Dear Readers, those of you who are up to date on the last week's posts, will remember she recently found a charming gift to give to three children.
She had been invited by the daughter of old friends, recently returned after living in Kenya for 27 years, to join them. When she planned to give the children their gift and salami to the adults..
Having not yet been told where they were to meet and at what time, she telephoned at 10.15 the day before to ask where to meet them the following day.
To be told, "I can't talk now, I'm frying eggs, I'll call you in ten minutes".
Ten minutes came and went.. in fact.. many hours did.. she spent a busy day getting stuff delivered to neighbours and local friends.
At many minutes past seven of the evening clock, the daughter telephoned and she was dis-invited, for the daughter had been invited to a fancy luncheon party and had accepted.
You have to laugh, don't you? Well, she did.
Then remembered that the year she had been sent two rolls of beautiful ribbon from the Little Printed Ribbon Co as a Christmas gift, she had not bothered to say "Thank you".. I lie.. she sent an email.. a month later...
The next day you know about, it was the day she went to Streatham to have lunch with Susan, forgot the lunch and relearnt how to make Danish Cookies.
On the morning of the 30th, she went out to buy our yumyum for New Year's Eve and bought, not knowing exactly why, a lot of things that I can only describe as ingredients for baking.
Then she went out to catch a bus to deliver a gift to a friend who had been away for Christmas.
She had been invited by the daughter of old friends, recently returned after living in Kenya for 27 years, to join them. When she planned to give the children their gift and salami to the adults..
Having not yet been told where they were to meet and at what time, she telephoned at 10.15 the day before to ask where to meet them the following day.
To be told, "I can't talk now, I'm frying eggs, I'll call you in ten minutes".
Ten minutes came and went.. in fact.. many hours did.. she spent a busy day getting stuff delivered to neighbours and local friends.
At many minutes past seven of the evening clock, the daughter telephoned and she was dis-invited, for the daughter had been invited to a fancy luncheon party and had accepted.
You have to laugh, don't you? Well, she did.
Then remembered that the year she had been sent two rolls of beautiful ribbon from the Little Printed Ribbon Co as a Christmas gift, she had not bothered to say "Thank you".. I lie.. she sent an email.. a month later...
On the afternoon of the 28th, she had been invited to tea by a glorious (in every sense of the word) Lebanese friend and her family who were staying for the holidays.
She took a 'White Sausage' with her, her hostess did not want to eat a savoury salami at tea time but she insisted, so her friend sniffed the sausage and roared with laughter as she realised it was not at all what it appeared to be!
Booof.. she smacked her hand and laughed, then cut generous slices to the sound of her family laughing at their mama's mistake!
"Oooo, this is so delicious" said our kind and lovely friend.
She took a 'White Sausage' with her, her hostess did not want to eat a savoury salami at tea time but she insisted, so her friend sniffed the sausage and roared with laughter as she realised it was not at all what it appeared to be!
Booof.. she smacked her hand and laughed, then cut generous slices to the sound of her family laughing at their mama's mistake!
"Oooo, this is so delicious" said our kind and lovely friend.
The next day you know about, it was the day she went to Streatham to have lunch with Susan, forgot the lunch and relearnt how to make Danish Cookies.
On the morning of the 30th, she went out to buy our yumyum for New Year's Eve and bought, not knowing exactly why, a lot of things that I can only describe as ingredients for baking.
Then she went out to catch a bus to deliver a gift to a friend who had been away for Christmas.
Walking home, she received a call from her Lebanese friend.. it went as follows..
"Hello darling, where are you, what do you have in your freezer, do you have more 'sausages' or any other yumyum? Because I have said I will take sweet things to a very fancy New Year's Eve party and I'd much rather take your things than go to Laduree where EVERYONE goes".
She replied "I can make what you want, I have lots of butter, sugar, nuts etc, how much do you need?"
"Make masses of everything my angel, for what I
don't give to Doris, I will give to my hostess on January 1st, but don't you have any Crystallised Ginger for me, because I will take all you have" was her friend's response.
don't give to Doris, I will give to my hostess on January 1st, but don't you have any Crystallised Ginger for me, because I will take all you have" was her friend's response.
So now you know what she was doing late into the night on the night before New Year's Eve, for after you have made these both these doughs, they have to chill for a good length before you use them.
The Ginger was put into a ziploc bag and tucked into a box, then using some very treasured, old American ribbon, she tied a pretty bow, put the box in a cool spot and we went to bed.
We were up early and in YumYum HQ. Breaking
our fast is something we do together and then I
was banished to the top of the door.
our fast is something we do together and then I
was banished to the top of the door.
She washed the work surface, dried it thoroughly and liberally covered it and her hands in Icing Sugar.. now the magic would commence!
Two tablespoons make a 'sausage', they were both, the dark and the light, chocolate rolled in the icing sugar, it helps them dry and adds to their appearance. Then they were laid to chill in the fridge on a metal sheet.
She measured and cut lots and lots of lengths of red tissue paper and decorative foil paper and wrapped the 'sausages' up to look just like crackers!
Back into the fridge they went. And she started on the Danish Cookies. One kilo of plain and one kilo of dark chocolate.. lordy lordy.. what a lot of tiny cookies there were!
What a good thing she has lots of those drying racks, for cookies have to be taken off their baking tray before they can harden.
They were allowed to cool whilst we had a mini snacket, then they were laid, most carefully in layers into eight pretty Tartan boxes!
How lucky was that! A.. to have the boxes and B.. that each box took 250gms of Danish Cookies.
Ribboned up, and placed very carefully into a large basket, she walked her goodies up the road and was greeted with a huge hug.
"Do let me see, what! Oh, they look wonderful, they are absolutely perfect my darling friend, oh Doris will be thrilled, thank you so very, very much".
See how plans can change.. for the childrens' gift box is on its' way to Paris.
Her friend has an enchanting pair of six year old twin grand-daughters and they were thrilled with their gift from the Cookie Maker.
Her friend has an enchanting pair of six year old twin grand-daughters and they were thrilled with their gift from the Cookie Maker.
GeeGee Parrot.
January 1st, 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment