Getting in the Christmas Spirit

It seems that everyone is slow getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I figure someone's got to lead the fray...

And for the record, this is the first time I've donned a photoshopped hat! I'm a purist; I usually go for the real thing.

Cat + Yarn

Apparently Koko has been feeling a little left out lately, and chose to assert herself over yarn yesterday. After a not-so-brief jaunt to Mississauga to the Dye-Version studio open house, we came back with a few skeins of bamboo. Koko got right in there to help with the winding of the yarn. There's something alluring about this yarn - she just can't stay away! All afternoon she kept coming back to sit on it, look at it, sniff it. Too bad it's not mine - she'll be distraught when she finally realizes it has gone home with its owner!

Sirene Absinthe

It's rather difficult to lay your hands on a wide variety of absinthe in Canada (especially now that Absinthe Classics Canada is no longer serving Canadian customers) but Siren Absinthe is one of the few brands carried by the LCBO. Sirene Absinthe is made by North Shore Distillery in Chicago. Happy Christmas to me; I can't wait to try it. There are some decent reviews on The Wormwood Society website, and although it might not be one of the most highly rated, it is certainly respectable.

Sirene Absinthe is one of only four types of absinthe carried by the LCBO. Although, interestingly, only two of the four types carried by the LCBO are actually absinthe (the Absente and the Hill's are absinthe-like but do not contain the required herb that would make them absinthe). It's too bad the LCBO doesn't carry the only Canadian-made absinthe, Taboo (including Taboo Gold or Taboo Myrrh), from Okanagan Spirits.

If you are new to absinthe and haven't heard me wax poetic or natter on about it before, here's The Wormwood Society definition of absinthe:

Absinthe
1. A (usually) green distilled spirit of high alcohol content, with a main characteristic flavor derived from anise, wormwood and other botanicals.

2. Artemisia absinthium. A perennial aromatic European herb having pinnatifid, silvery silky leaves and numerous nodding yellow flower heads. The definitive ingredient in absinthe.

For some reason absinthe makes me think of Ricola cough drops, in a green melted form...I should mention I love the flavour of Ricola cough drops, which I grant you is a tad unusual. But, given the herbs that are in the Ricola cough drops, it's not surprising that there are some similar flavours between these two seemingly diparate things. If you're interested, The Wormwood Society is an excellent resource for all things absinthe. Also the Real Absinthe Blog (where you can find the Thirsty Traveler segment on absinthe).

At the particular LCBO I visited today to purchase the Sirene, surprisingly it was housed with the Single Malts in the Vintages section. The other absinthe, Pernod, was nowhere in sight, although in other locations I have seen it in the liqueur section. Now, I'm not exactly sure what would be the most appropriate placement for absinthe, but a single malt it definitely is not. Fortunately I was on the hunt for Midleton Very Rare Irish Whisky, which I never did locate, but at least my quest led me to the obscure section where the Sirene was housed!

In a similar vein, it's also a good thing I enjoy browsing the aisles of the LCBO, because never in a million years would it have occurred to me to look for Vice Martini by Vineland Estates, a Vidal ice wine and vodka mix, inexplicably placed in the Port section. Even the cashier had to ask me where I found it and was as amused/bemused as I was to find out where it was located.

At the point of posting I haven't yet enjoyed the Sirene Absinthe; I have simply enjoyed the procurement of it!

Cookie Craft Day

There used to be a Christmas Craft Day tradition in our household which involved much drinking and eating, along with some crafting (and a little napping). Unfortunately Koko put the kibosh on such festivities when she sank her fangs into one of the participants...on more than one occasion. That's a tradition we felt we didn't need to carry on: what with the blood and the screaming, it just wasn't the same.

But this year we ended up having an impromptu cookie baking/decorating day (or two). This is the first batch of cookie completed. I have tons more dough in my fridge waiting to be baked up and decorated! This was a fun, albeit laborious, activity.



Lessons learned (these are really notes to myself, you don't have to read them):

1) When storing icing overnight in the piping bags, remove the tips because even when you cover the tips with press 'n' seal, the icing still turns to concrete in the tip. Therefore, probably press 'n' seal over the coupler after removing the tip might be a better plan.

2) Scratch that. Icing left overnight destabilizes. The colours need to be remixed and the texture leave a lot to be desired. In general, flood icing becomes floodier and piping icing becomes flood. In general, overnight, vegan icing held up better than non-vegan icing. Fresh would have been better on day two, especially since this is the fine detail stage. For the record, the vegan icing colours were: white, ice blue (Sugarflair), green (mix of gooseberry and spruce and holly green (Sugarflair). The regular non-vegan icing colours were: grape (Sugarflair), teal (Wilton), cornflower blue (Wilton), red (mix of Christmas red (Wilton), poppy red, claret, paprika and holly green (Sugarflair)).

3) In terms of drying, vegan piping is very solid and dries hard quite quickly. However, with flood icing, the top dries very quickly compared to the bottom; this creates kind of a "skin" that crackles by the time it is completely hardened. In addition, hardening takes longer. The non-vegan icing dried harder, flatter and not quite as shiny. Overall, the non-vegan icing completely hardened faster.

4) The piping texture of the vegan icing was pretty good, but you don't get as much control with it - it isn't as soft, so achieving soft curves and fine detail is difficult, especially on the second day. Unfortunately the vegan white piping dried quite translucently and not as bright white as would have been desirable.

5) Piping non-vegan icing on a vegan flood was a definite no-no; the different properties turned the non-vegan piping into a floody mess. (Example, the red squiggle on the white ornament.)



6) Tweezer-like implement needed for placing dragees, especially the small ones. The white ones are tastier than the silver ones. Medium dragees very useful. Maybe additional colours helpful. You can never have too many dragees on snowflakes or Christmas ornaments.

7) More tips (number 1 and 2) and elastics needed. Perhaps Ateco tips better than Wilton, but the jury's out on this point still. The Ateco tips are much longer, and I've heard that this helps with control.

8) For the vegan icing, must remember to add only the 4 TBSP of egg replacer (but not the water) to the recipe. Then add additional water based on texture. Next time for the regular icing, I will try Antonia74's royal icing recipe (the non-vegan was a standard Bonnie Gordon and the vegan was from my Thanksgiving post).



Addendum: REALLY helpful tips for making beautiful decorated cookies (as well as beautiful examples of same) can be found on Sweetopia.

Thirsty Business

I'm ashamed that I'm not even ashamed to admit that Amber and I have a wee bit of a stalking problem. Not in a creepy illegal way or anything. But if there were a line between being a fan and being a stalker, I believe we are playing fast and furious on that line. The object of our attention is The Thirsty Traveler, with whom we enjoyed two events this past week. Amber says we shouldn't think of it as bad-stalking since we pay for these events, therefore supporting him in his endeavours. We're quite altruistic, really.

The first event was the Beer Tasting Dinner on Tuesday night at Fynn's of Temple Bar. I didn't take any pictures of this event (dim lighting, too much drinking, eating and laughing to stop and snap). I did tweet.

1. Beer tasting with the Thirsty Traveler at Fynns's of Temple Bar...Toast beer: County Durham Signature Ale (preceded by a Strongbow). 6:44 PM Nov 17th
2. Soup: roasted butternut squash, wild rice and fried ginger paired with Great Lakes Winter Ale. 6:45 PM Nov 17th
3. Mmmm must try to remember that Great Lakes Winter Ale...VERY TASTY! 7:07 PM Nov 17th
4. Salad w/Jerusalem artichokes, chickpea fritters, feta cheese pomegranate vinaigrette paired with Hofbraeu Oktoberfestbier! 7:25 PM Nov 17th
5. Hofbraeu a little hoppy... 7:54 PM Nov 17th
6. Main: Asian Quail w/exotic root vegetables paired w/Fullers Extra Special Bitter. 7:55 PM Nov 17th
7. Indifferent to the quail and the special bitters. Apparently there was a veg option! 8:27 PM Nov 17th
8. Dessert: Chocolate mousse tarts and rosewater cream paired with Chimay Premiere... 8:51 PM Nov 17th
9. Oh man, not as young as I once was. Feeling the pain of a little over-indulgence last night! 7:00 AM Nov 18th
   

This was the second beer tasting at Fynn's that I have attended, and I have attended other special events (whisky tastings). The chef, Patrick Narain, does quite a good job with the pairings; an interesting feat considering he doesn't eat meat or drink! The food is generally excellent, although I have not been terribly impressed by the mains in general, and the dessert this time was a bit 1980's in its presentation. I was super-impressed by the Durham County Signature Ale used for the welcome toast and the Great Lakes Winter Ale paired with the soup. Kevin Brauch is a true entertainer, and as usual it was a very fun evening. I was hurting a little bit the next day since I "helped" Amber with some of her beer; she was still a bit jet-lagged having just returned from Africa a few days earlier...

The second event this week was a Tutored Tasting with The Thirsty Traveler yesterday at the Gourmet Food and Wine Expo. This was the third time we attended this event (see past events here), and it never gets old. Entertaining, fun and informative! The line-up this year was excellent: one beer (Innis & Gunn, an oak-aged beer I am very fond of); one red wine (Crasto from Portugal, presented by Miguel whose family has owned the vineyard in the Douro region in Portugal for about 450 years or something); two very different gins (Hendrick's from Scotland and Victoria Gin from BC); two absinthes* (Taboo from BC, La Clandestine from Switzerland); and finally an infused-rum and vodka (infused with wildberry and cranberry respectively).



Although I had tasted half of the items in the line-up, it was still great to hear about why Kevin chose them, and to see the contrast between the two gins and the two absinthes. I almost cried with joy when he tweeted the menu earlier in the day; we were so not looking forward to the Great Wall of China wine from last year which tasted like moth balls fermenting in soy sauce. The focus on absinthe was a special treat for me - I would have loved if the whole line-up was absinthe...but that's an event for a different day (likely in my dreams...or New Orleans).

Kevin held the absinthe up for an eternity to demonstrate the finer points of the louche and to showoff his special absinthe glass from Pontarlier (from where I sat it appeared to be a Grand Pontarlier reservoir glass with matching dripper). Of course our favourite blonde cheeseball had to worm her way into the picture! (Please notice my restraint in not making "worm" into a "wormwood" pun, as sorely tempted as I was!)



And of course, to close we have the requisite blurry-cam shot. The problem of a) having someone else take the picture, and b) having someone else take the picture after imbibing all of the above, is no doubt apparent.



We completely forgot to take a photo of all the empty glasses; a tradition blown! We always find that amusing. Overall we had a great strategy this year, ate before we came, hit cocktail alley a bit hard but slowed right down, stayed away from sweet things, paced ourselves and generally came up not requiring more than Advil to get through the evening. I believe no porcelain gods were honoured this year. Good times!

*Yes, I realize that this is not a world that should be pluralized. Sue me. It's my blog and I can write what I like!

Heeny Knitting

H1N1 just sounds so...I don't know, scientific? I think "heeny" sounds a bit more friendly. I happened to get it right after getting back from New Orleans, and thanks to my hypochondriacal husband I got hooked up with some anti-viral medication within 24 hours of getting it. The meds kicked right in and kept the flu from getting out of control. I spent six days at home in the care of Warden Walt and since he didn't want me to spread my germs into the kitchen (or anywhere for that matter), I the better part of my time at home embedded on my couch, knitting a sweater.

I started this sweater ages ago but got little more than the collar done before I got sick.



I completed the torso and most of one sleeve (which I subsequently ripped out because the colourway on the ball of yarn I had attached was a little too bright a transition); this is the reknit sleeve number one. Since I returned to work, progress has slowed up a bit -- especially since I've had lots of social things on the go (more about those things later). Luckily the weather has been very warm, so I haven't had to regret not yet finishing this sweater!



The sweater is Ingenue by Wendy Bernard from her book Custom Knits. I'm knitting it in Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran Weight in Amber. The actual colour is better represented in the first picture.

A day in the life of Koko...

I always wondered what Koko got up to when we were at work. I'm home sick and now I know!