holiday braking
Are you feeling it? Not the amnesiac impulse that leads to you to truly believe you can operate a sewing machine, pastry bag (or whatever instrument is your personal Martha Stewart Waterloo) like a boss, not the bubbly energy that suggests you can mingle cheerfully and with durably good hair at multiple holiday gatherings in a single day, not the vain hope that you can get to (and out of) the post office three days before Xmas with your dignity and errand timetable intact. Not those things. We are all (right?) grappling with those demons. I am wondering if you are feeling what Mrs Wroblewski, my sister's college-era landlady, called "too much party."
The tiny houses are done. This year I managed to avoid a 3peat of the 'Bake Em Wrong First' fiasco, which is a significant advancement. But the process is not automated yet. It continues to be lunacy. This year it was lunacy in good company, as two friends enabled joined me. Blessings on their heads.
So that's done. And the little hoggies are done, too. Make those bad boys one year and you'll find yourself on the hook in perpetuity.
The sewing and the parties continue to unspool, though, and so does the feeling--often a pleasant one! don't get me wrong!--of Too Much Party.
Enter the chia seed. It's always entering at this stage of the game. It entered here, and here, under similar conditions. But there is just something about four ingredients that get shaken in a mason jar, and which you can feel restored by eating (in a quiet corner, in your pajamas, preferably), that really fits the bill.
I am grateful that I picked and froze strawberries in June, when the world was green, but any frozen strawberry would do here. Are you curious about cashew milk? This is good reading, then. (I was wondering if I was missing something by not soaking before blending, and now I feel better; hence: good reading.) But really, just have at it.
strawberry chia pudding
- 1 c raw cashew pieces
- 2 c water
- 1-2 T honey
- 1 large handful of frozen strawberries (a generous cup)
- 1/3 c chia seed
- optionally: a dash of vanilla extract and/or a scrape of orange zest.
Blend the cashews and water until smooth (trust me that you'll want to first verify that no spare blender parts or kitchen utensils are in the blender with the nuts). Add the honey and the strawberries and blend again. Pour this concoction into a one quart mason jar, and drink it up add the chia seeds. Shake well. Refrigerate until thickened, about four hours (best) or overnight (still tasty).
Happy holidays.
