TB Live Journal

It's been forever since I've posted a recipe, and I just made this, so I thought I'd share.

Baked Leeks with French Egg

I say French because the recipe says french and it's kind of a creamy recipe, so it could even be true.

You will need:

1 large leek
2 ramekins
2 eggs
butter/margarine
cream/milk (both choices dependent on your choice of diet)
salt
pepper
boiling water

Slice your leeks to medium-thin rounds and cook with a healthy dollop of butter on medium heat until leeks are soft but not brown. Add a couple tablespoons of cream and cook until the cream thickens and the leeks are very soft.

Butter the inside of your ramekins and divide your cooked leeks between them. Make a hollow in the top of each stack of leeks. Add a little cream into each ramekin. Crack your egg into the hollow (keep the yolk whole) and season with salt and pepper. Pour just a little more cream over the egg.

Set up your ramekins in a baking dish. Pour in the boiling water around the ramekins, filling the dish so that the ramekins are in water as high up the side as you can get without danger of overflow into the ramekins. Transfer to your oven, set at 190C/375F, and bake 10 minutes if you want the yolks soft, a little longer if you want it hard. Eat immediately, but if you just can't get to all of it, you can save it in the fridge and just bake it the same way again at a lower oven within two days.

You Frenchie.

Oh well.

Recipe of the Day.

Since we art approaching the holiday season, I'm making fancier foods. I haven't stopped cooking lately, but since I started the low-cholesterol diet I've been decidedly less interested in what I cook, but now I'm cooking for other people and I don't care if THEIR cholesterol is high, so here's two high-cholesterol recipes that look pretty on the holiday table.

Potted Salmon

I'm generally a fan of anything you mush and squish into a pot, but this is a particularly yummy dish.

You will need:
450g/1 lb salmon
100g/3.5 oz butter (real butter, unsalted), with another 1 ounce set aside to be clarified and melted
1 small onion, diced finely
lemon juice
bay leaves
nutmeg
cloves
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Tasty extra: anchovy paste

Chop the salmon in cubes about 3cm square. Do the same with the 3.5 ounces of butter. Toss them together with lemon juice and spices. Layer in an oven-worthy dish with either a lid or a tightly wrapped layer of foil. Set the dish in a larger roasting dish and fill the surrounding space with water, being careful not to flood the first dish. Bake at 180C/350F for 45 minutes. Take out of oven and set to the side to cool.

Flake salmon. If you like anchovy paste, you can add a squeeze now; it will ratchet up the fish factor. Add in the diced onion and mix well. Add the parsley and mix carefully. Press the salmon into ramekins with a bit of cling wrap, and refrigerate for a few hours. Now melt your butter, skimming any foam, and drizzle over the top of the salmon to let it soak in. Refrigerate several hours before serving. Goes beautifully with salad, warm toast triangles, or fancy party crackers.


Potted Shrimps

These are much easier than the salmon, and definitely sinful.

You Will Need:

1/2 pound shrimps (I like the precooked variety that keep in your freezer; just remember to take them out a day ahead of time to thaw or you get stuck standing at the sink forever)
1/2 finely chopped onion
cayenne
paprika
basil
oil

Chop and mash your shrimps. I used my immersion blender, because I am lazy and have no food processor. Add in the onion, drizzle about five tablespoons of oil and mix well. Spice it up. Press into ramekins with a bit of cling wrap and refrigerate several hours to set.





You know, you can clean, but you still feel overwhelmed with stuff.

Speaking of baking, not frying, fish, here, have a trout recipe I found in a mediaeval cookbook. I have replaced the lard/bacon fat content with other, less fat-based, things.

Trout in Oats with Parsley Sauce

You will need:
trout fillet or whole trout
oats
flour
milk
butter/margarine
pepper
parsley
lemon
salt
mace

Split and clean trout. (Bear in mind that trout skin is edible.) Dredge in a little milk to wet, and roll in lightly salted oats. Lay in a greased dish, cover, and bake in a moderate oven for a half hour. Remove cover and bake a few minutes more to brown.

Meanwhile prepare a roux of flour, butter, and milk, whisking until it is thin but consistent in texture. Mince fresh parsley finely and add to the sauce. Season with pepper, lemon, and a dash of mace.

Goes well with garlic mash.

But I have never heard two people talk about so little at such length as my new housemate and her friend.

I'm sure we all have a phase, but I just don't recall being that inane when I was twenty-one.

Here's the recipe I was trying to make whilst suffering in my kitchen:

Cheesy Leeks

You will need:
( Read more... )

Grilled Mackerel

4 mackerel, cleaned
2 tbsp flour
2 oz butter
sprig of fennel
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 lemon, quartered

Split fish to lie flat. Dust with flour, saute in butter with fennel 4 min. Arrange on serving dish with parsley and lemon as garnish.


Bonus recipe:
Tweed Kettle

1 1/2 lb salmon
salt, pepper, mace
2 1/2 cup white wine
1 1/2 tsp chopped chives
2 oz softened butter
1 tbsp parsley

Simmer salmon in boiling water 5 min. Drain, remove skin and bones. Cut in two pieces, season to taste. With wine and chives, simmer uncovered 5 min. Lift out salmon, arrange to serve. Reduce cooking liquids to approximately 3/4 cup. Stir in butter to melt. Pour over salmon, garnish with parsley.


Double-plus bonus:
Cullen Skink

1 1/2 lbs smoked haddock fillets
2 cup milk
1 med onion, chopped
3 1/2 cup water
1 cup diced raw potato
1 oz butter
1 cup heavy cream
salt, pepper
1/2 cup chopped parsley

In shallow pan place haddock, milk, onion, water. Bring slowly to the boil, then remove from heat. Remove fish; skin, bone, and flake it, set aside. Place skin and bones in saucepan with cooking liquid and onion. Add potato, simmer one hour. Strain stock through sieve, return to pan. Head, add fish, butter, cream. Season, garnish with parsley.


Triple-crown winner:
Jugged Kippers

Fill large pitcher with boiling water and immerse kipper for 5 min. Drain, serve with butter.



EDIT: Dude, you are so lucky. I got thinking about another recipe book I have that mentions kippers, and I think I'll post it verbatim:

"Kippers are one of the great English breakfast foods and the English dote on them at home and pine for them in countries where they are not available. Apart from this national emotion, kippers make a tasty dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner."

Ha.

Some recipes in this book:

Kipper Souffle

3 kippers
6 tbsp flour
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 egg whites, beaten until stiff
pepper

Cover kippers with boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain. Cover with fresh water and cook until kippers are soft enough to remove skin and bones. Mix flour and milk and stir over low heat until smooth and thick. Beat some of the hot sauce into egg yolks. Pour into the remaining sauce and cook over low heat until smooth and thick. Mash boned kippers until smooth and fold into sauce. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Add pepper to taste. Fold into fish mix. Pour into buttered 1-qt souffle dish. Bake in pre-heated oven at 190/375 for 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned.


Kippered Salmon with Rice

1/4 lb kippered salmon
2 hard-cooked egg whites
2 cups hot cooked rice
1/2 cup butter
paprika
powdered thyme
tomato wedges
1 sour pickle, sliced lengthwise

Have salmon cut very thin. Dice half with a sharp knife and cut remaineder into 1/4 inch strips. Chop egg whites and press yolks through coarse sieve. Put rice in mixing bowl and add diced salmon and chopped egg whites. Melt butter and add paprika and thyme. Add rice mix and cook, stirring, until lightly browned. Pile in serving dish and garnish with salmon strips, tomato wedges, and pickle. Note that kippered trout, bowfin, or whitefish can be substituted.


Kippered Haddock with Bacon

1 kippered haddock (1 1/2 lbs), not too heavily smoked
2 rashers bacon, diced
8 ripe olives, diced
2 tbsp chopped parsley

Put fillet in shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with bacon. Bake in preheated hot oven at 200C/400F for 15 min, or until fillet is thoroughly heated and bacon is browned. Arrange on hot platter with olives and parsley. Kippered hake can be substituted.


These recipes are from 1966, people.

Stone soup, my friends. Stone soup. This is literally the sum of what I had in foodstuffs. Surprisingly good.

Dry nasty crusty inedible bread
One skinny shrivelled carrot
2 eggs
Half a garlic head
Oil
Butter
Paprika
Red Pepper


First, the story of how this began. It was going to be a mushroom broth over bread and poached egg. Then I discovered my mushrooms were covered with mould. No go, obviously; I'm not that desperate (yet). I was on the verge of stealing something health-foody from my crazy health-nutty house mate, when I discovered the lone carrot that has been in my possession now for well over two months, because what do you do with a lone carrot? Let it be lone, apparently. Anyway, Hurrah! A carrot.

A tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter into your pan on med-low heat. Saute a whole bunch of garlic. Slice your carrot very thin and saute that too. Toss in a healthy dose of paprika and red pepper for extra punch.

Add two cups of water. Bring to the boil and let it go to town until the carrots are soft.

Arrange your dry crusty bread in a deep wide bowl. Carefully break your two eggs over the bread, so the yolk stays whole. Dump your boiling soup over bread-cum-egg. The boiling liquid will poach your eggs. (If you're worried about the efficacy of this you can break the eggs into the soup itself but then they'll be all carrotty instead of relatively whole in the bowl.) Give it about two minutes of sitting time and then enjoy! Buttery and with extra richness once you break the runny yolk.

No matter how many times I wash them, my hands still smell like goose.


Filthy beast.

Edit: Holy crap, I'm full.


Here. Have a recipe.

Basic Goose

You will need:

A goose
Salt
Pepper
Garlic clove

lots of bread, cubed
2 cupsish broth (of whatever kind you prefer)
red wine
bay leaf
sage
thyme
bacon*
sausage*
onion
celery
carrot
garlic cloves
butter
oil


1) Have someone else pluck and clean your goose.

2) Make the stuffing first. Saute diced onion, carrot, garlic, and celery (or celeriac) in a combination of oil and butter. The oil is usually better for you but you want the taste of the butter, so two tablespoons of butter mixed in does the trick. Season with your herbs, plus pepper and salt if you like. If you use meat* in your stuffing, add it in now to cook. Add in a good handful of your bread cubes and mix, then add in a half cup of broth and a half cup of red wine. Add in the rest of your bread cubes and mix. (Sorry for the lack of precise measurements. You will know how much bread to use when you see the size of your bird.) When it's all mixed, transfer to a bowl off the heat and pour over enough broth to moisten it all.

3) Make sure your bird is clean. Trim excess fat but don't worry about the fat on the skin, as most of that will cook off. Slice open a large garlic clove and rub the open side all over the skin. Prick skin everywhere with a sharp knife or skewer; this will help the fat drain. Season with salt and pepper on both sides.

4) Stuff with the stuffing. You can tie the mouth of the neck closed with string or pin it with a wooden pick (soak it in water first).

5) Add in some roasting potatoes or something nice around the sides of the bird. If you pack them close, the dripping fat will nice cook them up. If you're healthier than that, pack them rather further away or roast separately.

6) Cover with foil and put in oven preheated to 190C/375F. Cook 3 1/2 hours. Remove foil the last 1/2 hour to let skin crisp.

7) Wash hands with lye.

8) Eat mightily.

Off in a moment, but wanted to post a good recipe.

Panko-Parmesan Crusted Chicken

There was a sauce with this, but I don't like it, so I won't post the sauce recipe.

You will need:

Chicken breasts
Eggs
Parmesan Cheese, grated
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Cooking Spray

Preheat to 400F/200C. Season both sides of the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Set a cup of flour in one shallow dish. In the next shallow disk, lightly whisk your egg (one egg does for about three chicken breasts). In the third dish, set a cup of panko mixed with a half cup of parmesan cheese. Dredge the chicken first in the flour, then the egg, then panko mix. Lay on baking tray that has been sprayed on the bottom; spray the top of the breasts as well to help them brown. Bake 30-35 minutes. Is yum.

Within the past two days, I have:

--Won the office Door Decoration Contest
--Had a nightmare about the head archivist constantly changing the time of our meeting
--Bathed someone else's dog
--Spent far more than I budgeted on Christmas gifts
--Been forced to listen to a story about a herniated testicle
--Defended Jews against charges of 'always trying to change Christmas'
--Discovered that 10oz is actually very heavy in dry weight
--Finally bought flax seeds, even if I still don't know what to do with them
--Discovered an excellent recipe for liver pate, which I will now pass on to all of you, as it is full of holiday cheer.

Recipe of the Week
Liver Pate

You will need:
1/2 to 1 lb beef liver
2 hard cooked eggs
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 very small onion or a shallot
allspice
mace
basil
salt
pepper
flour
oil or butter

Slice the liver into smallish chunks. Mix salt, pepper, and basil in 1/3 cup flour. Dredge the liver pieces, and cook in oil or butter until tender. Do not overcook. It should be just past pink. Meanwhile, chop onion and hard cooked eggs, mix with the mayonnaise, and season to taste. When the liver is cooked, chop it and add it to the onion and egg mix. Blend in your mixer until it has a smooth texture. Press into mould or ramekin. If creating shapes, I recommend avoiding anything suggestive, or things that would turn out to be suggestive, such as candy canes. Serve with crackers or rye toast. Top with a garnish and serve!

I won a coffee mug for that recipe.

Two yummy sage chicken recipes.

15th century Sage Chicken
Sage Chicken (15th cent)

( Read more... )

It looks a bit scary, but it's delicious, I swear.


Citrus Sage Chicken
( Read more... )

Yums.

Had excellent night. Snuggled on the couch with the complete Second Season of The West Wing, a nice pint of Grolsch, and a lovely plate of red flannel hash and poached eggs. I cannot spread the joy of The West Wing and I'm sure as hell not sharing my Grolsch, but I can and do gift you all with this fine Welsh recipe for an excellent meal.

Meal of the Day:
Red Flannel Hash
(most definitely not vegetarian, but dayam, girl, it's good)
( Read more... )

Now, I admit that I'm a struggling vegetarian; as in, I struggle to remain a vegetarian when there are certain childhood dishes that continue to delight me. I eat lamb, because I am a Welsh patriot, and also because it is delicious. I also shouldn't drink, but there you go. There is a deep warm place in my heart for certain things, and red flannel hash is one of them, irreplaceable. Much like The West Wing. Grolsch, not so much, but I was out of St Paul's Stout, and a body's stomach is only so large anyway.

Is love. Good night, everyone. Off to enjoy my buzz and wait on my doorstep for Harry Potter. Stupid Royal Mail.

I can't find a good soy sauce to save my life, so I tried to combine a good oyster sauce with soy. Eh.

Meal of the Day
Orange Tofu

Soft to Medium Tofu
orange rind
oyster sauce
ginger flavoured soy sauce
wok oil
lemongrass
red pepper
sweet onion
seasame seeds

Cut the tofu into bite-size pieces and press to drain of water. Marinate with shredded orange rind or zest, a splash of oyster sauce, about two tablespoons of soy sauce, and lemongrass. A few dried chilis will add heat if preferred. Let sit in the ice box at least an hour.

Heat wok and add a tablespoon of wok oil. Chop the pepper and onion and saute for two minutes. Add the tofu, including the marinade, and cook at least five minutes over medium heat. Flip the tofu and cook at least another three. Plate the meal and garnish with seasame seeds.


So that's what I did. Here's why I didn't love it.

It was too salty. I don't usually bother with 'light' kitchen items because I don't include much salt in my diet. Then again, I usually buy my soy sauce at the Asian market, but the market I used to go to has closed and I stupidly bought from my grocer out of desperation. Same with the wok oil. I'm going back to just a regular unflavoured oil, because the wok oil was faaaaaar too garlicky. If I want flavour, I'll add it in myself.

Good luck with your own experiment!

I haven't forgot about the meal of the day. It's just been so long since I've cooked anything worthwhile.

Oyster Stew

The Oyster Stew I wasn't sure about. It was a very simplistic recipe, but I was thrilled with it.

Oyster Stew
( Read more... )

For anyone interested, the soup recipe is from Gower.

Enjoy it as I did.

It's dinner theatre week at the local community theatre, which means I exercise my latent talent at waitressing. Sadly, this appears to be a gift of no mean consideration. Two old men at my table gave me tips. The old men, how they love me.

It's also audition week for the spring musical. I don't actually like musicals all that much (notable exception being The Secret Garden), but I like to sing regularly. I carefully prep a song on the edge of my range, I wear boots with heels to make me look taller, I even comb my hair in a more girly fashion than is my usual wont, and I go to audition. They're doing Pirates of Penzance. It's a silly musical, and, appropriately, there was a bevy of very silly sixteen year old girls flocking to the stage to try out. I try not to air the depth of my severity on my own sex, but damn. These girls were carbon copies of each other. Bottle blonde, too-tight clothes, too much skin showing, and a range of about an octave conducted with much hair-tossing, vocal warbling, and hand-jerking. And obsessive commentating on each other's performance in a twitter that clearly demonstrated a lack of understanding of theatre accoustics.

I gave an awesomely bad audition. I've been singing since I was old enough to string two almost-notes together, and I'm never, ever nervous about performing. In a chorus. Solo work is not the same as having a comforting crowd of anonymous people sheltering you. Solo work is scary, scary stuff. And I have given awesomely bad auditions every time I've done something for this theatre. Fortunately, I was the only female in the audition who was neither sixteen nor sixty, so it seems likely I will be cast despite my deficiencies. Also, I eat lunch with the music director a lot.

In other news, did you know that the grapefruit used to be called the shattuck? Or the shadduck, nineteenth century spelling being, at best, inconsistent. I prefer shattuck, as it does not remind me of fish. While I was exceptionally loopy late last night, cc_lemon kindly took it upon herself to answer the string of sudden, burning questions I invented about grapefruits. Like where did it come from? Jamaica. It used to be called 'the forbidden fruit.' We don't know yet why it was forbidden, but I'm going to go with a Freudian sort of theory about pink flesh or something like that. The shattuck is also thought to be a naturally occuring hybrid of two other fruits. I think that is really really cool. How often do you get natural fruit hybrids? And naturally delicious? All the glory of the shattuck leads me to this installment of Meal of the Day.

Meal of the Day
Citrus Salad

( Read more... )

AND, because what's one shattuck recipe without another:

Baked Breakfast Grapefruit
This is one of my absolute favourite things in the world.

( Read more... )

Shattuck. What an awesome word.

Presenting: The Calennig Apple

The Calennig apple is a traditional Christmas decoration/gift. It is given to friends and loved ones between Christmas and New Year's. It comes from when the Romans invaded Britain and gave olive branches as a good-luck gift on holidays. Nowadays it's an apple. I don't know why, but it is. Children give out the Calennig, going to the homes of the recipients, singing a carol, and getting sweet cakes or some small denomination coins in return. You put the Calennig on a shelf or windowsill, and it brings good luck. Extremely lucky ones will last all year without shrivelling. (I've never had that happen, but they do last a surprisingly long time.)

To make a Calennig apple, you will need:
A hard apple
three strong sticks about four inches long
evergreen leaves with a little stem on them
almonds, cloves, some kind of pointy nice-smelling decoration
a candle
a bit of bright ribbon
bitter almond essence
gold paint (optional)

If using almonds, pierce the apple with small slits that will be just large enough to force an almond in. If using cloves, just stick the cloves into the skin. You can be quite creative with the patterns, and it can be as lovely as you like, or random. Make three slits for your sticks so that the apple will stand like a tripod. Finally, force the candle (a short taper or small votive) into the top of the apple. Tie a bow around it with your ribbon and decorate it with your evergreen leaves. Brush the almonds with the almond essence, which will make them smell lovely. You can also paint the apple/almonds/cloves gold, and it looks like a neat spiky ornament, but tradition is just the apple au natural.

And now for your Fish Pie recipe. It's yum-yum.

Meal of the Day:
Fish Pie
( Read more... )

Happy hols to everyone, and stay tuned to find out of if my experimental nut-based Christmas cake is edible after all.

Oh, I'm too excited about the soup. We'll do that first.

Meal of the Day:
Fennel and Tomato Soup

Now don't make faces. Fennel is a subtle and mild taste that cuts the acidity of the tomatoes in this wonderful, wintery soup. I didn't invent it, so you can believe me when I trumpet how tasty it is.

( Read more... )

Also, Asylum p4 is up on GWA board. (Author's board, TB.) I continue to have the weirdest problems posting there.

This part was very hard to write because it was the first eulogy I've ever written. (Sad or fascinating that I wrote it for a fictional character I'm borrowing from the Japanese? You decide.) I actually researched famous eulogies. The one that weighed most heavily with me was that for Princess Di. And yes, every single person in Britain was deeply affected by her death, even those of us who don't particularly want to be associated with the crown. Which is relevant because it made me think about how people would feel about a Gundam Pilot many years after the war. Someone like Quatre who's probably a real force in society, generally for good, but associated with negative or controversial times and agendas. And that would have been even more relevant if I had written it now, while the war is exceedingly unpopular, instead of this time last year, when people just looked uncomfortable whenever I got too loud talking about how it's illegal and immoral.

Yeah, I thought about deleting that line, but this is my journal. And it's probably not much of a surprise to anyone reading it.

Anyway, Relena gives the eulogy because Relena and Quatre are, to me, different sides of the same person; so, despite their not having been particularly close, she's an appropriate person to speak some fairly important words. She's also not speaking from a particularly personal perspective, but as someone setting a legacy out before the people. I think legacies are an underlying theme in Gundam Wing. The most obvious development of that theme is through Treize, who, however abstractly, is deliberately building a legacy through his actions. Then there's Zechs, who, however agonisingly, is living the legacy of his father's pacifism and his father's murder. Quatre's legacy, to my view, would have to reconcile the same forces as Zechs's, but he came into that obligation at a more mature age when he already had a well-developed sense of self and purpose. So I saw his legacy taking form, as Relena describes in her eulogy, a kind of re-gifting, an on-going attempt to impose meaning on his own experiences that creates positive echoes for things that weren't in themselves positive.

Once again, though, I've written a part without a main character. I even put him to sleep. It's not a great decision on my part, but you'll note I didn't change it. I was going through a thing when writing this fic a year ago, something about short, digestible chapters of about five to seven pages. As evidenced by everything I'm writing now, I'm over that. If I'd had more space in this chapter I would have brought Quatre more into it, but happily, he'll start showing up a lot more, and, like, doing stuff. And saying things. It'll be totally rad. Righteous, even.

Finally, the town of Hope. It does exist. And it's probably much nicer than I'm going to make it sound in this fic. It's Hob, in Welsh, Hope in English, and while driving through it, I had to scramble for pen and paper to make note of the name, because it just blew me away. It begged to be written about. There's a little Tudor architecture in town, a sort of large-ish mansion, if I recall correctly, one main road and some bleak hills. It's a very small town on the border (near Fflint? Maybe. I think Fflint, that's the border). Anyway, I just wanted to share that Hope is a real place. I'm just jazzed about it.

Go make soup and be joyful.

I have to cringe a bit whilst I present this, because the recipe comes labelled 'Celtic Christmas Chocolate,' and that's just a misnomer, my friends, for the Celts did not have chocolate. Also, I bought the chocolate I'm using for this recipe from Glamorgan, and the Welsh have not usually considered themselves to be Celtic, a designation that is entirely problematic for those who DO consider themselves Celtic, but you know what? The recipe is still the best hot chocolate recipe in the world.

(By the way, chocolate = siocled in Welsh. Sha-k-led.)

Hot Chocolate Recipe

You will need:
chocolate shavings
milk (I use reduced fat or skim very successfully)
a thick cream, whole or even whipping
whiskey
a teaspoon

Heat the milk on your stovetop. Do not boil. Shake a good-sized amount of shavings into your chosen mug, and pour the milk over, stirring to blend. Add a dram of whiskey. Rest the tip of the teaspoon in the hot chocolate with the back-side up, and pour the cream (doesn't need to be heated) over the back of the teaspoon to float the cream on the surface of the drink. If you wanted to go aaaaall out, you could add a thick tablespoon of whipped cream on top, but you don't really need it. Scatter some of the chocolate shavings on top, or even a dash of cinnamon, and serve.Warms you through from head to toe, and then some.

You know it's fall when you can huddle outside with some hot chocolate and a bag of steaming chestnuts.

Recipe of the Night:
Roasted Chestnuts (in the oven)
( Read more... )

There are lots of stories floating about the internet regarding a true Welsh Christmas. Most of them give an impression that really doesn't have much relation to reality. There are VERY few places where people still celebrate Christmas the way our predecessors did in the 1700s, and that goes for Wales as well. I've never known anyone who celebrated the Mari Llwyd, for example, and if you told your ginger-haired friends that it's unlucky for them to visit you during the holiday, you'd have some angry friends. We don't switch the maids and there aren't very many who get up at three on Christmas morning to go to services all day. There aren't a lot of churches that offer that, even in the Welsh-only areas.

That being said, there are some Christmas traditions that I observe. As we get closer, I'll write about them. This one starts in November, because you want about two months for this to set. Some people say three months, but I find it's not that great a difference and that being a little closer to the actual season is helpful in keeping up the right cheer.

First, some Christmas vocabulary.

Nadolig (nah-DAH-lihg) = Christmas
Pwdin nadolig (POO-dihn) = Christmas pudding
Teisen nadolig (TEA-sin) = Christmas cake
carolau (care-OH-lie) = carols
cracer (CRACK-er, with a softer 'ck' sound) = cracker
anrheg (ahn-HREG, 'h' sound before the 'r') = gift or present
eira (AY-ra, with a rolled 'r') = snow
dyn eira (dun) = snow man
cerdyn nadolig (CARE-dun) = Christmas card
celyn (KEL-un) = holly
Mair a Ioseph a Iesu (MY-IR ah YO-seph ah YAY-soo) = Mary and Joseph and Jesus

(Note: apologies to all my non-Christian friends. Wales is overwhelmingly Protestant. If anyone is curious about vocabulary for non-Christian holidays, I'm happy to look it up.)

Christmas carols include 'Tawel Nos' or 'Silent Night', 'Dyma Ni'n Mynd I Fethlehem' or 'They Were Going to Bethlehem', 'Sion Corn' or 'Santa Claus', all 'traddodiadol' or traditional carols.

The central Christmas desserts are the pwdinau and cacenau, the puddings and cakes. Both can be made well before-hand, and should be, as it allows the alcohol used in the cooking to set. So here are my family's recipes.

Teisen Nadolig

( Read more... )


Pwdin Nadolig


( Read more... )

Coming soon: traditional Welsh decorations for your holiday season.

As much as I love my writing partnership with Marsh (hi love) I've been feeling disconnected from my own solo stories. Over the past week I've tried to work on a few ongoing projects, with progress that might be best described as snail-like. I'm working on the concluding chapter of 'For Where We Are Is Hell', a Bashir/Picard fic (not sexual...), and I've given in to invasive suggestions and started outlining a sequel to my Quatre-centric fic 'Launch.' I usually only work on one genre at a time in an effort to think deeply enough 'in character', but this is just symptomatic of my inability to focus enough to spit out good writing.

One solution that had certainly crossed my mind was the one that any creative writing teacher will tell you to practice: force yourself to write whatever comes out, just to keep the juices flowing. But I've never been a fan of that. I don't think I've got enough right-brain interaction for that. My process is pretty wedded to a euphony of circumstances; I need good light, a tall water glass and an electric kettle for tea, and eighteen other activities. I need to be able to get up and walk about, start an extensive recipe for dinner, listen to music on the stereo and a DVD on the computer, a walk lasting at least a half hour near at hand, and three friends on instant message. If I do all of that, I get about ten pages that I'll only minimally edit. But this process is not really conducive to writing without good planning and a clear vision of the goal.

Le sigh.

I'm trying, though. I've got good light, plenty of water and tea; I can watch television or listen to the Transiberian Orchestra (hi Marsh; bless you), I can cook and talk to friends and clean and sew and sit on the deck in the sun... but I have no-where to walk safely. I wonder if that's the deciding factor. The other day I spent about an hour walking in circles around our tiny cul-de-sac, but it's really not the same. I think I've identified a deciding factor in choosing my next place of residence.

Oh, well. One benefit of not being able to write is that I've got far more energy to expend in the kitchen. To wit, I give you your recipe of the day.

Meal of the Day:
Halloween Goodies

Skeleton Sticks
( Read more... )

Spider Cookies
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Fingers
( Read more... )

Ta da, friends.