I’ve been feeling a bit harried and stressed this week. It’s almost as if the Christmas season is rushing by me too fast and I can’t seem to slow down to really enjoy any quiet moments with my family.
I realize it’s only December 8 but somehow the early part of the month always has this effect on me. I think about what I need to get done – what I want to get done – and how these extra items on the to-do list may or may not fit in with an already busy home life and career.
Gifts, Christmas cards, holiday baking, Christmas piano recitals … all are things I love about the holiday season. It’s regular old life that gets in the way. An office that is humming with an overload of activity this time of year. Homework that needs oversight.Guest blog posts to write. Confirmation drop-off and pick-up. Groceries purchased and meals put on the table. Bills to pay. Dentist appointments to work into the schedule.
I guess it’s safe to say that I feel a bit stretched thin right about now. It happens to the best of us, right?
I’d rather just hide out at home for a day, make a homemade frappuccino, sit by the Christmas tree, and catch up on my book reading and piano playing.
Well, I already know that’s not going to happen before Christmas, so what’s a girl to do?
At 9:45 pm on a Tuesday night, I mix up the dough for kringle, a Norwegian recipe that my Grandma Inez and Aunt Shirley always made at Christmastime! Baking helps ease the stress away.
Kringle is made with very simple ingredients – flour, sugar, sour cream, buttermilk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. It seems like it would be easy. Mix the dough, refrigerate overnight, and the next day, roll out the kringle (which look figure-eight shaped) and bake. But alas, there is a bit of finesse involved in the roll out process (my cousin tells me it’s all in the wrist!), and these have to be watched carefully in the oven as well.
I haven’t perfected my kringle yet, but I’m getting better each time I make them.
For tonight, just making the dough makes me slow down, think fondly of my Grandma Inez and Aunt Shirley and their love of baking, and look forward to later tomorrow when my hands will be flour-covered and I have kringle baking in the oven.
Kringle to the rescue. 🙂