Small things
Today was mostly a day of preparation for the upcoming Christmas events, aka the charity fair and the big baking frenzy (which is scheduled to start on Saturday).
I started with making more little "cat boxes" for the surprise packages. My friend Erica collected quite a few empty toilet rolls for me, which I folded into small boxes and painted cat faces on them, since these sort of gifts are called cat-in-a-sack in Hungarian because the buyer doesn't know in advance what s/he's gonna buy. They are small, of course, so only small gifts go into them, like the ones from surprise eggs and so on, plus a wrapped piece of candy into each. At the moment I'm up to 34 boxes, but I'm sure there will be a lot more. The fair is on December 12, so I'll have to speed up to get everything done.
Later in the morning my friend Elise came with her cookie boxes - and with half the supermarket. Each year I'm trying to make her understand that I do this baking stuff as Christmas gifts and because I like doing it, but she insist to supply some ingredients, just like Eenie. Only that in her terms some ingredients mean several kilos of flour, sugar and margarine, whole cartons of eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla sugar and a 200-gram-bar of dark chocolate for icing.
I was really embarrassed, but she told me (again) what a great help it is for her that she doesn't have to do the baking for her two children, five grandchildren, father and mother-in-law, too. Cooking the big family dinners would be enough, she said. Well, I understand that, but still... I think she calculates how much basic ingredients she would need for her Christmas baking and then ships those over to me.
I can deny that it is a great help financially, considering what baking ingredients cost nowadays, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable. I don't expect my friends to actually pay for their gifts, even in naturalies, as she and Eenie do.
In any case, I'm well-armed for the baking session. All I need to find are some pistachios; I'll try tomorrow at the big market. If the nuts and candied fruits shop doesn't have them, I'll have to go to the Bioladen that most likely does - only for a much higher price. But needs must. I can't risk waiting for Aldi to bring their considerably cheaper (and better because not as dry and hard) bagged pistachios because last year they did not, and I have a schedule to keep if I want to get done in time.
Speaking of which, I've put together the first half of my baking schedule: paired up the cookies that need egg yolk only with the ones that need egg white only; that way nothing goes to waste. There might be changes later on, but those will be made during the next week and a half... or so I hope. *fingers crossed*
So, that was basically it. I did a tiny bit of writing; then peeled and chopped the potatoes for Mum because she volunteered to make potato goulash, only with sliced Vienna sausages instead of chunks of meat. I always leave such traditional dishes to her; I can make them, too, of course, but for some reason I can never produce the same taste. It was very yummy. :)
I started with making more little "cat boxes" for the surprise packages. My friend Erica collected quite a few empty toilet rolls for me, which I folded into small boxes and painted cat faces on them, since these sort of gifts are called cat-in-a-sack in Hungarian because the buyer doesn't know in advance what s/he's gonna buy. They are small, of course, so only small gifts go into them, like the ones from surprise eggs and so on, plus a wrapped piece of candy into each. At the moment I'm up to 34 boxes, but I'm sure there will be a lot more. The fair is on December 12, so I'll have to speed up to get everything done.
Later in the morning my friend Elise came with her cookie boxes - and with half the supermarket. Each year I'm trying to make her understand that I do this baking stuff as Christmas gifts and because I like doing it, but she insist to supply some ingredients, just like Eenie. Only that in her terms some ingredients mean several kilos of flour, sugar and margarine, whole cartons of eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla sugar and a 200-gram-bar of dark chocolate for icing.
I was really embarrassed, but she told me (again) what a great help it is for her that she doesn't have to do the baking for her two children, five grandchildren, father and mother-in-law, too. Cooking the big family dinners would be enough, she said. Well, I understand that, but still... I think she calculates how much basic ingredients she would need for her Christmas baking and then ships those over to me.
I can deny that it is a great help financially, considering what baking ingredients cost nowadays, but it still makes me a bit uncomfortable. I don't expect my friends to actually pay for their gifts, even in naturalies, as she and Eenie do.
In any case, I'm well-armed for the baking session. All I need to find are some pistachios; I'll try tomorrow at the big market. If the nuts and candied fruits shop doesn't have them, I'll have to go to the Bioladen that most likely does - only for a much higher price. But needs must. I can't risk waiting for Aldi to bring their considerably cheaper (and better because not as dry and hard) bagged pistachios because last year they did not, and I have a schedule to keep if I want to get done in time.
Speaking of which, I've put together the first half of my baking schedule: paired up the cookies that need egg yolk only with the ones that need egg white only; that way nothing goes to waste. There might be changes later on, but those will be made during the next week and a half... or so I hope. *fingers crossed*
So, that was basically it. I did a tiny bit of writing; then peeled and chopped the potatoes for Mum because she volunteered to make potato goulash, only with sliced Vienna sausages instead of chunks of meat. I always leave such traditional dishes to her; I can make them, too, of course, but for some reason I can never produce the same taste. It was very yummy. :)