Baldur

This makes a very crisp and dry cookie, meant to be dipped in coffee, tea or even a glass of wine
They also store quite well in an airtight container

Baldur generally uses chopped nuts and some sort of citrus flavor but my evil sisters often add chocolate chunks with great success.
I just think it makes a mess when slicing them.
I have sometimes replaced a tablespoon or two of the flour with unsweetened cocoa powder
They would be divine with rosewater as a flavoring and pistacchio nuts for texture

Baldur

Today's entire menu got rave reviews.
Matthew of Shrewsbury was one of our guests and like Baldur he is not gainfully employed.
I love giving him leftovers, so he took the entire turkey (minus a couple slices for Robert to have on Satyrday.
He also took a goodsized bowl of scalloped potatoes, some gravy and buttered turnips. Oh, and an apple pie
Jacob (the witch) took a nice plate of my mincemeat crumb squares.
He loves old fashioned types of foods and was besides himself with joy when he saw mincemeat.
Luckily there was plenty for both of him.

This got the amount of food left down to a reasonable quantity to deal with.

sheftali52

Baldur's leftovers sound manageable. Sheftali made Baldur's chocolate rum balls for today's bash at the neighbor's house--they loved 'em. I went to the neighbor's house with ham and rum balls, and came back with turkey, dressing, corn bread, mashed potatoes, gravy, two pieces of pie, and two large rolls. Yum.

Robindcr8l

Sounds like a fair trade, sheftali! Robin worked very hard today herself. Slept in til noon, drove her boy to his dad's around 1:30, came back home to bed and watched TV. Napped for maybe an hour. Finallly emerged from her lazy coma and got out of her jammies and into the shower around 5! Now, though, I am at work, which, you can see by the fact that I'm on the computer, is not the busiest night of the year!

After months of trying to get to day shift, I had all but given up. Just when they hire some night shift people to replace me, someone else leaves. Add to this that the hospital is going through a major overhaul to a brand new computer system, and the prospects got even dimmer. This computer endeavor is taking all of the charge nurses on nights off of the floor for training except for me and one other charge. We don't "go live" until May'09, so I pretty much gave up on going to days before June.

That's when the manipulative side of me took over. I did not want to go to my manager with an ultimatum like get me on days or I'll find a new job. So I just applied for a new job, then let a few key gossips know about my pending interview. Soon I got a call from my manager saying she heard I was looking for a new job and wanted me to know that she could put me on days next schedule! MY PLAN WORKED!!

So next schedule starts 12/20. Problem is, I asked for Christmas eve off when I thought I'd be on night shift. Now that I'm on days, I'll want Christmas day off instead. So I emailed the boss and said as much. Offered to wrok Christmas eve day shift if necessary, or Christmas day 3-11 shift, but realy want to be home Christmas morning. Today I got an email from her saying how about working Christmas eve 7a-3p, then Christmas day 3p-7p? Beggars can't be choosers but sheesh! This makes me work Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, Christmas day, and New Year's day this year! Granted, this will be the first time in 11 years here that I've had to work Christmas day, but still! Oh well, I don't want to push my luck cuz I'm thrilled at the prospect of a normal sleep schedule, and I really didn't want that other job I interviewd for one bit!

Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was fantastic. Baldur, I'm coming to your place next year for Turkey day, so take out one extra setting of Spode!

marius

Robin - LOL on the joke!!! And, what a shock! Santa isn't real? : )

I remember the work situation of having hours you want, can't get, and also working holidays. Sorry you are working all the holidays this year - surely next year will be better. In the meanwhile, bet you will look forward to and enjoy the day shift! And, how cleverly you managed that schedule change! Although, I would not call what you did manipulative: I'd call it smart! : )

Baldur, I thought your "Baldur Carol" a true delight! Thought about it yesterday, thought about Baldur's table presentation and all the lovely aromas that must have been wafting through the air. When you read the upcoming Missouri Moment, you'll know why there were thoughts of your feast!

Meanwhile, thanks for sharing the biscotti recipe. This person ADORES biscotti, can't wait to try Baldur's version! [Are there tips for getting them dry enough? Reason I ask is because spouse makes biscotti using a cake recipe as a base. They are good, but never tough enough. You know, dog biscuit crunchy. The whole fun of them is that they are impossible to chew. Spouse's biscotti always seem to have too much moisture, too easy to chew.

Dragon

I know what Robin means about working all the holidays. Not for myself, I'm fortunate enough to work somewhere that we are closed for stat holidays, but for my fella. His last job was as a mechanic with an oilfield company and they work right through all the holidays. In 4 years working there he never once got Christmas off. What frustrated him was that the other guys would say things like "Well it doesn't matter for you, you don't have kids" That always made me angry, even though he doesn't have kids he still has a family that he'd like to spend time with. He'd never say that the guys with kids shouldn't get to spend time with them, he wouldn't try to take that away from them, it just shouldn't be a double-standard that those without children never get to spend the holidays with their families.

Dragon

oh marius, of couse Santa is real - he gave us a Roomba last year!

Dragon

So it's Black Friday for you guys, it's White Friday up here (at least it's looking pretty darn white in Red Deer)

GOLDIEGIRL8

Its hot Friday here...

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Of course Santa's real ... where the heck do you think the presents come form!?

puzzler

I thought Baldur was Father Christmas! He has the right physique and with just a touch of snow on that fluffy beard....

Baldur

Ho Ho Ho

Baldur

For the musical interlude on Radio Baldur this evening here are the Muppets performing Bohemian Rhapsody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY&feature=related

sheftali52

Love those Muppets! Tonight, Sheftali and husband consumed leftover turkey and ham and other fixings from yesterday's bash at the neighbor's. As for the Black Friday custom here in the States, Sheftali did not go out at the crack of dawn to do any Christmas shopping. Instead, she sat at her computer and took advantage of a few seriously discounted items on-line, with free shipping to boot!! Sheftali is into frugality, as many are these days.

marius

Baldur must indeed be feeling like his profile pic! hahaha, he posted same muppets Dragon posted the other day. (giggle, snort) Hey - it's worth seeing two times! Really is!

Baldur

I think Baldur had too much Pinot Noir over the past couple days.
Sorry Dragon

marius

And now, a Missouri Moment or two ...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving three weeks ago with family, and then another on the "real" Thanksgiving day. This one was at the home of good friends of my friend, Georgia. Did not know these other folks well but they were most warm and welcoming. And, Baldur, they chose three prayers: one in Lakota, one like lilalee suggested (which about killed my rather-shy-until-you-get-to-know-him spouse) and another one by Magret?, the German Grandmother.

It was a very nice time, truly, but the food was so, um, er, ... well, let's start with a highlight of that day. It was meeting the five buffalo. (Did I mention, these folks raise buffalo?) Brutus, the bull, is a five year old and hard to believe the beast will get bigger. We fed him snacks, which are about the size of a thumb. You hold the snack between your thumb and index finger, poke it through the fence and let the buffalo grab the snack from your fingers with its tongue. Since the teeth are too far back in the mouth, there is no danger of getting bitten. Was rather enchanted with the buffalo tongue: it's black, slimy, warm and circles up to grab the morsel from your hand. Hehehe, like a little tongue lasso.

Of course, the buffalo are wild and will come to the fence for treats, but this does not mean they are like pets. There is no petting allowed! When our host tried to show what will happen should you lose your mind and try to pet a buffalo, the buffalo moved his massive head so fast we thought our host was going to lose an arm. Yes, those "tiny" horns on the buffalo are much bigger than you think and that massive buffalo head moved faster than a hummingbird's wings! It was startling and Robert and I were most appreciative of the fence!

Anyway, there were good stories and much good cheer throughout the afternoon, but must say, marius could not stop stop musing about the trimmings and the ambiance at Chez Baldur's while she was eating somewhere else! You see, spouse and I discovered that Georgia's friends have something in common with Georgia other than mutual affection ... the commonality is a fondness for scented candles, scented potpourri, scented anything! This made for one of the oddest Thanksgiving Feasts I've ever had as there was so much aroma of vanilla candle, cranberry-pear potpourri and who knows what other concoctions, that neither spouse nor I could not smell the food. Seriously, the air was completely devoid of the scent of food!

Have read that when people cannot smell food, they will lose weight because when sense of smell goes, so does desire to eat. This must be true as this is the first Thanksgiving where I had no desire for seconds. Why would you want to eat more of something you can't taste? There was a nice scalloped corn dish I could taste, and the coffee was good. Otherwise, could barely taste a thing.

Having never had such a dining experience, spouse and I had a great deal to discuss on the drive home. We are both sensitive to aromas, not the same ones, but it's still the same problem. Spouse cannot stand the smell of bacon, curry or fish lingering in the house, and neither of us can tolerate the recent fad for scented "things" about the home. To give an idea of differences, my friend Georgia swears the scented candles in our home do not have a scent! That is quite funny as the few scented candles I have are the mildest that can be found and if I light them, must snuff them after an hour or so because more than that is overkill.

And the scent-issue was not the strangest experience. Whilst dining, a faulty smoke-detector went off two times over our heads. Apparently the family is used to this. It was an altogether odd and yet, charming day.

We did manage to turn the experience into hilarity as we were driving home. We made a list of all the things that should accompany the craze for non-smoking bans. We want scented candle and potporri bans, parents who ignore screaming children while you are eating bans, people who talk so loudly at the table next to yours that you feel as if you are part of their party bans, people whose clothing is so tight they might as well not wear it as you can see everything anyway bans ... and those are but a few that we laughed over.

We also mused that in fifty years someone will discover that inhaling four hours of fake scents is far worse for a person's health than a few seconds of second-hand smoke! When that discovery is made, everyone will sue all the scent makers and there will be scent-detectors at the entrance to all public facilities.

Lest any of Baldur's audience be great admirers of scents galore, please understand there is no distaste for people who enjoy such things ... there is however, as you already know, a sense of having been assaulted on my part, or, tee hee, on the part of the nose.

When we got home that day, first thing I did was change clothing, wash the face, neck, hands, and then held some freshly peeled orange rind under the nose. That seemed to help. Meanwhile, spouse spent the rest of the evening hacking and coughing. Think he must have more than an aversion to scents like that, seems to be a real allergy. Where oh where is mercy for those with a sensitive nose? : )

Baldur

Oh how Baldur would be squirming in his seat and watching the minute hand of the hall clock ever so slowly head towards departure time.

Can one say something along the lines of :
'Forgive me, but I suddenly feel ill, I must have my spouse ferry me home with all possible haste before the projectile vomiting begins again!
Do not let our departure hamper your holiday repast.'
I think with the threat of 'projectile vomiting' they will be most responsive in showing concern while ushering you swiftly out the door.

My candles here are not scented, I find that burning wax in itself is quite enough scent added to the atmosphere. Though given my druthers (+3 points) burning beeswax does add a certain ambience.

Robert uses a certain combination of soapy scented toiletries that puzzle me. Individually none are bad, but in his morning grooming he leaves an overpowering combination scent in the bathroom that is overpowering in almost a laundromat, steam induced scale.
It is soapy, milky, oily and vaguely minty. The bathroom holds the scent for many hours, yet the odor does not cling to him.
It's baffling.
I have made pretenses to enter the bathroom during his morning ablutions
(+63 points) but have found no evidence of the cause of the scent.

Using my most alchemical skills I have determined that the only air freshener that counteracts this phenomena is grapefruit.
Any other scent compounds the problem.
Baldur has stocked up on pink grapefruit air freshener in a pump bottle, it neutralizes the problem and then vanishes itself within a half hour (with the door closed).

Dragon

While Dragon does enjoy scented candles I always think that one should never use more than one scent at a time and never with dinner. marius is right, one should be able to smell the food, not the lighting. I'm not a fan of potpourri unless it's vanilla scented. I used to burn incense on occasion but found that despite the fact that they come in a plethora (+5 if I spelled it right) of different scents they all smell the same when burning. Nowadays I only burn them if I have a funky odor to get rid of and even then I usually just use the Febreeze air freshener. I've found that these actually kill the bad odor and don't leave a huge scent in the air after. I can't stand the flowery air fresheners. I hate the strong scent and find they don't actually kill the odor only mask it leaving you with floral scented poop smell lingering about the bathroom. I've often wondered which is worse, the overpowering floral scent or the bodily function scent?

marius

Apparently this thing with scents is more common than I knew. See below. There are lawsuits pending about this issue.

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/features/fragrance-allergies-a-sensory-assault?page=2

Co unted the scented candles in our home today: there are two. One has not been lit except maybe three times in five years and you cannot smell it unless you hold it under your nose. The other is used during steamy baths and again, the scent is EXTREMELY mild.

Had to laugh at Baldur using grapefruit air freshener and Dragon using Febreeze ... both those things send me out of my mind. This fits right in with Solo's thread on weird things cause here is the weird thing - scents like that arouse anger. Not sure why. They just do. Sometimes get headache, but always thought that was due to the anger. Hmmm. Maybe the anger comes from the headache which comes from the scents? : )