A Pre-New Year's Day

Usually, Rebecca comes with me and helps me find the perfect new calendar, but this year she was unavailable.  For the previous several years, I had gotten a cute Dick and Jane calendar, but last year (and again this year,) I couldn't find one. Instead, she found something similar for my last year’s calendar, an adorable one with English schoolroom posters. It was so sweet that it made me happy every time I looked at it. Do you detect a calendar preference theme here?  

The store at which we usually had the most success involved a car trip, and so to avoid that, I went to a fabulous bookstore within walking distance.  I had failed there in the calendar search before, but decided to be optimistic.  While I had made a decision to feel this way, I think it didn’t really penetrate to my inner being.   It was a cold day, so I dressed up too warmly.  By the time I got there, and was looking through the calendars, I was so hot that I only wanted to go home and take off most of my clothes so as to cool off, and then to take a nap.  So I decided that all the calendars were ugly and went home.  The next day, I really had to get down to business.  Margaret was thrilled to come with me, but she did not give me much advice about my calendar selection. 

And the selection was vast!

There was something for every taste!

Except mine.  Finally, I chose two, neither the perfect calendar, but both pretty near perfect.  And so a good way to start the New Year.  

Which brings me to say,  

“A most happy and blessed New Year to you and  yours!” 

A Baking Day

The foremost one is from Martha's pistachio biscotti recipe. The others are date.

 I was making biscotti variations to give for Christmas presents, and was searching for the perfect recipe.  I think the winner was a recipe my friend Martha gave me for biscotti with  pistachios and orange zest, made with lots of butter.  I had made nice ones with almonds, cranberries, anise – all the usual, and they were good, but Martha’s recipe was way the best.   In need of variety, I decided to make date and orange biscotti, given that I had lots of dates and lots of oranges.  I was hopeful, but when I tried them, they were a little on the yucky side.  Actually, not a little, but a lot!  I can’t give these as presents, I thought.  The only thing is to eat them myself.  Usually, I have one or at most two biscotti for my late night snack with my last cup of tea.   On day one, I almost had to choke them down, but by the third day, I quite liked them.  By the fourth day, I liked them a lot. Now I am not sure if they improved with age, or if they are an acquired taste which it took me several days to acquire.  Or maybe both.  Anyhow, here is the recipe.

Date Biscotti

2 cups (260 grams) flour,

1 tsp. baking powder,

1/8 tsp salt,

¾ cup (150 grams) sugar,

3 eggs,

1 tsp vanilla extract,

Zest from two oranges,

1 cup (160 grams) chopped dates.

Heat the oven to 300°, and prepare a  cookie sheet by lining it with parchment or using a Silpat.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt an set aside.  In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat the sugar and eggs together until soft and foamy.  Stir in the vanilla and orange zest. Fold in the dates and then the flour until just mixed.  Do not overbeat. 

On a lightly floured surface, form the dough into a log, about 10 inches long.  Transfer the log to the prepared baking sheet.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until firm in the middle.  When done, let it cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then transfer it to a work surface, and cut into slices about 2 cm thick.  Cut on the diagonal for slightly longer biscotti*.  Bake the slices for about 10 minutes and then turn them over and bake for 10 more minutes.  Let them cool, and then store in an airtight tin.  

*Martha says that at this point, you can freeze biscotti, and then do the second baking when you are about to greet your guests.  Not having a roomy freezer, I have not tried this, but Martha knows everything, and is the world’s best cook, so I confidently pass the tip on. 

A Blessed Day

 I am hoping that all of you have a blessed and happy Christmas!

My friend Roseann made this paról  for me years and years ago.  It is getting a bit faded, but is still one of my favorite things!  Pictured are Little Rachael, then about two years old, Farnaby - the perfect cat, God rest his soul, and my little Cairn terrier Leslie,  God rest his also, as they all greeting Baby Jesus on his birthday in the manger.

A Dark Day

You may have noticed that the days are getting very short, and very dark.  In fact, today is the darkest – or at any rate, the shortest.  It is nice and bright right now.  This is the time of the year when a fear of the dark arises, but I mean only a certain sort of dark.  Not the  comfy kind God sends us every December, but - Blackouts!  We seem to always be having them.  And of course, they never come at a convenient time.  (Those times would be when one is asleep or not at home.  There is no other convenient time.  If one wants no lights, one can manage that without the help of the electrical power company.)  Ever since the last one, I have been planning to become better prepared.  That time, I had to paw through drawers, searching for my Advent Wreath supplies to find a candle.  As each procrastinating day passed, I worried a bit more.  Both about being caught in the dark again, and about being such an incorrigible dilly-dallier.  I put everything off, especially if it involves getting in the car and going somewhere.  Finally, I decided to commit.  I asked Becca if she would go to the hardware store with me.  Happily, she agreed, and off we went to Madison Park Hardware, my favorite hardware store, especially now that all my other favorite hardware stores have been swallowed up by the mega monster ones.  This one is walk-to-able, but only if you have all day, and want to come up a very long, tall hill on the way home. It is lots of fun to go to, and every time I do, I find some little thing that I previously hadn’t realized that I  absolutely needed.  Margaret, who came along, loves to go because there are dog treats.  The friendly folk there helped us find the perfect blackout ware, and assured me that since I now was prepared, it was very unlikely that such a thing would happen soon.  I hope he is right, but if he isn’t, I am ready. 

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task." ~William James

Another Surgical Day

The Saga of the Auntly Surgeries goes on!  Pauline went under the knife again, this time for a little nose lesion.  And, rather horrifyingly, they snipped off a bit of her ear to fill in the spot on her nose.  Yikes!  She is holding up well, despite an experience that would traumatize me utterly.  I went to visit today, and to do a dressing change.  She made me lunch, our usual favorite – tomato soup with crackers and cheese floating in it, and I brought her some tiny Mexican cream puffs – direct from the freezer section of Grocery Outlet, my favorite grocery store.  I thought they were yummy.  Pauline claimed that she had had a surfeit of lunch, and only ate one, but I, piggy that I am, gobbled up – dare I tell you? – four.  In my defense, they were really tiny.  And really delicious!  

Yet Another Fun Evening with Friends

A fun evening with friends, family, and food!  And games!./;l----------------==””””    (Tobias typed the previous.  At least there is one person who is a worse typist than I am.  Or do cats count?  Probably not.)  Anyway, we had a great evening.  Three of the people present are very into winning.  The fourth doesn’t care that much.  This is fortunate, as she seldom wins no matter what she is playing.  Except maybe solitaire.  And that is not really a competitive sport, is it.  Perhaps she wins that because there is no one to talk to, and to distract her from the matter at hand.  I flatter myself that my poor performance at games is related to my friendly social self.  More interested in everyone else and what they have to say than in winning. 

We played several games which had “Charades” elements to them, and Rachael turned out to be a brilliant “Charade” artiste!  That was a beat-the-clock team sport, and we beat it every time!  Then we played Sorry!  No team spirit there!  Just tigerish malice as everyone leapt on another’s man, and sneered, “Sorry!”  in a manner that conveyed little sorrow.   The game was neck and neck most of the way, but in the home stretch, Rachael galloped in as the clear winner. 

Rachael the winner!

I made this cake a couple of weeks ago for Ana, and it was so good that I made it again.  I won't say it is the best cake I have ever made, but it is possibly the best chocolate cake.  And it has a mystery ingredient – Beets!  Who would think that a beet cake could be so yummy!

A Wonderfully Musical Day

December is such a wonderful musical month.  There is music of every kind, everywhere. The choir room is a beehive, as we prepare for multi-musical services and events. One of the highlights of these, is our annual trip to Providence Mount St. Vincent,  a nearby retirement home run by the Sisters of Providence.  Here, in their lovely chapel, we have one of our most appreciative audiences, a great sing-along accompaniment chorus.  If I were the emcee of this event, I would stand there and say, “Um, ah – here is the St. James choir to sing for you,” – if I could even get that much out,  and that would be about the most one could expect from tongue tied me.  But our director, Dr. Savage (Jim), is a genius at bringing out the best in every audience, and making every event a real event, and a very wonderfully fun, meaningful, or sacred event, as the occasion warrants.  And today warranted a smattering of all three. 

Jim with Jeanie, and her Mom

Chorister Ward and a few of his Mt. St. Vincent friends, with Martha and her husband Joe behind them.

One of our ordinary sopranos – oops! Excuse me! Sopranos are never ordinary, are they!  One of our sopranos, Emmy Purainer, one who usually blends into the soprano crowd, has for the last several years, sung a German carol, and every time, I am totally blown away by it.  She is really extraordinary! Such simple, but soulful songs, and Emmy, usually one of many, brings her all (along with her amazingly beautiful voice) to her Weinachtslied.  It is always a tear jerker, and for me, the highlight of the event.  Emmy is really great, and I wish I could listen to her more often. 

Resident, Fr. Gallagher, who, as pastor of St. James, hired Jim 30 years ago, and Sister Ann