baking bender

We've been on a baking bender, me and Mr. Beeton. We decided that this year we'd bake and package cookies for those few people who always manage to give us something thoughtful yet who we can never manage to find something good for. So, we baked, and baked, and baked. And, when we were done we had pretty little packages, tied up with red ribbon and gift tags from the ultimate store, Papersource. In the package were:

• Forgotten cookies - an old family recipe
• Cut outs - courtesy of 365 degrees sugar cookie mix from Whole Foods
• Iced applesauce oatmeal cookies - complete with homemade applesauce, a recipe of Laurie Colwin's
  
• Candy cane cookes - another childhood favorite
• Peanut butter, kiss cookies - from Mr. Beeton's childhood Christmases

And, the piece de resistance...

• Peppermint bark

This was a recipe I found on one of my favorite food blogs, Orangette. You can find it under her entry for 12.15.08 entitled, "Look at that." It's honestly the most delicious peppermint bark I have ever eaten or made! My brother declared the same when he ate some at my parents' house over the vacation. And, believe me, he's eaten a lot of peppermint bark. He's an elementary school teacher, and he said that many of the teachers at his school make it and share it during the holiday season.

And now, after all that baking and all our traveling, we're home, getting ready for New Year's Eve. As usual, we've got no big plans since many of our friends can't seem to get their act together after the holiday. It's like they lack energy to plan, complete exhausted from Christmas. I made reservations at our favorite Palisades restaurant, so regardless of them, at least Mr. Beeton and I will eat a great meal as we ring in the New Year.

Happy 2009!

Keep sweeping, Martha

it's a good thing

Consistently, soap operas have been my comfort television. On a bad day, a rainy day, or really just any day at all, I'll turn to All My Children, One Life To Live, and General Hospital for comfort. They remind me of my childhood, sitting, after a long day at school with my mom and sister, eating cookies and milk.

Lately, though, when I get home from a bad day, I turn to my Tivo-ed episodes of Martha. I can't get enough of that show - for many, many reasons. Especially lately. Such great ideas for Christmas. Feather-trees. Christmas cocktails. Joel McHale. They make me feel good. Like life really is about sugar cookies and pull toys.

And yesterday, the ultimate surprise! Mr. Beeton got an email from the show. He's got two tickets to see a live taping! I almost fainted. I can't think of a better way to kick off the spring semester - even if it does mean missing the first day of class. Shh. Don't tell.

Keep sweeping, Martha

Saturday, July 18, 2009 update - We never did attend that taping. Guilt won out over fantastic fish recpies.

a heart in the middle

I'm riding the last wave of a very long semester.  If I were a waitress and if I worked in a pie diner, I'd be baking a pie out of mincemeat and cheddar cheese, topped with sour cream, and I'd call it "I-don't-wanna-grade-no-more-papers pie." 

Actually, the end of the semester proper went very well. For the final paper, my classes are required to watch one of three films that I have selected and write a movie review on the film that they have chosen. Amongst their choices was Adrienne Shelley's Waitress, an absolute favorite of mine. Watching it and discussing makes me feel like I'm in our very small kitchen with the oven on high.

The most satisfying part of discussing that movie is asking them the question, "Why pie?" They look at me confused, "Why not?" Then, I go on, "Why doesn't Jenna bowl? Or collect quarters? Or blog? Why does she bake?" I exaggerate often, to drive home a point. Then, we talk about domesticity, at how Jenna is confined in so many ways - by her marriage in particular, by the baby she doesn't really want. And we discuss how baking - a premier domestic art - should also be a method of confinement but how she makes it subversive, relegating it to an art rather than a mundane domestic chore. They like that interpretation. And they like the New York Times movie review that we read which deems Waitress "a feminist fairytale" (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/10/04/1191091279319.html). You can tell that some of them want to live in a feminist fairytale. I know I do. 

Turn up the oven.

Keep sweeping, Martha