Chocolate-covered coconut balls

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the Internet gave to me: this amazing and delicious dairy-free recipe!

I know, it doesn't quite fit the meter. That's okay. These little treats completely make up for my lack of poeticalness. And ability to use real words, apparently. Moreover, they've erased all of my lingering resentment about not being able to eat Christmas cookies this year. These things are amazing.

The idea came from these dark chocolate coconut bites from Pinch of Yum, but I Kit and I didn't quite follow the recipe as written... Here's how we made ours:

2 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

4 tablespoons maple syrup*

5 tablespoons coconut oil

Splash of vanilla

1+ cup(s) semisweet chocolate chips

In a bowl, mush together the coconut, syrup, coconut oil and vanilla with your fingers until thoroughly combined. Take large pinches and squeeze them firmly in your hand to make balls, about an inch in diameter. Line the balls up on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for half an hour. 

Melt chocolate chips; I started out with about 3/4 of a cup, but I ate some, and then I ran out of chocolate when I was coating the coconut balls so I had to melt more, but my additional 1/2 cup of chocolate chips were about 34 degrees F when they went in the microwave so they didn't melt well, not having sat on the counter for a half hour like the first batch, so I really don't know exactly how much I used (or should have used). The size of the balls will affect the amount of chocolate you wind up needing, too, so I'd recommend starting with 1 cup but making sure you have more room-temperature chips standing by just in case.

Anyway! Melt the chocolate chips, then carefully roll the chilled coconut balls in the melted chocolate and set them back on the wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Chill the balls until the chocolate hardens, then transfer them to a wax paper-lined tin and store them in the fridge (you can use the same wax paper from the cookie sheet).

*I used Grade B maple syrup, which is stronger and darker than Grade A. It's delicious, but 4 tablespoons of it made for a very strong flavor. Next time I might try Grade A or honey instead, or an adult-only version with 2 tablespoons each of honey and rum, or of maple syrup and some liquor. Bourbon? What would you pair with maple?

SQT: New Years edition

I

So many greetings appropriate to today: Happy new year, Blessed solemnity of the Theotokos, and of course Merry eighth day of Christmas! We've been celebrating our way through the Christmas season here in the Shifflerhaus, but today has been extra special for the solemnity: we went to Mass, had a lovely herbed pork loin with padahae and green salad for dinner, and I sang the Akathist to the Theotokos this evening all the way through. I absolutely love that hymn! 

II

We've also been enjoying some absurdly warm weather all week, which is sure nice after the cold we had leading up to Christmas, but lately it's been too warm; I took the kids for a walk yesterday, and it was 40 degrees out! We don't want the snowpack starting to melt for months yet; the roads will be awful for the rest of the winter if they get icy now. Little Bear, though, has been very happy with the warmth: he's outside playing every chance he gets!

III

Do you have your 2016 patron saint yet? This year, Jen Fulwiler's saint generator gave me St Honoratus, which made me laugh—he's the patron saint of bakers, and I spend a lot of time baking! I'm looking forward to learning more about him this year.

IV

Actually, I could definitely benefit from his intercession these days. Little Kit and I are still off dairy, and my success/failure record with dairy-free baking has been pretty sharply divided. Sandwich bread, hamburger buns, fruitcake, and Christstollen have all turned out perfectly; all of the non-dairy sweets that I've tried, though, have met an abrupt and inglorious end in the trash can. Well, the disastrous attempt at almond milk tapioca pudding went down the disposal instead, but same thing. Homemade sweetened condensed coconut milk is delicious, we learned, but melting in chocolate chips and letting it set up does not produce what Matt and I had in mind as proper fudge. And the cookies just... Matt finally suggested that we just make a second batch of fruitcake and forget about Christmas cookies this year, so that's what we're doing.

V

If I was a coffee drinker, though, I think I'd be tempted to make this stuff all the time, it's so good. Decadent. Amazing. We've already established that I do not like it with chocolate, but I might have to come up with some other way of drinking it (without drinking it straight, though that sounds delicious) so I can justify making some more. And it's so easy:

Pour one can of full-fat coconut milk into a small pot with a quarter cup of whatever sweetener you want—I used honey—and bring it to a boil over medium heat for five minutes. Then reduce the heat and just let it simmer until it reduces by half. Mine probably took closer to an hour than to 45 minutes, but I imagine different sweeteners and different stoves could change cooking times, so keep checking it once you pass a half hour.

VI

On Christmas Eve, Matt let Kit play with the rim of his water glass, and ever since, any time one of us picks up a glass while we're holding her she lunges for it, both hands grasping the sides, and tries to pull it to her mouth. She makes the funniest faces and sounds, burbling conversationally as she gnaws on the rim, trying to stick her tongue in to reach the water, but sometimes I just want to drink from a glass that's not full of baby drool, you know? But she's so cute, we usually wind up letting her play.

VII

I suppose I've skipped over the obligatory acknowledgement that we had a lovely Christmas Day, which we did, and are continuing to have a jolly Christmastide, which we are. I hope all of our Christmas morning photos are on Matt's phone, because I don't seem to have any! This is a fair example of what most days since have looked like, though: Little Bear and Kit playing together. So far he's been very good about sharing with her, and she's very enthusiastic about watching whatever he's doing.

Blessed solemnity, happy new year, and a merry rest of the Christmas season to everyone! You can find more quick takes linked up at This Ain't The Lyceum. 

Luke 12

Several verses from this week's chapter jumped out at me as appropriate to today, on the eve of a new year. 

4 And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

5 But I will shew you whom you shall fear: fear ye him, who after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say to you, fear him.

8 And I say to you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God.

9 But he that shall deny me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God.

15 And he said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth.

34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

It's certainly easy, too easy, to find things to be fearful about in the world today. But Christ here provides a perspective-check: preserving our physical wellbeing, even our very lives, is not as important as defending our spiritual wellbeing. Not to say that we can't or shouldn't take care of our and our dependants' physical needs, but if we believe that our spiritual wellbeing is as important as Christ says it is, that belief will be reflected in our priorities. I don't know about you, but my day-to-day priorities could stand a little reorganizing here...

Verses 8 and 9 sort of tie into that, but specifically regarding how our spiritual health is manifested in our words and actions. 

"...for a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of things he possesseth." The gentleness of this reminder is actually what stopped me. It's not so much a 'woe to you wicked covetous people' as it is nudge to remember that we're all inclined to this in one way or another, so we need to be on guard for it because allowing ourselves to dwell on or act on covetous thoughts will not benefit us. 

"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Pretty much sums it all up, right? Our "treasure" is whatever we safeguard, build up, single out as our priority, "set our hearts on." 

I'm not the biggest fan of New Years resolutions, certainly in part because I'd be lucky to remember any of them by the second week in January. But as we begin a new year, I'm hoping to come back to these verses a couple of times as reminders of what Christ is looking for from me.

O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their savior; come to save us, O Lord our God!

The last O Antiphon; tomorrow night, we celebrate the long-awaited Savior's birth. We proclaim Him our Lord, our God, our king, our savior. Emmanuel, God with us. Though we have one more day before Christmas, this last antiphon carries a uniquely excited, eager note: we expect Him. We know that he is coming, and we hover tonight on the cusp of that joyous proclamation the shepherds will hear tomorrow night: a child born, a savior, Christ the Lord!

O come, O come Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

O Rex Gentium

O King of the nations, desire of every human heart; O Keystone of the mighty arch of man, come save the creature you fashioned from the dust.

King and Keystone, two images of the key piece without which everything below them falls apart. The king holds together his kingdom as surely as a keystone holds up an arch. Without Him, we are jumbled, fallen pieces; with Him, parts of a cohesive, functioning whole. 

In the context of King and Keystone, today's antiphon's description of Christ as the "desire of every human heart" becomes self-evident: everyone desires wholeness, even if they don't realize that the wholeness they seek is only found in connection with Christ.

O come, desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind.

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease

And fill the world with heaven's peace.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O Oriens

O rising dawn, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Say, there're those folks sitting "in darkness and in the shadow of death" again, still referring to us, of course. This antiphon reiterates that we aren't merely "looking forward" to Christ's coming—we are desperately longing for Him. Longing for His enlightenment, and particularly so on this dark Solstice night.

We know a little bit about darkness, here in Alaska.

And on this darkest day of the year, we boldly proclaim Christ to be our light. Not just a light, but the "rising dawn": the light whose arrival we so eagerly watch for on the horizon. The "brightness of light eternal," shining through the bleakest night. The "sun of justice," putting all things to rights.

O come Thou Dayspring from on high

And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh.

Dispell the gloomy clouds of night

And death's dark shadow put to flight.

Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

Luke 11

5 And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves,

6 Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him.

7 And he from within should answer, and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

8 Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth.

9 And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

10 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Encouragement to keep knocking, to keep asking. I've fallen into an overthinking pattern lately that's left me needing to hear this particular passage; I somehow reasoned myself to a place of thinking that it was "more right" to just pray for God's will to be done in whatever given situation instead of making specific intentions. That praying "May Your will be done in X's life" was what I ought to be saying, rather than "Please help X to get better." And because of this, praying for people was starting to be a source of stress and confusion and even guilt.

But right here we have Christ instructing us to bring those specific petitions to God: "Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you." God does want me to bring my needs and particular prayers to Him, and even to continue doing so over and over again.

Understanding that prayers may not be answered the way I think they should be is still important, of course; God sees everything, and I see only a small part, so any time one of us is wrong about what the best course of action is, it's always going to be me. But even in spite of my shortsightedness, God invites me to ask, to seek, to knock. What a gift!