8 December 2024

I’m still working on getting into the holiday spirit.

I found a glass pie pan on Amazon. It arrived last Saturday. As I pulled out all the “fixins” to make a chocolate pecan pie, I realized that I didn’t have a rolling pin. So, after class on Monday, I stopped at the weekly street market and found a cheap wooden rolling pin and a poinsettia. So, I came home and translated grams into ounces and made my first pie in Europe!

I also had a hot oven and decided to make “Forgotten Cookies.” This is mom’s old recipe, making a stiff merengue of egg whites and sugar, mixing in chocolate chips and nuts and dropping the cookies on a sheet. The cookie sheet goes into the hot oven. The oven is turned off and the cookies are “forgotten” over night.

The recipe says very clearly, the merengue must be stiff. Now, if you’ve ever tried to make a merengue without an electric mixer, you have s sense of my challenge. I used a fork and stirred, and stirred, mixed and mixed for 30 minutes. The mixture slowly got thicker. It finally got close to what I’d call stiff.

When I pulled them out of the oven on Tuesday morning, they looked really good.

But they turned out chewy and not light and crisp like mom’s. Clearly, I needed to buy an electric mixer. So after class, I went to the Corts Ingles department store and bought one. More “Forgotten Cookies” are in my future.

In class, it’s standard to start each day with “what did you do yesterday?” So I talked in Spanish about my baking exploits. As soon as I got the words out, “should I bring the pie…?” My teacher said, “¡Si!”

Since Friday was a national holiday, “Constitution Day,” we planned a small party on Thursday. The teacher brought a spiced tea.

The chocolate pecan pie was actually the best one I’ve ever made. I was thrilled to be able to share it.

I shared some of the Forgotten Cookies with Dima, my English student on Wednesday. They weren’t bad. But the next batch will be better. Pics will be shared.

There was no school on Friday. So, I went and bought a Christmas Tree for 30€ and a string of lights. 1500 lights on a 15 meter (more than 45 feet) string should be plenty. Right?

Wrong.

Tomorrow, I’ll buy more lights. HaHa. And maybe a few ornaments since the ones I haven’t sold are in boxes in my brother’s basement.

I hope you’re getting into the Christmas Spirit. I’m tryin’!