Hooray for Fridays! I am looking forward to a mostly snug weekend of reading and writing letters and holiday cards and not having to do homework for school! Something else I need to do is start planning Solstice dinner.
As many of you know my dear Bookman does all the cooking except on the Winter Solstice. It has evolved over the years that on that day, I do the cooking. And since I only cook once a year, for someone like me who can cook just fine but doesn’t like to, it is fun. I dig through our cookbooks looking for things we have never made before. We have been known on occasion to repeat an especially delicious dessert, but the main meal is all new. This is fun because it makes it special and because we have also found some really yummy stuff that my wizard cook of a husband has been able to simplify and turn into regular meals.
Sometimes finding particular ingredients can be a little tricky so I like to start planning early and now is the time! I will be drooling over the cookbooks tonight looking for likely candidates. I am playing with the idea of having a breakfast for dinner meal and making something we would never have for breakfast because as early morning people when we get up we are starving and taking a couple hours to make breakfast/brunch would leave us grumpy and lightheaded. For dessert I’m thinking vegan cheesecake. Bookman thinks he doesn’t like cheesecake but yet he loves cream cheese (we are talking the vegan kind here). So I might tempt him with a chocolate cheesecake. But this might change if I come across something else that looks even better.
I love reading cookbooks and imagining the food, the taste, the look, the warm kitchen. It’s even more fun when someone else makes it for you. But when it comes to Solstice I enjoy cooking up a special gift to return some of the love and goodness my Bookman gives me all year.
I love cookbooks, but I don’t love cooking. It does sound like fun planning something like this, though. Oh, yes, holiday cards? Where has the month gone? We haven’t even put up our holiday tree yet! Enjoy your school (and thus studying) free weekend!
I wish I only had to cook once a year! I’d certainly put a lot of effort into making it the most interesting, fantastic meal ever.
I love the way you celebrate the solstice. I’ve been too disorganised these past few years to manage it, but I keep trying. One year I’ll think up a lovely pagan ritual (involving lots of candles I think). It’s also a great idea to make it an experimental dinner night – do tell us what you make in the end! I’m most curious to know what it will be.
What a lovely post and what a fun project! I might adopt this for our household this year… (except I usually do all the cooking! although Terri says if we got a crock-pot she might get started learning how to use that…)
Chocolate cheese cake! Yum. I hope you provide photos of whatever you make — or at least a description
I’m right there with you. I love to read cookbooks. Happily for me, I also love to cook. And I was doing the same thing this weekend, i.e. pouring through cookbooks for something to make for a Hanukkah meal. Not being Jewish, I wanted to do it justice. I think, in your honor – and in Bookman’s – I’d like to prepare a Winter Solstice meal as well. Post your menu and, if possible, photos.
Danielle, you need to somehow convince your husband to do all the cooking then cooking becomes a lot of fun!
Jeane, exactly! And it’s going to turn out to be two days of cooking because of the the menu I landed on!
Litlove, candles are necessary for pagan rituals. We used to have a red one, a black, and a white one representing maiden, mother, crone and the cycle of life and all that. But it is terribly hard to find colored candles that aren’t scented and I am allergic to fragrance. So now we light one unscented candle in whatever color we manage to find. I’ve decided on breakfast for dinner. More on that later.
Daphne, thanks! It’s really fun and beats trying to make a traditional meal. There have been a few flops through the years but most of them have been a great success. Perhaps Santa will leave Terri a crockpot in her stocking?
Dorothy, there will be photos, but no chocolate cheese cake. The alternative is definitely going to be delicious though.
Grad, you are lucky you love to cook. My Bookman doesn’t like cookbooks much so we make a good pair – I tell him what recipes to make and he usually does
I’m honored that you want to make a Solstice meal. I hope your Hanukkah meal turns out, my husband’s family is Jewish so if you need moral support send me an email. I’m sure he’d be glad to offer food/recipe/tradition help if you need it.
I hope it is a delicious meal! How fun to have that kind of cooking tradition.
My husband loves to cook and I”m learning to enjoy it! Since I don’t work and my husband is out of town a lot, it’s kind of a necessity that I do the cooking most of the time…
My hubby and I often have the tofu scramble from VwaV for dinner. We’ve also had the omelet with tahini sauce and burnt broccoli from Vegan Brunch a few times, but that’s a bigger commitment because the batter is such a pain to get out of the food processor.
I have all those cookbooks too, by the way.
Rebecca, thanks! Maybe someday your husband won’t have to travel as much and he can take over more of the cooking
Colleen, we love tofu scramble at our house! We’ve made the omelets too but use a blender for the batter, it’s pretty easy to get the batter out of it. They are great cookbooks aren’t they?
I have to get my Xmas letters written – I only have three really long letters I send out so it shouldn’t be so hard! Your cooking extravaganza sounds great – I have all these cookbooks as well, except for Vegan Brunch, which is on my Xmas list… I love them all. Have fun experimenting!