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FlameWizard492

FlameWizard492
Villanelle said:
As well as small fluffy things, have I told you about my obsession with octopus?!
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Believe it or not my mom is TERRIFIED of octopi! I love to tease her about it.

It started when my mom and I did a sort of “Sleepover at SeaWorld” kind of thing (that wasn’t its name of the event, it’s just the best way to describe it). Basically, some employees take you around the park and behind the scenes, teaching you about the animals they have, and maybe you’ll also ride some rides. When we went to sleep, we did it in the aquarium building next to the Manta roller coaster. My mom and I picked a spot next to the octopus tank. However, once we got our sleeping bags set up, the employees leading us told us that the octopus had a habit of escaping, which FREAKED MY MOM OUT. She had nightmares about it for a while afterwards.
 

Captain Callum

Captain Callum
FlameWizard492 said:
Can you think of any good examples? Also, does the alcohol have any actual effect on you if it's baked into something or left in the dessert to stay moist like that cake mentioned earlier? If yes, can you think of any non-alcoholic examples? (Sorry, I don’t drink, and I like to keep it that way. I like to think before I speak.)
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In these kinds of cakes, multiple portions will definitely an effect on the person. Roughly 2-3 tablespoons per 2 weeks is added into the cake so it can be quite a lot if the cake is made more than a month ahead. There's always new articles each year stating that just 2 slices of Christmas cake can put you over the legal limit for driving. So any drink conscious person will often rely on non alcoholic options, even more so if younger members of the family are present.

When I was younger, the menu was never short of options:
  • Christmas Trifle - traditional English or Scottish trifle made with fruit juice instead of alcohol. Layers of fruit jelly, sponge cake, custard and cream.
  • Sticky Toffee Pudding - I still make this to the day as a alternative dessert to those who don't like Christmas cake. Date sponge cake covered in a rich toffee sauce often served with vanilla ice cream.
  • Yule Log - A flat chocolate sponge cake rolled up and iced with chocolate buttercream and decorated with non edible Christmas decorations. I think this one is more of a international dessert with many different variations.
  • There are often many smaller options such as mincemeat pies (small sweet pastry pies filled with a dried fruit and spice mixture), Scottish shortbread and bakewell tarts (a pastry tart with cherry jam, almond frangipane filling decorated with glacé icing and glacé cherries).
 

FlameWizard492

FlameWizard492
By the way, the Christmas dessert topic got me curious: does anyone have any Christmas plans/traditions that they’d like to share? I’ll go first:

For years now, my grandmother has been hosting a little cookie decorating get-together for me and my two cousins. I try to make them better every year. I’m a bit of a creative/artsy type, but not enough to make art a hobby. There are usually two types of cookies that I decorate: (1) the ones in which I put a lot of effort to make them look nice, and (2) the ones on which I put a lot of toppings to make them as delicious as possible. Some of the ones from the last couple of years that I’m really proud of are when I decorated cookies that look like the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. (I used a lot of black icing for Christmas Future, which didn’t taste that good.)

My mom is the party planner of the family. On the day before Christmas Eve, which my family calls “Christmas Eve Eve,” my mom throws a little desert party. She invites some family and close friends of the family.

On Christmas Eve, we just have a family dinner with some of the family who lives close by.

On Christmas Day, we have breakfast with my maternal grandparents. Then we go over to my aunt’s (granddad’s sister) home to have dinner with her side of the family. She makes the BEST banana pudding. It’s a highlight of my Christmas. Then, my parents, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle, my two cousins, and I drive over to Ocala, FL to have Christmas dinner with my aunt (grandmother’s sister) and her side of the family. We also spend the night there, and it’s always the worst night’s sleep of the year for me. There’s something about the room my parents and I always sleep in that makes my throat itchy and my nose runny.

Also, my favorite Christmas movies include: Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, and most of the adaptations of A Christmas Carol.
 

FlameWizard492

FlameWizard492
Captain Callum said:
When I was younger, the menu was never short of options:
  • Christmas Trifle - traditional English or Scottish trifle made with fruit juice instead of alcohol. Layers of fruit jelly, sponge cake, custard and cream.
  • Sticky Toffee Pudding - I still make this to the day as a alternative dessert to those who don't like Christmas cake. Date sponge cake covered in a rich toffee sauce often served with vanilla ice cream.
  • Yule Log - A flat chocolate sponge cake rolled up and iced with chocolate buttercream and decorated with non edible Christmas decorations. I think this one is more of a international dessert with many different variations.
  • There are often many smaller options such as mincemeat pies (small sweet pastry pies filled with a dried fruit and spice mixture), Scottish shortbread and bakewell tarts (a pastry tart with cherry jam, almond frangipane filling decorated with glacé icing and glacé cherries).
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Ooh, all of those sound so GOOOOOOOOD.
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
FlameWizard492 said:
Nice. It’s not exactly the job I’d go for. I prefer interacting with people, and I’m more of a “desk job” kind of guy.
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Well, we do interact with people. Then clients and us sometimes talk a lot instead of doing work.
But it's outdoors and I get to see nature
Orkan said:
Speaking of desert, guess who just stopped by Mike’s Pastry 😎

(I did)
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I want pecan pie and vanilla ice cream
 

Captain Callum

Captain Callum
Orkan said:
Speaking of desert, guess who just stopped by Mike’s Pastry 😎

(I did)
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Desert-2.png
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
FlameWizard492 said:
Speaking of dumb animal names, I’ve come up with a few hypothetical ones. I don’t have any pets right now, but if I were to get one, here’s what I’d name them:
  • If I were to get a reptile, preferably a tortoise, I’d name it “Fluffy." I just thought it’d be funny for a reptile to have a name commonly given to dogs and cats.
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My friend had a let snake called Fluffy when we were teenagers 😂 I thought it was brilliant and begged my parents for a snake. I've never been able to have one, can't care for one now but one day in the future, I'd love to get a friendly little noodle and call him/her fluffy.
FlameWizard492 said:
  • If I were to get a macaw or large parrot, I’d name it “Walmart.” I don’t know how that entered my brain. I was just lost in thought one day, and somehow I thought, “What if somebody named a parrot 'Walmart’?” And then I thought, “Wait, why does that name kinda work for me somehow?”
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Haha I love how random this is 🤣

I held onto the name Scribble for a future dog for years, so when I got my puppy for 1 day he was called Scribble. But it didn't suit him, and he was orange and very bouncy, so the name Tigger was just in the stars for him.
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
FlameWizard492 said:
My mom and I picked a spot next to the octopus tank. However, once we got our sleeping bags set up, the employees leading us told us that the octopus had a habit of escaping, which FREAKED MY MOM OUT. She had nightmares about it for a while afterwards.
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Aw your poor mum! See if she can watch My Octopus Teacher on Netflix, I'm sure it will change her mind 😊 it's brilliant
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
FlameWizard492 said:
By the way, the Christmas dessert topic got me curious: does anyone have any Christmas plans/traditions that they’d like to share? I’ll go first:
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Lovely traditions 😊

When I was little, Christmas was very traditional. Stockings in our PJs as soon as we woke up, that was the most exciting part I think. And see if Santa and the Reindeer ate their mince pie, brandy and carrots. Then an amazing breakfast. My grandma was the most fantastic cook.

We were quite disciplined: first a long country walk, whatever the weather. It used to always be snowy, now it rarely is in December and we tend to get a little snow in March/April. Definitely signs of climate change. Anyway - then a huge late lunch with silliness and adults getting tipsy, christmas crackers, xmas pudding with coins hidden in (do you know that one?) and my favourite - brandy butter. Then, not until the evening, presents. My gma would have a huge xmas tree and it would be piled up with presents. The family was big then, about 15 of us. Then a xmas movie, I especially loved the year when I first watched the original Star Wars trilogy on xmas eve, xmas day and boxing day.

But yeah. My dad died when I was 17, and my brother was 11. We also lost an aunt and uncle around the same time. Mum and I couldn't comprehend xmas without him. So we started a new tradition: travel at xmas time. Get away from the happy-family charade. We started going to join family in America for their xmasses - we had two New York christmasses and 1 California one. Since then, I've had xmas in Marrakech, Delhi, Senegal, Vietnam x 3, Thailand and this year, South Africa. Between those we've had some more traditional family xmasses but now, my UK grandparents have also passed away, so its smaller, and my brother often goes to his gf's instead. I sometimes have it with my husband's family which is lovely, and my mum goes to a yoga retreat in spain. But I'm usually happiest to get away and get some winter sun / escapism. I feel really lucky to have travelled so much, it definitely takes priority in my life. I feel like I'm a born wanderer and need to roam, not just to escape but also to explore. It bought me to my lovely husband so I wouldn't change a thing, hard as it has sometimes been.
 
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