Advent 2006

December 15

Some unhappy news, and a bit of business.

First the unhappy news:  Judith left a note in the comments to let me know that Leslie Harpold has passed away.  In what strikes me as some awful kind of irony, I posted about her Advent blog on December 7, the last day she managed to post something to it.

I never knew Leslie Harpold, and I was quite move to read about her in blog entries from those who did know her well.  But her Advent Blog was The. Best. Ever.  It was what I wanted my advent blog to be, but never had the skills to create.  I found it clever, moving, well-designed, and inspirational.  One year when I needed something different for package tags, there they were on Leslie's Advent Blog.

*****

The bit of business:  I've also discovered some quirks (read: "mistakes") in the Sol fingerless mitten pattern -- I'm busy re-knitting and re-writing the pattern, and will have a corrected version of the pattern up as soon as I can. 

December 14

You may be familiar with panettone or pandoro, Italian sweets most closely associated with Christmas. But there is another option, the "ciambellone", a kind of ring cake commonly made at Easter, but also made to adorn the Christmas sweet table.

Last week, on one of my favourite cookery shows -- La prova del cuoco -- Anna Moroni made a ciambellone, and I managed to scribble down the recipe.  I tested it out the other day, and apart from the fact that I baked it in too big a pan, and a little bit too long, it turned out rather well.

It's easy, looks pretty, tastes pretty good, and is not too sweet.

Be forewarned -- most of the ingredients are in metric weight, as that's how they were given, and that's how I cook (the scale is your friend).   But if you are a curious cook, you will be rewarded for making the effort to bake this.

Ciambellone

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Butter and flour a Bundt® or ring pan.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
250 g sugar
130 g olive oil
130 g milk or water (I made mine with milk)
250 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
grated zest of one lemon
50mL (3 tablespoons) Limoncello liqueur

With mixer, blend eggs and sugar.  Add olive oil and milk.

Sift together the flour and baking powder.  Add to the wet ingredients.

Add lemon zest and Limoncello liqueur.  Stir to blend.

Pour into cake pan.  Bake for 50 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let cool ten minutes.  Turn out onto serving dish.  When cake is cool, dust with icing sugar.

December 13

In many households, it's a Christmas eve tradition to leave out some treats for Santa Claus -- often a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, or perhaps some hot chocolate.

The disappearance of said treats in the middle of the night is clear and irrefutable evidence to many a wide-eyed child that Santa has indeed paid a visit to their home and left presents under the tree.

In the case of author Katherine Barber, the Editor-In-Chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary -- who is perhaps better known as "Canada's Word Lady" from her interviews on CBC Radio 1 -- the treats were definitely in the vein of "Christmas Cheer", as related in this excerpt from the entry on the origin of the word chocolate:

Chocolate

If St Nick is lucky, he may find a steaming mug of hot chocolate with miniature marshmallows waiting for him. (Actually, when I was a child, my father assured me that what Santa really liked was beer, and sure enough the beer that was left out was always drained to the last drop.) ...

Six Words You Never Knew Had Something to Do With Pigs :
And Other Fascinating Facts About the Language From Canada's Word Lady
Katherine Barber
Toronto : Oxford University Press, 2006.

So that's why Old St Nick was so jolly...

December 12

Today's entry in the Advent Calendar 2006 is a slight update to one that appeared in last year's calendar.  Links have been updated, as the original recipe on the France 2 website is no longer there, and the recipe's author now has her own website (with a section in English as well, where she showcases her new guest house/cooking school in France... Santa, are you listening?).

Here then is an encore performance of the recipe for Spoom aux marrons glacés!

This is a dessert recipe by Sophie Dudemaine, which uses 2 marrons glacés (candied chestnuts, available in North America from European specialty grocery stores such as Vincenzo's in Kitchener) per serving -- a dozen for the recipe to serve 6.  So with a little will power, there might be enough of them left to try out the recipe!

Here's the translation I of the original recipe that I gave last year:

Serves 6.

1 litre of vanilla ice cream
12 marrons glacés
6 tsp crème vanillée de châtaignes/marrons -- vanilla flavoured chestnut paste (if you can find the marrons glacées, you'll be in the right place to find a tin of this too)
12 tbsp of Bailey's® Irish Cream liqueur

Place the chestnut paste in the bottom of 6 glasses, add 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream to each glass and top with crumbled marrons glacés pieces.  Pour the Bailey's over the top and serve immediately, with madeleines, tuiles or financiers (you could substitute wafers if you don't have any of these pastries handy -- the original recipe on the Télématin web site includes instructions for making madeleines).

Oh, and as for what "spoom" means?  Sophie explained on the show that it refers to anything with liqueur over ice cream.

December 11

A knitting hat trick (though not of the Gordie Howe variety)-- three patterns for hats using Noro Silk Garden:

The Silk Garden Spiral by Nancy Delcomyn on the hats pattern page of Champaign-Urbana Needleworks

The Silk Garden Hat (and Cowl) from Mimoknits

Steph's Silk Garden Beanie

And a bonus:  Flory Loughead's Noro One-Skein Hat (using Kureyon, but you could easily substitute Silk Garden)

December 10

Christmas this year is turning out a little subdued chez wabi sabi, due to The Other's current state of non-employment.  Still, there are some things about Christmas that can be enjoyed for free, such as the Christmas music featured on the Podsafe Christmas Podcast or the "what were they thinking???" collection of Christmas-displays-gone-mad at Ugly Christmas Lights -- a little music and some laughter may help lift your spririts, too.

December 9

If you've procrastinated and still need a present or two, here's a quick-to-knit pattern for topless mittens--all the rage at the moment, along with fingerless gloves.

I, an acknowledged slow knitter, managed to bang out a pair in two evenings--including taking time to write pattern notes as I adapted the pattern from Guignol's Gloves.

Here's the finished pair:

Caveat:  I have not had time to test knit the finished pattern, so you may find a misteak mistake or two; if you do, please let me know and I'll be happy to correct the pattern and re-post.

The pattern is called Sol, in honour of the Québécois comic Marc Favreau.

Post updated: The original pattern had some small errors, and they've now all been fixed (I hope!).  Please download a new copy of the pattern from the link above.

December 8

If I am honest, I'm not particularly fond of candy canes; however, I do confess to a peculiar fondness for candy cane fudge -- just use Alton Brown's chocolate fudge recipe, and substitute crushed candy canes for the walnuts, just sprinkling the candy on top and letting the fudge set.

While you're waiting, you can whip up a pair of Ruggle's Candy Cane socks, from the lovely HeartStrings Fiber Arts page.

(Pssst...there are lots of lovely patterns to be found here, free and otherwise!)

December 7

What can I say?  Leslie Harpold's Advent Calendar is always the best around.

Go.

Enjoy.

December 6

Fruit cake.  No, not The Other.  The kind traditionally associated with Christmas, that some love and some, well, some dread being given as a gift, as the store bought kind can be...  a bit... heavy.  Or heavy handed.

For wabi sabi's fruit cake afficionados, and the skeptics too, here's my version of the Christmas classic fruit cake, the Carribean Christmas Cake with a decidedly spicy twist that may help chase away the impending winter blues with its warming mixture of tropical spices and rum.

Enjoy!