It is Sunday night already and the weekend is gone. How swiftly the days are galloping by! My friends from the Frozen North (aka Scotland) were down for the weekend, and they came round last night, together with other mutual friends from the village - all very last minute, of course, but just great. I tossed some canapes onto the table with bread and cheeses, and called it supper. And mince pies and cream too.
But the cream, oh my heavens what a mess I made of it. I have whipped cream 49937236272894847558 times in my life. At least. But I have never used my whizzer thingy to do it before. People, I made butter. In 10.4 seconds. My whizzer is powerful. So I wailed, and Ros came to the kitchen and after wiping the tears of laughter from our eyes, we popped in some random capfuls of brandy and sprinkled in icing sugar, and called it brandy cream. You can buy this at the supermarket, of course, and brandy butter, both of which you serve with mince pies or Christmas pudding, which is a steamed fruit pudding. Me? I unintentionally made the home-made version. And it is even more delicious today after sitting in the fridge for 24 hours.
So it was a fun evening catching up in person. Phone calls are wonderful, but real life is even more wonderful. Time just goes by too fast though. I want to stretch it out some more. And today I have been finishing off some embroidery for my friends, and pottering, delivering parcels to other friends, and making coffee.
That sounds blissful. However, my embroidery machine has been working too hard in recent months, and today, on the last 2 pieces I needed to do, it sort of went on strike, and after much muttering, changing of needles, re threading, changing bobbins, and varying the weight of the fabric, I managed to finish off the labels. Not perfect, but passable, and I am very fussy when I make things. Sigh. I think it needs a service maybe. I wish I knew how to do it myself.
Yesterday afternoon, another friend popped in for coffee and a catch up too, and together, we managed to put the obscure film on the window in the front door. A little more privacy was the aim. And it was most certainly a 2 person job. That was not quite as simple as it looks either, but it is up, so that can be crossed off the list. The list I deleted.
Sometimes, having lists just reminds me of my failures - what I have not managed to achieve. Not managed to do. Targets I have failed to meet. And sometimes, as I said in my last post, it is wiser to just delete the list and start again, possibly with something more reasonable. I set high targets for myself. That is why I am such a dismal failure at pacing myself.
But this has been a lovely weekend. My Christmas quilt will be finished either tonight or tomorrow, and I am so thrilled it will be ready for Christmas. However, the most beautiful part of the weekend has been the people who populated it. And the memories made. Christmas is drawing near, and I will not get into a stew about anything. I have decided. What gets done is done and will be more than sufficient. And there is going to be time to rest and keep the essence of Christmas at the forefront of my mind.
The greatest gift of all is celebrating His birthday, after all.
6 comments:
I've done that before with the cream. If you go off into a daydream while you're whipping it, before you know it it's concrete. Still tastes very, very good, though.
Brandy butter cream. Genius!
I love your posts, my friend. The make my heart soften and relax. I want to live near you to sit y the fire and talk, and decompress.
For years whipping cream terrified me because the first attempt turned into butter. I wish I had thought of the brandy cream. I added powdered sugar and made a hard sauce with mine. Guess we all need to do it once.
It sounds like the weekend was delightful. There is nothing like sharing time with good friends.
Enjoy the upcoming week.
It had to have been wonderful because just the reading of it has me smiling. I'm imagining, too, how delicious the butter is. I've never tried that before, but may have to give it a whirl.
So, so true, Linds - He is why we celebrate! I have many things I want to do but all of it pales when I remember what this is all about. What I get finished will be enjoyed and what doesn't will go on the list for next year :) Brandy cream - yum!! So glad to hear you were surrounded with friends and had a lovely weekend. Have a lovely week!
Post a Comment