Good King Wenceslas – The Colbert Report

Today is the second day of Christmas, the Feast of Stephen, and the day when your true love gives you 2 turtle doves plus another partridge in a pear tree. You’ll have 22 turtle doves by January 5!

“Good King Wenceslas” tells the story of Saint Wenceslaus I and his page delivering gifts to a poor peasant on this day.

Grab a cup of hot cocoa and enjoy this great performance of the carol from “The Colbert Report” featuring Michael Stipe, Mandy Patinkin and Stephen Colbert. Lyrics for the song are below.

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Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;
Brightly shone the moon that night, tho’ the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, gath’ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know’st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”
“Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

“Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:
Thou and I shall see him dine, when we bear them thither. “
Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;
Through the rude wind’s wild lament and the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer. “
“Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage freeze thy blood less coldly.”

In his master’s steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.

Merry Christmas!

(Yes, it’s a little girl pie)

Making gum paste from a mix

If you use a lot of gum paste, it can get a little expensive. I need it to teach my classes, and to me, it is more economical to buy the Wilton Gum Paste Mix. It is not hard to make, and I can make a full batch in a solid color faster than trying to color ready-made by hand.

In any case, making the full can is too much if I only need it for one demo, so I make half a batch of it. The printed instructions have the amount for the full can, so if you want to make less, you need to adjust quantities. My preferred measuring method in any kind of cooking is by weight in grams (using an electronic scale that can be reset to zero). What can I say, I’m a nerd.

Quantities For Mixing Wilton Gum Paste Mix

Package Amount	Mix	Water	Confectioners’ sugar
Full	454 gr (or 16 oz.)	59 gr (or 1/4 cup)	40 gr (or 1/3 cup) plus some extra for dusting
Half	227 gr (or 8 oz.)	30 gr (or 2 tbsp)	20 gr (or 8 tsp) plus some extra for dusting
Quarter	114 gr (or 4 oz.)	15 gr (or 1 tbsp)	10 gr (or 4 tsp) plus some extra for dusting

Here are the directions from the packaging:

• Combine mix and water in a large bowl. Stir until well mixed. Dust your work surface with confectioners’ sugar; turn out mixture on surface and knead like bread dough until mix is well worked in.
• Place in a tightly sealed plastic bag and let rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.
• Turn out on surface lightly dusted with confectioners’ sugar. Knead for about 5 minutes, gradually working the measured confectioners’ sugar. Mixture should be smooth and non-sticky.
• Use at once, or store at room temperature in a tightly sealed bag in a covered container. Refrigerate if storing longer than 1 week. Will keep up to 6 weeks. Can also be frozen.

The package says to “use at once”, but I like to let it rest for at least a couple of hours; I think it makes it more malleable. I like to knead mine over a Silpat mat to minimize stickiness and clean up. Whatever you decide, make sure it is very tightly wrapped at all times.

Thanksgiving yummies

This gallery contains 7 photos.

Ah, Thanksgiving, my favorite time to bake. The house smells great and it’s nice and warm from the oven heat. Around these parts I’m known for my pumpkin pie. It is not really a secret recipe, just an old stand-by from Betty Crocker. But you must follow it to a T. Click on the photos […]

Mesmerizing egg-separating trick

There are many occasions when you need to separate egg whites and yolks: for example, when you need yolks to make lemon curd, or when you need really clean whites to make meringue.

There are some people who like to break the egg in half and move the yolk back and forth between the 2 halves until it’s separated, but I don’t like to do this because if the edge of the shell is ragged it can puncture the yolk, and your whites will be ruined.

I usually put the cracked egg on my hand, and let the white flow between my fingers keeping the yolk in my palm. Effective, but messy.

But recently, I ran across this video from a DYI crafter from China, who uses an empty water bottle to suck up the yolk and move it to a separate bowl. Neat!

Happy 100th Julia!

Julia Child made French cooking accessible. Google had a special Doodle for her 100th birthday. Some interesting links:

Her 9th and final kitchen was donate to the the Smithsonian, and it’s at the National Museum of American History.

She worked at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA as a “clerk”.

She was tall: 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88 m)! Here she is talking about her life.

Finally, you can see her here during an episode of “The French Chef”, where she gives tips about spinach.

When is Pi day?

Today is March 14, affectionately called “Pi day” since it is 3/14. I’m going to have a busy day, so instead of making one from scratch, I picked up a Nilla pie crust and made one of the recipes from the back: Easy Banana Cream Pie, which is a variation of their Easy Banana Pudding Parfaits and Easy Banana Cream Pie from their website.

Easy Banana Cream Pie – Makes 8 servings

• 1 medium ripe banana, sliced
• 1 NILLA Pie Crust (6oz.)
• 2 1/2 cups cold milk
• 2 packages of Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding and Pie Filling (3.4oz. each)
• 2 cups Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

1. Place banana slices on bottom of crust.
2. Pour milk into a large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. Gently stir in 1 cup of the whipped topping with the wire whisk. Spoon pudding mixture into crust.
3. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set. Top with remaining whipped topping. Garnish with additional banana slices. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

So yeah, it’s made with instant pudding and Nilla wafers, don’t judge me. I don’t really eat these often or at all, in fact, my husband and kids are the instant pudding fans. I’d settle for a nice warm apple pie. Maybe on the weekend…

Cheap dinner! Score!

Well, I didn’t feel like cooking tonight, but we had take-out last night and I’m trying to keep the budget and calories low. I decided to just stop by at Publix to get stuff to make ziti with asparagus, smoked mozzarella and prosciutto. Disclaimer: I don’t get star-struck by celebrity chefs, but her book “Everyday Italian” does have some good recipes.

Well, when I got to the store it turned out that all but one of the ingredients were on sale! Woot! Complete fancy and yummy dinner for 4 was $9.95. Ronzoni pasta was buy-one-get-one free, asparagus were $1 off per pound, and the fresh mozzarella was $1.00 off. The only drawback is that I have to do dishes…

Happy Epiphany!

Today is January 6, and in Mexico everyone is having Rosca de Reyes (Kings’ Cake). But since I am not there, I had to make my own. Not too shabby either, I might add. We’ll have it tonight with some hot cocoa, mmmm.

Homeless mats made from plarn

As part of the service projects from our troop, we are making mats from plarn. They will be distributed to homeless people; the mats are waterproof and provide a cushioning surface.

Start by making plarn. You are going to need a lot of it: 700-1000 bags worth. It’s an easy task for kids to do, get them involved.

Using your favorite method (chain, base chain) make a row that is 3 ft (36 inches) wide. You will be doing single crochet for the body of the mat.

Just keep (single) crocheting, just keep (single) crocheting, just keep (single) crocheting… until the rectangle is 6ft (72 inches) long. As you see, there will be all sorts of colors because of the different bags you use. I suppose if you really wanted to get fancy, you could only use bags from one store, or create some sort of striped pattern.

Using the chain stitch, make two strips around 56 inches long. Tie them to one end of the mat.

Add a handle to the same side where you tied the strips. Use single crochet as the body of the mat, and make it around 3 inches wide, so that when the mat hangs on your shoulder, it doesn’t pinch like a narrow band would.

And that’s it. The mat can be rolled up and tied and then carried around with the handle you added. It is not a hard item to make, but it takes around 30 hours of crocheting, not counting the time needed to make the plarn. Any questions? Send them in the comments.

Bonus: here is a video from the local station WSB-TV that shows the work our troop is doing.