Done Done DONE!

Yes. Finally done. The Nightmare Before Christmas was completed and packed up before Labor Day, even. I thought it might be here until December 24. 

It only took 10 days of piecing, but it was hard right down to the 1000th piece because I "finished" with two holes. I was not surprised because this is a garage sale find - it even has one possibly cat-chewed piece missing a tab! Happily, I found the missing pieces on the floor. 1000 pieces are safely back in the bag and box.

Yes, I should have made a photo of the completed puzzle but, frankly, I just wanted to get it off the table. It's kind creepy - that stare! And, you know, I like the look of the puzzle in deconstruction. 

The puzzle is in keeping with the Nightmare Before Christmas as the border is irregular and the pieces are irregular and the whole thing is monochromatic. Tim Burton has a kindred spirit in the puzzle designer who charted the layout of this puzzle. It is good quality - I could pick up and dangle the completed puzzle by the edge and not a single piece dropped out. It was made in China under a Disney license.

I pulled out a 1000-piece Charley Harper puzzle as the antidote - The Sierra Range. So colorful and serene. But I'm not going to dump it out for a little bit. Need a puzzle break, I think. 

Summer on a plate

I made olive oil-maple granola this morning to top this peak-of-summer ripe peach. So good. 

Enjoyed it with iced oolong tea.

I started with this recipe maybe 14 years ago and have tweaked it along the way, initially swapping  walnuts instead of pecans and reducing the maple syrup to a half-cup (those are my standards now). Also standard: start with a teaspoon of Morton's kosher salt in the slurry. It's tempting to add more but I resist (most of the time). Today I considered adding Malden salt crystals to my bowl but held off. Salt and sweet is almost irresistible so I rein in that tendency early in the process.

Other experiments include reducing or omitting the oatmeal, adding hemp hearts, sesame seeds, almonds, or [salted] pistachios, reducing the brown sugar by a third (that maybe a new rule from today forward).

I'm always trying to find a way to make the granola clump so I can eat it out of hand. I've added egg white, used more slurry, varied the baking-stirring method. No satisfactory clumps yet, but it's always delicious.

This seems to be almost universally enjoyed. One year for a charity fundraiser, I sold a quart jar of granola for $20. It probably could/should have been more.

Here's a link to the original recipe: 

https://food52.com/recipes/15831-nekisia-davis-olive-oil-maple-granola

It's come to this...

I decided to hide from the Nightmare to get things done around the house. 

Progress on the Nightmare

It is slow-going on the Nightmare. And still, it is completely absorbing. 

I started another puzzle

It is diabolical.  A real Nightmare in 1000 irregular grayscale pieces corralled by a sort of - but not really - round border. 

The morning after our family feast

Scrambled egg with Patrick's scone and fruit, perfect. 

My Family

Best family portrait we've made in a long time... maybe ever.