My Black Friday + Recipe

I shared a bountiful Thanksgiving with family, it was wonderful. Although, it would have been even better if some of my other loved ones could have been there, too.

My Black Friday didn’t involve any bloodshed over big screen TVs and such. No, I opted for something more soothing — a day at the spa with a dear friend. So relaxing and the sauna is an especially great way to detox from Thanksgiving indulgences.

Later in the day I was blessed to spend more time with some family. We revisited childhood memories — good and bad — and caught up with our lives today. Our visit was made even better by enjoying some of my leftover sweets like Spiced Orange Cranberry sauce with fresh whipped cream. We rounded out the evening with another one of my leftovers made from my favorite beer, Guinness. We decided both sweets were even better having aged a day.

This was a bit of an experiment on my part and, as I often do, I failed to write all my adaptations down the first time I made it. This time I kept notes so I’m able to share it with you. I would describe this cake as being masculine, it’s sweet but not cloying, perhaps a bit earthy like a deep red wine. I could easily see this being adapted further, maybe adding some dark drunken raisins?

Guinness® Chocolate Gingerbread
This dense cake has a spiced, dark intensity that pairs well with its namesake and other hearty fare.
Approx. 20 mins. prep.
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 C. packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 C. all-purpose flour
2 T. cocoa powder
1 ½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
2 t. ground ginger
1 t. ground cinnamon
½ t. ground cloves
¼ t. ground nutmeg
1 C. molasses
1 C. Guinness beer
Guinness Chocolate Ginger Glaze, recipe follows, ~15 mins. prep. (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease a bundt pan thoroughly with butter, using the wrapper from the stick of butter works well. You may also bake this using a 13×9 cake pan.

1. Combine the Guinness and molasses in a bowl or pitcher, stirring to dissolve.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk to combine all the dry ingredients, except the sugar.
3. Cream together butter and sugar in large mixing bowl.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time into the butter/sugar mixture.
5. Add the dry ingredients and beer mixture alternately into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, 1/3 at a time, ending with the beer mixture, blending until combined.
6. Pour into prepared pan, bake until puffed and set, ~35 mins. The middle will be slightly sunken, and still a bit squidgy in the middle, do not overbake.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack. Prepare glaze while cooling.
8. Gently loosen edges from bundt, invert onto platter. If using a cake pan, cut into squares.
9. Drizzle warm glaze over bundt cake or reserve it to pour over individual slices. You may also serve it plain with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar, a good vanilla ice cream or sweetened cream sauce. Cake is at its best served warm.

Guinness Chocolate Ginger Glaze:
1 C. Guinness beer
6 T. brown sugar
2 T. butter
1 T. cocoa powder
¼ t. each of ground ginger and ground cinnamon

Melt butter in pan over med. high heat, add dry ingredients stirring to combine. Stir in beer, continuing to stir until smooth. Simmer until reduced to about half and coats a spoon, ~10 mins.

(Cake portion adapted from recipe on Food Network site, 12/2008)

The Gift of Gratitude

“Since you will come
and throw kisses
at my tombstone later
why not give them to me now
this is me
that same person.”
-Rumi

Expressing gratitude is a gift to ourselves and others. Acknowledging the people and things that touch our lives in even the smallest of positive ways is something we should strive to achieve on a daily basis — beginning today, now. Because life shifts in a blink of an eye and what is common to you today, you may find yourself longing for tomorrow.

In the midst of all the Thanksgiving madness tomorrow, I hope we all can find a moment to “throw kisses” of gratitude!

Free Antique Ephemera: Faith, Hope and Charity

I’ve recently taken a trip to California’s beautiful Central Coast and am slowly working on getting some of the photos ready to share. Until then, I thought I’d share this beautiful antique postcard of mine. It lists the three graces as Faith, Hope and Charity but the actual line-up left to right is Faith, Charity and Hope. I think this would make a beautiful addition to a Christmas card. Enjoy!

Copyright ©2009 Sacred Curiosities/Lola Morales. Some rights reserved.You are free to use this image for your projects both personal and commercial. However, the image itself may not be resold as a single graphic or as part of a clip art/collage collection. A mention and/or link to my site would be appreciated.

Pomegranates and Mythology

These are some of the beautiful pomegranates my cousin shared with me a while back. I wish I had put more thought into setting up the shots as they’re not very interesting, but I decided to just go ahead and play with a couple of them anyway.

Like many common things, there’s a great deal of symbolism connected to this fruit. It symbolizes fertility, prosperity, and eternal life. It is argued that a pomegranate, as opposed to an apple, was actually the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

Then, of course, there’s the story in Greek mythology of Persephone, Goddess of the Underworld. She was daughter to Zeus and Demeter, the Earth Goddess. Demeter worked to provide Persephone a pleasant life, shielding her from the dangers of the world and unsatisfactory suitors.

Then one day, while Persephone was frolicking in a field with some nymphs, Hades, God of the Underworld, came up and snatched Persephone taking her back down with him.

Demeter was devastated, she didn’t know where her daughter was or what had happened, she only knew that her beloved child was gone. She fell into despair and began spending all her time looking for Persephone.

During this time, all life on Earth began to suffer due to Demeter’s neglect of her duties and her great grief. Helios the Sun God, sees all and knew what happened to Persephone. He finally told Demeter and Zeus where she was.

Zeus, being the enraged father, demanded Hades return his daughter, he complied. As soon as Demeter and her daughter were reunited Earth began to flourish again. But there’s one caveat: before Hades released Persephone he tricked her into eating some seeds from a pomegranate. Anyone that enjoys food or drink while in the Underworld is damned to remain there for eternity.

Since Persephone only had a few seeds she only has to return to the Underworld for part of the year. But during that time the Earth still falls into a dormant state due to Demeter’s sadness and anger, too, probably. Apparently, this story explains our seasons.

I can see that it also explains how a mother can be inextricably tied to her child making all other matters fall away in a crisis. But this ultimately makes everything and everyone else suffer. It can be hard to accept an unanticipated fate for your child, but you may have to learn to trust that the gods have a greater plan.