Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

I just read about the new book, The Cult of LEGO, on Evil Mad Scientist. This has [...]]]> Bib: “Die Wanna Wanga!”
3-PO: ”Oh, my! Die Wanna Wauaga. We, we bring a message to your master, Jabba the Hutt.”
Artoo lets out a series of quick beeps.
3-PO: ”… and a gift. (to Artoo) Gift, what gift?”

Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

I just read about the new book, The Cult of LEGO, on Evil Mad Scientist. This has my brother’s and my oldest nephew’s names written all over it.

I don’t want to burst Anakin’s bubble, but a few Separatists survived. Here’s how we’ve celebrated the mid-winter holiday (also known as Winter [...]]]> Anakin Skywalker: [via hologram] The Separatists have been taken care of, my master.
The Emperor: It is finished then. You have restored peace and justice to the galaxy.
Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

I don’t want to burst Anakin’s bubble, but a few Separatists survived. Here’s how we’ve celebrated the mid-winter holiday (also known as Winter Solstice, Christmas, Yule, *insert your term of choice here*) the past few days — but mostly yesterday and today. Since our Festivus pole was out for repair and our grievances had already been aired, we went the traditional route of lighting lots of candles, listening to beautiful music, gorging on way too much sugar, watching favorite films, opening presents, and relaxing with each other.

You?

Banket. Lovely, glorious Banket. Almond paste-based filling in a flaky pastry shell. Divine.

A compact, triangular area in central West Michigan (in case you aren’t aware) was a hotbed of Dutch immigration from the late 1800s [...]]]> “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to be the death of me?” – Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Banket.
Lovely, glorious Banket.
Almond paste-based filling in a flaky pastry shell.
Divine.

A compact, triangular area in central West Michigan (in case you aren’t aware) was a hotbed of Dutch immigration from the late 1800s through the post-WWII era. You’d be hard-pressed in these parts to go a day without finding a town, a couple of roads and more than a few companies with Dutch monikers. Moving in, people joke about having to add Van, Vander or De to their last name to find a job. And while it’s not really THAT bad, it is obvious that an historically Dutch lineage prevails in this region, from their hard-core religious fundamentalism (most moved here as religious dissidents, the Netherlands becoming much too liberal for their tastes) to a decided tendency toward being… um… well… ok, there’s not nice way to say it… hard-core cheap. On their behalf, however, I must admit that the decidedly day-to-day cheapness often translates into being remarkably generous to the charities and non-profit organizations of their choice.

A few of the Dutch culinary specialties are still in full-force in these parts (for better or worse), from the unfortunate Hutspot (or the kale version - Stamppot – if you want extra nasty) to the borrowed Nasi Goreng (colonial-era Indonesian) to the utterly divine  Christmas delicacy, Banket. While I’m sure you could eat this year-round, I mean there’s not a LAW against it or anything, it’s really a Christmas only treat in my husband’s family’s book. The start of the Christmas season equals Banket, and Banket equals the start of the Christmas season.

This is my mother-in-law’s Banket recipe, which she got from her mother-in-law, who was born in The Netherlands. So there.

Banket
(makes 8 sticks)

Dough:
1 pound butter (yes, 1 pound of real, honest-to-goodness unsalted butter)
4 cups white flour (no, this is not the time to try to sneak any whole grain flour into your life)
1 cup milk (2% is ok if you can’t bring yourself to use whole, but use whole – trust me)
Blend all together. Form into ball. Wrap well in waxed paper. Refrigerate 24 hours.

Filling:
1 pound almond paste (usually found in tub or brick form in the refrigerated section)
3 eggs (no, Egg-Beaters won’t work – why are trying to ruin the Banket???)
2 cups sugar (yes, good old fashioned white sugar that will kill us all  in the end)
Blend all together. Wrap up in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 24 hours.

Assembly

Have on hand:
1-2 egg whites, beaten
white sugar (yes, more sugar, get over it already)

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Divide the dough and filling into 8 parts.
3. Roll out dough into very thin rectangle (approximately 6 x12). Store extra dough & filling in freezer, until needed.
4. Spread filling, in a long tube, across the center of the rectangle.
5. Fold one long edge of the rectangle over the filling.
6. Fold both short ends of the rectangle towards the center.
7. Using both hands (to keep first piece of the long rectangle folded over the filling), tightly roll the covered filling until it is completely covered by the remaining side of the dough rectangle. (Yes, it makes sense when you do it.)
8. Set on parchment paper-lined baking sheet, with the dough edge underneath the Banket stick. 
9. Repeat above for 2nd Banket stick, leaving 3 inches between each stick.
10. With a pastry brush, lightly coat the top of the Banket sticks with egg whites.
11. Sprinkle sticks with sugar.
12. Grab a fork and poke a few holes in the sticks to release some air while baking.
13. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown all over. Do not over cook.
14. Let cool for 20-30 minutes before cutting into 2-3 in pieces.

Notes:

• Banket sticks can be frozen, unbaked, for up to 6 months if tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. Do not allow sticks to be smooshed, bent or twisted in the freezer, as the dough will crack into pieces and the filling will maintain a semi-gooey consistency. Thaw approx 10 minutes before baking.
• Cupcake tins are really useful for keeping the individual dough and filling parts separated in the freezer, during assembly.

Keeping gifts a secret, come Christmas time, is so hard for me – the main gift [...]]]> Anakin:  ”It doesn’t have to be that way. We could keep it a secret.”
Padme:  ”We’d be living a lie. One we couldn’t keep, even if we wanted to.”
              Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Keeping gifts a secret, come Christmas time, is so hard for me – the main gift buyer. It just makes me want to dance around screaming, “I’ve got the coolest stuff in the closet right now. Do you want to see? Do you want to see?”

Luckily, I got to give my guys (and myself) part of our Christmas presents early this year. A couple of years ago, we all bought cheap little mp3 players for next to nothing at an after-Christmas sale and they’ve served us well – until this fall – when all three started to die off on us. Padawan Learner couldn’t get sound from the headphones on both sides anymore. Dad Windu’s kept depleting the battery halfway through his run, despite putting in a freshly charged one before heading out. And mine? Well, let’s just say that it and I were often in disagreement about which songs I had downloaded onto it. 

Because of this, Dad Windu has been Jones-ing for an iPod Nano (after playing with our Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddy’s) for a couple of months and, since he rarely asks for anything, I was determined to get him one this year. I looked over the models available, and picked the 3rd generation with video with 8G of memory instead of the newest version because of some complaints I’d read about by other runners regarding the “shake to shuffle” feature when used for running. 

Padawan Learner and I began to plot about how to get one without DW knowing about it. We concocted a master scheme to convince DW that we were getting a new tent and camping equipment. I filled up my cart on Amazon with camping equipment so it kept showing camping stuff across the “Recommended for you” header on the main page. I “hid” camping equipment catalogs in the house with dog-eared pages. Friends made comments about “Hey, I have a coupon for free shipping for ‘that stuff from that place.’ Let me know if you want to use it.” I even got a big @ss box to wrap up under the tree. I am soooo good.

Too good, apparently, because I completely snowed him into thinking he was getting a tent and he called to tell me that he found a really good price on the Nano. A round-robin of me saying, “Don’t buy it,” and him saying, “Why? It’s $10 cheaper here than anywhere else,” began. Finally, I had to give and snarled said, “Christmas, you idiot!” He quietly said, “Oh. OK.”

The nice thing is that along the way PW and I also began Jones-ing for an iPod Nano, so I ordered one for him and one me for Christmas too. I pooled my pennies, snagged some coin from a few other places, and basically scrimped and saved to be able to give us a ‘Holly, Jolly, Apple-based Christmas’. I filled them up and gave them out on the morning of the bus trip so that my reading-in-the-car-makes-me-want-to-hurl men would have something to do on the 3 hour one-way (that became 4.5 hours one-way) bus trip last weekend. 

But fear not, I did get a few other little things to hand out on Christmas morning, too, and they’re in the closet right now. Do you want to see? Do you want to see?

Christmas has been called ‘The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ but it seems to have morphed into ‘The Most Busy Time of the Year’.*  Over the past weekend, I heard versions of my buddy Obi-Wan’s “We haven’t much time” quote in circulation: