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tea_and_toastIt's nearly Thanksgiving. I was thankful today without any great intentions to be. I went out in the garden after work to water, and was able to pick some of the lettuce we're growing. I had a moment of "Wow! I put stuff in the dirt and got food out of it! That's amazing!" Because it is.
I finished Nanowrimo for this year, which is to say I still have half a novel to write. But I have half a novel now, and that's just as exciting as ever. I had months ago decided not to do Nanowrimo this year; I was too busy and it would just be ridiculous to try. I had failed to finish the last two years, after all. This year, on October 30th, I said to myself, sure! Let's do it! So what if it's hard? So what if the only time I have to write is going to come out of my breaks during work and the time when I'm supposed to be making dinner? I'll make it work, somehow. And I have. I must remember this superpower I have--deciding to do something impossible sometimes makes it possible.
This weekend I made a few things for dessert on Thanksgiving (my part of the dinner). I used the recipes from bravetart here: http://bravetart.com/recipes/PumpkinCranberryParfait
Floaty test for cranberries:
If it doesn't float, don't eat it. Cooking is fun.
Then there was a liberal application of sugar to the cranberries, a necessary step.
The goal was to get cranberry jam for spooning on top of the pumpkin custard, but the recipe also makes a good jar worth of what Ms. Bravetart terms "cranberry syrup". I humbly submit that mine is pretty much old-fashioned cranberry relish. When I was spooning the syrup hot into the jar, it had the consistency of jelly. Now it has the consistency of that stuff that comes out of a can at certain Thanksgiving tables, but I swear, it's homemade. The part going in the dessert will have the actual berries still, which should make it more interesting.
And there were nut meringue crumbly bits to make. Smash! That was quite fun. I went ahead and went to the bother of piping them in little circles, even though I smashed a bunch of them for topping, because 1. good practice for piping macarons, which are pretty similar, and 2. I didn't need to smash all of them, so I have some sort of pretty cookies to eat on the side. Pecan meringues are yummmy.
Short days means walking down to get the mail in the dark with only a lantern. The cold weather is nice, though.
I finished Nanowrimo for this year, which is to say I still have half a novel to write. But I have half a novel now, and that's just as exciting as ever. I had months ago decided not to do Nanowrimo this year; I was too busy and it would just be ridiculous to try. I had failed to finish the last two years, after all. This year, on October 30th, I said to myself, sure! Let's do it! So what if it's hard? So what if the only time I have to write is going to come out of my breaks during work and the time when I'm supposed to be making dinner? I'll make it work, somehow. And I have. I must remember this superpower I have--deciding to do something impossible sometimes makes it possible.
This weekend I made a few things for dessert on Thanksgiving (my part of the dinner). I used the recipes from bravetart here: http://bravetart.com/recipes/PumpkinCranberryParfait
Floaty test for cranberries:
If it doesn't float, don't eat it. Cooking is fun.
Then there was a liberal application of sugar to the cranberries, a necessary step.
The goal was to get cranberry jam for spooning on top of the pumpkin custard, but the recipe also makes a good jar worth of what Ms. Bravetart terms "cranberry syrup". I humbly submit that mine is pretty much old-fashioned cranberry relish. When I was spooning the syrup hot into the jar, it had the consistency of jelly. Now it has the consistency of that stuff that comes out of a can at certain Thanksgiving tables, but I swear, it's homemade. The part going in the dessert will have the actual berries still, which should make it more interesting.
And there were nut meringue crumbly bits to make. Smash! That was quite fun. I went ahead and went to the bother of piping them in little circles, even though I smashed a bunch of them for topping, because 1. good practice for piping macarons, which are pretty similar, and 2. I didn't need to smash all of them, so I have some sort of pretty cookies to eat on the side. Pecan meringues are yummmy.
Short days means walking down to get the mail in the dark with only a lantern. The cold weather is nice, though.