The Lyorn's Den

From 2011 (or earlier) to 2018, R__, Gwydion, Ceridwen and I used to find a Saturday or Sunday in Advent to bake christmas cookies ("Plätzchen") at R__'s house with the large kitchen opening to a larger informal dining room. We each made between one and six sorts of cookies, and then shared them. It was fun, but it was strenous, too.

But then, 2019, I was sick. 2020 and 2021 there was Covid-19. Since 2022 R___ has houseguests who like to cook for everyone, so the kitchen has kind of become their space. Plus, after Covid we we all had gotten out of practice at managing our social schedules.

Today Ceridwen and I did the baking at my place. (We are back to coordinating two persons' schedules, maybe next year we'll manage three?). I made two types of macaroons, as I still had frozen egg whites from the previous year (when I had big plans, but found that my bad shoulder blocked implementation), and my standard "gold coins", undecorated small cookies with vanilla, brown sugar and honey. Ceridwen did two types of shortcrust pastry cookies: one with marzipan mixed in the dough, the other with vanilla. We started the day with a breakfast at 10 a.m. and worked until 8 p.m., then drank a whisky, shared and packed our cookies, and called it a night.

Despite doing only three recipes and sitting down a lot, I'm still exhausted and in pain. This is getting really old. But I haz cookies!

I might post the recipes later, or not. I'm wary of making promises.

--

Also: Started reading Kameron Hurley's "Infidel". (Have not read "God's War".) Not sure if I like it. World is weird in an interesting way (also, it seems, crapsack), writing is good, but for me, it's a bit too close to the Eight Deadly Words so far. For now, wanting to know what happens next keeps me reading.

Notes to self:

For yeast dough, put the butter in when you start the second stage. Later, and it won't bind well. Kneading by hand will fix it after a while.

For shortcrust, use cold or soft butter.

For crumble, use very cold butter in thin slices, or it will become shortcrust.

Pay attention when baking. It's not a forgiving craft.

***

I *do* know all that.
Really.

I just went outside to see the falling stars, which should be very numerous and visible this night, but the sky was hazy, and the city too bright, even from the not-reached-but-streetlights yard.

Other things:

It's too hot. Weather forecast says temperature will drop by 10 or 15 degrees on Friday or Saturdays. It seems impossible.

Work is crazy. With 1/4 of our team on vacation, I could put in 10 hours a day and the pile of things to do would *still* get higher. Also, shit keeps happening and I had a miserable headache today.

Yesterday night I stumbled on a story I had started before the longest writer's block ever struck, six years ago now, and I barely recognized my own voice in it. Was I ever that brilliant? It's scary.

Saturday we had a role playing game, flederkatz GM'ed Deadlands. Fun. Too short. We killed a few monsters that wanted to eat us, and broke into a secret base, and left as unnoticed as we came. (We think.)

We now have a chance to think if the guys we are after are really the bad guys. On one hand, kidnapping orphans and stockpiling what seems to be a hidden marine base in a place that is at peace only because of poverty and exhaustion is not looking good. On the other hand, we do not know exactly what happened to these orphan's parents (presumed dead after an earthquake where part of the town dropped into the sea) and we haven't the foggiest whose base it is, except that it seems well-maintained. There might be more than one group active here. Actually, one could make a very good point for two. So, shall we call in the cavalry?

Also, I got some of the best prune plums ever, and made the best Zwetschgenstreuselkuchen ever, helped by the heat, which made the yeast happy, and by confusing the amounts of sugar and flour for the Streusel, which meant that they got crunchy-caramel-like, and some butter melted out of the Streusel at baking.

I know, I know, "Quiche? What kind of food is that for a monster to eat?" And even worse, it's vegetarian ( pear and camembert quiche )

Yesterday we had oven squash and rice. I have been asked for the recipe, so here it is.

( Oven squash and rice )

For dessert, we had ( Apple rolls )

I have been experimenting in the kitchen, with fun results. ( Read more... )

To something completely different, can anyone please check if the comments on e.g. the previous post become invisible if one is not logged in? I tried, but they stayed visible to me. I would like some more input on this.