Sanna's Bag

“I never seem to have what I need when I need it. I’m going to make a belt-bag that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside, and just carry everything with me.”

Thursday, November 08, 2007

I took photos, but . .

this has been really quite a splendid day. I finished the latest orphan sweater and took photos. Ooo, it turned out so NICE! And then I loaded up a few books I could bear to part with and headed for Powells downtown. Sold books. Bought books (one for DH, and The Art of the Discworld for me.) and then I meet LG for lunch and giggles and guffaws and knitting. It was too brief. LG and I are identical twin daughters of different mothers. Except she got the good hair. Waist-length, thick, glossy, strong. If she weren't so adorable, I could hate her just for her hair alone, but she's also funny and sensitive anda gifted writer. We got the knitting straightened out. (Why don't they show diagrams of how the finished pieces look before you sew them together?) She gave me a wonderful cup, and three knitterly lapel buttons (Which I immediately had to pin on my chest right then and there because I loves them.) And she laughed when I offered to grab the waiter by the booty, which made me feel young again! The waiter never got within reach of the table after that.



Lunch breaks are too short. Maybe I can begin getting her to my writer's group somehow.



After that, I bought vanilla wafers, a primary ingredient for rum balls. It's time to start my Christmas cookies. I spent the rest of the afternoon listening to "The Beak of the Finch" and grinding 14 boxes of 'Nilla wafers to dust.



To make rum balls, first crush vanilla wafers to a fine powder. You can do this by taking the tea towel embroidered by your aunt Honoria, pouring the wafers into it, folding it into a nice package, and running a rolling pin back and forth over it for about twenty minutes. If you don't crush the wafers to a powder, you will get lumpy rumballs and the only thing worse than lumpy balls is a cold cockle. Good rumballs will warm the cockles of the heart of the crustiest curmudgeon.



If you are making more than one batch of rumballs, you could take the pillowcase embroidered by your aunt floradora, dump in three boxes of wafers, tie the case closed and throw it on the floor. Then put on your wooden soled shoes and practice clog dancing on it for about twenty minutes. Stomp on all the corners, and fluff the pillowcase once or twice in mid-process to be sure you thouroughly crush those cookies.

Once you have made and shared these rumballs, all your friends will be wanting some. So take the king-sized bedspread that was tie-dyed by your aut Euphoria, dump in fourteen boxes of cookies, fold up the edges and secure the package wit bungee cords, then visit your friend Max the tap-dancing elephant, and let him rock out on the bundle for at least twenty minutes. It's important to completely pulverize each and every crumb.

I ran all fourteen boxes of cookies through my good old hand crank meatgrinder. You can never find a tap-dancing elephant when you need one.

for a single batch:

6 oz choc chips (1 C.)
1/2 C. sugar
3 Tbs light corn syrup
1/2 C. rum
2 1/2 C finely crushed vanilla wafers

Melt choc chips . Add sugar and corn syrup. Mix. Add rum and cookie crumbs. Mix thouroughly and form into small balls. Allow to ripen in an air tight tin several days.

No baking. The hard part is shaping all those little balls. I bought a tiny ice cream scoop and saved myself hours of work and mess.

I mix everything in a big glass bowl. That way, I just dump in the chocolate chips, and stick the whole thing in the microwave to melt them. Saves cleaning the double boiler.

I use different kinds of alcohol for different batches. Bourbon is nice, as is Amoretto or Grand Marinier. Be creative. What doesn't go with chocolate? OK, gin leaps to mind as an appalling option. I would NOT make a batch of chocolate gin balls. but Drambuie or Bailey's Irish Cream could be nice.

So my shoulder is sore from an hour of cranking - the meat grinder - for the cookies, you filthy-minded pervs!But finagling photos onto blog just hasn't happend today. Tomorrow, with any luck . . . then I can also show off the scarf I'm whacking together out of bits while I decide what to knit next.

7 Comments:

  • At 4:05 AM , Blogger Bells said...

    Roxie I'm really intrigued to know about the use of corn syrup. We hear all the time that the US uses soooo much corn syrup. I thought at first maybe you'd use it as a sugar substitute but you've used the syrup + the sugar. so what does it give you?

     
  • At 4:29 AM , Blogger Saren Johnson said...

    I don't make Christmas cookies until, well the week before.

     
  • At 9:05 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    ::giggle, snort, giggle:: This is hilarious! Not to mention sounds like a wonderful recipe. Thanks, I'll have to try that! And:

    1) I'm thinkin' Aunt Euphoria really liked the rumballs, what with the king-sized bedspread. And that tie-dye.

    2) "You can never find a tap-dancing elephant when you need one." That would be one of the best sigline quotes of all time!

    PS - Are you making Christmas cookies for the entire One More Time Around Marching Band, with the 14 boxes of nilla wafers?!?!!

     
  • At 11:54 AM , Blogger The Queen of the Snow Cows said...

    Beer doesn't go with chocolate, no matter how much I wish it did. Not that I'd ever make chocolate beer balls...ew.

    But I'm definitely going to make some of these rum balls. They sound great.

     
  • At 5:10 PM , Blogger Amy Lane said...

    Ohhhhhh...rum balls...dooooohhhhhh.....

    And I've got to say, that hot young waiter didn't know what he was missing. Anyone who can make rum balls like you do could probably give one life-loving bootie buss.

     
  • At 6:16 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    LOVED the recipe and the thoughtful explication of the Joyful Crush Procedures. And glad you're listening to Beak of the Finch -- what a fascinating book that is! Too cool. Like you.

     
  • At 11:56 AM , Blogger Denise said...

    Thanks for the recipe. As Bells says, we don't use corn syrup here much in Australia, but it can be found in a few supermarkets if you're lucky... Nice idea to use the vanilla wafers!

    I reckon beer and chocolate would be pretty vile... ;)

     

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home