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December 21, 1999

A Loaf in the Pan

We slept well last night, too well. I woke up this morning and realized that all the people who should already be gone for the day were still sleeping. Attila and "The Teenager" made a rushed exit this morning with no hope of being on time for work and school. They were both pretty good natured about the whole thing; I left well enough alone. Peace descended by 9:00 a.m.

Angle and Christmas Cakes

I wasn't planning on doing anymore Christmas baking but that is what I spent the day doing. A Panetone recipe I found on the Internet was the first project this morning. As I write it sits in the kitchen refusing to rise. The next project was a Christmas Fruitcake. I have always made Christmas cake as my foremothers have. The preparation of the baking pans has always been a dreaded task. The pans were greased, lined with carefully measured and cut baking paper, then greased once more. This process was more time consuming than preparing the batter. As a result I don't make Christmas Fruitcake every year.

Yesterday, as I was leafing though our stained and worn Betty Crocker's Classic Cookbook, I found a recipe for fruitcake that requires only foil lined and greased loaf pans. Well, I thought, this is more like it! So within minutes I had the pans prepared and soon thereafter the batter was poured into them and they were off and into the oven. I can smell them now; I highly recommend wasting time leafing through cookbooks.

Please note the bored angel in the picture above. "The Teenager" gave it to me for Christmas before she was a teenager. I thought it was quite apropos, an angel with a short attention span seemed to describe her well that Christmas.

It is Winter Solstice today, the shortest day of the year. The temperature is below freezing and snow is in the forecast. Tomorrow is a full moon. And as if that wasn't enough my bread never did rise. Are all these phenomena related? Probably not, but it is easier to blame the failed bread on the forces of the universe than my own human error. The truth is I don't know what went wrong with the bread, it's cold outside but not snowing and the full moon is tugging at my psyche. But I have the solution well in hand, I'll sleep it all off; tonight is the longest night of the year.