OK, so I am a little behind …I have been so busy
de-cluttering that I almost forgot about my Christmas preparations. Sad but true.
But I have made a lot of progress, so will be able to take out some time
for wrapping present and baking cookies and stuff.
I have decided to respect other people’s space as well as my
own by not giving them any Christmas presents.
Handy and cheap for me, you might think, and consider me a cheapskate
and a tightwad. Since I am the number 1
fan of Uncle Scrooge this does not faze me.
Anyway, you are quite wrong; although I shall no longer give the
sort of rubbish which clutters up other people’s houses, I shall continue to
give them (a) perishables, ie things to eat and drink and use up, (b) useful
things, ie something they really do need, and (c) small things which take up
little space yet are very beautiful, ie scarves and Christmas Tree ornaments.
(a) Shall be the subject of quite a few of my posts between
now and Christmas, because I plan to give cookies and Stollen and perhaps even
Dominosteine to my favourite friends. I
will make photos, too, so those among you who live to far away to receive baked
goods can at least look at the finished products and imagine they are eating them. I am very kind and generous that way.
(b) Is a minor category as far as my friends are concerned,
since they are all rich and need nothing.
I have managed to find a little something for K, who is not really poor
but has this habit of admiring something and then not buying it, and then
regretting not buying it. A very useful
habit for me, because I quickly rushed out and bought it for her!
(c) Was much on my mind yesterday, because I haunted the
website of my favourite Christmas Tree ornament manufacturer and ordered a few
special items – some for myself and some for a few select friends. These ornaments are very small and flat, so
one can shove them into an envelope together with a Christmas card as a little
present. They are made of pewter, and beautifully
painted, and I like to buy a few every year for my Christmas decorations trove.
So buying Christmas presents is not really necessary, except
for a few little ones for myself. Lest
you think I have all of a sudden become frugal, let me assure you that I have
bought all the big ones for myself a long time ago and am hoarding them in a secret
location!
The most urgent thing now is to prepare the dough for
Pfefferkuchen. You may have encountered
them in large cellophane bags in the cheaper shops in the pre-Christmas season,
and wonder why I propose to produce such sad specimens of the cookie
world. Well, obviously mine are
better! I use an ancient tested recipe,
and have been ordering ingredients from the German Bakery in London Germany Oregon
Anyway. These
Pfefferkuchen have two time-consuming requirements. Firstly, the dough has to sit in a warm place
for two or three weeks prior to baking.
Not an easy thing to achieve in my non-centrally heated house! Secondly, they need at least two weeks to
lose their rock-hard consistency after baking.
You do the maths! It is high time
I got going. It’s this week or not at all! Time's awasting!
After that the Dresdner Christstollen must be tackled. Then Nuernberger Plaetzchen. After that I will make Zimtsterne (except I
never use the star-shaped form, way too much work), and probably
Buttergebaeck. Plus Nuernberger Lebkuchen,
can’t miss them off the list. And when
all that is done I am going to try something new: Dominosteine.
Never made them before, but I have high hopes. They are dreadfully expensive to buy, so
making my own will be a huge savings.
Except that I will eat about ten times as many and not save a penny –
let’s not go there.
The other thing I am considering is making some more candied
citrus fruit peel. It is much better
than the stuff one can buy ready made in shops, and doesn’t really take all
that long to make. I am almost out of
the batch I made a few years ago.
Wonderful in the stollen! The
problem is, I need fruit that have not been treated with herbicides,
pesticides, wax, and any of the other chemicals that poison the regular
varieties. This Saturday I am in London
Of course there are many other things to do aside from
baking. I must dip a few bees wax candles,
supplies are running low and maybe I will make a few spare ones and give them
away as presents. Things will really
heat up just before the first of Advent, because ideally everything should be
ready then. But there is still plenty of
time, and if one is organised one can get everything done.
So onwards and upwards, allez hop, los los zack zack mach schnell!
The pre-Christmas season is now officially open!
