And other Christmasy stuff is continuing too. May I start by saying that if I never see the inside of another Westfield shopping centre again in my life it will be too soon. Having said that I know full well that I'll be darkening the Westfield doorstep again tomorrow. I know that. It's just something I have to do. I don't want to, OH I DON'T WANT TO. But I must. The things I do for my family.
Tomorrow I will also be attending Tom's preschool's Christmas nativity play. Tom has been cast in the role of Shepherd 1. There are 3 shepherds and their line is, 'Aahhhhhhh!', said when the angles appear. So I have my first costume to make. A little voice inside me REALLY wants me to go crazy and make THE BEST SHEPHERD COSTUME EVA. And then a louder, more authoritarian voice says, 'YOU'VE GOT 10 MINUTES.... GO!!' Ok, then, ok. I've found an old white cot sheet and a blue checky tea towel and I'll see where that takes me.
When I was in primary school I remember being in two plays. In one I was the other end of a worm dressed in an itchy skin coloured stretchy tube, touching feet with the girl at the other end. We sang 'Inch worm'. I think. Or maybe the class sang the song and to stop me from singing I was made one end of the worm. I was known for my singing voice in primary school. Once the whole choir was stopped for the teacher to tell me to sing a little quieter or maybe even not at all. True story.
In the next play I was cast as an African. Yes, that's right, me, a white skinned, freckly red head painted black and with my hair bundled under a pair of black pantyhose. The other two kids cast as Africans needed less role preparation as they were from Aboriginal/Islander families. After that I stayed BEHIND the scenes in school plays. I knew where my strengths lay and they weren't on the stage.
I wonder how Tom will go tomorrow...?
(Note to self: must get hooked staff)
In my last post I was baking and marinating and typing. This is how things turned out:
1. 100's and 1000's Biscuits. The double yolker that brought so much joy when cracked made the dough VERY unworkable when being rolled and cut. That extra yolk just didn't work in the whole chemistry aspect of baking. I PERSEVERED, though. They came out a bit puffier than usual but were WOLFED down none the less.
2. Christmas cake to post. So after the mixture was cooled I stirred in 2 beaten eggs (single yolkers, I've learned my lesson), 1 cup of plain flour, 1 1/2 cups self raising flour, some mixed spice and 1/2 a teaspoon of bicarb. Poured it into a square tin and decorated it with nuts and a glazed 'cherry'.
Thats blanched almonds and cashews.
It makes a good medium fruit cake, not dark and heavy and really fruity, just a nice, moist easy to eat and very more-ish cake.
3. Marinated feta. After I wrote that last post I spoke to a friend of mine who said she went through a period of time where she made marinated feta ALL THE TIME. Apparently there was always a jar in the fridge being eaten and one marinating. I take her word on the topic as gospel and she said not to use fresh herbs, rather, dried. So I dried the fresh herbs I had bought in the oven under the cooking Christmas cake.
The result is very fantastic if I do say so.
I have no idea how it tastes but it looks GREAT and I intend to bottle up a few more batches for Christmas presents. The contents of this one will be taken to my Mum and Dad's to be eaten over Christmas where I plan to toss some with baked pumpkin and pine nuts to have with lunch.
Still haven't started on that pud.
