Lately I’ve been sleeping in later, but today I get up and going earlier than I have in awhile. I’m expecting a package to be delivered before 12 noon, and instead of dilly-dallying I take a shower right away and get dressed, so that I’m ready to head downstairs whenever it arrives. Then it’s back to my usual routine of coffee and breakfast, and as I’m washing the dishes, my phone rings — the delivery guy is downstairs. Good timing! The package contains some more sheets I had ordered off Amazon UK, which apparently were shipped from India? They had been held up for awhile in customs, probably due to the holiday crunch, but still they arrived earlier than expected.
It’s been awhile since I’ve heard from my friend M, but out of the blue he texts me with invitation to meet up at the Tasty 8 cafe in The Liberties near where he lives. It’s chilly out, in the 40s F / upper single digits C, but thankfully no rain forecasted until later this evening. Previously we had always sat outside due to the restrictions on indoor dining, but today we sit inside at a table that’s reasonable spaced out from other patrons. M offers to treat to coffee and lunch, and I order a breakfast sandwich with sausage and egg on sourdough that turns out to be very tasty.
After catching up on personal lives, the topic of conversation inevitably switches to the pandemic. The Irish cabinet is scheduled to meet today to decide on a new lockdown to address the third wave of COVID-19 that has been building ever since the country eased restrictions on December 1. In fact, the government issues a statement while we’re sitting in the cafe — M gets a call from a friend with a heads-up about it, because it will affect his work as a personal trainer. Originally, the plan was to revisit the current restrictions on January 6, but the number of new cases have been growing at 10% per day (970 new cases were reported later in the day, a big jump up). There’s also concern about the new UK strain that is suspected to be more infectious. The government announces that the country will be returning to “Level 5.” Restaurants and pubs serving food will be required to cease indoor dining service at 3pm on Christmas Eve. Starting December 27, people will be asked not to travel outside their county except for returning from the holidays, and visitors will be limited to only one other household. Then on January 1, the rules tighten up — no travel and no visitors. Starting December 26, places of worship will be asked to close, a move that has caused controversy in the past. Retail shops will remain open although the government is asking them to postpone their usual post-holiday sales (at least in store). Gyms will also close, but 1-on-1 training will still be allowed, so M is expecting business to pick up. It’s being reported that Tánaiste Leo Varadkar (#2 in the Irish government) believes the restrictions may need to last two months (or possibly more) until a critical mass of people are vaccinated in early spring, although the government is set to review the restrictions in mid-January. This dramatic and sudden turn of events has caught many by surprise, especially those in the restaurant industry that will have to pivot from indoor dining service back to take-out service only.
I’m not sure how the tighter restrictions will impact my plans to travel to France next week for New Year’s. People are still being advised to avoid non-essential travel, but borders between EU countries have so far remained open (with the exception of the soon-to-be Brexited UK). I’m still scheduled to get a COVID test on Saturday prior to my departure, and upon returning to Ireland, I would be expected to self-quarantine for 14 days again, just as I did in October when arriving from the U.S. At this point I’m still planning on going, but I’ll be monitoring further developments over the next few days.
M has a piano lesson in the afternoon, so we wrap up our visit, wishing each other a “Happy Christmas” (which is more commonly said here than “Merry Christmas”). I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking for some last minute holiday cards and recipe ingredients. Grafton Street is still bustling, with long queues into some of the more popular stores. I’ve already posted plenty of photos showing the crowds, and I’m feeling uninspired by the same scenes I visited many times before. However, this cute small urban art piece, painted low to the ground and hidden on the side of a building around a corner, catches my eye:
On the way home, I stop by a couple of grocery stores on the hunt for some elusive ingredients. This evening I want to make my favourite holiday cookies — ginger molasses peanut butter crinkles — and it took stopping in a few shops before I found the molasses.
Here’s an abbreviated walk-through of the recipe using photos, starting with all the ingredients (plus butter, not pictured):
Mix egg, softened butter and brown sugar:
Add molasses:
Add peanut butter:
Mix all wet ingredients thoroughly:
Mix dry ingredients — flour, ginger, cloves and salt:
Now incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet:
At the last stage, it’s easiest to mix the dough by hand:
The dough turns out very sticky and thick (I use chunky peanut butter for extra texture):
For a cookie sheet, I use the round pizza pan that came with the mini-oven, lined with baking paper:
Roll the dough balls in sugar:
Space the balls out on the pan (I should have saved some of them for the second batch):
Use a fork to create a grid pattern and flatten the dough balls slightly:
All ready to go:
Pop into the mini-oven (which has more precise settings than the built-in IKEA oven / cooker):
The first batch is looking good, although I don’t remember them spreading out so much:
The second batch are much less crowded:
Let cool on a rack:
Voilà — now I have a plate full of holiday cookies. But who’s going to eat all of them?! Hopefully Santa will stop by the apartment on Christmas night… they’ll go great with my homemade eggnog!
