Christmas songs, of course!

I am sure that you all would be much deprived if I didn't re-post two of my best-loved Christmas songs:

• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

• In the Bleak Mid-Winter

Enjoy!

happy Advent!

Luini, Bernardino
Le sommeil de l'enfant Jesus - the sleep of the Child Jesus
Louvre, Departement des Peintures, Paris, France

happy Advent!

The Virgin and Child Embracing, Francesco de' Rossi (Sassoferrato)

from 'Sleep and Poetry'

This is a favorite excerpt from the poem Sleep and Poetry by John Keats. These lines inspire me out of everyday doldrums to see life accurately - with all the magic it possesses.

But off Despondence! miserable bane!
They should now know thee, who athirst to gain
A noble end, are thirsty every hour.
What though I am not wealthy in the dower
Of spanning wisdom; though I do not know
The shiftings of the mighty winds that blow
Hither and thither all the changing thoughts
Of man: though no great minist'ring reason sorts
Out the dark mysteries of human souls
To clear conceiving: yet there ever rolls
A vast idea before me, and I glean
Therefrom my liberty; thence too I've seen
The end and aim of Poesy.
~John Keats

quotes from 'Jill the Reckless'

'Barker!' His voice had a ring of pain.
'Sir?'
'What's this?'
'Poached egg, sir.'
Freddie averted his eyes with a silent shudder.
'It looks just like an old aunt of mine,' he said. 'Remove it.'


This woman always made Freddie feel as if he were being disemboweled by some clumsy amateur.


...the little dinner at Freddie Rooke's had not been an unqualified success. Searching the records for an adequately gloomy parallel to the taxi-cab journey to the theatre which followed it, one can only think of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. And yet even that was probably not conducted in dead silence.


If there is one thing that startles a well-bred Londoner and throws him off his balance, it it to be addressed unexpectedly by a stranger. Freddie's sense of decency was revolted. A voice from the tomb could hardly have shaken him more.


There are men who fear the repartee of a wife more keenly than a sword. Derek was one of these. Like most men of single outlook, whose dignity is their most precious possession, he winced from an edged tongue....She did not speak the words. If she had an edged tongue, she had also the control of it.


Lady Underhill, having said all she had to say, recovered her breath and begin to say it again. Frequent iteration was one of her strongest weapons.


He was fond of children, but they made the deuce of a noise and regarded jam as an external ornament.


No wonder Freddie experienced the sort of abysmal soul-sadness which afflicts one of Tolstoi's Russian peasants when, after putting in a heavy day's work strangling his father, beating his wife, and dropping the baby into the city reservoir, he turns to the cupboard, only to find the vodka-bottle empty.


He was a snub-nosed boy. His ears and hair were vermilion. His name was Ralph. He has seven hundred and forty-three pimples.


He stared again at Jill. The inspection was long and lingering and affected Jill with a sense of being inadequately clothed. She returned the gaze as defiantly as she could, but her heart was beating fast. She had never yet been frightened of any man, but there was something reptilian about this fat, yellow-haired individual which disquieted her, much as cockroaches had done in her childhood. A momentary thought flashed through her mind that it would be horrible to be touched by him. He looked soft and glutinous.


'Don't you worry, honey!' advised the well-meaning girl who would have been in her element looking in on Job with Bildad the Shuhite and his friends. 'Don't you worry!'


'I say,' said Freddie in an awed voice. 'He's a bit of a nut, that lad, what? He reminds me of the troops of Midian in the hymn. The chappies who prowled and prowled around. I'll bet he's worn a groove in the carpet like a jolly old tiger at the Zoo at feeding time. Wouldn't be surprised at any moment to look down and find him biting a piece out of my leg!'

In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse

My husband and I were talking over the radio broadcasts that P. G. Wodehouse was involved in during WWII when he made the remark that those who came to Wodehouse's defense were thinkers as well as writers, Evelyn Waugh and George Orwell. While those who criticized, strongly criticized, him were not, notably, A. A. Milne and Sean O'Casey. I recommend Orwell's essay In Defence of P. G. Wodehouse. http://theorwellprize.co.uk/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays-and-other-works/in-defence-of-p-g-wodehouse/

Easy Yogurt

Delectable Homemade Yogurt

• 2 qts (8 cups) milk (put the 2% back, you know you want the whole)

• 2 pkgs (10 g) yogurt starter (or 1/2 cup plain yogurt, such as Dannon)

1. Bring milk to boiling point, stirring occasionally if you feel like it (I never do).
2. When it looks frothy and starts to rise up it's ready to be taken off the heat (you can use a thermometer, 180F/82C).
3. Let it cool until you can put your finger into the milk and hold it there comfortably (or if you like to be precise about these things 108-112F/42-44C).
4. Place your starter or yogurt into a small cup or bowl and mix in about 1 cup of milk until well combined. Add this mixture to the rest of the milk, stir to combine.
5.  Place in a covered container or glass jar(s) until it magically becomes yogurt (about 5 hours, depending on the temp. of your kitchen). You will know when it's ready when you tilt your container and it doesn't act liquid like plain old milk anymore. Place in fridge (it will continue to thicken as it cools).

Nota bene: I have a small side oven, and I like (when the milk is a cooled and ready to go into incubation) to turn it on to 100 degrees for 2-3 minutes, turn it off (don't forget that part!), and then place the mixture into the warm, friendly environment, and shut the door till ready. If you're slightly mentally negligible like me, do yourself a favor and tape a note on the oven knob so you don't accidentally turn it on for something else and ruin your luscious yogurt. Also, don't let anybody tell you that you have to babysit this; just go about your day while it cools and incubates. (If you need to leave it to incubate overnight that's fine too, it may be a little tangier.) No micromanager required. But do keep an eye out while it's on the stove, I frequently let it boil over. :(

This is so good plain or with honey (a sprinkling of flax seed is also acceptable). The combination of yogurt and honey Has been referred to as "the food of the gods", just so you know. Now don't you feel regal.

To make Greek yogurt simply place chilled yogurt into a cheesecloth, place cheesecloth into a strainer, place strainer over a bowl (to catch the liquid called whey), and place in fridge until desired thickness is achieved (about 6 hours). See below.

Now for recipe No. 2: One of my favorite things to do with my yogurt...

Lemon Yogurt Sorbet

2 qts (32oz) plain yogurt
1/2 freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped crystallized ginger, optional
1-2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/2 cup honey
Mix everything together and freeze in an ice cream freezer (or if you don't have one, freeze in your home freezer about 3 hours, stir really well, freeze some more).

And recipe No. 3: My favorite thing to make with Greek yogurt...

Vietnamese (but really originated in France) Yogurt

3 cups plain Greek-style yogurt
9-14oz sweetened condensed milk (depending on how sweet you like it)

Whisk together. (Stir in any remaining sweetened condensed milk into iced coffee.:)) This yogurt could possibly be the best thing you have ever tasted.

Yogurt is so versatile, use it to make dips, shakes, dollops on your soup or in your fajita, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera (as King Mongkut of Siam says). 

A bit of trivia:
I always wondered why the milk must be heated, well, now I know. It is heated to kill any undesirable bacteria and to denature the milk proteins so that they set together rather than form curds. Who knew? For more interesting info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoghurt

It's just me, folks.

Is it me, or is life zooming by? I didn't want to go to sleep last night because I knew that when I woke on Saturday morning my weekend would be over before I blinked. I'm telling myself that it is just a stage in my life and it won't be this way forever, but I'm just not sure I believe me. Homeschooling this year has kept me rather busy. Ever heard of unschooling? It's a term I've run across quite a bit lately on blogs and such. If you ask me it sounds divine. My children quietly teaching themselves all sorts of cool interesting things all of their own initiative, but, come on, what's more likely is that after not long at all my offspring would resemble Jethro Bodine.

It's not just lack of time; there's also a certain key something that inspires writing that's been hard to locate since May when my mother passed away. I still have the desire to put thoughts to paper, but can't. Perhaps there's something unsettled in my spirit; she was my sweet mum after all. And perhaps it's supposed to be that way, but I have missed ye olde blog. There's something satisfying about writing (even if I have no talent in that direction): it restores the tissues.

I have also found that reading P. G. Wodehouse restores the tissues. I've been reading him nonstop since my mom got sick and he's wonderful. I've been trying to keep up with the funniest things he says HERE. My noble aim in life is to collect all of his hardback books that Overlook Press is printing. I've got about 30, so... what?... about 66 more to go?

I recently read Jill the Reckless which in a way seems to parallel Wodehouse's own life. Jill is in England, engaged to an Englishman (Derek) who is climbing the political ladder, some unforeseen circumstances bring her to America (after her fiancee breaks the engagement) where she meets up with a man (Wally) she knew as a boy in her childhood. Wally is a great comfort to Jill and understanding of her in a way that the stiffer Englishman is not. Anyway, there for a bit the suspense is on as to which of these fellows she will link up with (Derek briefly tries to win her back): the good-looking suave Englishman or the American who has a twinkle in his eye and a joke on his lips - unless is comes to defending Jill, then you'd better watch out! But of course she ends up in America just as Wodehouse did. The Englishman is not hated or even disliked, but pride makes him misunderstand circumstances and takes Jill all wrong... much like the English did with Wodehouse. Jill realizes she loves the American and, "Peace stole into Jill's heart as she watched the boats dropping slowly down the East River, which gleamed like dull steel through the haze. She had come to Journey's End, and she was happy."

I love how Wodehouse has that impressive knack for showing you a picture with words, "Mr Goble stared again at Jill. The inspection was long and lingering and affected Jill with a sense of being inadequately clothed. She returned the gaze as defiantly as she could, but her heart was beating fast. She had never yet been frightened of any man, but there was something reptilian about this fat, yellow-haired individual which disquieted her, much as cockroaches had done in her childhood. A momentary thought flashed through her mind that it would be horrible to be touched by him. He looked soft and glutinous."

And I'll never tire of his biblical references, "'Don't you worry, honey!' advised the well-meaning girl who would have been in her element looking in on Job with Bildad the Shuhite and his friends. 'Don't you worry!'"

I'm always learning a word or two that I'm not familiar with such as his reference to jezail bullets. As it turns out Jezails were very personal weapons which were commonly used in India, Central Asia and parts of the Middle East, and, interestingly enough, was the weapon which wounded Dr. Watson. Another phrase Wodehouse uses in this book is the French phrase, je ne sais quoi, literally ‘I don't know what’, a certain something, an intangible quality that makes something distinctive or attractive. Which Jill possesses...and so does Wodehouse for that matter. I do hope it's catching.