Life of Wry

Went in search of paper towels this morning, and ended up emptying two over-filled, treasure-rich kitchen cabinets.  Among other things, found this mug from about six years ago.  Definitely one of the benefits of a spontaneous, unplanned cabinet purging and reorganization project!

Treasures abound, you just have to find them.. right?

And what better way to close out the year?

Well, okay, there are many wonderful (and better) ways to close out the year, but bear with me, I’m trying to find a good wrap-up here.  Wrapping up not only the year, but the photo-a-day writing project.

But you know what? I don’t really have a tidy and clever way to close this thing out, either of them, so I’ll just say so long to a fun project and a good year–they’re all good, right?–and cheers to 2012.

I’ll be back in some form or another.

…. for Auld Lang Syne.

Returning home from the movies.  Shooting the roof line before walking through the front door.

What is this?, you might wonder.  Well, it’s five baseball players grunting and heaving their way through sideways planks–part of a conditioning workout in the off season. They’re in a cavernous (and cold) warehouse on the outskirts of Woodland, fifteen miles north of Davis, which is deserted tonight, but for these guys. The workout tonight was peer-lead.

I find the whole thing pretty endearing.

I’m such a regular here.  It’s so pavlovian..the mere photo makes me want a poppyseed muffin.

This is exactly what I’m looking at as I type this.  I’ve logged many hours today in this chair.  I think I’m proud of that.. though my butt’s sore. Besides eating too much, I’ve done some writing, some reading, part of a crossword puzzle, some dozing, and a little thinking.

December 27 is a good day for thinking.

I’m one of those people who loves the end of the year and the promise of a new year.  I’m tidy that way,  love organizing myself in neat chunks of time.  I’m quite the resolution maker. But I’m also a lot wiser than I used to be, so my resolutions are not too bad… really… informed by all kinds of good thinkers. A few very good plans for myself this year.  (Hope you’re smiling, and not rolling your eyes.) We can all benefit from reflection and efforts to walk this planet in top form, ya?

So.. doing that.  Thinking about the year ahead and priorities.

One thing I’ve not quite worked out is what to do with this blog. I’m not going to continue the photo-a-day writing prompt, but that’s not to say I’m not going to write.  Or take pictures.  I’ve loved both. The photo-a-day served a purpose, but writing turned out not to be one of them, even though that had been the intention.  I very much enjoyed the picture part, and while I didn’t set out to create a documentation of the year, per se, that’s pretty much what it became. A lot more journal and a lot less exploration of writing.

But the discipline of a daily writing practice was there (though the writing was anything but challenging). I made time for it and it happened.  I did not miss a single day (except when I was in Nepal and I was unable to access my computer.. but I’m backfilling those with a detailed travel log.. which I will finish soon).  I’m pleased with that.

The other thing I loved about the photo-a-day prompt was the record of the year I ended up with.  Nice.  (for me.)  The pictures tell a fairly complete story and the commentary–sometimes only captions–embellished that story.  The year 2011 is well documented!  As our family historian, self-appointed, that is a nice bonus.  So I think I’d like to continue that, but not in a wholly public way. Since it’s a blog, however, it’ll be out there, but I won’t cite it, promote it or whatever people do to blogs to get them read. I’ll enjoy doing it and having it, Peter’s family may also enjoy it one day, but that’s about it. And I’ll likely do it here at Life of Wry, and invite current subscribers to unsubscribe, lest they be barraged with mundane family stories and my own personal wanderings. I won’t kick you out…but won’t feel bad at all if you choose to slip out the back. I’ll be freer to just blog about family life, without the pretense of writing.. as all year long I’ve felt totally self-conscious about using this as a place for journaling family life.

Then, likely, I’ll set up a new blog for writing writing. Which I probably won’t cite or promote either, because then I’ll feel less likely to really reach.  On the other hand, that’s dumb.  Writing needs an audience, we need to write as though people are reading, otherwise what’s the point, right?

This is the part I need to figure out.  I also haven’t figured out what I’ll write… stories, poems, character studies, stream of conscious?  Formal, informal?  Just not sure.  But I want to take writing to some next level, whatever that might be.  Totally for the fun of it.  Stay tuned.

Need more chair by the fire time for that one.

Oh yes.

The C holiday.  Behind us.  I woke up this morning eager to return to normal, to pack up all things red and green. To put away the soldiers, angels, tassels and bells, and consolidate and stash the nuts, toffee, candy, cookies, cocoas and teas.  To clear the counters, sweep the floor, and throw open the windows to let a cool, clean breeze blow through the house… and maybe take with it all the calories and bloat.

I allowed as how that might seem a hostile act, so asked Jim if he was okay with my wiping away all signs of Christmas on this, the 26th of December.  He thought it might be nice to enjoy Christmas a while longer, at least until Peter’s back in school.

Not the answer I was looking for. But I felt so guilty about my hastiness & enthusiasm (I take way too much joy in this phase of the holiday) that I decided to be agreeable, as long as we could be clear of Christmas by the weekend.

I did manage to find a little bit of a work around, though: I packed everything up but the tree and lights, figuring the tree was the centerpiece of holiday ornamentation, and the lights added sufficient glowy warmth. This way, I could preserve significant holiday spirit and still get a jump on the packing.   I didn’t just automatically repack, however.  I decided to cull the kitschiest of our Christmas inventory–the items that come out each year but which make me feel like I’ve taken leave of all my design senses–and reorganized the remaining boxes. And that was awesome. I did a thorough clean of the house (Jim may correct me here and say it was the cleaning crew, but, whatever) and let in some of that 30-degree outside air to freshen things up.

Ahhhh…

Maybe now I can clear my head and write and read, reflect on some new year’s resolutions, that kind of thing.

Or play games with Peter.  Speaking of, any guesses where he sat?

… bring on the winter.

(One of the Santas had a bit of a headache and went to bed..  he plans to fill the last stocking in the morning before everyone gets up..)

Remember that episode of That Girl back in the 60s when Marlo Thomas got a call from her boyfriend Donald who said he was going to bring over some business associates and expected her to be a good hostess, but she had no food in the house?  Remember she searched her pantry and all she had was a box of Corn Flakes and some peanut butter and in desperation spread peanut butter on individual flakes of corn, arranged them artfully on a serving platter.. and pulled the whole thing off?

I didn’t do that.  But I was reminded of that show this morning as I spread melted chocolate on my putty-colored almond toffee, in an effort to dress them up a little.  The really teeny ones, especially, reminded me of Marlo carefully spreading peanut butter on her flakes.

Here’s the chocolate spreading operation:

And close up:

I really liked them.  My kind of candy.

Here’s some rocky road up close (also pretty good!):

And here’s a look at the whole enchilada (well, minus the stuff I baked a couple weeks ago):

So, ya know, it’s the Christmas season…. but at least there’s BAKING.  And delivering.  And talking to people when you deliver the goods.  And bringing stuff home that they give you in return.

That’s all pretty damn fun.

Been a good, messy week of baking.  Wrapped most of it up tonight, prolly.

Brought back two favorites: Silver Palate’s Butter Balls (or Russian Tea Cookies), which is my all-time favorite cookie (just so you know) and a simple rocky road recipe. (I’d tried a couple different rocky roads this year and went back to a tried and true.)  I do these recipes a lot.. they are both so good.

Tried a new almond brittle recipe this week that was very simple, easier than my past Williams-Sonoma peanut brittle recipe (though that was exceptional), but it came out kind of putty colored.  It tastes great though, so I think I’m going to try covering (or just dipping) it in melted chocolate tomorrow to distract from the color.  We’ll see.

Also tried a new flourless chocolate cookie.  Kind of insane.  Bittersweet chocolate and ground almonds, mostly.  Densest dough ever that you chill overnight then form into balls which you roll in granulated sugar before baking. After baking, you dust with powdered sugar. They come out light and chewy and rich.  And are very, very chocolaty.

I was starting to feel badly about adding to people’s holiday stress by baking a bunch of sweets nobody needs.  But Jim said nobody would want a tin of carrot sticks.  So I shall press on.

Here are a couple pics:

Butter Balls:

Chocolate Cookies (this is the first test batch.. the subsequent batches look better b/c I sifted the sugar over the cookies and baked them on silpat which made their shapes just perfect) :

I’ll show you the candies tomorrow.