with Mary Anne Mohanraj
Made rosewater Turkish delight! I’ve never made it before, but I wanted to try for the winter Patreon boxes, “Narnia in Love” theme. Fresh Turkish delight is soft and slightly chewy and melts in your mouth; I thought these were delicious. The lemon balances the sweetness beautifully.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/turkish-delight-521388
It was bizarrely warm yesterday — tank top and shorts weather! So I walked over to Carnivore Oak Park, reveling in the warmth, and picked up some food for the grill.
A lovely skirt steak for Kevin and Kavi, cheddarwurst sausage for the kids to try (they liked them!). I already had the shrimp on hand, but if I hadn’t, I would have picked some up there too. (The shrimp is for me, since Kev doesn’t like seafood — I got the kids to try one each, but they had texture issues. Ah well.)
Added in some bell pepper and carrot and hummus, some apple and pear and cheddar, and we were all set. (Maybe a little white wine for mama too…)
Such an easy, tasty dinner — I know it’s going to snow this week, but I am really really ready to be grilling again on the regular!
(30 minutes + 1 hr chilling time, makes 35-40)
4 T salted butter
3 c. white chocolate chips
1/2 c. heavy cream
1 T rosewater
pink food coloring
¼ cup shelled pistachios, dry roasted and chopped fine
1 t. rose petals, chopped fine
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter, white chocolate and heavy cream on low heat, stirring, until smooth.
2. Remove from heat and stir in rosewater and food coloring.
3. Chill in fridge for at least 1 hr (overnight is fine).
4. Scoop out teaspoons of ganaches onto a clean plate or cutting board. Roll them between your clean hands into smooth round balls. No need to make them perfectly round! A little irregularity is charming.
5. Roll them in chopped pistachios and rose petals. Chill until ready to serve.
One of the things I’m hoping to do in this coming year is get real help with my e-mail. It’s tricky, because e-mail is so varied, and it’s not easy for people to know what to answer for mine. Emmanuel Henderson and I have a plan — we’re going to spend an hour a few days / week for the next month just doing it together, and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to figure out how he can at least handle some of it, so I’m not so behind all the time.
I was reading an article recently about productivity and e-mail, and one thing they pointed out that e-mail is TERRIBLE in terms of switching cost — you’re bouncing from one project to another with each new e-mail, and you can’t go deep, so it ends up taking much more time and mental energy than it would if it were bunched.
I want to get back to using Boomerang for Gmail more efficiently. I’m not quite sure the right approach, but maybe something like this:
– I already have Serendib House work concentrated on Tuesdays, SLF work on Thursdays this semester. Teaching MWF.
– Given that, I could have Emmanuel go through the last hundred messages and simply boomerang everything academic to come back on Monday, everything Serendib to come back on Tuesday, and everything SLF to come back on Thursday.
I feel a little nervous about doing that, because what if there’s something urgent that needs a quicker response? But he’s smart, I should just trust him to flag things that are urgent, right? He should just boomerang away things that can wait a week.
Given that once you get past the last 50 or so messages in my inbox, you’re looking at things that have generally been waiting a lot more than a week, I probably should just accept that almost anything would be an improvement. (I have close to 900 needs-response messages in my e-mail currently. Sigh.)
Thinking out loud, mostly. But hey, while I’m here, I’ll note that the cayenne & dark chocolate roses for the treat boxes look very pretty with edible red paint (which also signals danger! beautiful danger! useful for cayenne!), and thanks to Emmanuel for the suggestion!
Stephanie Bailey, can you add these “Spicy Red Rose Dark Chocolates” to the Serendib confection listings? Same pricing as the dragonfruit nebulae chocolates.
Gosh, see, my mind just goes in every direction at once. Dealing with e-mail exacerbates the issue. Squirrel!
Must keep focus on goal — hand off / restructure as much as possible, so there is more focused time for Mary Anne to write. Books to finish! So many books!
I needed four crowns in the box, of course. Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy.
“Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia. May your wisdom grace us until the stars rain down from the heavens.”
They are so pretty. And not fancy, actually — it’s just white chocolate, milk chocolate, ruby chocolate, dark chocolate; I didn’t add any flavorings to these. The Callebaut chocolate is so tasty, just as it is. And they look so charming all together. Molds are magic.
I tried gilding them, but they actually looked better without!
These are for my Narnia-themed treat boxes. I wish I’d had these for Kavi’s 5th birthday princess party; they would’ve been perfect. Ah well! I’m sure there will be another princess party in my future at some point…
Quiet day — mostly did computer work, but in between, futzed around with little chocolates and yarn hearts for the upper tier treat boxes (“Narnia in love” theme: remember, he’s not a TAME lion…). I was excessively pleased with myself for managing to find a WARDROBE mold.
I mean, come on, people! Those are some serious Etsy shopping skills you’re looking at. Of course, now I need an excuse to throw a Narnia birthday party so I have a reason to use it again…I’m not sure what else you would do with a wardrobe mold!
Jed and I watched a fun rom-com while I was crocheting, Broken Hearts Gallery. Came out in 2020, so it may have skipped theatrical release? It was a little hard for me to empathize with the 20-somethings (they’re SO YOUNG), but there were lots of cute / funny moments, and the lead, Geraldine Vishwanathan (half-Tamil!) was adorable.
I could totally see her as Maya in my Liminal Space novel, if it was ever made into a movie. 
Summer project — seeing if the novel would work as a screenplay…
(30 minutes, plus cooling time, makes 16 mini scones)
In Sri Lanka, strawberries are an introduced horticultural crop, very popular in the hill country. I have fond memories of eating fabulous strawberries from roadside stands near Nuwara Eliya. Sri Lankans enjoy strawberries fresh, in milkshakes, cooked down into jam, whipped into a refreshing fool, or made into ice cream.
A hint of ginger adds subtle complexity to these lovely fresh strawberry scones. Made with plenty of butter and cream, they’re a delectable indulgence.
In many baked goods, you can substitute frozen fruit for fresh successfully, but I wouldn’t recommend that here — frozen strawberries will give off too much liquid. Look for fresh, ripe strawberries — the best for eating will also be the best in your scones. My children don’t like crystallized ginger, so when baking for them, I leave it out.
2 T sugar
½ t. vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray mini scone pan with Baker’s Joy (or butter and flour pan, which will be kind of a pain).
(If you don’t have a mini scone pan, you can cut and shape these by hand, and bake on a regular baking sheet, placing them quite close together. If you pop them in the freezer for 30 minute before baking, they’ll hold shape better.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and ground ginger.
3. Chop butter in small pieces and cut into flour with a pastry cutter (or with your fingers) until mixture resembles coarse meal. (It’s fine to have small lumps.)
4. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 c. heavy cream and the vanilla extract. Pour liquid ingredients over flour mixture; stir with a spatula until dough begins to form. Don’t overmix. Gently stir in chopped crystallized ginger, if using, and chopped fresh strawberries.
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times. Cut into 16 equal pieces and press into the cavities of the pan. Use a pastry brush to brush the tops of the scones with the additional T of heavy cream. Sprinkle with 2 T sugar.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool 20 minutes in pan, then remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely.
7. I don’t think these scones need a sweet glaze, but some people love a little extra sweetness. And it does look pretty. If you’d like to glaze, make it while the scones are cooling. In a small bowl, whisk the confectioners’ sugar, milk, and vanilla together until smooth. Drizzle glaze generously over completely cooled scones.
Serve warm or room temperature, with additional fresh strawberries if possible. Can be split and served with butter or clotted cream, and jam, if you like, though when freshly baked, I don’t think these scones need anything else!
Whoops, I meant to post this yesterday — well, since I didn’t, I’m going to extend the deadline to midnight today, to sign up for the Winter Patreon boxes — that’s 75% off your first box!
I haven’t finalized everything that’ll be in the boxes (shipping by end of February, fingers crossed), but so far, I know that all tiers will receive the following:
Link in comments! Sign up for the lowest tier at $10 / month, cancel anytime.
(If you sign up after today, you’ll be looking at a Spring box for your first one, likely shipping a little early, in April, to try to beat the heat.)
Just a few more pics from last night’s sweet-making. I realized I didn’t post a recipe, so here it is:
1) Melt 1 c. milk or dark chocolate chips in a microwave safe-bowl at low power for 2 minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals. Dip strawberries and place on parchment paper.
2) Melt 1 c. white chocolate chips in a microwave safe-bowl at low power for 2 minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals. Dip strawberries and place on parchment paper.
3) Use a fork to drizzle white chocolate over the darker chocolate, and another fork to do the reverse.
4) Be proud of yourself for making such a pretty (and relatively healthy!) dessert with so little effort. 
(Yes, you can use a double boiler instead of a microwave if you want. No, I don’t bother tempering the chocolate for this.)
