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Gingerbread Emperors!
I guess this is what happens when my friends and I bake Christmas cookies while watching "I, Claudius".
Top row: Augustus, Livia (with poisoned fig), grumpy Tiberius
Bottom row: Caligula (exposing himself), Claudius (with slightly damaged foot), and Nero.
Nero's awesome fiddle was made by [info]elanya out of a tiny snowman-shaped cookie.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
We also ought to be banned from buying avocados, as I can never catch that minute between green, alligator-skinned rocks and smooshy mess, and I feel ridiculously wasteful every time I throw them away. We were better off in China, when we would carry our avocados and gouda back from Jenny Lou’s, and then wait, checking the avocados for that perfect sandwich ripeness each time before we went out for dumplings.
But in hard times, I can’t. I need to rely more on noodles and ramen, less on nori and rabe.The whole thing's worth a read.
Too runny to be ready
It's wrinkly, so it's ready
....Put several small plates into the freezer. As the jelly temperature exceeds 218°F, start testing it by placing a small amount of the hot jelly on a chilled plate. If the jelly spreads out and thins immediately, it isn't ready. If it holds its shape a bit, that's a good sign. Push up against it with your finger tip. If the jelly sample wrinkles at all, it is time to take the jelly off the heat and pour it out into jars.
I was making cranberry relish yesterday when Stick came into the kitchen and looked hungrily at the jars I was filling.
“You can eat the one on the left, ’cause I screwed up the seal.” I told him, hoping to deter him from sticking a spoon in the boiling cranberry-orange goo.
“Great,” he said. “You make jam and save the botulism for me.”
Some recipes tell you to remove the pith, but without the pith you are(I know what blanch means but this picture is pretty)
left with not a lot of orange peel even though it may not technically
be part of the peel. I think the concern is that the pith makes the
peel bitter. You can remedy the bitterness by blanching the peels.
blanch the strips of peel three times
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