This is Christmas Eve. It is a quiet and peaceful time to meditate and reflect. To read and attend to small tasks.
There is a tradition that involves lighting a bayberry candle on Christmas Eve and letting it burn all the way down. I usually have a store of bayberry candles, but this year I did not realize that I was out of stock. I made a pleasant trip to a place I call the Christmas House a short way from my house. This is a beautiful arts and crafts style house with stucco walls, dark wooden beams, and a grand fireplace. The owners of the house are sculptors and, in addition to maintaining a studio on the premises, they turn the entire first floor of their home into a holiday shop every fall.
They have many trees each thematically decorated – a bird tree, a nature tree, the hand-carved wooden ornament tree and the fantastical glass ornament tree from which I have, in the past, purchased a glass replica of the Sphinx and a glass Roman centurion.
Today, however, I was after bayberry candles. An homage to a calling back of the sun in the darkest time of the year and to our ancient relatives who had their own rituals for how the seasons work. Trees and plants often contributed to those rituals.
The bayberry candle I found has a wonderful aroma, but it also has a forty-hour burning time. So unless I can get the time warp working, I will need to alter my tradition this year.
One of my other tasks today was to distribute gifts to some of my friends and to spend a few moments enjoying their company. One of the gifts I brought was homemade English toffee. It is an easy recipe and it always gets appreciative comments – even requests for more.
Here is the recipe:
Melt 2 sticks of sweet butter
Stir in 1 cup of granulated sugar
3 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of white corn syrup
After you stir in the sugar and it is pretty much dissolved stop stirring. Cook the toffee over medium heat. Watch it closely the whole time – don’t walk away. When it reaches the hard crack stage (302 degrees F on a candy thermometer, take it off the heat. Pour it into a buttered 9 x 13 inch pan. Sprinkle with 1 cup of sliced almonds. Let it set up. When it is cool, melt chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat (amount – about 1 to 1.5 cups). Spread the chocolate over the toffee and sprinkle with a few more sliced almonds.
When the whole pan is cool and the chocolate is set, unmold the toffee. I warm the back of the pan a little and flip the toffee out onto a large baking sheet. Break it into pieces and share with your friends.
Happy Christmas…I hope I am still awake tonight when the animals can talk.
Peace to you.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 