As I was rocking out to Neil Diamond this morning, it occured to me that I hadn’t yet posted about The Christmas Cheer. Now, I want to state for the record that just because I’m a non-believer does not in any way shape or form mean that I shoudn’t be given a little visit from the jelly-bellied bearded guy. [SMOKER! DO YOU SEE HE IS A SMOKER?! That means that smoking is now ok, at least during the holidays.]
I mean, ok, it may be a little bit naughty for me to attend Midnight Mass (a tradition at Chez Fat Chick) seeing as how visions of historical inacuracies and barely veiled ritual cannibalism dance through my head… and I have to say this year I wasn’t able to stop myself from mentioning that Mary must have been one hell of a bad mother for choosing a feeding troth over co-sleeping, but that is neither here nor there. Fact is, I adore Christmas. I love it in all its wacky, tacky cheerful glory. And the singing. I love the singing, especially because only on Christmas Eve can my off-key caterwauling produce smiles from strangers.
But back to The Christmas Cheer. I used to make a [structurally unsound] gingerbread house, but this year I decided to make Chrismukkah cookies. At a friend’s house. Because I didn’t want the mess in my small chalet in the sky. So each of us pulled together a few recipes, and off we went. The best of the three I chose was the Orange Cardamom Cookies which could be rolled out. I cut out Magen Davids, which for all you non-tribal types means Star of David:
Only… notice how the cookies are a little yellow? And the icing (tasty tasty icing), too was made with lemons and oranges, which meant that it was distinctly yellow. Now, I like yellow as a color. It is a sunny, cheerful color. However, sending yellow stars for Chrismukkah cookies would have been just a teensy bit inappropriate. It would have… sent the wrong message, if you will.
So, we decided to use my SpecialTerrificVeryPotent and oh-so-professional Walton food coloring to dye the icing blue, which is the Official Color of Hanukkah and Jews Everywhere. It got to be a bit of a contest with the food coloring (or colouring, if you are British), to see just how much we could add until the saturation point was reached. The result resembled a Smurf who had had an unfortunate incident with a blender:
Or Papa Smurf’s colostomy bag.
Still, the cookies were delicious, I garnered bonus points with the higher ups (take that, layoffs!!!), and people really loved that The Christmas Cheer was a celebration of Chrismukkah.
Umm yes yellow stars would have been a no no.
They look yummy!!
The cookies in blue do look like smurfs
.
But before the colouring, they look delicious!
And I love the name – Chrismukkah
Neil Diamond? Didn’t know it was possible to “rock out” to Neil Diamond.
Santa was nice to me this year even tho I, like you claim yourself to be, am a non-believer. Santa brought me a brand spanking-new acoustic guitar. Can I play, you ask? Hell, no. So I’m counting on the Easter Bunny to give me gift certificates to The Old Town School of Music.
Anyway…Happy New Year FC!!! May your blog shine in 2009.