11:33am - Good Morning! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Solstice, and Friday around lunchtime. We lost power here for a minute and I had to reboot everything, but I'm back online. I took advantage of the down time to make myself another coffee, my second cup of the morning. This drink is only possible during the holidays. 

Eggnog Latte with Severed Santa Head

I make this with my espresso machine, but I have alternate directions if you don't have one (it's a $45 special from Target). 

 per serving

make an espresso or  hot coffee to taste

steam 1/4 cup eggnog  + 1/4 cup half and half  ...or... whip that combination with 1/8 cup very hot water with a whip or fork, to heat it up and foam it.

put a splash of rum in the mug, or to taste.

hack off the head of the chocolate Santa with the implement of your choice.   A hollow Santa will be less chocolatey, solid will be more so.

pour the hot coffee in the mug.

sink Santa's head slowly into the hot coffee and wait a few seconds, then give it several turns of the whip to distribute the melted chocolate 

mix in the heated, foamed milk and layer the remaining foam onto the top of the coffee.

enjoy! 

 11:51am-

I am still a little fuzzy from last night, so it's taking two cups of coffee to wake me up today. My plan is to be here for brunch and then around 1pm, start making some cookies. Well, I said I'd go to a pot luck at the Quaker Meeting House here, and two of my friends are going to be there. So, if the weather clears up a bit, I'll go.

The weather is nasty here, though we are just having sleet right now.  I bet alot of you in the midwest are  snowed in or at least have some of the stuff on the ground. I admit, having a white christmas was sorta fun. 

I'll be baking chocolate coconut macaroons, not the kind with a pedigree, just my mother's recipe. They are flour-less and don't require butter or other fats. So not that bad as Christmas cookies go. And they're chocolatey!!! I'll post the recipe and the photos as I go along.

12:01pm-

I am going down to open the two presents I got. I'll be back up in a minute. So, what did Santa bring you??? Or, what did you get for yourself??? Come on now, share it with your brother!!!

12:25pm-

So I actually got three wrapped presents, all from my sister in Colorado on disability.

It IS fun to get presents. If I were to admit what I miss most about  Christmas past, it's when you wake up and see piles of presents under the tree. If you had that experience. If you didn't, that moment is probably what you miss least about Christmas. 

I have had the experience of piles of booty at the end of the day. It's both a childish satiated feeling, layered with horrible guilt. "Were my presents too cheap? Did I spend enough? Why did I get such a crappy present from HIM? I wish I had gotten that dress Mom gave her." Both my mother and my husband's family were prolific gift-buyers, so it was hard to really feel too resentful. But lately, especially, I am shying away from the gift concept. I either make gifts or send functional things, like t-shirts and food. 

I have gone two ways with presents. Either I really thought about what that person's likes and dislikes were and bought accordingly - usually books - or I made food, most famously, fruitcakes that were so good they transcended the genre. I don't know what my in-laws have thought about  me personally, but in both cases (each present with a different set, depending on the husband of the moment) they sent an un-ambiguous request to CEASE giving them books or fruitcakes. I'm still not sure what to make of that, other than that maybe I didn't interview my in-laws sufficiently before I married their sons.  

What am I thinking? We need tunes. I posted it at the top of the page. It's a playlist that you can add tunes to, not sure if it's easy or not, but give it a try. In the meantime, what I like for Christmas morning, jazz, blues and chorale.  

12:51pm-

So, got the stereo on now, I'll keep talking about presents. 

So this year, I got almost everyone a peace sign t-shirt and re-gifted a few CDs. I don't have expendable cash this winter, since property taxes are due in a few weeks and I will barely have enough on my regular allowance. I'm sure that's a common story out there.

So what does my sister do but splurge, even though it's the worst year of her life and she has to keep the thermostat at 55º all winter.

OK, it isn't that bad, two calendars and a used cookbook that I had on my Amazon list. It;'s funny, though. Up until today, when I've looked at the list, the least expensive copy was $125.00. I guess they marked them down to $20. I initially thought the gift was way, way too expensive. 

Damn, there was a point in there somewhere.

1:02pm-

OK, I'm now babbling, what I usually do at parties when it's slow.  I want to tell everyone that this has been a really good way for me to get through Christmas, and I so appreciate you coming by, even if you just stopped by to say hello. 

The experience was eerily  like have a party in real time, except that everyone got to wear their jammies, drink what they like, eat what they like, and doze off in someone else's face. No one off in the bedrooms getting it on, though, and no kissing under the mistletoe, unless you already had a date right there. 

1:20pm- 

OK, I just loaded up the stereo, and now I'm going down to start the cookies. I'll be back at intervals with the results.

 2:14pm-

The cookies are baking, and I'll be back in a few minutes with photos and recipe. I wish you could be here for the first chewy bite!  

3pm- (actually 3:23 - I had to download the photos and fix them)

So, they're done. Here's the Recipe:

 Christmas Macaroons

Makes about 3 dozen 

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sugar 

a 12 oz package of semi sweet chocolate chips

an 8 oz package of shredded (not flaked) sweetened or un, your choice. 

First separate the 4 egg whites and let them come to room temperature. You can use a separator to get out the yokes, or just flip them between the broken shells. Try not to get any yolk in the whites.

 next step in a minute - getting the last batch out of the oven

3:30pm-

OK, next step

Beat the egg whites, sugar and salt til you get stiff peaks. This takes about 5-10 minutes. What you are basically making is meringue, or marshmallows. Check periodically to dip the beaters out of the mixture and see if you get a little peak that stands on it's own. Then the base is ready to mixed with the chocolate.   

Heat the oven to 325º.

Melt the chocolate pieces. Use a double boiler if you have one, that's the safest way. Microwave for a minute at a time til they are melted, or do what I do, put them in a stainless steel bowl in the oven while it heats up, while you're beating the egg whites. It's slow, gentle and doesn't burn the chocolate. And, they're ready when the chocolate has melted. 

Pull the bowl out of the oven when the chocolate looks like this when you scrape through the chips.

 Scrape the chocolate into the bowl with the egg mixture and fold together til all the chocolate is incorporated and there are no longer stripes in the mix. 

Pour the package of coconut into the mixture a little at a time, folding the coconut in and once all the coconut is mixed in, it will look like this:

Put parchment paper on cookie sheets or do what my mom did, back when it was only paper grocery bags - cut the sides out of the paper bags and cut to fit the cookie sheet. Use the inside of the bag for the cookies.

Using a spoon and a scraper or knife, put a soup spoon-size dollop of cookie mix on the paper for every cookie and leave a small area around them. It doesn't matter whether they are sloppy. 

Bake at 325º for 20 minutes.  

 4:12pm-

Well, I'm off to the pot luck. It should be pretty quiet compared to last night. No blues in the background, but you can't have everything. I'll be back sometime around 6 and check in for the night. Have a calm, relaxing, non-stress, nap-taking, cookie-eating, one-more-drinking kind of day.  

5:15pm-

I'm back again. I cleaned up, put on something presentable and drove through the slush to the local Quaker Meeting House, about 2 minutes away from me. There are 3 or 4 cars there, not a breath of activity and I am guessing it's not a big party. Then I go to the front door and Yikes, they are in Silent Meeting.  I am so out of there. I am not much of a spiritual girl, however broad the parameters. No, not even free food is worth it. I didn't realize that was on the agenda tonight. Oh well, the House of Ardee is Open again for a little while. 

7:16pm-

Well, things are slowing down. I had some dinner and now I'm thinking Netflix movie. I have the Dead Like Me movie, which I haven't seen yet.  I loved that show, love Mandy Patinkin in practically everything , and any and all dark humor. So like last night, you don't have to leave, and you don't have to turn the lights out before you go!