Gold in the grey of morning.

nature, poetry, , ,

GETTING UP EARLY

Just as the night was fading
Into the dusk of morning
When the air was cool as water
When the town was quiet
And I could hear the sea

I caught sight of the moon
No higher than the rooftops
Our neighbor the moon

An hour before the sunrise
She glowed with her own sunrise
Gold in the grey of morning

World without town or forest
Without wars or sorrows
She paused between two trees

And it was as if in secret
Not wanting to be seen
She chose to visit us
So early in the morning.

-Anne Porter

Asgrimur Jonsson, Moonlight Reykjavík, 1909

 

The Burlington House Cartoon

art, saints, , , , , ,
The Virgin and Child with St Anne and John the Baptist – Leonardo Da Vinci, 1499/1500

All I know about this drawing of “The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and John the Baptist” I learned from George Bothamley, who posted the picture on his site Art Every Day. He tells us that it is the largest drawing we have from Leonardo Da Vinci, and we don’t know if he ever completed a painting based on it. On second thought, I do know something that Bothamley couldn’t teach me, just by looking at it with my own eyes and being captivated by the image, which to me is full of joy.

Bothamley explains that the cartoon is “Widely known as ‘The Burlington House Cartoon’ due to it once being the most prominent artwork in the collection in Burlington House at London’s Royal Academy.”

You can read the rest of what he said about it: here.

Be still, sad heart!

poetry, weather, , ,

THE RAINY DAY

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Remembering rescues, planning for success.

Christmas, food and cooking, , ,

This morning my daughters and I were chatting online about cookies, and sharing pictures or files of recipes, for the sake of one daughter who asked for one with simple ingredients, to fill out a cookie platter. It was a lot of fun to stir up memories together of Cookies We Have Loved, without having to mess up the kitchen.

I may yet make a mess with cookie dough in there. One key to getting cookies made is to put the sticks of butter out to soften overnight; then there’s a gentle pressure to use it as soon as possible the next day — or at least, to mix up the dough, which might be baked a different day. What I shouldn’t do is try to cook the whole day long, and be on my feet doing it.

Many of you know how I often try to rescue failed kitchen projects, sometimes making unique treats from cookie disasters. This story I wrote about that more than ten years ago is a funny example. But it’s also kind of sad, because of not being able to repeat the successful rescues. But with cookies, one has to enjoy memories in any case, because we can’t just go on eating a new one, can we??

From twelve years ago:

At the beginning of November I had a cookie craving, and it occurred to me that I might as well make one of our favorite kinds of Christmas cookies; I could eat a few and freeze most of them, and be ahead of the to-do list. Our family’s holiday traditions include platters piled with various kinds of cookies, most of which won’t be seen again until the next Christmas. For this first session of baking I chose the soft Ginger Spice Cookies that feature an intoxicating combination of spices and diced candied ginger as well.

 Something went wrong, or maybe a few things. I had made a note on the recipe card suggesting that I cut the sugar back another 1/4 cup from the previous alteration, because, “they are plenty sweet.” I am reminded of the story about the farmer who discovered he could add some sawdust to his horse’s feed and save money that way. He kept adding more and more sawdust and the horse seemed to do fine with it, until one day it died.

The recipe must have been just about perfect before I changed it just a little, and then the cookies came out terrible. Was it only the lack of sweetness that made them taste strongly of baking soda with pockets of overwhelming clove flavor? Or perhaps I hadn’t mixed the dough enough? I thought I would have to throw them out.

But wait – couldn’t they be used for something? If I dried them in the oven, and ground them finely in the food processor, I could use them as the basis for different cookies….so I tried just that. To the fine crumbs I added a cube of butter, an egg, and extra sugar and flour. A little more ground ginger and a tiny bit of cardamom. Then instead of dropping the dough by teaspoonfuls I chilled and rolled it, into trees. Now we have crisp gingerbread cookies that surprise the eater with an occasional tiny piece of candied ginger, and that warm your mouth with an even more complex and winning flavor. Alas, never to be duplicated.

This made me brave enough to tackle the other failed cookie product that had been sitting in the freezer for awhile, since the time I made some Russian Tea Cakes but only put in half as much flour as they needed. The buttery, pecan-studded cookie crumbs I had stuck in a jar in the freezer, being unwilling at the time to give up on them.

Now I dug them out and experimented in a similar way, adding an egg, sugar, flour, baking powder and lemon zest. I tried to roll this dough, too, but it would not hold together, so I shaped disks and stuck a pecan half on each one. Behold! Another new and non-repeatable Glad Christmas cookie, which the man of the house has tasted and approved. I do hope nonetheless that I can avoid making a yearly tradition of the Cookie Rescue.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Back to December of 2024… Here (pictured above) is a cookie from the New York Times cooks that I’d like to try making this year: Ginger Cheesecake Cookies

If this one were to flop somehow, I think I would save the pieces to use in a trifle — Haha! Don’t believe it. I have done that before, and have I ever made a trifle of those tidbits? No, I just snack on them until they are gone… So, let’s hope they work out as intact cookies. I promise not to cut back on the sugar very much.

I could have got halfway through a cookie recipe in the time I’ve spent thinking about cookies this afternoon. But no, my butter wasn’t soft. So I’ll take a couple of sticks out of the refrigerator right now, and who knows… maybe tonight….


Hoping your Christmas preparations are peaceful.
I love seeing everyone’s plans and decorations.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!