The Food of Love

Since I finally organized my pictures from my Christmas baking exploits, I figured it's time to share.

This is sort of a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Since I'm all about inverting expectations, I'll cover the ugly first.

First, a back story. When I was little, every year at Christmas my great-grandmother would make this fabulous coconut cake. We're talking amazing, bakery-quality stuff. She'd crack open a real coconut, spread the icing just so, and apparently would even use tons of toothpicks to make the layers stand right. After she died, my dad's mom attempted to re-create the masterpiece. It sadly never lived up to the memory, always tending to fall on the dry side.

Well, this year I decided to try my hand at the famous cake. I will preface the following pictures to say that this cake was absolutely delicious, if a bit too sweet. I subbed coconut milk for regular which was a bit much. I'll go half and half next time. Also, I didn't use real coconut, but I'm not sure that made too much of a difference. The real problem with this cake was the absolute disaster that came from trying to get it out of the pan and standing up. Mom tried to dump it out, with little success. Still. It was not dry. This was almost more of a coconut cake soup than anything. Here's the recipe and the pictures. Look for my second go next year. I will not be defeated!

"I'm very drunk and I intend on getting still drunker before this evening's over."

In honor of President's Day tomorrow, I give you a few of our fearless leaders' favorite drinks:

Gerald Ford: Gin and TonicHerbert Hoover: Martini

Richard Nixon: Rum and Coke

FDR: Scotch or Brandy

Harry Truman: Bourbon

Lyndon Johnson: Scotch and Soda

Warren Harding: Everything

Ha! I particularly like the last one. And who knew Nixon and I would favor the same tipple?

In case that's not enough choice for you, February also features National Margarita Day (2/22), National Kahlua Day (2/27), and, if you're eschewing alcohol, National Cafe Au Lait Day (today!).

Cheers!

(image via chow.com)

"Love conquers all things except poverty and toothache."

lips phone, urban outfitters; other people's love letters, amazon.com; bleeding hearts cupcakes, epicurious; heart tape, fred flare, Conversation hearts, via flikr; vintage valentine, via google images; all you need is love poster, doug wilson at keep-calm; sweet wrapping, whimsy press;valentine card, bella bella

Here's to a day of good health, flowers, candy, and love in all its forms.

National "Celebrate A Random Holiday" Day

Hey, it's National Penguin Awareness Day! I believe I will mark the occasion by wearing my penguin pjs. I haven't seen March of the Penguins or Happy Feet yet, but have heard they're both quite good, so if you (unlike me) have access to Netflix or Amazon UnBox, waddle over, grab a seat, and bask in the cuteness.

Don't forget National Observe the Weather Day, coming up on the 25th. Wouldn't want be wandering down the street and become confused at why you're getting all wet. Observe! It's raining. (I forecast rain simply because it seems to rain everyday in London in January. Bah. Good thing I have my GustBuster umbrella. Seriously, this thing is amazing.)

Incidentally, it's also National Soup Month and National Oatmeal Month, both of which I partake of often. Look at me being all festive! By the way, Quaker has a ton of yummy looking oatmeal recipes here if you too want to endorse the "holiday for everything" trend!

Happy 2008!

Well after ringing in the New Year by reading in bed until midnight and then cleaning a bit before going to sleep by 12:30 (wow am I exciting...), it's officially 2008!

I love making resolutions so much that I've been doing a modified 101 Things in 1001 Days list for the past few years. (I do a 101 Things in 52 Weeks; compulsive much?) I've found that by even completing a third of the list I have a better sense of accomplishment than I would not completing one goal.

In interest of space and of not boring everyone to death, here is a selection of my goals for the next year:

1. Learn how to play poker
2. Read War and Peace
3. Recycle
4. Find a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe
5. Vote in primary and general elections (I've already applied for my London absentee ballot!)
6. Eat more chocolate
7. Go to Florence
8. Celebrate weird "National Days" (i.e. National Talk Like a Pirate Day)
9. Get my palm read
10. Figure out my favorite artist

I think most of it is doable, but even if I don't finish, I aim to have fun trying. The chocolate resolution is first on my list; mmm Cadbury Creme Eggs!

Here's to a fantastic year for all!

"Don't get stuck with the rutabaga. Not real festive."

One of the downsides to moving is not being able to locate all one's stuff easily. Boxes boxes everywhere!

Every year on Christmas Eve I watch a couple of Christmas specials I remember from my childhood. Unfortunately I have misplaced the video they're on.

Behold the wonder of the Internet. I found the Adventures in Wonderland Christmas special on YouTube! Here's part one, part two and part three. It's campy, kooky fun. (That's what the quote is from if you're wondering. It's a Wonderland tradition to hang vegetables...sounds like a very Natalie tradition to me!)

Alas I couldn't find the Under the Umbrella Tree special, but I did find a fan community on the internet... I can't decide if that's awesome or just sad. Oh well. I can recite it all from memory anyway.

And, by far, the most important thing was to find Claymation Christmas, which is now waiting on top of the one VCR we have left. Whee! Egg nog, cookies, and ice skating hippos...doesn't get much better than that.

Happy Christmas all!

"Life is short but sweet for certain."

I love food. Like many women, I have a love/hate relationship with it; I love eating, kinda hate the reminder on my hips. But despite all that, I truly do enjoy the experience of food.

I don't love cooking. I'm learning (slowly.) I just learned how to make mashed potatoes from scratch. Surprisingly easy actually. But other than that, I'm hopeless. I could write a cookbook of recipes for the microwave, but honestly most of them would begin with "Buy a Lean Cuisuine. Nuke it. Eat." If there are publishers interested, let me know.

That said, I looove to bake. (See post on cupcakes.) I've been trolling bread/cupcake/pie/cookie blogs for the past two days and trying to put together my contributions to the holiday menu. I think I've narrowed it down to gingerbread cupcakes, coconut layer cake, mincemeat pies, rum balls, peppermint cookies-n-cream brownies and chocolate kiss cookies.

Please, if you are in the area, come by my house and I will be happy to feed you. Otherwise I will be forced to eat this stuff all by myself and that just can't end well. I think my love/hate relationship with food would be firmly in the hate camp for a looong time.

...At least until I decide to try out the Mississippi Mud Cupcake recipe I have my eye on.

"Sorry. I have to stay home and wash my hair."

Have a holiday party you want to avoid? Here's an excuse generator. It's fabulous. Check it out just for a laugh!

Why can I not produce baked goods for these people?

Yay, it's Jen's 21st birthday! In honor of this very special occasion, I've produced a gallery for her viewing pleasure. I can't say I found the task that unpleasant either.

And since she can officially booze it up now, here's what I would be baking her if I could: Red Wine Cupcakes. You know, if lemon makes red wine sweeter, I wonder what Lyman would do? Couldn't hurt to try!

Also, today happens to be my parents' wedding anniversary as well. Go marriage! Go Mom and Dad! I'm not sure what type of cupcakes would be appropriate; perhaps some that require a great deal of patience?

Man I'm just full of bad jokes today...

Feliz Navidad

The best parts of Christmas are the traditions.

When I was growing up, we'd always put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Every year my Dad and brother would get frustrated at the Christmas lights, which every year seemed to get more and more tangled. My mom would lay out all the ornaments and start unpacking the Christmas dishes, and we'd all put ornaments on the tree for hours until the last one was crammed wherever we could find a space. It was always very interesting to see which of the handmade ornaments had fallen apart that year and whether a particular Santa ornament had lost his legs again.

In recent years, however, we finally acquired a pre-lit tree, so the lighting isn't as much of an isssue, it's a crapshoot as to who's actually at home the day after Thanksgiving, and when Nicholas and I were in Prague, we found a replacement for the legless Santa.

But it's comforting to know that some traditions live on. There are still too many ornaments for the available space, Mom was buying more red bowls the other day, so there will certainly be dishes to wash, and we will always have the sombrero on top of our Christmas tree.

...Did I not mention the sombrero? Who knows when that started, but the angel atop our tree has as long as I can remember had the spirit of our neighbors to the south in her dress.

Chocolate caliente, anyone?

Random Christmas Products, Part Three

Oh my lord, ya'll. A Playmobile Nativity. Who needs food?

Random Christmas Products, Part Two

I was a sensitive child. Seriously. I cried at the drop of a hat. Anyone remember that commercial for the dryer sheets that would eliminate the need for the iron? The iron was crying as "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" played over it? Yeah. I was crying too.

The fierce city streets of Washington, DC and London have toughened me up. I no longer have to carry tissues in my pocket at all times (though I still do...I was either a model girl scout in my past life or I'm actually an 80-year-old woman.) There is however one thing that will always, always make me tear up. And that is the perennial Christmas classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

If Linus's speech doesn't make you a little misty, then I just don't know what to say. At that point, however, I'm already sobbing. Everyone made fun of Charlie Brown and his tree! He just wanted to make them happy! Can't someone think of the children?!

This year I stumbled upon a replica Charlie Brown tree. It has a sign next to it that says "This tree needs you." It needs me! But my inner Lucy fought back and thus someone else will have to shell out the $24 for the sad little sprout.

It does however make me smile every time I think about it. And truly, I think that's what Charlie Brown would have wanted.

Tra la la la laaa la la la la

Let's talk Christmas carols.

Some people hate them. It's true that people have gotten a little trigger happy with the holiday albums. I'm as mad as the rest of you when stores play Christmas music before Thanksgiving. But Black Friday hits and game on. The soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas? Check. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Lost Christmas Eve? Check. Bing Crosby's Christmas classics? Check.

I set my ITunes Christmas playlist on repeat, pop in the holiday Partridge Family and N'Sync cds (back off...they're good!), and cheerfully drift off to the strains of the knock-off Jingle Bells, "Yingle Bells." That one actually features the line "I should have worn long underwear in that one-horse open sleigh" sung in a Swedish accent. It doesn't get much better than that. (Oh my god...I just found it online. Experience the wonder...)

But still...Even I tire of my music by the second week of constant play. I sadly start to think that maybe those carol-haters have a point. Well. We can't have that. And this year I've found a solution.

Christmas radio on your computer! Totally free! The ads are a little annoying, but that's a small price to pay for Mariah Carey's Christmas tunes. And you don't have to experience the shame of buying them! Everybody's happy. Well...except that Swede in the sleigh.

Random Christmas Products, Part One

I love Christmas. Possibly in an unhealthy way. The decorations, the presents, the food, the family, the songs...all of it. Love. Thus an excellent way to get me to buy something is to somehow relate it to Christmas.

Enter Mrs. Meyer's Holiday Clean Up Kit. It's gingerbread-scented cleaning supplies you guys. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to resist.