Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.
Gustave Flaubert
Tags: Quoting
We spent yesterday afternoon making the house festive, with holiday songs on the hi-fi, candles burning, and the sweet scent of pine and fir wafting about. Tonight, the hubster and I will be spreading a little holiday cheer with cherished neighbors, and tomorrow I’ll be whooping it up with the ladies. It’s that time of year…
I hope you and yours are enjoying this beautiful season!
Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.
Heraclitus
Tags: Quoting
To be more precise, the preparation of what is left of my egg. Raised by our friends’ hen, I might add. I should also mention that I am not engaging in hyperbole. This simple recipe knocked my socks clean off (now that is some hyperbole!). I don’t know if you, like me, sometimes have a struggle with egg preparation, specifically, over-easy. It can be over-difficult and not at all pretty. Maybe there’s not quite enough butter or oil in the pan; maybe I let it go a tad long; maybe the turn of the wrist isn’t just right, and out oozes the yolk.
Well, my friends, this solves all of those problems, is beyond easy (no flipping!), and the final product looks like something served at a restaurant. Here’s the score:
butter or olive oil – enough to lightly coat the bottom of the pan
Egg (s)
1 tablespoon water for every egg
Heat oil or butter in a small fry pan over medium heat. Have a lid or a plate large enough to cover the pan on the ready. When the butter bubbles somewhat briskly but does not burn, add an egg or two. I haven’t tried three but am pretty confident it would work fine. Once the bottom of the egg has cooked, meaning it is no longer translucent, add the water. Immediately cover with the lid or plate, and wait one minute. Remove the lid and slip the egg out of the pan. It will look gorgeous, and the texture, almost creamy, definitely delectable.
I should note that I found this method over at Duckspoon, (in the breakfast category – basted eggs) a terrific and very informative website focused on home cooking. They have a quick video if you want to watch the magic! I would also like to mention that Daniel, the man behind Duckspoon, is an ever so kind and skilled bartender at one of our favorite restaurants, the Country Cat. He does good things with whiskey.
It’s actually sunny here, so I better get it while the getting is good.
Enjoy!
Tags: Cooking and Baking, Recipes
It’s baking time Under a Red Roof: spritz cookies, pumpkin bars, mint sandwich cookies, sandies, and walnut fudge, yum, yum! It’s a lot of work, but like the jazz on the hi-fi during it all, there is a certain pleasure and flow in the mixing, rolling, tasting (just a little), and packaging. It is endlessly satisfying, especially when I think about someone I care about enjoying bite after bite.
It also reminds me of one of my favorite holiday pastimes, reading Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory aloud with the hubster. It is a magical time when I am transported, via the power of the word, to a place I have never been but know as intimately as my own home. Buddy and his cousin are there, rolling the wicker buggy with Queenie trotting along side. We dream, explore, hide our money in a coin purse under the floor boards, and make fruitcakes and high flying kites. It is the purest form of love.
Just as much as I love the story, I love the act and rhythm of the reading. The hubster and I sit on the sofa, impossibly close, and I begin, my voice as clear as the sky on that first morning, until it isn’t, and the tears come. He smiles and wordlessly takes the book from me, taking up where I left off, continuing until the tickles in his throat signal it is my turn again, beginning the cycle over: clear words, tears, exchange, clear words, tears, exchange. Then it is over, and I marvel at the distance traveled in twenty-nine pages.
