Blessings, Darlings!
Since I was too busy to blog during the Solstice Holiday Season I'm going to start the year blogging about cookies.
My family is pro cookie, and we bake. The Chubby Hubby's cookie specialty is a recipe he got from his mother, Crescent Christmas Cookies. I've no idea where his Mother got it from. Family? A woman's magazine? A bag of flour? I bless whatever the source was! Very rich, pleasantly sweet, pecan nutty, he makes a double batch because, while with a week of aging they become even better than when first baked, they are go good when first baked that one batch never survives the aging process!
Baking this year was complicated by the oven in the new-to-us house. The temperature control in it is not particularly accurate. I SO wish I had a digital thermometer to test it with, but I used two analog oven thermometers in it when we first moved in. Set at 350 F (and left to pre-heat for 20 minutes), one read 305 degrees, the other read 325 degrees. Either way, the oven runs low when set at 350. Set at 450, the oven thermometer team said it was far more accurate, one reading 450 one reading 445. Alas, this recipe calls for baking at 325 degrees!
So we set the oven at 350, and ended up baking them longer than the recipe called for. Rather like doing good BBQ, 'low and slow'! They turned out particularly well. I'm posting the recipe as we got it, but you might want to experiment with lower temperature/longer time baking if you try it yourself.
And, yes, you MUST do the creaming with your hands. I tried making them myself at the end of 2009, using a blender. They didn't hold their shape, baked up wrong, were miserable.
CHRISTMAS CRESCENT COOKIES
Ingredients:
1/2 pound butter 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar 1 tablespoon water
2 cups flour, measured before sifting 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped Pecans Powdered sugar
Cream butter with hands. Add sugar, vanilla, water, and cream them together, again with your hands. Sift flour and salt together, then stir them into the butter mixture. Add nuts and mix thoroughly.
To form the crescents, pick off a walnut-sized piece of dough, and roll it into a crescent shape. Place on baking pan, spaced about an inch apart.
Bake 20 minute in a slow (325 degree) oven. Removed when the 'points' of the crescents are lightly brown, but before the entire cookie is brown. They will be pretty delicate at this stage, place carefully on racks to cool a bit. While still warm, roll in powdered sugar.
Makes not nearly enough cookies.
Enjoy!
Frondly, Fern
Monday, January 3, 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Pagan Utopias
Blessings, Darlings!
Back in the day - during a previous recession that particularly hit the Rust Belt during the Reagan Administration - lots of Pagans (and others) had Back To The Earth, let's all get some land and have a communal agrarian utopia plans. Not me.
My Utopian plans were always different. Always suburban or even urban.
In the '80's it was sort of this: Rust belt homes were cheap. I used South Bend as an example, since I knew the city well (my in-laws lived there, and my father-in-laws parents before them). The city had a major university (a little place called Notre Dame) (I AM an Elitist and value access to a great library), and was on a rail line to Chicago for museums, concerts, etc. A Levitt 2 bedroom house with a basement, some 625 square feet of finished space, on a small lot, with a detached one car garage, ran about $22,000. In 12 square blocks of my in-laws neighborhood alone there were 20 such houses available along with a few larger ones.
Get 10 pagan 'families' to move there. "Family" was a flexible term, meaning 'groups of pagans who would buy homes', they could be just friends, or married, or have whatever relationships they chose. Some would get jobs in the city or at the university. Others would start their own businesses, in the neighborhood, helping revitalize the area. And the group would incorporate to buy one more house, to be used as a Pagan Place of Worship ... and maybe be a communal kitchen and maybe a child care center or such. Some of the tiny yards would include organic gardens and tiny orchards. Others would have swing sets, for we'd be THE place for local kids to hang out.
As a group, we'd have 10 - 20 children in the local public schools, scout troops, little league teams in a few years. We'd be 10 active families in the local PTAs. From there, we'd have a heck of a voice, and maybe an elected member, on the school board. Twenty familes, in one area, active in politics. We might even agree on one or two items, and work together to get the city to move on that item. Each family active in one or two outside organizations - friends of the library? Scouts? Little league? La Leche League? Local politics? Active at the hospital? At the rape/domestic violence center? Environmental groups?
Being an active pagan group, more pagans would come to the area, seeing it as pagan friendly. Pagan influence would grow, blessing the city more and more. Asatruar in work ethic, Druid in scholarship, holistic and environmental in outlook, we'd end up spreading blessings and economic renewal throughout the city, then county, then state.
That was my fantasy in the '80s.
Time passed. I ended up outside of Baltimore, MD then Washington, DC, not in the rust belt. The fantasy evolved.
Now it revitalized an area of row houses. Gardens were gone, but we'd be active in organic Community Supported Agriculture. Still, local and homebased businesses, families active in the community, would bring renewal.
Now, it's Detroit and its environs that is the go-to city to show the evils of the recession (although the Washington Post over the past few years has been following Elkhart, Indiana, ironically under 20 miles from South Bend). Could these or similar plans work there, now?
I'm not sure. The economic base of the city, including city services, is far worse than things were in previous recessions. It's not clear that starting from the grass roots of one neighborhood can do much, when basic services are cut across the city. One improvement is that home based businesses now can easily rely on the internet for sales, and not be dependent on the local economy and local sales. So they would still help the local tax base. OTOH, starting local small businesses aimed at local clients would be harder to start, and the idea of having some 'team members' get local jobs might not be possible.
But it sure is interesting to think about.
Frondly, Fern
Back in the day - during a previous recession that particularly hit the Rust Belt during the Reagan Administration - lots of Pagans (and others) had Back To The Earth, let's all get some land and have a communal agrarian utopia plans. Not me.
My Utopian plans were always different. Always suburban or even urban.
In the '80's it was sort of this: Rust belt homes were cheap. I used South Bend as an example, since I knew the city well (my in-laws lived there, and my father-in-laws parents before them). The city had a major university (a little place called Notre Dame) (I AM an Elitist and value access to a great library), and was on a rail line to Chicago for museums, concerts, etc. A Levitt 2 bedroom house with a basement, some 625 square feet of finished space, on a small lot, with a detached one car garage, ran about $22,000. In 12 square blocks of my in-laws neighborhood alone there were 20 such houses available along with a few larger ones.
Get 10 pagan 'families' to move there. "Family" was a flexible term, meaning 'groups of pagans who would buy homes', they could be just friends, or married, or have whatever relationships they chose. Some would get jobs in the city or at the university. Others would start their own businesses, in the neighborhood, helping revitalize the area. And the group would incorporate to buy one more house, to be used as a Pagan Place of Worship ... and maybe be a communal kitchen and maybe a child care center or such. Some of the tiny yards would include organic gardens and tiny orchards. Others would have swing sets, for we'd be THE place for local kids to hang out.
As a group, we'd have 10 - 20 children in the local public schools, scout troops, little league teams in a few years. We'd be 10 active families in the local PTAs. From there, we'd have a heck of a voice, and maybe an elected member, on the school board. Twenty familes, in one area, active in politics. We might even agree on one or two items, and work together to get the city to move on that item. Each family active in one or two outside organizations - friends of the library? Scouts? Little league? La Leche League? Local politics? Active at the hospital? At the rape/domestic violence center? Environmental groups?
Being an active pagan group, more pagans would come to the area, seeing it as pagan friendly. Pagan influence would grow, blessing the city more and more. Asatruar in work ethic, Druid in scholarship, holistic and environmental in outlook, we'd end up spreading blessings and economic renewal throughout the city, then county, then state.
That was my fantasy in the '80s.
Time passed. I ended up outside of Baltimore, MD then Washington, DC, not in the rust belt. The fantasy evolved.
Now it revitalized an area of row houses. Gardens were gone, but we'd be active in organic Community Supported Agriculture. Still, local and homebased businesses, families active in the community, would bring renewal.
Now, it's Detroit and its environs that is the go-to city to show the evils of the recession (although the Washington Post over the past few years has been following Elkhart, Indiana, ironically under 20 miles from South Bend). Could these or similar plans work there, now?
I'm not sure. The economic base of the city, including city services, is far worse than things were in previous recessions. It's not clear that starting from the grass roots of one neighborhood can do much, when basic services are cut across the city. One improvement is that home based businesses now can easily rely on the internet for sales, and not be dependent on the local economy and local sales. So they would still help the local tax base. OTOH, starting local small businesses aimed at local clients would be harder to start, and the idea of having some 'team members' get local jobs might not be possible.
But it sure is interesting to think about.
Frondly, Fern
Fresh Air
Blessings, Darlings!
Bob and I actually took a walk together today, our first time getting a bit of exercise outside in the new neighborhood. We immediately discovered that NONE of the houses here has a bad view - gosh, this area is beautiful!
We also got to meet one of our neighbors, and her puppy (and another neighborhood dog came by to visit as well). We all talked for a while, exchanged e-mail addresses, got a feel for each other. Had a good time!
Several of the houses in the subdivision HAVE gone to either foreclosure or short sales. The two now for sale have been for sale for a LONG time. At least one family homeschools, and I know from meeting another neighbor that he and his wife are looking into homeschooling their family (eldest child is not yet school age).
So I learned and did things already today. Another successful day! Yay!
Frondly, Fern
Bob and I actually took a walk together today, our first time getting a bit of exercise outside in the new neighborhood. We immediately discovered that NONE of the houses here has a bad view - gosh, this area is beautiful!
We also got to meet one of our neighbors, and her puppy (and another neighborhood dog came by to visit as well). We all talked for a while, exchanged e-mail addresses, got a feel for each other. Had a good time!
Several of the houses in the subdivision HAVE gone to either foreclosure or short sales. The two now for sale have been for sale for a LONG time. At least one family homeschools, and I know from meeting another neighbor that he and his wife are looking into homeschooling their family (eldest child is not yet school age).
So I learned and did things already today. Another successful day! Yay!
Frondly, Fern
Saturday, January 1, 2011
An Office!
Blessings, Darlings!
The Chubby Hubby and the Spawn FINALLY moved the furniture where it needed to be in the room that's supposed to be my office (and food storage room), gave me a bookcase out of the ones stashed in the garage, and moved two other bookcases in the garage into the library.
I HAVE A USABLE OFFICE AGAIN!
I'm amazingly happy. I've already sorted thru' the mail that had accumulated since before we moved and has been sitting in boxes waiting for me to have space to organize it in. Found one reimbursement check, two cash back things from Staples, and a gift card from Walmart. Walmart? Whatever. I even wrote a little something something for Star Foster over at www.patheos.com answering the question "What Makes Someone Wiccan?"
Tomorrow I'll make a calendar of what bills are due what day of the month, so I can automate payments. I HOPE this means I'll be able to blog more regularly - I have a door I can close to block out interruptions.
OTOH, this is farther from the coffeepot/microwave than I was when trying to work from the diningroom table. But we'll actually be able to EAT in the diningroom! Woot!
Frondly, Fern
The Chubby Hubby and the Spawn FINALLY moved the furniture where it needed to be in the room that's supposed to be my office (and food storage room), gave me a bookcase out of the ones stashed in the garage, and moved two other bookcases in the garage into the library.
I HAVE A USABLE OFFICE AGAIN!
I'm amazingly happy. I've already sorted thru' the mail that had accumulated since before we moved and has been sitting in boxes waiting for me to have space to organize it in. Found one reimbursement check, two cash back things from Staples, and a gift card from Walmart. Walmart? Whatever. I even wrote a little something something for Star Foster over at www.patheos.com answering the question "What Makes Someone Wiccan?"
Tomorrow I'll make a calendar of what bills are due what day of the month, so I can automate payments. I HOPE this means I'll be able to blog more regularly - I have a door I can close to block out interruptions.
OTOH, this is farther from the coffeepot/microwave than I was when trying to work from the diningroom table. But we'll actually be able to EAT in the diningroom! Woot!
Frondly, Fern
Mom Update
Mom's coherent again. She understands she was in the hospital for two days, tho' she doesn't remember being there. She understands she broke her neck in two places.
She has also fired the helper we had staying with her, since now she remembers to wear the neck brace and doesn't feel she needs the help. Even tho' she's unsteady on her feet.
My cousin (whose husband is Mom's lawyer) still hasn't sent me Power of Attny, so I can't override Mom's decision.
She has also fired the helper we had staying with her, since now she remembers to wear the neck brace and doesn't feel she needs the help. Even tho' she's unsteady on her feet.
My cousin (whose husband is Mom's lawyer) still hasn't sent me Power of Attny, so I can't override Mom's decision.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Mom Watch, Solstice Edition
Mom apparently fell. She doesn't remember falling, but after being okay last Friday, by Saturday she was disoriented and complained of neck pain, and her usually neat apartment was a mess. Monday (!) a cousin took her to the ER, and she has two broken bones in her neck. They tried a halo brace, but that increased her anxiety and blood pressure, they had to remove it. She's now back in her apt, with a 24/7 companion and a stiff neck brace. They will do another MRI in 3 weeks.
Why no family who saw her stepped in before Monday is not clear. Why the staff, who help her with her meds daily, didn't notice there was a problem is not clear.
I'm not happy, but have no money to go back and work on things. She can't handle the stairs living here, even if she and I could survive living in the same place. Which we can't.
Why no family who saw her stepped in before Monday is not clear. Why the staff, who help her with her meds daily, didn't notice there was a problem is not clear.
I'm not happy, but have no money to go back and work on things. She can't handle the stairs living here, even if she and I could survive living in the same place. Which we can't.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Moving On
Blessings, Darlings!
So, we've been in the new place, and out of the old place, for about 6 weeks now. I'm still unpacking boxes. So far this morning it was "okay, found the tortilla press, but what I'm actually looking for is the pasta maker....".
It cost more to move than we had figured, due to our not figuring out how to streamline that till the very end. And it took longer to move and get the lab set up than we had planned, so income was interrupted longer. Nothing really surprising there.
And the expenses of registering cars in the new state (and getting them fixed up to get past inspection), getting the business registered in the new state, getting new drivers licenses, etc. At least the cost of car insurance dropped! But, boy, first estimates on health insurance are staggering.
Thus it's another lean Yule for us. We bought a 12 inch tree at Goodwill for $1.59, a bunch of used books for gifts, some chocolate. Food budget is at $80 a week. We're fine tuning the heating in the house - which vents to leave open, which closed, what hours to have the heat up to 66 vs 60 or 55 degrees.
Nothing really unusual there, either.
But every morning we watch the sun rise over the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is a wonderful thing. I can watch the cows on a nearby farm. The deer that will be eating my garden in the summer wander across the yard now.
It's all good. Okay, it's mostly good, except that the Chubby Hubby isn't sleeping because he's worried about all the financial stuff again.
Frondly, Fern
So, we've been in the new place, and out of the old place, for about 6 weeks now. I'm still unpacking boxes. So far this morning it was "okay, found the tortilla press, but what I'm actually looking for is the pasta maker....".
It cost more to move than we had figured, due to our not figuring out how to streamline that till the very end. And it took longer to move and get the lab set up than we had planned, so income was interrupted longer. Nothing really surprising there.
And the expenses of registering cars in the new state (and getting them fixed up to get past inspection), getting the business registered in the new state, getting new drivers licenses, etc. At least the cost of car insurance dropped! But, boy, first estimates on health insurance are staggering.
Thus it's another lean Yule for us. We bought a 12 inch tree at Goodwill for $1.59, a bunch of used books for gifts, some chocolate. Food budget is at $80 a week. We're fine tuning the heating in the house - which vents to leave open, which closed, what hours to have the heat up to 66 vs 60 or 55 degrees.
Nothing really unusual there, either.
But every morning we watch the sun rise over the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is a wonderful thing. I can watch the cows on a nearby farm. The deer that will be eating my garden in the summer wander across the yard now.
It's all good. Okay, it's mostly good, except that the Chubby Hubby isn't sleeping because he's worried about all the financial stuff again.
Frondly, Fern
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