dual personalities

This week I had the urge to cook. I started by making cranberry-pear chutney (i.e., cranberry sauce) from a recipe that my son’s fiancée shared with me. Though I halved the recipe, I still ended up with a vast quantity of sauce. I hope it freezes well. Then I tried my hand at making baguettes from scratch (okay, the bread machine mixed the dough but I did the rest), so we could eat the chutney with brie and bread. Although my bread did achieve a hard crust, the end shape was all wrong and the interior texture lacked the requisite air pockets (but I felt it wasn’t bad for a first effort).

Finally, I made this meatloaf recipe from Bon Apetite. The glaze is very nice, but if I make the meatloaf again, I will reduce the amount of breadcrumbs and broth and probably skip the bacon. I love bacon, but on meatloaf it just tends to add grease. So much for my efforts to amuse myself in the kitchen.

I spent the rest of my week reading Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K. Rowling’s) 5th Cormoran Strike book which clocked in at a wildly bloated 945 pages! Will someone please assign Ms. Rowling a good editor?

I felt as if I were living the detection process in real time — and that is not a compliment. No reader needs to suffer through every interview, follow every lead, and be privy to every incidental conversation and cup of coffee. In addition to the main case, Rowling includes several minor side-cases, thus adding to the already excessive character list. On the plus-side, her two main characters remain appealing and consistent, albeit still mired in the same old family problems and will-they, won’t-they romantic tension. In that respect, the books are like a TV show that relies on the unfulfilled attraction between the main characters to keep its audience. Five books is a long time — too long IMHO — to keep such tension going. Ok, I’ll stop.

That’s about it for my week’s activities. I’m trying to get into the Christmas spirit but it is eluding me (you can tell by my grumpy book review). Echoing my DP and her daughters, I think I need to get back to fundamentals. I plan to return to the Bible and to the classic carols. Let’s start with Christina Rosetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” which seems especially appropriate for 2020:

In the bleak mid-winter
  Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
  Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
  Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
  Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
  Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
  When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
  A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
  Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels
  May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
  Thronged the air,
But His mother only
 In her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the Beloved
  With a kiss.

What can I give Him,
  Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
  I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
  I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
  Give my heart.

I have always loved that poem/carol. It’s a good place to start.

Have a superb week filled with gratitude and joy!