Mah Christmas, let me show you it . . .
Well, not *literally,* since I haven't downloaded the pics from the camera yet (countessaleska is on the main computer, meeting with some WoW friends), but a summary. Much talk of RL and food, and a recipe for what are being named Kitchen Sink Christmas Cookies.
I slept in till 8pm this morning, probably later than I should have, but I'd donated plasma the day before and wanted to treat my system nicely in return. Since it was a day (if not quite 24 hours) since I donated, I cooked up a big pot of coffee (half regular and half Chocolate Velvet flavor) to enjoy, and fired up the computer while eating some breakfast. Did an initial beta-read of a fic for aibhinn , then forced myself to get to work and tackle the huge pile of dishes that stealthily built up last week while I was busy with Other Things.
That done, I started Phase One of Christmas dinner, namely getting the pork roast going in the slow cooker (since said roast was a solid frozen block, the thing needed to start early). I didn't work from any particular recipe -- slow cookers are great for when you just want to pitch in everything that sounds good. So, it was a boneless pork roast, some carrots, some onions, some garlic powder, a dash of powdered ginger, (pork and ginger are a marriage made in heaven), some Italian herb blend, a generous tablespoon of black peppercorns, half a non-MSG vegetable bullion cube, and about a quarter cup of this wasabi/soy marinade countessaleska picked up at Costco (a bit too strong to be a good marinade unless really diluted, but kickass in the slow cooker), all topped up with enough water to cover the roast.
Then it was off for another morning slog through the snow -- still more of the stuff came down yesterday, completely covering my tracks from coming home last evening. Temps were balmy, though (high 20s), and since it was Christmas Day with a ton of snow around, walking was really pretty fun -- nobody was on the road, so I could cross wherever I wanted, and even walk down the center of normally-busy roads with impunity. Kinda like walking around at 2am, only it was light out. Cool.
I swung over to a friend's house on 6th St., to look after her dog as I promised to do while she and her BF were out of town over the holiday. Juneau was very cooperative on her morning walk (she's a rescue dog who was horribly maltreated -- rather than going vicious, she instead went pathetically shy and gentle; I have a whole rant about her someday, and how much I hate my fellow humans, but this bein' a day of goodwill, I'll spare you all), so I got into work in good time, took care of all the fish, did a few small chores around, re-cultured the paramecia we use to feed the baby fish we raise up from eggs -- little, uneventful stuff for about 5 hours. Once again, I was totally alone, which was kinda cool.
Walking through campus on the way home, as I passed one of the frat houses, I could hear the fire alarm going off and see the associated light flashing through a sliding glass door. I could also hear an almightly lot of watter running, far more than one would expect from mere winter runoff. There was clearly nobody in the building, and absolutely not another living soul in sight on campus. Suddenly, being totally alone was *not* so cool. Oh, boy. Called 911 on my cell, told them what was up, figured they could take care of it. I'm betting it was a broken pipe, thawed out in the warmer temps today, leaking and setting off the alarm. Still, I couldn't hang around to find out, since I had a critter waiting for me.
My community service done for the day, I gave Juneau her evening feeding and walk, which went well again. I was rewarded with a shy, damp little nose nudging my hand unexpectedly for a little petting (Juneau tends to hide from me, and, indeed most people, unless there's something as basic as a walk or a feeding in progress). Aww . . . Juneau will be glad to have her Mommy back tomorrow evening, I'm sure. I'm a poor substitute.
After that, I went home, and got some wild rice pilaf mix cooking up, along with onion gravy (from a mix) and some frozen veggies (stir-fry blend, but what the hell, figured it'd go with the wasabi in the pork broth). Since it was Christmas, I went trans-fat crazy and added a big dollop of margarine to the rice. And it was all gooooood. :) While that was all cooking, I finished beta-ing aibhinn's story, yay! Her fans'll be happy to see that one.
Chatted a bit with arctic_caveman and countessaleska (I'm loaning him Lynn Flewelling's "Nightrunner" series), then he took off to visit some other friends. countessalska and I watched a Simpsons Christmas ep on DVD (the Gary Coleman one), then she put in A Christmas Story to watch, while I generated some cookies to round out the evening, and listened from the kitchen.
I've come up with an adaptation of an online pumpkin cookie recipe (the original is here; check out some of this guy's other recipes, he's a madly-skilled baker!) which has been popular (I'll probably post my tweaked version in a little bit) and made those up for prezzies, along with a couple other recipes. Since I had the ingredients to make a new batch of pretty much any of those recipes, I'd asked arctic_caveman and countessaleska which cookies they wanted me to make.
countessaleska said, "Ooo, could you mix the pumpkin and the chocolate recipe together?"
I asked, confused, "What, you want a half-batch of each? I could do that . . ."
"No, I meant mix the recipes together! Chocolate-pumpkin-black forest cookies -- with *nuts*!"
Um. I talked her out of the chocolate, since I figured that'd just drown out the pumpkin (for those who don't know her, she's famous for mixing every possible flavor together -- watching her order a flavored latte is an interesting experience), but she and arctic_caveman decided that the cookies, in addition to pumpkin, should contain oatmeal, butterscotch chips, nuts, and shredded coconut. I fiddled with some proportions, crossed my fingers, and . . . they turned out pretty damn good, for such an odd "bit of everything" mix.
Kitchen Sink cookies
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp, salt
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
1 c. walnut pieces
1 pkg. (11 oz) butterscotch flavor chips
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup/2 sticks butter, softened (REAL butter, not margarine for this!)
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 c. pumpkin puree (canned works fine)
Mix the dry ingredients (first section given above) in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, large enough to hold everything, cream the butter and sugars together, then mix in the other moist ingredients (vanilla, eggs, pumpkin). Mix the dry ingredients, a bit at a time, into the moist, until thoroughly incorporated. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper (or regular ungreased cookie sheets, if you don't have paper). Bake at 375F for 15-17 minutes, or until just browning on the tops and around the edges. Makes about 4 doz. in you use big spoonfuls as I did. Cool enough not to scorch yourself, and enjoy -- though i warn you, these things are like crack. Very addictive! You can even pretend they're kinda-healthy, since they contain a vegetable! :D
Anyway, now arctic_caveman is back, and it looks like we're gonna watch Dr Horrible onn DVD, so that's my Christmas. Interesting, I'll say that!
I slept in till 8pm this morning, probably later than I should have, but I'd donated plasma the day before and wanted to treat my system nicely in return. Since it was a day (if not quite 24 hours) since I donated, I cooked up a big pot of coffee (half regular and half Chocolate Velvet flavor) to enjoy, and fired up the computer while eating some breakfast. Did an initial beta-read of a fic for aibhinn , then forced myself to get to work and tackle the huge pile of dishes that stealthily built up last week while I was busy with Other Things.
That done, I started Phase One of Christmas dinner, namely getting the pork roast going in the slow cooker (since said roast was a solid frozen block, the thing needed to start early). I didn't work from any particular recipe -- slow cookers are great for when you just want to pitch in everything that sounds good. So, it was a boneless pork roast, some carrots, some onions, some garlic powder, a dash of powdered ginger, (pork and ginger are a marriage made in heaven), some Italian herb blend, a generous tablespoon of black peppercorns, half a non-MSG vegetable bullion cube, and about a quarter cup of this wasabi/soy marinade countessaleska picked up at Costco (a bit too strong to be a good marinade unless really diluted, but kickass in the slow cooker), all topped up with enough water to cover the roast.
Then it was off for another morning slog through the snow -- still more of the stuff came down yesterday, completely covering my tracks from coming home last evening. Temps were balmy, though (high 20s), and since it was Christmas Day with a ton of snow around, walking was really pretty fun -- nobody was on the road, so I could cross wherever I wanted, and even walk down the center of normally-busy roads with impunity. Kinda like walking around at 2am, only it was light out. Cool.
I swung over to a friend's house on 6th St., to look after her dog as I promised to do while she and her BF were out of town over the holiday. Juneau was very cooperative on her morning walk (she's a rescue dog who was horribly maltreated -- rather than going vicious, she instead went pathetically shy and gentle; I have a whole rant about her someday, and how much I hate my fellow humans, but this bein' a day of goodwill, I'll spare you all), so I got into work in good time, took care of all the fish, did a few small chores around, re-cultured the paramecia we use to feed the baby fish we raise up from eggs -- little, uneventful stuff for about 5 hours. Once again, I was totally alone, which was kinda cool.
Walking through campus on the way home, as I passed one of the frat houses, I could hear the fire alarm going off and see the associated light flashing through a sliding glass door. I could also hear an almightly lot of watter running, far more than one would expect from mere winter runoff. There was clearly nobody in the building, and absolutely not another living soul in sight on campus. Suddenly, being totally alone was *not* so cool. Oh, boy. Called 911 on my cell, told them what was up, figured they could take care of it. I'm betting it was a broken pipe, thawed out in the warmer temps today, leaking and setting off the alarm. Still, I couldn't hang around to find out, since I had a critter waiting for me.
My community service done for the day, I gave Juneau her evening feeding and walk, which went well again. I was rewarded with a shy, damp little nose nudging my hand unexpectedly for a little petting (Juneau tends to hide from me, and, indeed most people, unless there's something as basic as a walk or a feeding in progress). Aww . . . Juneau will be glad to have her Mommy back tomorrow evening, I'm sure. I'm a poor substitute.
After that, I went home, and got some wild rice pilaf mix cooking up, along with onion gravy (from a mix) and some frozen veggies (stir-fry blend, but what the hell, figured it'd go with the wasabi in the pork broth). Since it was Christmas, I went trans-fat crazy and added a big dollop of margarine to the rice. And it was all gooooood. :) While that was all cooking, I finished beta-ing aibhinn's story, yay! Her fans'll be happy to see that one.
Chatted a bit with arctic_caveman and countessaleska (I'm loaning him Lynn Flewelling's "Nightrunner" series), then he took off to visit some other friends. countessalska and I watched a Simpsons Christmas ep on DVD (the Gary Coleman one), then she put in A Christmas Story to watch, while I generated some cookies to round out the evening, and listened from the kitchen.
I've come up with an adaptation of an online pumpkin cookie recipe (the original is here; check out some of this guy's other recipes, he's a madly-skilled baker!) which has been popular (I'll probably post my tweaked version in a little bit) and made those up for prezzies, along with a couple other recipes. Since I had the ingredients to make a new batch of pretty much any of those recipes, I'd asked arctic_caveman and countessaleska which cookies they wanted me to make.
countessaleska said, "Ooo, could you mix the pumpkin and the chocolate recipe together?"
I asked, confused, "What, you want a half-batch of each? I could do that . . ."
"No, I meant mix the recipes together! Chocolate-pumpkin-black forest cookies -- with *nuts*!"
Um. I talked her out of the chocolate, since I figured that'd just drown out the pumpkin (for those who don't know her, she's famous for mixing every possible flavor together -- watching her order a flavored latte is an interesting experience), but she and arctic_caveman decided that the cookies, in addition to pumpkin, should contain oatmeal, butterscotch chips, nuts, and shredded coconut. I fiddled with some proportions, crossed my fingers, and . . . they turned out pretty damn good, for such an odd "bit of everything" mix.
Kitchen Sink cookies
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp, salt
1 c. rolled oats
1 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
1 c. walnut pieces
1 pkg. (11 oz) butterscotch flavor chips
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup/2 sticks butter, softened (REAL butter, not margarine for this!)
1/2 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 c. pumpkin puree (canned works fine)
Mix the dry ingredients (first section given above) in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, large enough to hold everything, cream the butter and sugars together, then mix in the other moist ingredients (vanilla, eggs, pumpkin). Mix the dry ingredients, a bit at a time, into the moist, until thoroughly incorporated. Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper (or regular ungreased cookie sheets, if you don't have paper). Bake at 375F for 15-17 minutes, or until just browning on the tops and around the edges. Makes about 4 doz. in you use big spoonfuls as I did. Cool enough not to scorch yourself, and enjoy -- though i warn you, these things are like crack. Very addictive! You can even pretend they're kinda-healthy, since they contain a vegetable! :D
Anyway, now arctic_caveman is back, and it looks like we're gonna watch Dr Horrible onn DVD, so that's my Christmas. Interesting, I'll say that!