Merry Christmas Is Over Why Are We Still Talking About It by Vanessa C. Hawkins

 Vanessa Hawkins Author Page

So by now Christmas has passed, and the winter doldrums are all ready to set in as you wait for that first dandelion to pop its head up through the soil. Winter blues, ready to come a-knocking post holiday, are all dressed up waiting for an invitation and doesn't give a darn about provincial lockdowns or one house-hold bubbles. 

It's a comin'! But as a writer who always has too much on their mind, my depression left the station well before Christmas. While waiting for Santa, it was set carefully on the back porch waiting for me to take down my Christmas lights, or throw out my dusty old Christmas tree that was up well past January. It was there... waiting to pounce...

Depression cat: Imma gonna make you sad then knock
over all yo' glass dinnerware... 

 But that cat can eat $h!+ because I'm not ready for it yet!

Take that all seasonal depression!

I'm gonna live in the past and review my recipe for a Merry Christmas! I haven't forgot about the holly and the jolly! It's not over, because my blog shall be about all the joy and fun I did last month! IF it looks familliar it's because I originally posted this a few weeks ago on Long and Short Reviews, but due to my this sure-fire Christmas plan--that can't be beat!-- I decided to post it here as well. Mostly because I did a George and didn't write a post in time, and also because I've been busy with a bunch of other projects that I'll tell you about NEXT month. 

Probably...

Unless I do another George...

Merry Christmas, George!

So, here it is! A tried and tested way to have a Merry Christmas! At least if you're me, or someone in the general area AROUND me. 

You’ll need lots of chocolate peppermint and gingerbread. Why? Because it's amazing frankly, and what's a Christmas without it? If you don’t have any on hand, you can always substitute for eggnog, but it’s gotta be homemade. Sorry... but store bought stuff is *blech!*

blech.

Christmastime in my family--

My family....................... *Okay not really*

--is always a series of events that culminate in a merry holiday adventure. I’m lucky, my husband and I have been together since high school, so I grew up, and like, including my in-laws. Now that we have a little one to come on the December adventure with us, we can all delight as she prances in the few traditional ingredients that make up our secret family recipe.

peas... not really an ingredient

First in the bowl are gingerbread houses. We buy ‘em premade, struggle to glue them together with the cheap icing sugar included with the box, and laugh at our failed attempt at creating something whimsical. Combine that with our annual cookie baking that leaves us stuffed with sugar and you’re on your way to a Merry Christmas!… or at least diabetes.

Who needs both their feet anyway?

Add a pinch of snow, probably too little before the actual holiday though. We live in Eastern Canada so sometimes the wind bites us before our snowmen get the chance to.  After that, a dash to the store on Christmas Eve because you forgot that one thing on your Christmas list you just HAVE to have! Santa typically does the rest, but we open a gift the night before just so it’s that much harder to get to sleep from the excitement.

Especially true if you're 5

Bake for twenty-five days at negative ten degrees or so–we have always had advent calendars to help us keep the timing just right, though my daughter is like me and can’t wait to eat the chocolate—and you have a happy holiday! I suggest serving it with all your loved ones, of course. That’s what we do. Honestly, the ingredients are simple and easily replaced with other things, it’s the joy of the company that gives it taste. But I still maintain you’ll need lots of chocolate and peppermint.

And eggnog… but only if it’s homemade... and only if you like your inlaws.

But not mine!............Usually.

Merry January 9th everybody! 

Making Marmalade by Priscilla Brown

 

https://books2read.com/Hot-Ticket

In this contemporary romance, Callum is an innovative cook, 

while Olivia's specialities are baked beans on toast and home-delivery pizza.  

Neither has ever made marmalade.

     

 In The King's Breakfast, a poem in When we were very young by A.A. Milne,

 the Queen is persuading the King to try marmalade instead of butter - "Marmalade is nicer."

 

For several years I have complimented my friend on her home-made lemon marmalade; my only contribution to this had been helping her pick fruit from the tree in her garden.  But moving to an apartment meant marmalade making with her own lemons could be no more. Together we picked the lemons, reminiscing about previous occasions. Then she surprised me by saying she didn't have the time to make it before her relocation in a few days' time, and presented me with not only all these lemons, but with an enormous saucepan, what seemed a lot of sugar, six jam jars and a recipe that had been in her family for a couple of generations. She explained that this was not the only possible recipe, but it had always worked for her so I should not have any trouble. Hmm. She had more confidence than I had in my cooking abilities.

 

To begin the great marmalade undertaking, I learnt I had to cut the fruit up, tie the pips and pith in a scrap of muslin thoughtfully supplied by my friend, luckily as the only muslin in my house is a smart dress, and place everything in water to soak overnight.Relax, this job was easy! My overnight relaxation included a dream of sailing on a sea of marmalade in a lemon-shaped boat which hit a large pip and sank. Next morning, my concoction had to simmer for about one and a half hours, after which I took out the bag of pips and added the sugar. Boil rapidly, the recipe instructed. No trouble about that, the brew was rising at an alarming rate. According to the recipe, setting would take between three and fifteen minutes.

Optimistic, I tested after five by dropping a teaspoonful onto a saucer. The marmalade was liquid...after ten, fifteen minutes, it still didn't look like anything with the potential to be eventually spreadable. The instructions advised using a clean saucer for each test, and at twenty-five minutes I had to start using those from the best tea service. If it boiled too long, the recipe admonished, it would never set. Had it boiled too long, or not long enough? What to do with a pan of unset marmalade? At thirty minutes I was giving up hope, when at last the sticky mess on a saucer formed a skin. I touched it and watched it wrinkle - yay, my effort had metamorphosed into marmalade!

Who knew all this would take so long! In such an amount of time, I could have written a couple of chapters...or perhaps not. After this culinary experience, I returned with some relief to my novel-in-progress, where I needed to rescue two characters from  a 'sticky' situation which had nothing to do with marmalade.

Best wishes, Priscilla

https://bwlpublishing.ca 

https://priscillabrownauthor