Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I really should read my own blog.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Just Be Nice, Dammit

Just Be Nice, Dammit

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I’m grumpy, sick of applying for jobs and probably not great to be around, so play nicely in this sandbox since the other one is full.

I made cookies for the upcoming community feast for the homeless and dropped off my mitzvah of personal care supplies for the homeless. It’s my way of feeling better. Besides eating cookies. What’s yours?

I think I perfected my gluten-free vegan peanut butter one. I don’t know why I bother, I never write down my recipes unless I’m writing a column and I haven’t had one of those in an age.

 

Peanut Butter Cookies with Walnuts & Toffee

I have a few more things to make for my Christmas Day meals where we go full on Jamaican. Stew Beef, Ackee & (Not) Saltfish, Bulla Bread. Maybe some (Not) Beef Patties. My fridge is full of the sorrel I brewed last month and half the Jamaican Rum Cake I started 3 weeks ago. Drop some Christmas recipes and thoughts in the comments. I may read them, I may be running dungeons in WoW, who knows.

Have at it, rascals.

Obligatory Himesama pic

Reader Interactions

71Comments

  1. 1.

    Major Major Major Major

    Apparently I’ve been volunteered to make a few batches of cookies this weekend, so that’ll be fun. Some interesting options in the “Baking with Kim-Joy” book my SIL has. Cardamom shortbread maybe.

  3. 3.

    ThresherK

    As a sucker for torties and calicos, I love that pic of Himesama.

    Does her name refer to anything particular?

  4. 4.

    ruemara

    @ThresherK:  Hime, Japanese for princess. -sama, honorific. She’s very elegant and a total drama queen

    @M. Bouffant: Thank you.

    Watching the resources drain is tops in the worse column. Which is why I’m grumpy.

  5. 5.

    geg6

    As of yesterday, I’m off work until 1/6. All presents are bought and most of them are wrapped, so food is now my concentration. Made a seafood marinara with fennel, tomatoes, mussels and shrimp with spaghetti for dinner tonight. Tomorrow is Korean meatballs, green onions, red onion, spinach and brown rice. Monday will be takeout as I’ll be spending the afternoon at my sister’s for a get together with a few girlfriends, meaning tapas and wine and gifts. Christmas Eve will be grilled pork chops with a cherry sauce, grilled polenta and arugula and spinach salad. I’m making a sour cream coffee cake for Christmas breakfast and my contribution to the family Christmas dinner will be loaded mashed potatoes. Whew! But I really am excited to be spending time being creative in the kitchen. It’s so hard to do when I’m working. We end up eating whatever is quickest to prepare and it gets monotonous. I really do love to cook and especially so when it’s not a chore.

  6. 6.

    Mainmata

    The cookies look like the kind of clumpy extra delicious kind that you want to dive into. You should write down your recipes and post them to Epicurious or Serious Eats at least.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    Crazy weather for the holidays.  It’s going to be in the 50s for the next week.  I like it, but a dusting of snow for Christmas morning would be nice.  The pups got new sweaters for Christmas but won’t need them!  Bah humbug!

  10. 10.

    Jager

    Honey baked chicken breasts, baked potatoes, English peas heritage tomato salad. Grandma’s fudge for dessert and too much wine.

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    No big Christmas plans. Brother-in-law and kids left for Brazil today. Dr. Bro’ Man has to work and is on call Christmas Day, I think. Then he leaves for Brazil next Friday. We’ll have a small dinner on Christmas Day, maybe with a couple of friends who are at loose ends.

    I’ve already delivered what few presents I bought. Will take wine to some friends’ Christmas Eve get-together. That’s about it. Might try to see the Star Wars movie before I get buried in spoilers.

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    Going to my sister’s for Christmas eve.  Ham, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mac n cheese.  And definitely plenty of desserts.  Brother-in-law’s family’s coming in from the burbs.

    I’m roasting a pot tomorrow for myself, so I don’t waste away.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    * DVR Alert *

    Reminder that TCM is showing Gold Diggers of 1933 at 6:30 a.m. EST Sunday. Preceded by another great movie, My Brilliant Career, at 4:45.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    While there are other versions incorporating additional spices and flavors, this pared down version turns out a yummy, chewy Pepparkakor (tangy ginger snap).

    1 cup sugar
    1 cup butter
    1 cup molasses
    1 tsp. baking soda
    1 tsp. salt
    1Tbl. ground ginger
    ½ tsp. black pepper
    3½ cups sifted flour
    Extra sugar for dipping

    Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
    Mix molasses into that very well.
    Mix soda, salt, ginger, pepper, flour together, add to the above and mix very well.
    Chill dough so it is easier to handle, then form into balls the size of large marbles.
    Dip each ball into the reserved sugar, then place about 1½ apart on greased baking sheet or baking mat.
    Bake at 350 for 12 to 15 minutes (until just getting lightly browned on bottom). There will probably be a pattern of small cracks on the top – this is normal. Remove from oven, let cool on baking sheet for a minute or two, then carefully transfer to wire rack (cookies will still be limp and flexible at this point) to finish cooling.
    Makes around 6 dozen, plus or minus. They will keep well in a sealed bag or container for weeks, in the fridge for even longer.

    If prefer a bit more ‘snap,’ up the pepper and the ginger a skootch. Traditional recipe calls for light molasses, however dark molasses will also do just fine.

  19. 19.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    I have finished my food Christmas gifts, unless I decide to make something for the neighbors who give my husband fresh-laid eggs (I will). I’ve been wanting to share this recipe for merlot cranberry sauce for ages, and this seems like a good time. I got it ages ago at GOS, and everyone loves it, so here goes:
    MERLOT CRANBERRY SAUCE
    by Derelict Dog
    Wed Nov 23, 2005 at 08:43:20 PM PDT
    Ok, I posted this on an open thread but just in case those who asked for the recipe didn’t
    see it there, well, here it is.  And frankly I don’t care if it’s “off topic” because, well, these
    cranberries are so damn good!  
    1 – 12oz bag cranberries
    1-1/2 Cup Merlot
    1-1/4 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
    1/3 Cup minced crystallized ginger
    1 Tbsp. grated orange peel
    1/2 tsp. cinnamon
    1/4 tsp. cloves
    Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to medium &
    cook until liquid is medium thick syrup and sauce is reduced to 2-2/3 cup (about 12
    minutes).
    Serve liberally.
    Don’t serve to arch-conservatives, as it would be wasted like pearls before swine…

  20. 20.

    HRA

    I have become the dessert lady for all family celebrations and holidays. I will be making Cannoli Choux Pastry, New York Style Italian Cheesecake and Baklava.

    Christmas is at 3rd granddaughter’s new house. Immediate family is 27. There will be pasta (2 other grand daughters are making the sauce) and Baked ham with all the sides.

    Tomorrow I will be wrapping 27 gifts.

  21. 21.

    sab

    Stuff bought, mostly Frozen princess stuff for autistic grand-daughter. Her big sister picked out great stuff for the little one, but refused to get stuff for herself. That is who she is. Drives me nuts.

    So tomorrow baking cookies and pies all day. TaMara gave me a couple of recipes that were the same as beloved Christmas recipes that I had lost when we wound up my mothers house. Thanks TaMara. You have no idea how heartsick I was, but your recipes taste just like Mom’s. Yay. When Mom first got married, she was on an Airforce base in Texas. She was fro Ohio. Her mother was fro Wisconsin. Her grandmother was Canadian, from Ontario.

    My mother, the new bride, didn’t have a stuffing recipe. She was an officer’s wife. She asked the colonel’s (Canadian) wife. Turns out her recipe was exactly the same as the family recipe that mom didn’t have.

  22. 22.

    Gvg

    I have been ordering garden catalogs. I find reading them and circling far more interesting plants than I can afford or find room for to be soothing. I expect to need soothing in the months ahead. Weather has been nice today but I still haven’t totally recovered from some sort of cold/flu thing so I rested. I have been in this house almost a year and I decided I am tired of borrowing my mother’s catalogs. I want my own stuffed mailbox to mark up and plan dreams.

  23. 23.

    cmorenc

    Christmas season for me so far has veered wildly from very joyful to very stressful and back, both for reasons having to do with immediate family.

  24. 24.

    sab

    @Kay (not the front-pager): I live in NE Ohio, in apple country. Made some pies, and lots of applesauce. Good on it’s own, and also makes cranberry sauce palatable.

    Still have lots of apples left. Made a pie. Nobody wants.They want applesauce. Bunch of healthnuts ( growl grumble grumble.)

  27. 27.

    Ruckus

    @hells littlest angel:

    A double wide museum.

    How eloquent and tasteful.

    Not.

    How appropriate and fitting.

    A fourth rate asshole with nothing to show for his entire life except that he’s worse than useless, he’s a broke ass rich kid with massive personality issues.

  29. 29.

    West of the Rockies

    I’m making a vegan cake for my girlfriend’s son.  I read you can replace the eggs with a can of Coke or Pepsi.  Anyone tried this yet?  Does it work?

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    Xmas plans?

    Family all gone, cousins all over the country, it’s a holiday so no work, I think I’ll sit around and do nothing important at all. IOW another normal day in the life of the youngest now geezer in the famdamnly.

  32. 32.

    SectionH

    We’ve been (very) low-key celebrating the Solstice – let the light come back! in this half of the planet – which seems more metty-phorical than usual for reasons – and let a lot more cool temps and more wet for everyone who needs that on the other half.

  34. 34.

    ThresherK

    @Gvg: This reminds me of “The Egg and I” wherein our farmwife, out in the rainy Northwest winter, at the turn of the last century, gazed at seed catalogs almost like they were pr0nographic in terms of promise and fantasy.

  35. 35.

    ruemara

    @Steeplejack (phone): Golddiggers. I’m a Busby fan.

     

    @West of the Rockies:  Don’t know about that one. I’ve used crushed bananas, applesauce and the flaxseed ratio. That’s 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to 3 tablespoons of water, let thicken for about a half hour and that’s 1 egg replacement.

  38. 38.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    Christmas is lean this year because money is tight. I’m celebrating with the kiddos on the Eve and spending the Day alone. Will binge watch the new season of The Expanse. Might splurge and cook something that reminds me of home, something the kids wouldn’t eat if their life depended on it, like chicken and dumplings.

    Update on my personal situation… ex is still in jail but strangely enough he has his Preliminary Hearing early morning of the 24th.  If he pleads guilty and gets prison it will be one of the best presents I have ever received.  Fingers crossed!

  47. 47.

    chopper

    just finished up the yearly chanukah party. somewhere around 80 people. fried so much chicken, oy i need a nap.

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    Welp…looks like I have no internet until at least Tuesday afternoon. Tech said it was a line issue but I’m wondering if the modem just died. Gonna have to hot spot it for a few days. Luckily I pay for unlimited data so I’m good on that regard.

    Making some sugar cookie dough to take to the ranch tomorrow. Don’t know how I’m going to do all the things and get a nap in tomorrow. Ah well I’ll figure it all out.

    @chopper: I cheated a bit. Instead of waiting until tomorrow I had a latke on Wednesday. The craving was over 9000!

    !חַג חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ

  54. 54.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Gvg: that sounds like me with the yarn catalogs and websites.  I keep on telling myself that I don’t need to sign up for a knitting needles and notions club, as I only have one set of hands to use them…

  55. 55.

    frosty

    @SectionH: We’ve been (very) low-key celebrating the Solstice…

    We were medium-low key. I did my usual, get some champagne and light a fire. Somehow I always surprise Ms. F when I toast the Solstice and tell her we’ll have more light tomorrow.

    I consider today to be a bigger deal than Christmas or New Year’s since this is the one that starts to pull us out of the darkness of SAD. It’s the best we can do ’til we hitch up the trailer and head south in February.

  60. 60.

    SectionH

    @frosty: It’s the reason for the season, innit For REALZ?

    You’re spot-on about almost everything. This afternoob, we did buy 2 bottles of cheap Fizzy (TJ’s Blanc de Blancs, snobs can FRO – I have quite a lot opinions about many fancier fizzy white wines There are a few I srsly do adore, P-H and P-J come to mind. Krug doesn’t.)

    I timed the countdown so we finished the first bottle as the season ticked over, and then we opened the new bottle. Sounds silly, but it worked.

    We used to have Major dinner parties for the Solstice. Mr S (my Chef) produced my idea – the 3 everythings for courses: 3 starters, 3 soups, 3 veggies, 3 meat things. Yes, small amounts and I’m sure other ppl did the idea too, but it was absolutely original on our part.

    Our friends – who, don’t worry, knew more than most food writers could imagine – were actually impressed. James always said the best food  in LEX was in our house. Well, doh!

  61. 61.

    Zinsky

    Eddie Murphy was hilarious on SNL!  Isn’t it interesting how there are so few conservative comedians?  They had that asshole turncoat from SNL, Dennis Miller, but he seems to have dropped off the face of the earth!  But he was never really funny and always had this smug, self-satisfied smirk on his face that was extremely unappealing.   As Trump proves daily – Conservatives just aren’t funny!

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @Yarrow: I haven’t heard anything about Eddie Murphy for years? Has he been doing comedy instead of movies?  Or do I need to get out more?

  64. 64.

    Ixnay

    Has anyone cooked with Bacalhau? Portuguese salt cod. Dr. Ms. Ixnay and I bought some back from the Azores along with their soft cheese (it was a breakfast staple all week- the cheese, of course) There is a dish served on xmas eve and good fri called Bacalhau do Natal, salt cod of xmas. Many of the recipes are variations on potato, onion, cod, olives, hard cooked eggs done up in a casserole layered like a lasagna. I’ll likely improv on that, but glad to listen to other ideas.  Felice do Natal.

  65. 65.

    cain

    Best of luck in your job search, ruemara!! I feel your pain, I’ve been out of work almost every summer. I hope I have a forever home. We’ll see.

  67. 67.

    ruemara

    @Ixnay:  that’s the saltfish we use for ackee. Takes a lot of soaking. You can also make codfish cakes with them.

    @rikyrah:  Yeah, they’re on my list to get to this weekend.

  68. 68.

    J R in WV

    @Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ: 

    ex is still in jail but strangely enough he has his Preliminary Hearing early morning of the 24th.

    I knew you helped put him in jail, and helped the police get a taped confession… but I never knew what the charges may turn out to be.

    Best wishes for you as far as him going away for long enough for you to get your feet arranged under yourself to do whatever needs doing — and if that means moving 2000 miles away while he’s in stir, well — if we can do it for a cat, we can surely do it with you. Felice Navidad!

  69. 69.

    Ixnay

    @ruemara: Thank you. Next step is to find canned Ackee in the great state of Maine. I suppose it would  be fine in finnan haddee, but we’ve done that. I may just add more hot peppers to the bacalhau do natal.

  70. 70.

    AJ

    @ruemara: Not sure if too late to ask things in this thread, but are you playing Classic Wow or retail? I’ve had several relapses prompted by this blog, notably for Cata and Legion.

    Tried Classic and as I usually do, go way over-involved and quit after realizing that it was becoming the dominant structure in my life. (Self-employment, living alone, ADHD, and WoW are not a great mix for me.)

  71. 71.

    ruemara

    @Ixnay: I get mine from Amazon.

     

     

    @AJ: regular, not Classic. I parked my toon in Classic & then realized I couldn’t stand having no flight. I can understand what you mean. I use WoW to de-stress but the rule is chores first or no play.

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