Splendid Isolation

 Hello. Come on in, have a biscuit.

Since the recipe for these Christmas cookies called for an entire cup of honey, I went ahead and used the jar of fancy Greek honey I'd been saving. If I only make something once a year, they ought to be special. These would typically be decorated with a piece of citron in the centre and slivered almonds surrounding. I fell into a habit of making them without nuts when Dan was little and misdiagnosed with a nut allergy, and now it would feel strange to make them otherwise. That's a dried cherry in the centre and sultanas around. The recipe is identical to lebkuchen except it is all honey rather than half molasses. And they're round. Otherwise, same thing. 

1 cup honey
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup finely diced candied citrus peel
2 3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 dried cherries and sultanas for decorating

 Bring honey to a boil. Cool completely. Add brown sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel. Mix well. Sift together flour, bicarb, and spices. Add to mixture. Mix well, divide into 2, and wrap tightly in cling film. Chill overnight.

Next Day:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment (You'll be glazing these straight from the oven, and it is messy). Roll dough out 1/3 inch thick, and cut into rounds. Press in dried fruit or nuts to decorate top. Place on a baking sheet 1 inch apart. Bake 10-12 minutes until they show no imprint when toughed lightly. As soon as they are out of the oven, glaze them (see recipe below) then cool on racks and store several days before serving.

Glaze:

1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water boiled to 230 degrees F. Remove from heat, and whisk in 1/4 cup icing sugar. Brush the hot icing over the lebkuchen thinly. If it gets hard or frosty-add a bit of water, and gently re-heat it. 

If they need softening in the tins as they mature a slice of apple will help but it must be replaced daily or it will grow mould. A slice of cheap, white commercially baked bread will add moisture to the tin and in a couple days when you remove it, it will be hard as a slice of toast having lost all that moisture to the cookies. It is a neat trice, and does not impart a flavour. 

These will keep a very long time-well into the new year if kept in a tightly closed tin. 

When my baby comes home for Thanksgiving (bringing along a bad cold and fever and late night trip to the emergency room-all is well now) there's always a Sally Lunn for breakfast. I can't think of a nicer special occasion bread and as it is essentially a batter, takes no effort at all to make. This is a very old bread, dating to the early colonial period. There was a real Sally Lunn in England (Bath? Mim am I right?) but that largely gets lost in our cookbooks. I made this with margarine and oat milk to accommodate a dairy-free requirement and (shhhh) I think I prefer it. It will definitely have a longer shelf life made with margarine. 

For the Bread:

2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup lukewarm water
½ cup lukewarm milk (I used oat)
1 stick butter (unsalted) melted in milk (I used margarine)
1 teaspoon salt
3  large eggs
3 ½ -4 cups all purpose/plain flour

Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in mixing bowl and let proof. Add milk, butter, salt and stir well. Add eggs and blend well. Using a wooden spoon, add the flour in small amounts until you have a stiff but workable batter. Cover the bowl and let rise slowly (took about 2 ½ hours here) in a cool place until doubled in bulk. Beat it down (again, with the wooden spoon) for about a minute. Scrape into a very well buttered tube pan (9 or 10 inch) and cover again, letting it rise until it has reached the very top of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. and bake 40-50 minutes until the top is dark and sounds hollow when rapped with knuckles. Turn out of pan and cool on rack. Serve warm or cold (easier to slice cold).

Will keep best wrapped in wax paper and then cling film, but obviously use what you prefer. Plastic zipper bags don't work well, from my experience.

I am looking forward to drinking this on the evening of 5 December. I wondered why he was hugging an artichoke before realising it is a hop. I now need to go reexamine my artichoke brooch as I have a feeling it too might be a hop. Shouldn't there be a Pere Fouettard beer as well? 

*update-The beer was very nice. My first impression (and this is not an insult) the hoppiness of it reminded me of Schlitz. That's where the comparison ends, as the Pere Noel was sour and fruity in a complex way American beers are not. I really enjoyed it. We bought a few other holiday beers and some Lambic to keep us entertained through the long winter. We had an ice storm tonight, and the city streets are impassable. It should melt by midday tomorrow, but still.

I bought this dress back in the mid-90s at a shop called Dots. It was fast fashion before there was a name for it, but the pieces were well made and everything in the store was $10.00 each. It was next door to my hairdresser, so once a month I would call in and see if I liked anything. I have so many pieces from Dots that I still wear. Wouldn't want to try that with something from one of the big fast fashion retailers. Okay, actually to be fair, I have a lot of H&M items that look as good as when they were new. Still not something anyone needs of course, and the landfills heaving with cheap clothing don't care if it is well made.

I even wore this dress whilst expecting. It stretched, and snapped back into shape. Wish I could say the same for me 😮

This is a knit dress worn as a coat.

Full 80s with shoulder pads and a peplum.

I had a doctor ask me last week if I knew that I have scoliosis. I tried not to laugh but yeah, I might have noticed that. Anyway, this shirt would be better on someone with a straight spine.

I don't remember where I found these 80s pirate boots, but they're fun.

I won't go on about stress because it IS a stressful time, for nearly everyone for a multitude of reasons. It is hard watching family, friends, neighbours dealing with things that there's no good reason to be forced to deal with. We're moving backwards at pace and it is horrible. I'm sure the clown show is amusing viewed from outside the United States, but just remember that we're a nuclear armed clown show, which unfortunately makes the US everyone's problem, isolated or or not.

Sorry, didn't mean to get depressing. Here. have a a lussekatter. They turned out really nice this year. I gave them a diabetic and dairy-free makeover using rye and wholemeal flour, and omitting the sugar altogether. Margarine and oat milk stood in for the dairy and when all was done, they were as light and soft as any I've made with white flour. The saffron stands out nicely with the rye. I've been pleased with how well omitting sugar works rather than trying to replace it with some undoubtedly toxic substitute. 

Here, stand beneath the hammertoe and I'll kick you. That'll snap you out of it.

I saved Halloween candy to make the ghost of Christmas present-as frightening as it gets.

Those red candies were labelled, "filled" but they are not. No matter, I think I prefer them this way. When I inevitably get sick this winter it is nice to have a lozenge. God only knows what sort of previously eradicated diseases we can look forward to as they do away with vaccines. Whoops, sorry. Getting depressing again. The tree looks nice, eh?

I really didn't care, but once it was up and I was able to enjoy seeing all of Dan's hand made ornaments (and the owl topper) from years gone by, I was glad I went ahead and put it up. I didn't do much else though-there's only so much I can muster in terms of holiday cheer. 

Update on the ice storm:

I live across from two hospitals and the ambulance sirens have been going nonstop. Good night for business if you're an orthopaedic surgeon. 

That must be fifteen years old now-maybe more. I remember helping dan make these and collecting pine cones to paint. I still have those as well. 

I'm goint to quickly spin through a few outfits.

Clash of the Tartans, LOL

Knit dress.

Old stuff you've seen year after year

Fleece lined clogs to wear in the cold house

Pin from the Salt Lake City Olympics.

Dress worn over a skirt.

80s sweater.

Strangely, the only Cardin I own.

Smile and wave (I'm trying, really).

This Chessa Davis blouse was a recent find. They're pretty rare. Her skirts are easy enough to find though. The lace is made with her trademark pentagram.

Obligatory deer.

Vintage velvet dress that has a lot of damage but is still wearable.

Too big, so I wrapped it with a belt.

My mother's ski sweater bought in Canada in the 50s.

Vintage Snowland boots from the 70s.

Avon vintage brooch.

Another pair of clogs.

If you look closely, the berries are wooden beads.

My father bought me the sweater in the 80s.

That's about it from here. I'll leave you with this bouche de Noel that I did NOT make, but couldn't resist sharing the photo. I can't decide if it is creepy or adorable, but perhaps that's what makes it so special.

I will be baking a novelty birthday cake for Dan again this year (20! How on earth did time pass so quickly?) and the semester will be over on the birthday, so what better present than to have exams over? One more semester after that, then off to graduate school in autumn. Finishing a degree in two years was a lot of work, and we're really impressed. I certainly wasn't that ambitious. I have six days to figure out how to bake a 3-D shark cake. I knew last year's swan cake was going to be difficult to improve on, but I like a challenge. I'll take any distractions I can get. Well, almost. I was invited to a tuba concert, but  that would be asking too much.