The Smells

 Well, here we are at the end of  2020,  holding it by the tail and doing some swift turning in the yard hoping to fling it as far away as possible.  Round and round we go gathering speed ready to let it go.  And hope it stays gone. We don't know what our new normal will be like, and I'm sure there will be a whole lot of  "we USED to be able to...." and I'm sure I'll be heard muttering it now and then but really, no one wants to hear it because it's quite obvious and sometimes when we look back, we see the effects of out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new.  We are always changing and bringing in the new we just normally don't do it all at once.     

    Christmas had a different look for everyone this year and if you manged to keep a stiff upper lip and carry on as best you could or found new ways to muddle through then good for you! Not being able to see friends or go to parties or open houses brought me to thinking of what COULD happen. What's left?  It brought me to thinking of the smells of this month.  

    So many smells. Fresh pine trees in the living room, scented candles lit in the evening, peppermint hand washing soap, and above all, cinnamon.  Cinnamon was everywhere in the house.  Even though it's just PH and me I do love to bake and did my fair share of it because to be real, it was about the only thing I COULD do.

I started the month with sticky parkin cake.  I noticed a small notice in a magazine from England about sticky parkin cake.  I contacted the magazine and they sent the recipe.  I also contacted Brian  and he sent a recipe even though he said he'd never heard of it.  I used his recipe.  Now, there were a couple of things I had to improvise on, but that's how I roll anyway so no problem there.  The biggest was the spice mix.  Apparently England has this blend that from the sound of it you can only get there, called Mixed Spice. Later on I looked it up and it's a mix of Cassis cinnamon (which I do have), coriander, caraway, nutmeg, ginger, cloves all in certain proportions. Well, for this cake I read that as Allspice.  It's not the same but I used it anyway.  I improvise all of the time and it's as close as I could come.   With sticky parkin cake the trick is not to eat it till it's aged in a tin for at least five days.  The longer you wait the stickier it gets.  Well, they weren't kidding!  If you like spices and fork and finger licking this is really, really, really a tasty treat.  I savored it.

These gingerbread crispy cookies had to be kept in the freezer in the garage so if I was going to have any I had to work for it. I rolled them thinner than the recipe called for so they were crisp.  I like to dot one chocolate chip in the middle of gingerbread.  Molasses was NOT to be found on store shelves so no molasses cookies this year.  I made a few snowballs, some cut outs and chocolate teddy bears for the kids.

This stollen is one of my favorites and it makes three very large loaves ( !!! ) so I eat one, send one down the street to daughter's house and freeze one.  Next year I think I'm going to make some of  it in smaller muffin like loaves. Who doesn't like the smell of bread baking? 

So far the smells have been spicy and bakey.  But then I did this.  You have to smell  chocolate, too, right?  I got the bright idea to make hot chocolate bombs.  This was something new to me.  I thought I'd make them for the kids.  I had to order this mold first.  I ordered in November and it just came Dec. 23.  I spent the afternoon playing with the concept of a hot chocolate bomb.  After watching YouTube demos I thought, "How hard can it be? I know how to do stuff."  If you don't know what it is (and I didn't,)  it's a circle of chocolate filled with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. Look it up.  It's all over YouTube.

Well. I can't believe I am even showing this pathetic excuse for an un-decorated hot chocolate bomb.  I learned a few things. More than a few.  I learned a lot of things!  It was recommended NOT to use chocolate chips because they aren't really bomb friendly. Chocolate chips aren't good for anything but cookies.  I have plenty of good chocolate so that wasn't an issue.  I tempered some dark and semi-sweet chocolate together.  Here's what I learned: 

    1)  wear gloves so fingers don't leave prints.  

     2) good chocolate is far more delicate than not good chocolate - I knew that but don't usually play with my chocolate.  I eat it.

    3) make the chocolate shell a lot thicker than you might think is necessary and when they say to really build up the rim?  They mean it.

     4) don't try mending a  hole by holding a spoon over a flame and then smoothing it over a small hole in the bomb.  Hot spoon + chocolate = bigger hole.  Geez. What a mess.

     5) mending isn't recommended.  Just remelt the thing. Or use it for a demo piece if you've already added the hot chocolate mix in the bottom half. 

    6)  Chocolate will be EVERYWHERE so don't wear white.  What a mess.  Chocolate was everywhere.  The kitchen looked like I gave a container of melted chocolate to a gang of hyper active toddlers.

I did get six bombes to take to the girls this evening and they will like them and I'll get better at it.  I do understand now why they sell for $5.00 each in the shops.  And I'm glad the mold didn't come till it was too late to make them for our Christmas. 

We had a plan, we had rules, we all agreed that if we had to change things up for this year so we could be together then that's what we would do. And we were able to have a Christmas with the kids last weekend. Our plan? First of all, no judging allowed or invited but this was our plan.  We ALL got tested, we were ALL negative, we then locked the doors, stayed home, away from ANYONE and thus stayed negative. PH and I did take a daily walk but we were alone, saw no one and that was allowed. There would be no overnight visit this year, everyone would wear a mask at all times unless you were putting food into your mouth, air purifiers were going in all rooms, windows open a few inches on both sides of the house for air flow, two dining tables were set up for spacing,  food was set out buffet style and ONE person from each family would fill all plates for that family. This meant we all could be safely together for a day. We all agreed, we all did it, we had a wonderful day and PH and I are still basking in the glow.