A Running Tally of Metaphysical Phenomena

It’s after Thanksgiving, everybody! Get festive!

I have a video camera that only likes to work under proper, million-watt movie studio lighting. Sorry.

Do you have your tree yet? (No? I win.)

Kirsten pulled a recipe page out of one of her how-to-have-a-well-decorated-home-and-entertain-with-pizzaz magazines a little while ago, and it looked just interesting enough for me to decide I should go for it. Candied orange peel with chocolate. How interesting! Pictures were taken with my phone because the actual camera is in the oh-my-gosh-Kirsten’s-in-labor!-go-go-go-go!! bag.

You start by slicing the peels into strips and simmering them in plain old water for five or six minutes to take out some of the bitterness (the water turns orangey almost immediately when you drop them in) and then in a simple syrup for about the same amount of time, maybe a little longer.

Next, because it probably isn’t coma-ish enough yet, put the syrupy peels in granulated sugar and shake them up to coat them evenly. Like this:

Some of the sugar chunks hanging on a this point were just a little much, so before letting them dry, I knocked off some of the big clumps. At first, I put them on parchment paper to let the process finish…

…but it wasn’t working that well, because there needed to be some air up underneath. We don’t have real cooling racks, so I used a strainer and a colander and put the peels on the bottom. I still had a bunch left, so Kirsten suggested putting together a little drying rack all pioneer style with wood. Specifically, she recommended the bamboo skewers that have been sitting in the same drawer forever. This was the arrangement I ended up with.

And the bamboo one by itself:

That was last night. When I checked them today, the bamboo ones were looking good, but the others were still pretty wet and gummy. It really doesn’t help that our place holds a lot of moisture. I built a bigger bamboo rack and stuck them in the oven on its lowest temperature (170) to dry them out a little better.

Once they were a little more dry and crystallized, they were ready to go. A little boiling water in a big bowl and then chocolate chips in a smaller cereal bowl inside that, and a little stirring, and the chocolate was gooey and melty in a few minutes. The peels (and a couple of apricots) got dipped, put on parchment paper, and then placed in the freezer for about ten minutes.

They came out looking delicious and tasting just as good as I hoped for. Kirsten approves of them too. I don’t see these lasting too long.

Around the Walter household, we have a pretty nice cast of characters all doing their thing to make it a good place to be. You know, it has to be a friendly, warm place for the barley to be, so we’ve been trying to bring in a lot of company ahead of time. The whole ensemble has sort of been here since before the barley was baking, actually, but when competent adults like us collect juvennile things like animals friends, we prefer to say that we’re doing it for our children. Wouldn’t want to, you know, be a couple of Peter Pans in a culture that doesn’t properly value us. You understand.

Anyway. We have a good little zoo going on here in ink, in pencil, in paints, with fluff, in wood carving, and in concept. Fall in love with the following:

• Samson the Duck
• Leg the Small Green Bird
• Tobias the Giraffe
• The Lambies
• Short Steeve
• Long Steeve
• Peanut the First Seal
• Small the Other Seal
• Georges the Standard Poodle
• Laughing Whale the Laughing Whale
• The Towel Dolphin
• The Towel Cow (filled in for the Towel Dolphin once during Fall vacation)

Samson and Leg have been best friends for a while now. They stay on the back porch and watch the grill to make sure no one steals it or cooks unauthorized pork when we’re not looking. Come to think of it, I guess Blue Rhino is a member of the household as well. I might want to talk to him about all of this. See, the thing is, Leg has gone missing. There was some rainy, windy weather around here over the last couple of weeks, and somewhere in the course of all of the fallen leaf cleanup and the battering forces of the legendarily powerful storms of the Pacific Northwest (see, that’s only ha ha if you move here from a place where there’s actual rain more than one or two days a year), Samson lost a leg and Leg at the same time. We came to say hi to those guys a few days ago, and let’s just say it wasn’t the most comforting scene ever to hit our back porch. Kind of grisly, actually. The sawdust and the severed duck leg, and yet nary a splinter from our friend Leg… I just got another chill even now.

We have every reason to believe that Leg is still intact, which is more than we can say for Samson and is pretty reassuring. It could be that he’ll come back around at some point. It is getting colder out there, and we were awfully good to him. In the mean time, if you see a little green bird out there with his head tucked under his wing and he says something about missing his duck buddy Samson, do let us know, OK? Thanks!

Here’s the deal. I am not the most consistent of all the bloggers in the world. I know that. When I do write, though, it’s not normally my M.O. to just pop on, post a link or a single picture, and then vanish. I think you’ll be able to forgive me for this one, though. I want to add this girl to my interests on Facebook or name a band after her or something. Go to the actual video page to spend the rest of your day smiling more and more widely and trying not to swear off ever teaching English to your kids. Also, check out the snail races and “Too Much Candy.” This is the best thing you’ve seen all week.

Once upon a time… on Vimeo.