Another baking tradition completed

Tags

cookies, postaday2015

   
 
In French these are called palmiers, in English elephant ears, they are layers and layers of buttery, flaky dough rolled in sugar and baked at a high temperature, so that the sugar caramelizes and the layers of dough rise, light and airy. I think of all of the cookies I have baked over the years, these are hands down everyone’s favorite.

I remember last year, when I was at my friend Mary’s Christmas cookie swap, some faces were crestfallen when I had unveiled the Breton butter cookies I had baked for the gathering, instead of these much to their chagrin, though the Breton butter cookies have as much butter in them as these do, but the texture isn’t the same, the butter cookies have a nice crumbly texture perfect for dunking in milk, whereas the palmiers are nice and crunchy, fall apart in your mouth and melt on your tongue. The poor ladies were disappointed, they had tried to cover it up, but they failed. Lol 

This year the palmier cookies are staying at home, the children are very happy about it, more for them!

Star Wars The Force Awakens: a movie review

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postaday2015, Star Wars

   
   
 What a movie, J.J Abrams has such a a talent for story telling, I saw it in the movie Super 8 and he has gotten better ever since. I will not give away anything from the movie, I didn’t want my experience to be tainted by others, so I won’t taint anyone else’s. It is safe to say that my husband and I, passionate Star Wars fans, loved it. I left the theater feeling as if J.J Abrams made the movie for me. I went into the movie the same way I went into the first Star Wars, back in 1977 when I was 10 years old, not knowing anything and open to everything and I wasn’t disappointed in the least. I felt as if I was watching old friends on the screen, I could almost hear Obi wan Kenobi in my head.

I can’t wait for the next one, it will be a very long two years. 😦 

That was the size of it, back then in the late 70’s, two years between movies, it was torture! It will be torturous once again. What an epic adventure. Waiting is so hard!

Another Christmas tradition all wrapped up in a bow

Tags

caramels, postaday2015, presents

   
   
I made my Christmas time caramels au beurre sale yesterday, as tradition warrants, I make them for my family, my husband’s colleagues and my friends. Today I spent quite a bit of time cutting the caramels into bite size pieces and wrapping them in parchment paper. 

I learned something new this time around, while I was waiting for the caramels to set up in the refrigerator, I was nervous that I had let them cook too long, I had burned my finger accidently when I poured the hot cream into the boiling sugar and so it made stirring and monitoring the caramel difficult. When I tried to unmold the caramel from my glass loaf pan, it wouldn’t budge, it was a pretty hard piece of caramel candy and that is when inspiration burst in my head. I filled a saucepan with water and lowered the loaf pan with the caramel in the simmering water, wouldn’t you know it, the caramel softened right out of the loaf pan. I put the caramel back in the refrigerator so that I could take of it today, getting it ready for present giving during the holiday season.

I grabbed some empty jars, my holiday themed wired ribbon and some tissue paper and tried to create something festive, I think the jars look nice. I really enjoy making goodies as presents instead of buying something from the store.. It feeds my creativity and it keeps me occupied.

   
 

Baking for the office Christmas party

Tags

baking, party, postaday2015, tarts

   
 
My doctors have set up my remaining appointments; Friday I meet with the doctor who will be performing the endoscopic ultrasound on Monday morning, January 5th I meet with the psychologist and January 6th I meet with the surgeon, so there is serious movement being made by my doctors and nurses, comforting and unsettling at the same time.

So what better to occupy my thoughts then by playing with butter, flour, eggs, chocolate, heavy cream, pears and sugar? I made two chocolate and pear tarts, one for the Christmas office party and one for the children, they do not like it when their favorite pie leaves the house without them. Lol So I found it is best if I just make two, much less complaining.

It’s been awhile since I made them, they look good, they smelled tasty as they were baking, I hope they taste how they smelled, I always get nervous when I bring something to strangers. There will be other treats, so maybe it will get lost among the others. I’ll wait for the children’s verdict. I’m sure the pies are fine, I get so crazy insecure even after all this time as a home baker, I’m so silly sometimes. Lol

Freedom Tower

Tags

pictures, postaday2015, talent

  
My husband took this gorgeous shot amongst others, we share pictures between our phones, I don’t know how, they just magically appear lol. Most of the time, I’m not interested because they are work related, but when he takes pictures wearing his photographer’s hat, they really pop. He has a beautiful eye for photography.

I love the way the clouds were captured on the Freedom Tower’s side panels, the vibrancy of the color blue, both actual and reflective, I love the cotton ball aspect of the clouds, seemingly placed just so around the Freedom Tower, and the juxtaposition of the surrounding buildings, short, stout and tall in the overall composition.

There are some pictures that bring everything together just so, this is one of those pictures in my opinion. Excellent job my husband.

  

Seeking distraction in the twinkly lights of Christmas

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beauty, Christmas, lights, postaday2015

   
 
My mother and I went into the city to have lunch at Vesso’s, the thin crust pizza place we adore, and afterwards we walked to Lord and Taylor’s, Macy’s and Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Windows and the lights decorating everything from the trees, to the windows and the storefronts. This did in fact give me a few hours distraction from dwelling on the questions swirling around my brain. I haven’t heard yet from the doctor as to when my ultrasound is scheduled, so I still don’t know how deep the tumor is embedded in my esophagus, and not knowing exactly what lies around the corner in 2016 is a little unsettling. So I am grateful for the holidays because I don’t think there can be a better distraction than Santa, beautiful decorations, the Christmas spirit  and friends and family. I am grabbing these distractions by the lapel and embracing them fully.

   
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
There is so much talent and creativity evident in these stunning windows at Lord & Taylor’s, they are a tourist attraction themselves during the holiday season. The crowds weren’t unruly, everyone seemed to be in mellow moods, I wonder if the mild weather had any bearing on the good spirits?

Today was another good day.

A geranium blooms in Astoria

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blooms, holidays, postaday2015

   
 
I arrived at my mother’s early this afternoon and I promise you, I have never taken pictures of pansies or geraniums in bloom outside on any December 15th of any year that I can remember.

I am not complaining, they are beautiful, it is simply bizarre to see the week before Christmas, it doesn’t put me in any less of a holiday mood, if my health issues don’t, then an unseasonal bloom most assuredly will not, I think geraniums and pansies go great with pine, holly and twinkly lights.

   
 

Some more Christmas sparkle

Tags

Christmas, decoration, postaday2015

   
  
   
This year we went a little different with the banister, my husband wanted the lights to be tighter and greater in number, I experimented with wrapping the red and green plaid ribbon around the banister parallel to the lights. I like it, I had previously spaced the lights and used garland to highlight the banister, but this year the children put the garland on the tree, so I wasn’t sure what to use to accent the lights, we were at Michael’s the other day when I saw the red and green plaid ribbon and boom it came to me. Initially I wasn’t sure my choice would work, now looking at the results, I think it did.

I am a fool for beautiful ribbons.

 

Stanley as of December 12th 2015

Tags

postaday2015, Stanley

  
We have had Stanley for two months and 10 days, it feels longer and it feels shorter at the same time if that makes any sense, I think it feels shorter because Stanley has grown so quickly in such a short period that we miss our fluffy ball of cuteness  we used to hug and cuddle, on the other hand, it feels longer because we can’t imagine our home without him. We took this picture because this is probably the last one I will be able to pull off, Stanley weighs 40 pounds, Lulu weighs 46 pounds and I struggle picking her up whenever I try to put her into our daughter’s room.

  
This picture was on November 6th, a little over a month ago. He was much lighter.lol

  
This one was taken on October 24th.

  
This is the day we brought Stanley into our home and into our hearts.

Springfield Rescue Mission

Tags

donations, postaday2015, poverty

   
 
I am so happy, we went to the Springfield Rescue Mission today to drop off a ton of sweaters, jeans, pajamas and warm coats for the poor in preparation for this coming winter. I prefer to drive the extra miles to personally drop off our clothing donations because I know the homeless and poor will get them directly, I used to take advantage of the numerous donations bins stationed around Westfield sponsored by The Salvation Army, but I stopped doing that because in spite of its convenience, I was put off by the fact that those who are most in need don’t even get the clothes, the Salvation Army puts out the donations in their stores to be sold, granted at discounted prices, but still when you are struggling, every single penny is precious. I want my donations to be free and available for those in need.

I know that what I did today is not even a drop in the bucket, in terms of the severity of our poverty problem, homelessness problem and food insecurity problems, but if we all came together and did what we could, while also demanding our government to proactively find solutions to these issues, we could go a long way to eradicate, or at the very least, greatly diminish these problems.