I have to say, though, that I hate working with Dutch cocoa. It turns to chocolate-in-the-air and ends up on everything. In reviewing all the ingredients and supplies I'll need in the coming year, however, I see a lot of Dutch cocoa in my future.
Along with pounds of powdery, chocolatey deliciousness, I will need a few other items over the coming months: Lyle's Golden Syrup. Dark rum, bourbon, brandy and Grand Marnier. Anise seeds. Several sizes of ice cream scoops. Various cookie cutters. Wooden skewers. Lard. And the infamous 10" tart pan. Among many other things.
I suspect that I won't be finding many of these items at the local Fred Meyer. So, Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma, City Kitchens and Sur la Table and I are going to be great friends this year.
Fortunately, I have a pantry with lots of nooks and crannies. All the better to hide my purchases in.
I recently cleaned and sorted my pantry. January's a good time for cleaning out. I like this dark, brooding weather. I feel bad about the flooding--many people have lost their homes and belongings. Even our normally mellow Cedar River turned brown and angry last week. It leapt its banks just outside town and invited some of its streams to join in. It's still raging, although just within its banks now. It's amazing to think about the volume of water that these rivers are moving out of the mountains.
Floods aside, I don't mind the dark and the wet. This morning the Seattle skyscrapers were hiding their heads in the fog. They looked aloof but a little cozy that way. The earth is sleeping and storing the moisture for summer. We're not even half-way through winter, though. I know that by February I'll be hankering for Palm Springs.
James gets tired of this weather. I've told him to go down to Palm Springs for a few days, but he won't. Fares are at an all-time low and his mom's house is just sitting there empty. He's too focused on the investments and work though. And now he thinks he really did tear his shoulder tendons again. He was lifting a closet door and heard two pops and then had lots of pain. Well, I'm not a surgeon, but I don't think lifting doors falls under the direction of "take it easy" for three months. But who am I to say? Oh, and he quit smoking today. I have a feeling we'll be going through a lot of cookies in the next few months.
I'm really enjoying the sharing part of this project. James and the kids, of course love it, too. They just wish I wouldn't share with anyone outside the house! My mom is still waiting for some of those peanut butter cookies (soon, I promise!). It's fun to make sure I'm spreading the cookie wealth.
Linda and I shared cookies for dessert today at lunch. It was too January to go out, so she and I did the cafeteria thing.
We're two of the last three members of the old Regence Gang. She and I have been friends for 15 years. If Linda leaves, then I'll have to be shortly behind. For me, there would be no Regence without Linda. Hopefully, neither of us is going anywhere for awhile, so I look forward to sharing cookies with her for the next 11 months. Oh, and she thinks she has some of the Ateco decorating tips I need. I'm sure she'll be willing to give them to me--in exchange for some chocolatey, buttery goodness.
No comments:
Post a Comment