blue artichoke

Yesterday was a day for wrapping up loose ends. I threw out the yucky cookies, the rest of the oozy cranberry jellies, and also the bottoms of the crème de menthe bars that weren’t looky enough to give away. These bars sounded neat: a bottom layer of chocolate-graham-nut, topped with a sugary crème de menthe layer, topped by a chocolate layer. This was the recipe that I made my own powdered sugar for, and it wasn’t as genius as I proclaimed. It had an odd texture. The best layer was the top layer, because I used Andes crème de menthe chips. The problem was that the chocolate layer hardened too much to cut through without sending cracks through the rest of the layer. There were a few pieces that looked good enough to give away on cookie platters, the rest we’d have to eat. We have so many failed goodies right now that we’d be huge if we ate them all, so I kept the top hard mint-chocolate layer and threw the rest away. Trim the fat, cut my losses. There have been more failed recipe attempts this holiday baking season than ever before. Maybe I’ve lost the Christmas spirit.

I’m making a few snack mixes (three) to give away as presents. I made the first two this morning. One is a berry-nut mix, the other is a harvest apple mix. Both are of my own creation. The berry-nut mix is totally awesome; the harvest apple had a few setbacks. I now know why trail mixes never call for corn or bran flakes cereals; they just get soggy and clumpy. You need the crosshatch, double layer of Chex or Crispex to withstand the coating and the baking. I never appreciated this fine cereal engineering. Now I add it to my list of great underappreciated inventions, along with armrests. Anyway, I picked out the pretzels and nuts and remade the cereal part this morning. And I made three batches of Chex Mix. It just isn’t Christmas without Chex Mix.

So, there’s the throwing away of food, the snack mixes, and finally, the Fifth Gingerbread of Christmas. This has a super flavor, but is still lacking a bit in texture. The flavor was so great because I ran out of powdered ginger, about ½ t. shy of a tablespoon, so I added in a bit of ginger juice from a jar of grated ginger I have in the fridge. Wow! What a difference. This leant a sharp, bright ginger flavor, in a good way. This recipe won’t win the Snackdown, but I’ll add this trick to whichever one does win, just to boost the flavor a bit. So, that was the baking part of the day. There’s more.

I got a new fridge! Finally, no more biweekly shifting food from freezer to cooler on the porch, then quickly back again as the temperature outside warms up. This fridge is sweet. It’s not a new one, but is bigger, roomier and brighter than the old one. And it keeps a steady temperature and doesn’t leak water all over everything inside. The only drawback is that it’s louder. I haven’t had a dishwasher for years, but every time I walk into the living room, I think the dishwasher is running. Then I remember that GC is the dishwasher, and it’s the loud fridge and I smile, because I have a new fridge.

And, finally, I test drove two cars yesterday: Mazda 6 and a Hyundai Sonata. The Sonata wasn’t on my original list, but I liked the look, and because it’s sort of an off-brand, I can get lots of bells-and-whistles for the same price as a base package in the other cars I looked at. Tempting, and it sure throws a wrench in my car buying research. I also really liked the Mazda 6. It’s really comfortable and is a bit more hip and fun than, say, another Camry, which is totally practical and reliable. I’ve spent hours today printing out specs and reviews; I don’t know when I’ll have time to read them, but I feel better with data at my fingertips.

So, holiday baking officially comes to a close. Cookies have been made, arranged on trays and distributed; snack mixes have been made and will be given away on Christmas; and the Chex Mix will be munched until it’s gone. I’ll be a-travelin’ for a while, so merry holidays!

Getting to Know All About You: What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received?