Christmas Layoff: Weekend Things
Dec. 12th, 2022 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39Friday, the brain fog from the flu is finally lifting.
I still feel tired but not utterly wiped. Which is good, because there is going to be a LOT to do.
Friday itself will be pretty slow, but on Saturday we're going to get a tree, that will require some effort and some setup and decorating.
I still need to clean the shower, and have my car looked at, and get a booster shot, and get my pants hemmed, and pack for PA.
And somewhere in there, get to work on the cookies and truffles and caramels before the 17th, which is the day I drive up.
But for today, Friday, I had breakfast as usual and checked for data entry work to do (there was none) so I got dressed and took myself all the way to Colonial Drive because that's where all the Asian grocery stores are, and I want to make a sushi bake for us.
A lot of things (salmon, imitation crab, nori) I can get at any grocery store.
But some things (Japanese mayo, furikake) are pretty exclusive.
So 45 minutes of driving, but I got all that I needed.
When I got back I had lunch and scrubbed the shower.
Wrapped a few Christmas presents.
Watched a little anime.
Before I knew it it was time to start the sushi bake.
I cooked some sushi rice in the rice cooker, tossed it in some rice vinegar, then layered it on the bottom of a square pan.
Sprinkled it with furikake, which is a seasoning blend of dried fish, seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, sugar, and other spices or herbs.
On top of that went a layer of crushed nori (dried roasted seaweed).
Meanwhile in the air fryer I cooked a pretty salmon filet seasoned with garlic, Old Bay, pepper, and olive oil.
When that was done I smooshed it in a bowl with imitation crab, cream cheese, Japanese kewpie mayo, and sriracha.
This mixture went into the pan too.
Baked it for ten minutes, broiled it for five. Voila.
Topped it with chopped chives, and then we scooped it onto sheets of nori with cucumber and avocado and our favorite sauces (soy sauce, spicy mayo, sriracha, etc). It was very good, like a spicy salmon roll or a crab rangoon.
As authenticity goes it's, like, not. But for deliciousness and an easy back-pocket weeknight dinner, it's a total win.
------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I woke up surprisingly late. Breakfast and a little online work before Jameson and I went to Lowe's to pick out a tree :)
The tree stand was pretty quiet; the attendant was a tall lanky guy who said they'd had a rush a few weeks ago for trees, and now they were lucky to sell one or two a day. That said, we were given a 10% discount because "We just want to get rid of them", but even with that it was over $100 for a nine-footer.
Well, it's Christmas.
We walked around and admired some trees, and almost immediately I saw a "good" one.
Jameson agreed with it, so Lanky Guy bagged it up while we paid in the Garden Center.
It was 85 degrees and sunny, not very seasonal at all, even for Florida. I tried to visualize snow in my heart.
And anyway, the tree smelled very nice, and it felt good to get one with my sweetheart.
Back home we had the tree up in minutes.
The trunk is very straight, which I like. It will take the branches a while to relax horizontal, so we will wait to decorate it until tomorrow.
Meanwhile I decided to tackle rum balls.
They are shockingly easy to make. It's just Nilla wafers (or any bland cookie/cracker) smashed together with finely chopped pecans, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and rum. Mush all of that into a paste with your hands like you're making a meatloaf, then roll it into balls. Tada, rum balls.
I used the food scale to make them all 23-24g, and rolled half of them in cocoa and half in powdered sugar.
I had some gold flakes/sprinkles, which I threw in just for fun.
These have their best flavor after a few days in the fridge, and they also last for months, so now they're done I can focus on cookies.
Jameson had also requested Oreo truffles, which are even easier: they're just crushed Oreos mixed with cream cheese.
So I banged those out too, why not.
The worst part was the dipping chocolate. I never never get it right, it's always too thick and difficult to control.
Yes I did work in a candy store, but they had Good Equipment there like chocolate tumblers and dipping prongs and molds and such.
I was spoiled there, I guess.
I need to learn to do a double broiler instead of the microwave.
These need to be refrigerated so they'll just be for us and the neighbors.
But the rum balls should survive a trip up to PA.
After that, dinner and cleaning up.
Somewhere in there a package was delivered for me, a stegosaurus hat that I (shouldn't have) ordered for myself.
It's handmade, and very well done. Overlapping plates, even.
Maybe I don't look cute, but the hat sure does and it'll be fun to wear in the dead of winter in Sioux Falls in February.
(This photo was for the Etsy seller to help them advertise the hat, which is why I look all serious.)
I pulled out the tree decorations and worked on upcoming cities for Megan's Foodie Finds until it was time for bed.
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, after breakfast I got to work on cookie doughs.
I started with the ginger molasses cookies. Accidentally melted the butter instead of softening it, but managed to salvage by throwing it in the freezer for 15 minutes to re-solidify. It still seemed to cream with the sugar so hopefully those will still turn out ok. Other than that the dough came together easily. My modifications were to sub in 1/2 tsp nutmeg in place of some of the clove, and add 1/2 tsp cardamom. I also added chopped candied ginger, and withheld a little sugar to make up for that (hopefully I didn't overdo it). Pictures after I bake them, but for now the dough gets to chill in the fridge overnight.
Once that was done I took my car to Firestone for an oil change.
I had an appointment, but as usual that didn't matter at all because they just take walk-ins and don't do any planning around appointments (WHY do we make these appointments at all??).
It was very busy and the small waiting room was standing room only, I was told it would be 2.5 hours.
So I asked Jameson to come get me as it was just five minutes down the road. Why waste the day, you know?
We had lunch together, then he started putting lights on the tree while I put together the dough for chocolate snappers.
I didn't change the recipe at all, but there was a confusing part where it called for "1 tsp cinnamon sugar".
At first I thought maybe it was to roll the dough in, but one teaspoon of anything is not enough to roll 40-some cookies in, and the recipe said nothing further about it. I ended up just adding 1/2 tsp cinnamon into the dough.
Didn't make a lot of sense to me, but what do I know. This is the recipe Jameson's mom normally uses.
Around the time I finished Jameson was realizing that our string of lights had finally kicked the bucket (we've had it for over a decade) so we got back in the car to get new ones. We chose large-ish bulbs, very colorful. It took no time at all to get them on the tree.
Then of course was decorating. Jameson has lots of music-themed ornaments that people have gifted him over the years, plus the usual globes and bells and bows and such. It turned out pretty nice :)
Firestone called to tell me that my car could be picked up the next morning.
So we had Panda Express for dinner, and watched The Patient on Hulu.
I was going to make caramels but by the time the show was over it was 7pm, and I decided to wait until Monday morning because of the cooling time needed.
------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday morning and I've just finished breakfast.
First on the docket is making a batch of caramels.
After that I want to bake the ginger molasses and chocolate snapper cookies.
And then I definitely need to make the other two doughs: eggnog snickerdoodle, and peanut butter blossom.
Somewhere in there I need to pick up my car from the shop.
If there's time, I'll start packing my bag for PA. Or maybe I'll wrap Jameson's final two presents, which are supposed to arrive today.
I still feel tired but not utterly wiped. Which is good, because there is going to be a LOT to do.
Friday itself will be pretty slow, but on Saturday we're going to get a tree, that will require some effort and some setup and decorating.
I still need to clean the shower, and have my car looked at, and get a booster shot, and get my pants hemmed, and pack for PA.
And somewhere in there, get to work on the cookies and truffles and caramels before the 17th, which is the day I drive up.
But for today, Friday, I had breakfast as usual and checked for data entry work to do (there was none) so I got dressed and took myself all the way to Colonial Drive because that's where all the Asian grocery stores are, and I want to make a sushi bake for us.
A lot of things (salmon, imitation crab, nori) I can get at any grocery store.
But some things (Japanese mayo, furikake) are pretty exclusive.
So 45 minutes of driving, but I got all that I needed.
When I got back I had lunch and scrubbed the shower.
Wrapped a few Christmas presents.
Watched a little anime.
Before I knew it it was time to start the sushi bake.
I cooked some sushi rice in the rice cooker, tossed it in some rice vinegar, then layered it on the bottom of a square pan.
Sprinkled it with furikake, which is a seasoning blend of dried fish, seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, sugar, and other spices or herbs.
On top of that went a layer of crushed nori (dried roasted seaweed).
Meanwhile in the air fryer I cooked a pretty salmon filet seasoned with garlic, Old Bay, pepper, and olive oil.
When that was done I smooshed it in a bowl with imitation crab, cream cheese, Japanese kewpie mayo, and sriracha.
This mixture went into the pan too.
Baked it for ten minutes, broiled it for five. Voila.
Topped it with chopped chives, and then we scooped it onto sheets of nori with cucumber and avocado and our favorite sauces (soy sauce, spicy mayo, sriracha, etc). It was very good, like a spicy salmon roll or a crab rangoon.
As authenticity goes it's, like, not. But for deliciousness and an easy back-pocket weeknight dinner, it's a total win.
------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, I woke up surprisingly late. Breakfast and a little online work before Jameson and I went to Lowe's to pick out a tree :)
The tree stand was pretty quiet; the attendant was a tall lanky guy who said they'd had a rush a few weeks ago for trees, and now they were lucky to sell one or two a day. That said, we were given a 10% discount because "We just want to get rid of them", but even with that it was over $100 for a nine-footer.
Well, it's Christmas.
We walked around and admired some trees, and almost immediately I saw a "good" one.
Jameson agreed with it, so Lanky Guy bagged it up while we paid in the Garden Center.
It was 85 degrees and sunny, not very seasonal at all, even for Florida. I tried to visualize snow in my heart.
And anyway, the tree smelled very nice, and it felt good to get one with my sweetheart.
Back home we had the tree up in minutes.
The trunk is very straight, which I like. It will take the branches a while to relax horizontal, so we will wait to decorate it until tomorrow.
Meanwhile I decided to tackle rum balls.
They are shockingly easy to make. It's just Nilla wafers (or any bland cookie/cracker) smashed together with finely chopped pecans, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and rum. Mush all of that into a paste with your hands like you're making a meatloaf, then roll it into balls. Tada, rum balls.
I used the food scale to make them all 23-24g, and rolled half of them in cocoa and half in powdered sugar.
I had some gold flakes/sprinkles, which I threw in just for fun.
These have their best flavor after a few days in the fridge, and they also last for months, so now they're done I can focus on cookies.
Jameson had also requested Oreo truffles, which are even easier: they're just crushed Oreos mixed with cream cheese.
So I banged those out too, why not.
The worst part was the dipping chocolate. I never never get it right, it's always too thick and difficult to control.
Yes I did work in a candy store, but they had Good Equipment there like chocolate tumblers and dipping prongs and molds and such.
I was spoiled there, I guess.
I need to learn to do a double broiler instead of the microwave.
These need to be refrigerated so they'll just be for us and the neighbors.
But the rum balls should survive a trip up to PA.
After that, dinner and cleaning up.
Somewhere in there a package was delivered for me, a stegosaurus hat that I (shouldn't have) ordered for myself.
It's handmade, and very well done. Overlapping plates, even.
Maybe I don't look cute, but the hat sure does and it'll be fun to wear in the dead of winter in Sioux Falls in February.
(This photo was for the Etsy seller to help them advertise the hat, which is why I look all serious.)
I pulled out the tree decorations and worked on upcoming cities for Megan's Foodie Finds until it was time for bed.
--------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, after breakfast I got to work on cookie doughs.
I started with the ginger molasses cookies. Accidentally melted the butter instead of softening it, but managed to salvage by throwing it in the freezer for 15 minutes to re-solidify. It still seemed to cream with the sugar so hopefully those will still turn out ok. Other than that the dough came together easily. My modifications were to sub in 1/2 tsp nutmeg in place of some of the clove, and add 1/2 tsp cardamom. I also added chopped candied ginger, and withheld a little sugar to make up for that (hopefully I didn't overdo it). Pictures after I bake them, but for now the dough gets to chill in the fridge overnight.
Once that was done I took my car to Firestone for an oil change.
I had an appointment, but as usual that didn't matter at all because they just take walk-ins and don't do any planning around appointments (WHY do we make these appointments at all??).
It was very busy and the small waiting room was standing room only, I was told it would be 2.5 hours.
So I asked Jameson to come get me as it was just five minutes down the road. Why waste the day, you know?
We had lunch together, then he started putting lights on the tree while I put together the dough for chocolate snappers.
I didn't change the recipe at all, but there was a confusing part where it called for "1 tsp cinnamon sugar".
At first I thought maybe it was to roll the dough in, but one teaspoon of anything is not enough to roll 40-some cookies in, and the recipe said nothing further about it. I ended up just adding 1/2 tsp cinnamon into the dough.
Didn't make a lot of sense to me, but what do I know. This is the recipe Jameson's mom normally uses.
Around the time I finished Jameson was realizing that our string of lights had finally kicked the bucket (we've had it for over a decade) so we got back in the car to get new ones. We chose large-ish bulbs, very colorful. It took no time at all to get them on the tree.
Then of course was decorating. Jameson has lots of music-themed ornaments that people have gifted him over the years, plus the usual globes and bells and bows and such. It turned out pretty nice :)
Firestone called to tell me that my car could be picked up the next morning.
So we had Panda Express for dinner, and watched The Patient on Hulu.
I was going to make caramels but by the time the show was over it was 7pm, and I decided to wait until Monday morning because of the cooling time needed.
------------------------------------------------------
It's Monday morning and I've just finished breakfast.
First on the docket is making a batch of caramels.
After that I want to bake the ginger molasses and chocolate snapper cookies.
And then I definitely need to make the other two doughs: eggnog snickerdoodle, and peanut butter blossom.
Somewhere in there I need to pick up my car from the shop.
If there's time, I'll start packing my bag for PA. Or maybe I'll wrap Jameson's final two presents, which are supposed to arrive today.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-12 06:28 pm (UTC)I love real trees. Someday maybe we'll do one.