Boy Oh Boy, Its 2010!

To a terrific New Year!

I Made Caramel!

Caramel, it seems, is quite a popular holiday tradition. I saw recipes in countless places around the nets, inspiring me to give it a whirl myself.

The one criteria I had was the recipe must not call for corn syrup. Which recipe was actually fairly hard to find; it seems corn syrup makes caramel creation much simpler and is definitely a popular choice. I ended up finding one here that fit the bill entirely. After a quick run to the grocery store for a candy thermometer I was ready to go.

Of course, I decided to embark on this candy making experiment about 20 minutes before leaving for a holiday party, so time wasn't really on my side. Add to this that I really did not know what it meant to let the sugar and honey "carmelize" or exactly how to read my thermometer, and it is probably not surprising that this first, and let's call it trial, batch did not turn out the lovely chewy caramels I had envisioned. Instead, we have a ridiculous amount of soft caramel sauce. Not actually too terrible after all.


The next time, however, I meant business.

I cooked that honey and sugar until it was a strongly odorous (you might want to warn the family), lava-like concoction, whisked in the butter and hot cream (that part is a blast, sometimes quite literally. Be careful.) and let the whole deal boil and bubble until I was sure it was 260˚F at least (my candy thermometer is somewhat difficult to read). I had a cookie tray all lined with parchment and poured the sticky liquid out, creating a disappointingly small, shallow puddle. It was the right color, though, and hardened nicely on a spoon under cold water. Thrilled with my success, I tried the whole thing again. This time I used a small cake pan lined with parchment and I would definitely recommend this strategy.


In the end, the cookie tray caramels stayed pretty soft and very thin. The cake pan batch hardened beautifully and I sliced them into small squares, twisted them in wax paper, and had a mountain of lovely smooth caramels to package and give away. I salvaged the thin batch by folding the whole thing in half. They were just hard enough to cut and wrap, though scraping them back out of the wrappers to eat is a little tough. However, they taste divine.

And a Very Merry Christmas to You!

Happy Solstice!

Welcome back, light!

Oh Christmas Tree(s)

This was a fairly productive weekend around these parts. Today especially, with gift purchases so-close to done and handmade ones coming nicely along as well.


We got our Christmas tree on Thursday, C. carried it all the way home from the downtown food coop (that's about 8 blocks!) over his shoulders. We decorated and this year C-3PO, with a stocking hat and a red ribbon belt, is our tree topper. I like the personal touch.


And here are the trees I decorated at the Syracuse arts festival last weekend. I kind of wimped out in the end and stuck with mainly just the lights, but they were festive enough.

Syracuse NY

I am away at our last 2009 Arts Festival this weekend, in Syracuse NY. The best part about this show is I get to decorate five little Christmas trees for the entrance way. I keep it simple, lights and ribbon and tinsely strands, but it is rather fun! I'll take some pictures...

ps. And of course, if you happen to be anywhere near the New York State Fairgrounds, come and see for yourself in the Horticulture Building.

pps. Oh, and there will also be 125 really talented artists and artisans selling their handmade work. You know, if the trees aren't enough to tempt you...

First Day of Advent

Mmmm

To finish off the Thanksgiving weekend with a taste of Christmas, we decorated a few oranges with cloves. Mm-mm. They smell amazing.


I hung mine over one of the radiators, hopefully the heat will make our house clovey and orangey and wonderful.

I am Thankful

for great friends who travel all the way here to spend a weekend cooking, eating, talking, taking walks...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving; delicious food prepared together (including probably the best pumpkin pie ever), a warm cozy house, cards, champagne, and This American Life on Netflix.


Despite temperatures in the 50s today, its starting to feel like actual Winter. Something in the wind, maybe?

This is the first picture my grandparents ever made together, taken in 1937. On the back my grandma wrote "Just buddies!" - but I have seen her highschool text books where she practiced writing "Mrs. Harold Wright" and "Meryle Wright" over and over.


My grandfather was a wild youth in the back hills of Kentucky. Mommaw got her hands on him and straightened him out, a job she never gave up on for the rest of her life though he turned into the sweetest, most God-fearing man you could hope to find. They were such a pair, after 65 years of marriage I think they really felt they were a part of each other. The year and a half after Poppaw passed away, Mommaw seemed to have lost her will to live. I think all the difficult health problems she had dealt with for years had been tolerable when they were together, and then when she was caring for him, but without him there she gave in. We all knew that she was ready to go when she died peacefully in her sleep this past March.


I think I am lucky that the last few years my grandparents were alive I was old enough to know them for a little while as people, rather than as only my grandparents. Now I am able to look back and admire my grandmother's courage in living alone with her young daughter while her new husband was off in WWII. I am able to understand the hard work my grandfather put in to move his family from Kentucky farmlands to a comfortable suburban life in Cincinnati. When I remember them now, I remember my grandmother telling me of the latest historical novel she had been reading; I remember my grandfather staying up late at night to read his Bible; I remember my grandmother's beautifully elegant hands and my grandfather's hands skilled at carving and other wood crafts. As I grow older I understand the little bits of them that have passed down to me, and I am hopeful of continuing their tradition of strength in adversity, of hard work and perseverance and the basic - and to me admirable - realization of the American dream. My grandparents thought this country the best in the World, my grandfather fought for these ideals. I am much more cynical, but when I think of what they were able to accomplish, and the life they were able to build here, I am hopeful as well.

Happy Love Day!

(My real-life valentines are still in progress; I think extending the love-holiday is ok, don't you?)

Stumbling into the New Year

Does anyone know a good way of making good with the Universe?

Here's the deal: I traveled home on the red-eye from Arizona, arriving at my door around noon on New Years Eve. I am also a wuss, and so refused to go out that night, opting to laze (and sleep) on my own couch. Lame, I know. I did get champagne, however, and I read this post and was intrigued with the idea of jumping into the New Year.

So, I woke with a start when the countdown was at 26 seconds. Groggy and slightly tipsy, I remembered the jumping idea at about two seconds. I leapt to my feet on the couch and made an extravagantly uncoordinated flying stumble to the floor into 2009. And I think I really offended the powers that be. Things have just been slightly strange ever since. I'm doing whatever I can think of to sort it out, but if you have any suggestions...

(New Years Eve on Lake Champlain)

Happy New Year!

Countdown to Santa

My life got a way with me over the last few weeks, and many of the projects I planned are just not going to happen. I'm trying to not be too upset about it, go with the flow and all that. I had thought it would be fun to reprise the bloggy advent calendar from last year (and actually finish the last day this time!) but that doesn't seem to be happening, so instead I will share this fun site I found this morning...

Possibly this is intended for children, but at Christmastime I think the child in each of us comes out at least a little.

Warm wishes from Vermont!

Happy Thanksgiving!


I am spending the Holiday - my favorite one, really - with my parents, aunt + uncle, and grandma in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are resting, eating, playing games, sorting through old family photographs, and thoroughly enjoying each other's company.

I hope your week, whether celebrating the festivities or not, is full of love and light.

May Day!!

Arizona blossoms
Happy May Day, friends!

For the Sweet

First, I want to apologize for the spotty appearances here lately - it seems that working full time with a 40 minute commute is more of an adjustment than I had anticipated, and these days when I get home I mainly want to do nothing. That said, there are a few projects in the works. But more on those another day, today I want to share these...




I had planned to wait and post them as a Valentine's greeting to you all, but this post inspired me to share ahead of time, with the idea that you can then share as well!

Click below or on the images for 8.5"x11" sheets with two copies of the card each (minus the red border, thats just for you), inside and outside. You will have to flip the first page around and re-feed it through the printer (unless you have one of the fancy auto-double-sided deals!). I recommend printing on white card stock, but suit yourself! FYI, I did some at Kinkos, and the colors they produced were just loverly.

Valentine Card Outside
Valentine Card Inside

Fun with Food

Potato prints! I had not made any potato prints for ages and ages, but was inspired by needing a project for two young boys to whom I teach art. So I broke out the potatoes and the exacto knife and set about making a prototype.

It was fun. Why do I not do this more often? So easy, so necessarily simple, so satisfying.

In a Holiday theme, I cut out a steaming mug (of cocoa I presume) and a snowflake, and printed in red block printing ink. After a few tests, I recalled the big package of white tissue I had recently acquired. Soon a sheet was covered in cheerful red snowflakes and I was determined to hand-make all my wrapping paper for the year!



As it turns out, I had many other things to take up my time, and after a little more fun with potatoes and ink during the boys class, no more printing took place. And so I had one sheet of precious handprinted tissue, which was promptly used and now sorely missed.

Perhaps I will have to make Spring tissue paper!

On snow and gingerbread

Vermont will certainly be having a white Christmas this year! We had an absurd amount of snow in the last 24 hours, well over a foot, possibly more than 2! And it's still coming down! Of course, I won't be enjoying it, as I am headed to the family in Arizona... not much chance of a blizzard there and frankly, I don't mind!

We stayed warm and cozy inside today, making a big batch of gingerbread. Yum.


We used a Martha Stewart recipe, only we couldn't bring ourselves to add a whole teaspoon of ground pepper. I am willing to believe that it is a wonderful addition, I'm just not in that place yet.


A simple powdered sugar frosting, and a few little candies added the final touch.



I also made a batch of incredibly wonderful molasses cookies from a long ago post on this favorite blog. So good. I had to freeze some so I would not "accidentally" eat them all tonight.

I hope wherever you are, the evening is treating you well. Happy Sunday, friends!

Advent for you!

I made an online advent calendar especially for you! Each day links to something I found fun or pretty or full of the Holiday Spirit; and something extra special will appear for the Christmas Day link, I just have to figure out what that will be...

We are looking forward to a Very Big Storm around here. Hope you are staying warm!

Feeling Christmas-y

It snowed big, white, fluffy flakes last night. We had to take a middle-of-the-night walk with the dog, and it was her first real snow experience. Very amusing. She just couldn't seem to believe that it was all real!

While I find the early and intense commercialization of Christmas to be quite bothersome and actually somewhat sickening, after Thanksgiving is passed, I am ready to jump right in. Things like soft powdery snow and twinkling lights make me feel honest-to-goodness warm and fuzzy, and the smell of gingerbread always seems just tantalizingly out of reach. I will make some soon, and hopefully share the joy with a few neighbors, but for the time being I have contented myself with some holiday decoration.


Besides my sparkly candelier, a Christmas tree of sorts is now sharing its warm glow in my home. A real, live, green, nice-smelling tree isn't really practical for me yet - I will travel for Christmas and don't spend nearly enough time sitting at home to properly enjoy it - so I opted for driftwood. White lights and golden jingle-bells dress it up right now - after the swap I have a feeling it will be much more fun! It needs a bit of adjusting, another trip to the rock shop (aka beach) should put things in order.

***after having a look at this picture again, I just have to add that my poor little tree really looks much nicer in person. The lights should have been the kind on white wire, I know, and the whole thing looks rather as if it will go tumbling over at any moment, but its actually very sweet! :) ***