Travel Journaling and a Wednesday Medley

What I see, early morning, when I look from the porch

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Tomorrow is National Croissant Day!!

NATIONAL CROISSANT DAY – January 30

NATIONAL CROISSANT DAY

In the United States, National Croissant Day is observed each year on January 30th. Croissants are a buttery, crescent-shaped rolls that are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  

The key to a perfect croissant is laminating the dough. Laminating the dough is a process by which butter is folded into the mixture creating multiple thin layers of butter and dough. The result is a mouth-watering flaky crust and airy body.

Legend surrounds this pastry, as is often the case with a popular, worldly treat. What is known, is that crescent-shaped breads have been found around the world for ages. One of these was the Kipferl which originated in Austria as far back as the 13th century. This nonlaminated bread is more like a roll.

Credit for the croissant we know today is given to an Austrian military officer, August Zang. In 1939 he opened a Viennese bakery in Paris introducing France to Viennese baking techniques.

HOW TO OBSERVE

Stop by the bakery for a fresh, warm croissant or try making your own using this recipe: Croissants recipe.

1.  Well, I do love croissants when they are fresh, but day-old croissants need to be turned into a donut.  I happen to really like the croissants that have a donut-like glaze on them!  Sugar overload but so good.  So... do you like croissants?  What is your favorite way to eat them?

 I do love croissants, but rarely eat them. My favorite are either when they are filled with my curry chicken salad (YUM) or filled with cream cheese and raspberry jam (Good grief, WAY too good! I've not eaten one for years.) 

 What I see when I look across the road

2.  Speaking of food... How do you handle stress?

LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Very funny, Terri!  Actually, there is nothing like stress to drive me to the bag of chocolate chips or dark chocolate bars, OR cookies, if I have them in the house. Fortunately, I don't have a lot of stress in my life, and I've tried to get over that reaction to it, but it persists. Sigh.

3.  Out of the negative emotions of greed, anger, jealousy, and hate, which one would you say affects you the most?

I try to duck other people's anger, jealousy, and hate. I don't think I personally have an issue with those, but maybe greed if you're counting the number of books and other things that 'spark joy' for me. :-)  I can't help it that so many things SPARK JOY!!!

4.  Out of the positive emotions of compassion, positivity, enthusiasm, and initiative, which one is your biggest strength?

I'd say that positivity is my biggest strength - and I've taken the initiative to pray enthusiastically for more compassion. Please, Lord. (So I got done writing this, read it to Mr. C., and he said, in all sarcasm, 'and your greatest strength is humility.' OKAY, FINE!!! Who asked him anyway??)

5.  What do you get every time you go grocery shopping, other than the staples such as bread, milk, butter, flour, sugar...

 I guess I simply get another staple item: Dark Chili Chocolate bar from Aldi. We keep a stash - for emergencies - which, oddly enough, tend to occur almost every single day. This would not be a stress emergency, but one of those times when you think: What can I eat that will be delicious and satisfying and NOT set up cravings? Ah yes, very dark chocolate.

You thought I was kidding. We don't go through them very fast, for at most we each have about a 1.5 x 3" section. Any more than that wouldn't even taste good. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

6.  Please tell us something random about your week so far.

Oh boy. The biggest thing is the deep freeze we're heading into, -30 degrees F. air temp for a low. BUT, the next biggest thing is that I finally finished my travel journal for our trip to the UK in November/December of last year. It's about 140 pages long (which means two sides of each of the 70 sheets). I had to order two large plastic coils and divide the whole thing into two fat books, but I'm pleased with how they turned out. Mr. C. asks, 'who's ever going to see it?' Well, what a stupid question is that! I mean, it's not like ANYone has to see it (and if you don't want to see the following pages, you can close your eyes while you scroll to the end) but I need to make it and enjoy it. And I do. So here are just a few pages, trying to avoid pages that have too much of my personal text, recounting huge fights between Mr. C. and me (just kidding), and showing you what it is I do to occupy a few long, cold weeks here in NW Wisconsin! So I started after the first of the year, working on this project occasionally (and then obsessively!) and am SO glad to have it done.

 Visiting Durham Cathedral, where we met friends for lunch at the Undercroft Cafe

 Visiting Fairford

 And London, of course
St. Paul's for First Sunday of Advent

 Gloucester Cathedral, where we met  friends
for lunch in the Monk's Kitchen 
(different friends, different cathedral)

Canterbury Cathedral, most beautiful job site in the world. I've always avoided the scaffolding when taking pictures in the past, but thought this time I'd show the reality of the upkeep of these beautiful cathedrals that are in constant need of repair, restoration.

I'm hoping to get around to posting more photos of this wonderful adventure for Anglophile Friday, but it's a very busy week, so we'll see what happens. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday, everyone, thanks for stopping in, - and thank you again to Terri for the Wednesday Medley!

 So after scraping the ice from the windshield and shoveling the walk and hauling in a couple loads of firewood, these two decided that a snuggle break in the livingroom, near the fire, was in order.

#tommyandsmokey

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