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first world problems
1) WHERE ARE MY COMMENT NOTIFICATIONS, LJ? *grumbles*
2) I've been listening to the Messiah a lot (the full extent of my love for the Messiah cannot be put into words; I begin with coherent commentary about the cleanness of Handel's composition and the way it feels to have one's voice slot into the whole, and then I lose the plot and start warbling the tricky bits from 'For unto us a child is born' and gushing about the bass arias) and now I am so sad that I don't have the opportunity to sing it with a choir this year. Holding my score in my lap and wincing at the thinness of my voice in comparison to the Scholars Baroque Ensemble just isn't the same experience, you know?
3) It's December 9th, the shops are afire with Christmas everything, and I have not eaten a single candy cane :( We have some little chocolate Santas in the cupboard, and I had a gingerbread frap at Starbucks before leaving Sydney, but I miss the end of the high school year when everyone was leaving for the summer and giving out cards with tiny candy canes in them, and one spent the final week in a pleasant sugary buzz. With everyone talking about all the festive things they're baking, I feel decidedly unfestive and unsugared. Comment with your favourite festive recipe? Nothing too heavy, though; it IS summer down here!
4) Despite listening nonstop to Handel and Bach and a lot of carols, I cannot finish my EYuletide (ta, Emma!) fic. There is a scene in a cathedral!I know what has to happen in every single scene! But...my brain has relapsed into the figurative equivalent of kicking back on the beach with a daquiri.
~
Despite all of this, I am basically having an AMAZING first week of holidays. I am not thinking about medicine. I am not stressed out of my mind. I got an email saying that I passed my clinical exam (written exam results still to come). I am rereading some Forster and reading Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World and chatting to people and spending time with my family and watching Daria and wrapping presents and hey! it's my birthday in three days. Life is proceeding with an ease I could barely have imagined a month ago.
2) I've been listening to the Messiah a lot (the full extent of my love for the Messiah cannot be put into words; I begin with coherent commentary about the cleanness of Handel's composition and the way it feels to have one's voice slot into the whole, and then I lose the plot and start warbling the tricky bits from 'For unto us a child is born' and gushing about the bass arias) and now I am so sad that I don't have the opportunity to sing it with a choir this year. Holding my score in my lap and wincing at the thinness of my voice in comparison to the Scholars Baroque Ensemble just isn't the same experience, you know?
3) It's December 9th, the shops are afire with Christmas everything, and I have not eaten a single candy cane :( We have some little chocolate Santas in the cupboard, and I had a gingerbread frap at Starbucks before leaving Sydney, but I miss the end of the high school year when everyone was leaving for the summer and giving out cards with tiny candy canes in them, and one spent the final week in a pleasant sugary buzz. With everyone talking about all the festive things they're baking, I feel decidedly unfestive and unsugared. Comment with your favourite festive recipe? Nothing too heavy, though; it IS summer down here!
4) Despite listening nonstop to Handel and Bach and a lot of carols, I cannot finish my EYuletide (ta, Emma!) fic. There is a scene in a cathedral!I know what has to happen in every single scene! But...my brain has relapsed into the figurative equivalent of kicking back on the beach with a daquiri.
~
Despite all of this, I am basically having an AMAZING first week of holidays. I am not thinking about medicine. I am not stressed out of my mind. I got an email saying that I passed my clinical exam (written exam results still to come). I am rereading some Forster and reading Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World and chatting to people and spending time with my family and watching Daria and wrapping presents and hey! it's my birthday in three days. Life is proceeding with an ease I could barely have imagined a month ago.
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The universe is made twice as awesome because this exists!
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I do have a particularly nice recipe to share (not for pavlova) -- can you get clementines there?
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(2) I sang excerpts from the Messiah in year ten, and I've always loved "For unto us a child is born", simply because the altos get to start, all by ourselves. *grins*
(3) I really want to do heaps of baking and make tonnes of delicious things but it is stinking hot and cooking is a circle of hell. WAH. I've been trying to think of recipes that don't involve ovens, and the only one I can actually remember is chocolate fudge, which only involve the microwave and the fridge.
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(2) I hate you both, now I have For Unto Us A Child Is Born stuck in my head.
FAHYE! I think we should engage in social interaction!
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Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson
Prep Time: 10 min Inactive Prep Time: hr min Cook Time: 2 hr 40 min Level:
Easy Serves:
1 (8-inch) cake
Ingredients
4 to 5 clementines (about 1 pound total weight)
6 eggs
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/3 cups ground almonds
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
Put the clementines in a pot with cold water to
cover, bring to the boil, and cook for 2 hours. Drain and, when cool, cut each clementine in half and remove the seeds. Then finely chop the skins, pith, and fruit in the processor (or by hand, of course).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter and line an 8-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, almonds, and baking powder. Mix well, adding the chopped clementines.
Pour the cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour; you'll probably have to cover the cake with foil after about 40 minutes to stop the top from burning. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, in the pan on a rack. When the cake is cold, take it out of the pan. Best a day after it's made (cover tightly to store).