Thursday, December 30, 2021

Farewell, 2021

Like I said before, I've been doing a lot of baking, just not writing about it. 

For the holidays, I made a lot of cookies to share with family, friends and coworkers. I even made enough to share with the youngerchild's D&D group. Gingerbread snowflakes and stars, chocolate crinkle cookies, Nanaimo bars, Linzers, and M&M cookies. It took a few days to bake them all and not very long for them to get eaten!

Over the holiday week I fulfilled a promise to my family that I would make croissants from scratch. This usually takes 2 days, but can be done in one. Basically, I got all the folds done, rolled the croissants and partially proofed them in one day, put them in the fridge overnight and then completed the proofing the next morning and baked them. A lot of butter leaked out, so I'm going to have to try again when I have the proper amount of time to do them slowly, as that might change things. Still, for a first attempt, they were very good, particularly fresh out of the oven with strawberry jam. 

I hope next year is the year we finally come out from under all this. Fingers crossed.

Friday, December 10, 2021

It's Hard to Describe

Just look at that lamination!
It's not like I haven't been cooking. I have. I made pies. I made puff pastry apple tarts for Thanksgiving. I cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal for six. I have been making bread and we even had friends over for dinner last week. I knit things, gifts for family and friends. 

It's just that I haven't felt like writing about it. When the pandemic first started, I had all sorts of energy. I made cakes, experimented with Japanese baking, hiked, sewed, and worked. That energy is gone, replaced with the ennui of the day to day grind. There is little joy at work, just angry and anxious families who take their frustration out on the staff. It's no wonder it's hard to find people to hire. 

There's no exotic travel to look forward to. I miss my old life. This one feels too small.

So here I am, making turkey stock and canning it. For Thanksgiving I roasted a turkey breast and then cooked some turkey legs in a slow cooker. The bones got made into stock a few days ago and today I canned nine pints. That's about as exciting as it gets.