Hopefully all the cards that I sent out last week have reached their recipients today and this isn’t spoiling anything! I decided to go with a design that involved a lot fewer steps than my Christmas cards, which meant that I could send out about three times as many. ^_^ One lucky person benefited from my utter failure to count properly and got a slightly different version which, no doubt thanks to Murphy’s Law, ended up looking cuter than the rest.

Finally, for the last of my holiday posts, a jar of homemade sweet orange sugar scrub that I gave to a few of my friends. It’s best to use sugar scrubs, as sugar is not as irritating or dehydrating as salt. This is a simple mixture of organic cane sugar, olive oil, sweet orange essential oil, and a bit of food coloring, dressed up in a pretty Italian jar. I had the chance to try some that was left over and came out of the shower with soft, exfoliated skin smelling lightly of oranges.

This year—well, last year—I decided to make my Christmas cards by hand. Thankfully I only had about half a dozen to do, because between the stamping, the drawing, the transferring, the inking, the glitter, and the lettering, these took a lot longer than I expected! Since I would like to send out more the next time around, I will either need to greatly simplify my design and crafting process or just get them printed.

File these under “things I could have never made without a stand mixer.” Deliciously fluffy, gooey, homemade marshmallows that even my dad, who hates store-bought marshmallows, will eat. I made plain ones for this first ever batch, but will probably try strawberry next.

I’m also planning to read up on marshmallows to find out how the ratio of sugar syrup to gelatin and whipping time affects them; I’d like to try to get taller, fluffier ones, since these turned out denser than I wanted. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Recipe from Joy of Cooking (Scribner 2006).

Homemade breakfast (for lunch): Sourdough pancakes with sour cherries in syrup.

To keep Sally, my sourdough starter, happy and alive after spending 20 hours in my suitcase as I flew from Georgia to California, I fed her flour and water on arrival and once again this afternoon. Rather than discarding a cup the last time around—I want to keep her at room temperature for a while, which necessitates feeding twice a day, to get her going for tomorrow’s burger buns—I decided to make pancakes. They turned out so good! Great bread-like taste in the form of a pancake.

Another hallmark of returning home after months of being away: I’ll never know what I’ll find in the pantry (usually a total mess). This time there was a jar of sour cherries in light syrup just sitting there. I simmered some with half a cup of sugar to sweeten and thicken the syrup; it ended up being a perfect topping for the pancakes.

I can’t express how glad I am to finally have use of my cast iron skillet and vintage stove once again.