Gibran : On Children

Christmas Day. One cannot help but think of children on Christmas Day.

We think of the child Jesus asleep in the manger. We think of our own children and the children of our family and friends. We think of the children on the streets who have no homes and possibly no gifts. We remember ourselves as children and recall the Christmases of our past.

For today, as a child myself, I remember my parents.

Mother had a poem taped inside one of her cabinets. She has had it for as long as I can remember. Reading this poem as a child is different from reading this poem as a parent. I should go and tape this poem on my own cabinet.

Merry Christmas.

ON CHILDREN

by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Animal Voiceovers

GI knows how much I love to laugh. He often relays jokes he gets off the internet and we have a good laugh.

Today, he sent ME (moi) a FaceBook message which said, "HI MOM WATCH THIS VIDEO."

Hope you have a good laugh, too.

No Mixer? No Problem!

The electric hand mixer Mindy gave me as a present many years ago conked out as I was about to take my mandatory leave. (Talk about lousy timing.) I haven't purchased a replacement because I am still hoping against hope that it is something MacGyver can fix. Since he hadn't found the time to troubleshoot the mixer, my baking adventures came to a halt.

No cookies? No cake? No goodies?

NO WAY!

I decided that I just HAD to bake something ... anything!

MyGirl and I flipped through cookbooks and food magazines and recipes. We finally decided that in spite our handicap, we could still manage this cheesecake recipe.

JELLY CHEESECAKE

Base:

250 g Nice biscuits, crushed

150 g butter, melted

Filling:

110 g cream cheese

3/4 c sugar

1 x 375 ml can evaporated milk

1 x 85 g packet lemon jelly crystals

1 c boiling water

1 T lemon juice

Topping (optional):

whipped cream

grated lemon zest

Preheat oven 150 C. Grease 20 cm springform pan,

Mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter. Press into prepared tin.

Cook in oven 10 minutes. Then put in refrigerator to cool.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until combined.

In separate bowl, beat milk until very thick.

Add cream cheese into milk and beat in.

Dissolve jelly in hot water and allow to cool.

When cold, add lemon juice to jelly.

Then add jelly to cream cheese mixture and stir well.

Pour on top of biscuit base then refrigerate to set.

Decorate with whipped cream and lemon zest.

MyGirl and I made a special trip to the grocery to make sure we had all the ingredients we needed.

We couldn't find lemon jelly crystals so we settled for lime jelly crystals and lime juice for our cheesecake.

We told ourselves that we would simply had to make do. We knew that

the longer we delayed our cheesecake adventure, the higher the risk that our ingredients got consumed.

Take the biscuits, for instance. Earlier on I had purchased a pack of Nice biscuits for this recipe. However, since we didn't have the jelly crystals, we couldn't make the cheesecake yet. One day, the kids raided the pantry and snacked on the biscuits. Before I knew it, the whole pack was gone. (They said it reminded them of the butter coconut cookies from back home.)

Yesterday evening, after dinner, while MacGyver and RD played chess (and GI shot at bad guys on his PC), MyGirl and I got our hands dirty in the kitchen. I knew that the cheesecake required setting in the refrigerator so while MyGirl worked on the jelly cheesecake while I made an orange cake which we could eat for dessert.

Here is a picture of MyGirl with her creation before we divided it into ten.

Gotta Present

RD was asked by his teacher to discuss the present positive features and possible improvements for the the Year 7 Science Program. He prepared the Powerpoint slides and his speech all on his own.

On Tuesday 30 November 2010, RD presented this to members of the faculty at his High School.

This afternoon, when he arrived home from school, he proudly announced that he received a small token of appreciation for his presentation (and that the teachers were still talking about how impressed they were at his presentation).

Here is 'Serious RD.'

This is the RD the faculty watched yesterday,

the one that made his teacher proud.

Here is the 'Funny RD.'

This is the RD we have watched grow up,

the one that makes his parents proud.

(Like the title? Present as a verb or present as a noun?)

Honey Roasted Cashews

I had chicken wings marinated in hoisin sauce ready waiting to be cooked for dinner. Since these would be going into the oven, I wanted to bake something else while the oven was on. The hand blender I got from Mindy conked out on me the other day, so cookies and the like were out of the question. I decided to try yet another recipe for honey roasted nuts.

You see I am still trying to replicate the honey roasted macadamia nuts they sell commercially. I haven't quite figured out the recipe. (Any suggestions, Mother?)

This is the version of the one I tried tonight. It still did not replicate the commercially sold honey roasted nuts, but it is a winner. It was sweet and salty, and kind of addictive. Needless to say, it was calorie-laden.

HONEY ROASTED CASHEW NUTS

NUTS:

4 c salted cashews

CARAMEL:

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c honey

1/4 c butter

SPICE MIXTURE:

2 T sugar

2 t ground cinnamon

1 t salt

1 t paprika

1/4 t white pepper

Heat oven to 350ºC.

Line baking pan with aluminum foil.

Place nuts in a even layer on prepared pan.

Roast for 5 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl.

Combine caramel ingredients in a saucepan to make syrup.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally.

Once boiling, do not stir. Boil for 5 minutes.

While syrup is cooking, combine ingredients for spice mixture.

Pour hot syrup over nuts. Stir well.

Sprinkle with spice mixture and stir well.

Transfer to baking sheet and separate with fork.

Allow to cool completely. Store in air-tight container.

(Notes : Original recipe used 1 cup each of almonds, pecans, unsalted cashews and macadamia nuts. Since I was using salted cashews, I reduced the salt from 1 1/2 t to 1 t, and roasted for 5 minutes instead of original 12 to 15 minutes. The original recipe called for 1 t ground cloves and 1/2 t pepper. There are no ground cloves in the above recipe simply because that spice is not something I have in the kitchen. I reduced the amount of pepper because the kids don't particularly like too much pepper in their food. I assumed it was white pepper but I guess black pepper would have worked just as well. )