Snow sunsets and Christmas eve

The big storm that ravaged the northeast left a lovely two feet in the Brandywine Valley here in southeastern PA. It’s beautiful when dusk rakes across the drifts. Here’s my latest, and I’m working on another small painting of snow today.

Sunset on Snow. Oil on canvas panel 9″x12″ 2009

 

The holidays are a good excuse to bake and it’s my best and favorite culinary art. Yesterday I made a chocolate babka (or bobka) for the first time. A mix between a Nancy Silverton recipe and a 2006 Gourmet version that I found online. It’s like a buttery, nutmeg scented brioche filled with chocolate. What a treat, a new favorite pre-painting tea accompaniment… and a great last minute food gift.

Today I’m making more cookies – a tradition that my sister and I began long ago, when we’d travel from wherever we lived at the time, to see our mother and brother for Christmas in North Carolina.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

…and just for fun, an excerpt from a Seinfeld script centered around a dinner party and a lost Bobka.

JERRY: That’s the last Bobka. They got the last Bobka.

ELAINE: I know. They’re going in first with the last Bobka.

JERRY: That was our Bobka.

ELAINE: You can’t beat a Bobka.

JERRY: We should have had that Bobka.

ELAINE: They’re going to be heroes.

JERRY: What are we going to do now. If we can’t get the Bobka the whole thing’s useless.

ELAINE: Well how about a carrot cake?

JERRY: Carrot cake? Now why is that a cake? You don’t make carrots into a cake. I’m sorry.

ELAINE: Black Forrest?

JERRY: Black Forrest? Too scary. You’re in the Forrest, oohh.

JERRY: How about a Napoleon?

ELAINE: Napoleon? Who’s he to have a cake? He was a ruthless war monger. Might as well get Mengle.

JERRY: That was our Bobka. We had that Bobka!

ELAINE: What’s this one?

CLERK: That’s cinnamon Bobka.

JERRY: Another Bobka?

CLERK: There’s chocolate and there’s cinnamon.

JERRY: Well, we’ve got to get the cinnamon.

ELAINE: No, but they got the chocolate. We’ll be going in with a lesser Bobka.