Scaling back. Still.

[mrissa]

One of the items on my "to do" list for the week is "make Christmas baking list." This is harder than one might think. In years past, I've written down everything I might want to have for breads, cookies, and candies at Christmas. Then I've sat down with my mom and grandma and verified that Mom is making cream cheese drops and Grandma is making fudge and so on, and then whatever was left, I put in some semblance of priority order and started baking until either I reached the end of the list or Christmas arrived.

I can't do that this year. Well, I can, but I guarantee that Christmas would arrive long, long before the end of the list. This is one of those times when I really do need to scale back expectations and not drive myself insane.

So. We need pepparkakor, because: Christmas. Pepparkakor. This is what we do. (Pepparkakor are Swedish gingerbread.) We need pumpkin bread because timprov can enjoy it, ribbon fudge because Mike loves it, fudge meringues (both pistachio and raspberry, but they can be made at roughly the same time) because they've become my signature cookie for Christmas. That's not quite one thing a week from now until Christmas, so if I get crazy, I can make truffles or apricot shortbread (now that I know how much the recipe was lying) or apple bread with hazelnuts or some new crazy made-up cookie. No caramels this year -- I don't have the energy to cut and wrap caramels. No Guinness bread: I can make that at some random point, and we'll already have a kind of gingerbread around. No sandbakelser, no rosettes, no krumkake: Scandinaivan baking is great fun but takes too much time fiddling with the related toys. Mom and Grandma will make things, spritz and thumbprints and who knows what. There will be food enough. No one will starve at Christmas. Still, it's another sign of not being able to do what I usually can, and it frustrates me.

(Oh, and I'll dip apricots because that takes almost no time and can serve vegans and wheat/gluten-allergic folks, though as we are not having a Christmas party, I don't know that this will be a major issue. Still, it's good to be prepared.)

Comments

[redbird]

Does the pepperkakor recipe work with butter? (I ask because I have all the other ingredients, but don't usually keep oleo in the house.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It does, but you may need to feel the etexture and adjust the amounts of flour. If it's sticking too much to the rolling pin/rolling surface, add flour.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

oh! pepparkakor is smack! oh oh oh!

um, i mean, anna's makes them and sells them packaged, and i have been in gaming groups that have ground to a halt while we were busy handing them around.

i quite like the anna's variety, but i have never had homemade, so your tastes may vary.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We sometimes buy Anna's (often the blueberry kind), but it's really not at all the same as my homemade.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm impressed. Though if I ever got up the gumption to do a traditional bake according to our household tradition there are a few other items I would substitute in: chokladsnitt (http://www.recept.biz/Chokladsnitt.html), havreflarn (http://cookie.allrecipes.com/az/Havreflarn.asp) (which Americans tend to call lace cookies), and of course lussekatter (http://www.swedishkitchen.com/lussekat.html) for Lucia. In reality, I suspect I'll get a tin of pepparkakor from Cost Plus and call it done.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I did forget the lussekatter. Thanks for the reminder.

Don't be impressed, though! This is the really, really scaled-back unimpressive version. Ask anybody who got a box of candy from me last year.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

These days, I'm impressed by anyone who gets around to baking. I keep thinking about it, but not quite getting there. I hate my current oven, I can't find anyone who sells cake yeast, the dry yeast is always too old when I get around to it, I've lost the easy shortbread recipe, blah, blah, blah. I seem to have gotten too good at talking myself out of it, and out of practice enough that the results aren't as rewarding as they ought to be.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Baking is quasi-therapeutic for me: it is the anti-writing in my life. And sometimes I need anti-writing elements in my life.

[matastas.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I have to admit. The best part about my cookie-gift last year was the Gladware.

I mean, don't get me wrong: the cookies lasted 72 hours, and half didn't make it through the airport. But I used the *hell* out of the Gladware.

No rum balls? End of an era, I tell you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'd never made them before last year, so it was also the beginning of an era.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Careful when you start adding things like dipped apricots. I have a bunch of recipes that I remember as taking hardly any time (because having no time is the Story of my Life), and they always do take a good bit longer than I remember, though at least less time than other things.

I think Thanksgiving dinner this year may involve plotting with my brother and kicking Mom out of the kitchen. (Not really. We'll let her hang around and give advice. I don't think she'll mind not cooking as long as she gets to be with us.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My Thanksgiving dinner this year will probably look like any other Thursday night supper, except with lefse.

I'm okay with that.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Are you-all congregating in Minneapolis this year?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If we-all are me, markgritter, and timprov if he's awake, then yes.

[cadithial.livejournal.com]

Can you send me your applebread recipe? I've lost mine :(

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Here. (http://www.marissalingen.com/applebread.html)

[(Anonymous)]

The cream-cheese drops sound wonderful. What are they?