Marsbarn Designs...

caramallows and panettone: experiments in candy and bread

First a caramallow update...  eh.  Yes, just "eh".  The caramel is too hard to easily cut.  It does soften in the mouth, so it is edible, but what a pain to work with.  The marshmallow layer is not the lovely puffy stuff I normally make, it is that squidgy stuff you find in cheap Halloween candies.  On the upside, I was successful in tempering my chocolate.  That went very well.  Big E says the caramallows are tasty, but I am unmoved to coat the remainder of caramel/marshmallow in chocolate.  Why send good chocolate after bad candy.

And then I decided to test my nerve with yeast driven bread.  Yeast makes me nervous.  It is like a houseplant; I just know I am going to kill it.  My tepid water will be too warm or cold, my kneading will be too much or too little,  my room temperature will be arctic compared to theirs, and then the dough will not rise.  I want it to work.  I really do.. There is alchemy in bread making like there is candy making.   The December Gourmet had a no knead, well described recipe for making panettone.  The bread rises in two long segments at a "cool room temperature".  Hey, that I can do.  But then my bread didn't really triple in size.  The final dough I put in the oven did not "reach the top of the mold", and I was worried.   But Ta-Da.. it worked. I could have pulled the bread from the oven a little sooner, the bottom is a little brown, but the interior texture is good, yummy, rich and sweet... Of course my family won't eat it.  Not that that will stop me from making a second batch... Next I want to make a dried cherry and crystalized ginger version.. maybe I'll even add chocolate.  

This is enough

((SIGH))  This is it.  The start of Christmas.  Could you feel it?  The wave of relaxation that filled the house this morning at 1?  That is when Big E came home from work, an hour early (!), to start his vacation.  This is what I wanted for Christmas.  A week without anxiety or worry, a week without holding my breath and waiting,  a week without work.  

My children are healthy, my husband is safe, we have food, warmth, snow outside, and everything we need for this holiday.  Of course there are things I still would like, but they are the kinds of things I can never have.  I wish for health for others and peace in the world, and for solace for the families of the police officers who were killed last week.  I wish my Grandfather was still alive, or had lived long enough to know his great grandchildren.  He would have found so much joy in them.  

This morning I feel like we have so much, and I am so very thankful.  I wish you and yours a very Merry Holiday season indeed!

Slowing down to happy warp speed.

Ahhhhh... slowing  down.. really.  Sort of.  I stayed up late last night wrapping presents with the idea that now I won't be staying up super late on Christmas Eve doing it.  I'm sure I'll find a different reason to stay up late then.  I'm talented like that.  

Sometimes, when I visit one of those (barren empty) houses with minimal furniture and decoration, where you look around and can't figure out what they do besides watch TV, I panic.  There is nothing to do.  No books to flip through, no art to examine, nothing to pick up, nothing to help with, Nothing To Do.  I need to have a purpose, something to do with my hands and mind.  I want to shout "What do you DO with your time?"  

My sewing machine is at a friends house.  I love that the temptation to get sucked into the Machine is gone.  I've promised myself a chance to needle felt and hand sew.  I'm doing an ornament exchange next week, and want to make something yummy and different from my normal.

Last night I cooked up more candy.  I made the caramallows I was thinking about.  I almost bailed, but then the two containers of cream in my fridge would have spoiled, and I couldn't handle the guilt. (When I found the link, I read the reviews.  I'm kind of glad I didn't check them before hand... Several people had trouble with the recipe.  So far so good... I think.)  Today I will cut the candy, temper chocolate, and dip away.  I also want to start my Christmas cookies.  Oh, and I need to clean the sewing room and pack it away, and then there's the laundry. Did I mention the girls have another Snow Day today?  Yep.  It's good to have them home.

(Photos stolen borrowed with person from Big E)

Edited to add:  Okay, I've cut into the caramallows and I have to add my own unhappy review.  The caramel is way too hard. It is tremendously difficult to cut. I did get about 2 dozen cut out and dipped in chocolate, and now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the caramel/marshmallow stuff.  Oh well, on to cookies!  Here is more about them...

I am so not being productive

This is how the snowflakes are falling.  In these big gorgeous feathery clumps.  They are so, so beautiful.  They are the perfect flakes for catching on your tongue.  Cleaning? Who me?  When I could be taking hundreds of unsuccessful photos in hopes of getting one that captures an identifiable snowflake?  Ple-eeze.  I am such a bad housekeeper.  Click on the images to make them big.  Oh I so wish Sweetheart G were here to peak through her microscope, and I wish I'd bought that camera that takes photos through the scope. I wish my house would magically clean itself so I could just stand in the snow all day.  

Rebel Mama and her nemesis... The Clutter.

Yesterday was another snow day, but it never snowed to speak of. So today the kids are back in school, and just now (an hour into the school day) it has started to snow in earnest.  Will it stick?  Too soon to say. 

While the girls are being educated,  I am going to clean house. (Really.) The clutter has gotten way, way out of control, and I've caught up on most of my Christmas list. (So I can't procrastinate any longer.)  The girls helped me finish making the Christmas cards yesterday.  I was a good Mama.  I let go of the crafty control button and let the girls loose with the glitter.  (Jen, I heard you gasp...)  Little e was particularly productive.  

So 98% of the Christmas cards were mailed off today, and I dropped off the teacher presents (shhh.. they're clandestine, I think.  I'm a rebel gift giving Mama!)  All I have left on my list is wrapping presents, putting up the rest of the Christmas decorations,  Christmas cookies, and knitting a hat.  And cleaning.  Ack. There is a lot of cleaning to be done.

Everybody back to bed! It's a Snot Day!

This morning was one of those mornings. I woke up with a headache and gook in my lungs.  I knew Sweetheart G wasn't going to school (yesterday the snot fairy blessed her with copious congestion), but I thought Little e could go... of course Little e thought otherwise.  (Should it really take 20 minutes to eat half an English muffin? The girls and I differ on this point.)  After wrestling the girl through breakfast, I looked out the window at the ice covered sidewalk and the 20 degree dark morning air.  After reminding Little e to blow, not snuffle (for the millionth time that morning) I thought.. "I don't want to go out."  We all have colds.  There is no point.  "Little e" I said, "You are sick.  Go back to bed."  "Yay!" she cheered and ran back upstairs. Could she have gone? Probably.  Do I feel guilty?  Not at all.   I crawled back into bed and stayed there for 2 more hours. I emerged from my semi-coma in a much better frame of mind, body, and spirit.    

Of course staying home meant I didn't do the second round of painting with the kinders.  The project is on hold until January.  So, today turned into a quiet day at home.  I finished my Blurb book. It will be late for Christmas, but that's okay.  All but two of my Christmas parcels are ready to mail, and the USPS is scheduled to pick them up tomorrow.  (Gotta love that service!)  And, blessings upon blessings, school has been cancelled for tomorrow.  We are expecting another big (for us) storm.  Huzzah! I can sleep in!

Snow day and candy making

The girls had a lovely snow day today.  I had hoped they would cancel school tomorrow as well, but no luck!  Auntie O braved the ice and cold to come and help with some candy making.  We made regular marshmallows, peppermint marshmallows, hazelnut penuche, chocolate bark with crystalized ginger, hazelnuts, and dried cherries, and toffee with sea salt.  I couldn't find my carmel corn recipe, so no carmel corn.  We did well.  My Etsy shop is closed until after Christmas, the sewing table is in that state of total chaos that comes when something is half cleaned, and I am settling down to work on some photos on the computer.  Oh, and we might get more snow on Wednesday!

Nesting in

Yesterday's sale was okay.  Just okay.  There were lots of wonderful vendors, but traffic was slow due to the nasty cold, wet weather.  Now the nasty bit has transformed into lovely white as the temperature dropped those extra few degrees to turn grey, wet rain into gorgeous huge white flakes.  Today is a nesting day.  I am starting to sort the detritus of my sewing table, I've gathered candy making supplies,  laundry is underway, and hot cider is simmering on the stove as the girls cycle through outdoor snow play, and indoor pretend play.  I am still unsettled by Friday's violence, and I am glad Big E is on his days off.  He has one work week left before his Christmas vacation.  It will be a treat to relax into the holidays without that lingering everyday tinge of work anxiety.  

Not much to say

Big E came home last night with a need to talk.

Two police officers were killed by a bomb in Woodburn yesterday.

A third officer is critically wounded.

What is there to say?

This is a reality of police work.

It's not TV.

It's not a movie.

These men are dead and their families are suffering.

Dear, dear Santa

Sweetheart G wrote her letter to Santa this week.  She wrote it, sealed it, and sent it in the Magic Mail Box all on her own.  She said she asked for a butterfingers bar, a milky way bar, and the book Dragon Flight (no not the McCaffrey book, this one is by Jessica Day George).  That's it.  The entirety of her wants from Santa.  There are other things she'd like (fairy Playmobil has been bantered about), but these are what she asked for. 

Little e's letter has yet to be written, but her needs are simple as well.  She wants kisses (the Hershey kind and the Mama kind, she told me), a fairy home for her Playmobil, and the Playmobil fairy with a "musherroom" hat.  

 I love, love, love that my daughters' wants are so simple, so attainable, so reasonable.  I love that neither of them long for mass marketed, battery operated toys which require nothing other than a flip of a switch to operate.  And I am thankful, so very, very Thankful that both of my daughters are so individual in their wants; that they follow their own drummer, and not the rhythms of their classmates or the media that is thrown at them.