I only have a couple weeks of school left! WOO!
I might be a touch excited, I haven't had any long form of a break since January 13th. I could definitely do with a bit of a reprieve.
Well, I am not sure how much of a reprieve I will get, since my month off from college will occur over the holidays. Honestly, this year I am thinking about completely abstaining from any form of holiday celebrating, mainly for health reasons. Every year I over do it, then I get sick, wash, rinse, repeat.
I mean, I'd really like to not perform Carol of the Bells with a 104 degree fever or be wrapping presents in the clutches of an autoimmune flare. For those reasons I am strongly considering taking a sabbatical from it all.
The problem is I just love to give people stuff!
And by stuff I mean things I make, grow, and produce around the farm. I love to let the people in my life know just how much they mean to me around this time of celebrating time of year. The problem is that list has grown rather large and energy consuming, and after the last two years of illness and such, I truly don't know if I have it in me.
Well, I will think upon it for the next couple of weeks anyway.
Moving on, my first seed catalog arrived in the mail! Pinetree Garden seeds is one of my favorites, and this year they have PURPLE MINI PUMPKINS! I am so going to grow me some of those.
Um, part of the reason I might sound a touch high strung right now has to do with the oven. My oven needed a cleaning most desperately, and as it's newer and I have yet to use its self-cleaning function, I decided to give it a whirl.
After consulting the owner's manual, I set the beast to cleanse and went about my business. It was then that my most excellent neighbor texted inquiring about the use of my crock pot or instant pot as she has to feed the entire high school basketball team tomorrow.
By this point the fumes were getting a bit intense. I had the over the range hood vent on high, but I did remember reading something about moving sensitive birds due to them being affected by the fumes.
Maybe, just maybe the fumes affected Kats too...
Anyway, I got out my ancient crockpot, I've had it over 25 years now! EEE! But it still works like a champ. In fact, that crockpot reminds me of my grandparent's chrome toaster. They got it when they got married in 1956, and they were still using that thing not too many years ago! My crock pot is the toaster of my married realm!
I wiped off the outside of that magnificent heating beast and strolled down the road in a pair of grey sweats, a purple plaid shirt, a light blue coat, and with wet hair. Which honestly might not have been the smartest move, as it began to spit snow on that wet hair and it was a touch chilly.
The dogs followed me and faster than you can say, swell neighbor did I have the crock pot lent. I then decided to take my daily walk, and while I did so, I got to thinking about all the comestibles that I would like to bake during this holiday season time. I love Christmas baking!
For one thing, I have always wanted to make aebelskivers! The fluffy Scandinavian pancake balls of gloriousness have intrigued me ever since I had them at The Old European Breakfast House restaurant in a neighboring town. They were drizzled in blackberry syrup. I need to try that again just to make sure its good. You know, for reasons.
That also means I'll need to procure a cast iron aebelskiver pan. I'm just totally torn up about that. Truly.
I've got loads of ancient cookbooks full of things I haven't ever tried baking like Kuchen, flan, and pavlovas, there's even this sweet potato, pineapple, coconut Mexican empanados recipe that is calling to me.
So perhaps it is a good thing that I am cleansing the oven, even if it has made me a touch loopy, there's things to bake and I can hardly wait!
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Christmas time brings the most delicious things to us! I used to make so many cool things that I love, especially Dresden Stollen. But it's been too much work for me for quite a while so I buy it wherever I go, and am always disappointed. Last year I found a really good one in Nashville, and have already ordered four loaves for me to pick up during my annual trip there next week.
I know the desire to take a break though!!! Try to keep it in check, maybe just make lots of one or two items to give as gifts. Good stuff to eat makes the best presents of all!
I have to admit, I started drooling when my eyes filtered over the stollen part. The hubs was stationed in Germany for three years and has told me tales of such things, I bet yours are beyond glorious!
Our neighbor makes us Challah bread every Christmas and has the boys deliver it still warm in a paper bag. There's often fights over it, and my face is now smiling as I think about you picking up your four Stollen loaves next week on your trip, which I hope you have the most fun ever on!
I'm really going to try to scale back this year, which is going to be a task, as I'm terrible at scaling lol!
Hope you are having a most lovely day my dear friend😊
!PIZZA
And the very same good wishes to you!
I got that seed catalog in the mail last week,too! I intend to plant a proper garden this spring, so I got quite excited about the contents of the catalog.
It has been so long since I did the self-cleaning cycle on my oven, I'm not sure I remember how to do it. I will likely need to open the windows and leave the house while it does its thing.
Ooh! I can't wait to hear about and see the results of your proper garden growing adventure! Other than the garlic, the only thing I am growing is my own proper, normal scale garden, complete with purple, white, and orange mini pumpkins because I want them lol!
The smell of the oven wasn't that bad, and it was so fantastic to open it up at the end (after it cooled down), give it a wipe down, and enjoy the shiny cleanliness of it all. Which will last about five minutes at my house, but still, there was a bit of joy there!
!PIZZA
Ha ha! Yes, a clean oven doesn't stay that way very long for those of us who bake and cook all the time.
I want to grow little purple pumpkins too! I never heard of aebelskivers before but they do look good and I hope all those fumes left your oven sparkling
Oooh! Those little pumpkins would look delightful amongst all your lovely succulents and feline friends!
The oven turned out marvelous and now I really want and aebelskiver lol! Hope you find one soon!
!PIZZA
I know, huh? Trying to go slow during the holidays... So I am wondering, will she do it....
It's almost like, you might know me just a bit😉
I am least going to have the will to try lol!
!PIZZA
I looked at the photos first so when I started reading the post I thought the cat, dog and the owner of the leg had passed out from the fumes. That's me...always looking for drama.
I like the way you think 😆
Seriously though, I come from a long line of people who can turn a seemingly sedate situation into an absolute episodic extravaganza, so I appreciate it in others!
And it would have been a much more fantastic tale had I slipped from consciousness....maybe next time😁
!PIZZA
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