Monday, December 15, 2008

Gingerbread in Progress

No roof yet, but the walls are up, the windows are in, and there is snow on the ground:

Candle Lit

The pictures are not so great (the edge of the fruit bowl is in this one,) but at least you can see we are working on it.

Walls and Windows

The windows are made out of caramelized sugar. I'm using royal icing made with pasteurized egg whites from a carton.

John thinks the roof needs slate tiles, so I bought a box of Wilton fondant (since no one will be eating it.) I'm hoping once the roof is on he changes his mind.

James is pretty pleased with the progress, but the fun was in the designing and not in the baking and construction for him. He did help hold up flying buttresses for a while. Flying buttresses are a pain (in the butt-ress.)

Tonight we get to go listen to live Christmas music at the high school. The chamber orchestra is accompanying the choir, and the son will be playing his cello.

Giant James

We totally got gypped out of a snow day today. The precipitation missed us by about 30 miles. Cars had to have chains going through Portland last night, and they are mostly shut down, but we got nuthin'. A couple of pretty little flurries, and no accumulation whatsoever. We did get the cold, though. I had to stop on the way to school this morning to scrape the ice made by our breath on the INSIDE of the car windows.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I'm Glad I'm Not Thirteen

I have a daughter.
ladeda2
She's beautiful and intelligent and funny and talented and creative and compassionate.
B&Wme
She's also a thirteen year old girl, which means there is sometimes drama.
Halloween costume

Zoolight
Here is Audrey at Zoolights at the Oregon Zoo with "Latonka." Even though it was "Latonka's" family who took the girls, I'm crazy-pleased with this picture, because both the girls are wearing fingerless gloves of my own knitting.
Audrey and Friend
Here's Audrey with another friend. We'll call her "Boris."
Audrey Kissing Cozy
I took none of these pictures. All but one are Audrey's digital self-portraits, and she did the alteration on the first two herself.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Why We Had KFC for Dinner Last Night:

Yesterday at 3:00 I started doing this:

Gingerbread Dough

That is 1/4, or 2 pounds, of the structural gingerbread dough, straight out of the refrigerator and having the resistance of an old Tootsie Roll. I rolled, I cut, I baked, I referred with the designer of the cathedral and did it all some more. When I picked John up from work at 7:00 I was tired, sore, stank of gingerbread and had no plans for dinner (also I wasn't done with the rolling and cutting and baking.) We picked up a chicken dinner and after wolfing down my share, I went back to the rolling and cutting and baking.

Five and a half hours after I started, out of eight pounds of gingerbread dough, this is what was left:

What Was Left Over

(The last couple of pieces were rolled pretty thin, and got a little. . .brown. . .in the oven, but I wasn't about to make more dough and start over. Seriously, they will work just fine. Do you hear me, they will be FINE.)

Today I have sore palms, sore forearms, some lingering dirty dishes (my aluminum baking sheets can't go in the dishwasher and it is a testament of my love for them that I keep and use them anyway,) and this:

Gingerbread Pieces

TWENTY TWO pieces of gingerbread cathedral awaiting construction (the standard gingerbread house has SIX.) What shall we use for construction adhesive? I've used royal icing in the past and the drying time is maddening. I've used caramelized sugar in the past, but with our humidity it softens and weeps after a while. James suggested hot glue, but I have tried this before (in desperation because of the maddeningly slow drying time of royal icing) and it doesn't want to stick to slightly greasy cookie pieces. I suggested Liquid Nails and John gave me the hairy eyeball and said some nonsense about keeping it edible. Probably we will go with royal icing, that's what Bobby Flay used in the Food Network show that inspired this baking odyssey in the first place. (Impressionable teenagers maybe should not be allowed to watch extreme baking shows.)

Monday, December 08, 2008

Working Hard

ACK! The holiday season snuck up on me again this year! I heard women talking about how it was a late Thanksgiving that is giving us fewer days before Christmas. Since I don't do Christmas until after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I'm using this as my excuse.

I've been knitting and knitting and crocheting and knitting. Hopefully everyone will have a little something in time for mailing and gift opening. I don't want to post too many spoilers here, since some of the family stop by to read the blog occasionally. Every household on my gift list is getting one of these:

Sherry 018

What is it and what is it for? I'm not telling, but the knitting book it came from displayed one on a dog, and the Gardners are the only one's I'm sure will use it.

Sherry 017

The afghan I'm making is about 40 inches in diameter, and I think the pattern said to make it 54 inches, so I've got a ways to go on it. I'm making mitts like a mitt making demon (sometimes a surly mitt making demon,) and I've discovered I like the first mitt way better than the second. I have to tell you, while maybe I'm not wishing there were more one-handed people on my gift list, I am tempted to give one glove with instructions to just keep the other (naked) hand in a coat pocket.

James got first place at his last Knowledge Bowl competition as captain of the Junior Varsity Team.

Audrey is getting ready for Winter Ball. She has her dress already and is working on the dance committee. She is a pretty happy camper these days: her English teacher told her he is giving her an "A" for the rest of the school year (today is the midpoint of the second quarter,) and she is to do independent study as he feels she is working above grade level. This is making her doubly happy because James was never offered independent study, and she feels like she has FINALLY achieved something he didn't do first.

We went to John's office party on Friday: potluck at the Moose Lodge with a keg (seriously--would I make that up?) The "providers" in the office (the doctors, physicians assistants and nurse practitioners) give the party as a gift to the support staff, meaning the providers all have to pitch in $100 and then the office managers hire a DJ and make a big Costco trip and buy door prizes. I prefer a good White Elephant gift exchange myself, but to each their own.

James drew and made templates for a gingerbread cathedral. There are eight pounds of gingerbread dough in the refrigerator awaiting the construction. More on that later.