the bassetts variety! this is surely a sacrilege of some sort. sorry, brits!

hagelslag

on xmas eve, a package from the netherlands arrived.

you have no idea how exciting this was (!), for inside the tiny shipping box was a multi pack of hagelslag! i had been waiting for this for weeks!

"so what is hagelslag?" you might ask if you didn't click the above link. short answer:  sprinkles that dutch people put on toast. i had wanted to try them when we were in amsterdam earlier this year but, ha, yeah, my sinus infection precluded that.

anyway, you might recall that i am a fan of sprinkles and sprinkle type things on toast so this was right up my alley. i tore into the tiny box and found...more tiny boxes! these are so small!

turns out one little box contains the perfect amount of hagelslag for one slice of toast!  pictured are puur (dark) chocolate,

vruchten (fruit)

and shingle style melk (milk) chocolate.

of the three flavors, i liked the melk shingle version best which was surprising to me as i usually prefer dark chocolate.

two more observations and i'll let you get back to whatever you're up to today: 1) the vruchten  tastes a bit like non cloying fruity pebbles 2) i prefer the shingle version to the spinkle/jimmy variety.

i have a feeling that hagelslag will become a staple in household.

food and fluff

here's a whole bunch of unrelated stuff for your tuesday.

this holiday i have become obsessed with asbach uralt brandy chocolates.

they're delicious! but also there is a sweet bit of candy tech involved. you see, there's an intricate sugar lattice inside the chocolate bottles which not only keeps the brandy inside very effectively but it also provides a nice crunch.

it is just perfect in execution is what i'm saying. we have some of the kirsch + cherry chocolates arriving after the holidays. i can't wait to try them.

leff and i toasted some spectacular news last week with cranberry mimosas.

i might tell you about it later after all the paperwork has gone through. but i might not. haha, w/e we had mimosas.

if you have leftover bath buns and italian bread, make bread pudding.

snowy has become the mascot of the green room.

he's a good dog.

THE BOAT PARADE

what's that? you're sad you couldn't make it to THE BOAT PARADE?! fret not, i filmed the whole thing for you.

i am the "ray-kuh" that is called the best by santa. THANKS SANTA you're pretty cool too. (ha, thanks for submitting the request, leffie.)

this thing is so quaint and dull and quaintly dull. i kinda love it to bits.

amusing myself to death

i've been holding down the fort this week while leff's been in cali. i've been busy doing...well, nothing. (i'm under doc's orders to calm my immune system the fuck down i.e.-- stop stressing out, try to sleep for once) 

what does nothing look like? um, this?

also this. i mean, at least i can recycle the paper when everything's unwrapped.

plus i learned to not give a fuck about party planning. tonight we're gonna' watch "only lovers left alive" (again) and instead of going full tilt and making a bunch of stuff with garlic in it, themed "bleeding" baked goods, etc, etc as normal, we're just gonna' have some haribo vampers.

also, i might go to the boat parade tonight. i've never been even though i've listened to it (santa shouts messages from a megaphone. it's hysterical. i love it.) and sort of watched it from my kitchen window for years now. images, etc later on if i do.

sometimes

sometimes you get an appreciation award from the mayor and you wonder wtf you're supposed to do with it. you did nothing extraordinary. you don't like public recognition. hell, you don't like private recognition when it's not warranted. and this was not warranted.

just thought you guys would find this amusing. i certainly do.

when you accidentally order 10 pounds of peppers...

 ...you roast them and then freeze them.

bath buns for jane austen day

you guys!! it is jane austen day!! since i didn't have time to get to the cobb at lyme regis, i won't be jumping off some stairs and busting my head open for your entertainment. you'll just have to settle for some vicarious bath buns.  

the linked recipe is kinda odd (it's from 1769, what do you expect?) and includes a substitution for caraway confits. (smash caraway seeds with sugar. it works. )

there's quite a bit of butter.

and you mix in the yeast with the flour without letting it prove first.

kneading time is approx 10 min.

here's a tip i've probably mentioned before. if you don't have a proving oven,  just use your oven light. works just as well.

in the two hours of proving time, you can do all sorts of austen related things. like...

laugh at the time you were in bath talking about piss dungeons and you didn't realize that this lady was eavesdropping until you got home and saw the picture.

take a picture of your cat's butt and say that it's a good imitation of emma woodhouse. (does anyone really like emma as a character?)

take a picture of some austen books with a persimmon next to them because, hey, that seems like a regency era fruit. also, orange really brings out that lady's necklace on the cover of sense and sensibility.

ultimately, however, you will just watch the 2009 version of "emma" because even though you hate emma woodhouse as a character (stupid catbutt that she is), you are in love with romola garai. plus oh my gaaaaawd jonny lee miller should dress in regency costume more often (yeah, you first noticed him as sick boy and, in fact, always refer to him as sick boy but mmm hmmm. period dramz suit the man.)

but you are REALLY watching this mini series again to look at blake ritson's profile. (damn, blake ritson could be the emo british rock boy of YOUR DREEEEEEEEAMZZZZ when his hair is right. also dat profile. amirite (sorite))

ahem. anyway, there is a second rise that takes about an hour.

that doesn't give you a lot of time to futz about but if you are me, you will take possession of a surprise knock off OWL SPIRIT HOODIE which is quite jane austen in its way as they are always wearing silly hats in the movie adaptations.

also, you can do some handcrafts. ladies are ALWAYS embroiderin' and shit in austen books. i fixed this xmas card.

the glitter queen always strikes this time of year.

anyway, after about 10-15 min of baking, BATH BUNS!

they are freakin' delicious. eat them with lemon curd! eat them plain! w/e, just make some and HAPPY JANE AUSTEN DAY!

imma go look at blake ritson's profile again.

jane's orange slice chocolate chip cookies

just last week padre reminded me of one of the coolest things. every december my adopted grandma used to make an assortment of delicious cookies which she packed into a shirt box and delivered to our house.  how could i forget that?! how!?!

anyway, the one cookie that my brother and i most looked forward to was the orange slice and chocolate chip kind. 

yeah, orange slices. the candy kind. like these.

i'm certain that if you grew up in the southern u.s. or have a southern grandma (adopted or not), then you know of orange slice cookies. it's a staple. (or at least it was a staple).  i'm not sure if you were lucky enough to have chocolate mixed in with the orange though.

besides the taste, what makes these so special is the stained glass quality of the orange candy. i used to hold them up to a light like this:

so i would be sure to get a more orange flavored cookie. the one above i would have left for my brother but this one:

awwwww yeah. that is the damn ticket.



ORANGE SLICE AND MILK CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (1/2 package) milk chocolate chips

1 cup orange slices, cut into small pieces

Heat oven to 375°.  Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer 

until creamy.  Add eggs, beat well. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add to butter 

mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and orange pieces. Drop by teaspoons onto 

ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool slightly and remove from 

cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.  Makes 5 dozen cookies.

i guess i'm in retreat mode...

...because i'm not capable of reading the news right now. i reached my absolute limit today. (if you know me irl, you probably did not think that was possible.)

that is why you will now see the dread can o'cran below. it is innocuous. 

leff and i finished up thanksgiving this week by eating the veg we didn't make on the proper thursday.

i recently watched "only lovers left alive" four times. (i will probably watch it forty more.) this is not einstein's spooky action at a distance. it is a spooky old tree.

presents have started to arrive. padre and my step mom sent the grand tour  and jens sent the lovely postcard

which had a bear as part of its cancellation mark.

so cute.

it is gross outside

here are two pictures from earlier in the day when it was not quite so disgusting.