Every year, we have a colonial Christmas tea, where I cook a combination of Sri Lankan traditional party food (rolls, chicken patties, mackerel cutlets, ribbon sandwiches, milk toffee, marshmallows, love cake, and arrack sours) with British traditional tea party / Christmas food (cucumber sandwiches, roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, mushroom sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, berry trifle, fruitcake, mulled mead and mulled cider). Plus some extra sweets. I feel that I should get something good out of colonialism, after all, and traditional British holiday fare is delicious. Cooking a feast is an opportunity to put my day job as a professor aside, and even the SF novel I’m writing, and sink deep into food and domesticity, some of my own enduring sources of joy. Especially when I get to share the cooking (and then the eating) with my partner, children, and friends!
My stream of consciousness of things at the holiday party that brought me joy now begins…
Trifle topped with pomegranate seed and edible silver stars. Twinkly lights, little houses, polar bear. Kevin’s note left for me about what he did and didn’t get done after I went to sleep Saturday night. Four big brownies from the bakery section, cut into fourths, topped with little candies from Michael’s. (Best petit four cheat ever — took five minutes, and the kids loved them.) Array.
Mango-ginger shortbread, our very classy holiday chains (Kavi wanted to make some, and I wanted some that would go with the white and silver decor in the dining room, so I found some pretty metallic paper in silver, gold, and pink…), fresh flowers (I like how the bells of Ireland look like little trees), Ellie patiently waiting for the party (and the food-dropping) to start. Ellie LOVES parties.
most relevant here are probably:
– her cooking blog, Serendib Kitchen (http://serendibkitchen.com)
– her most recent SF book, The Stars Change (Sri Lankans in space!)
(https://www.amazon.com/Stars-Change-Mary-Anne-Mohanraj/dp/1613900848)
– the SF/F non-profit grant-making organization she runs, the SLF
(www.speclit.org) Mary Anne on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mary.a.mohanraj
Mary Anne on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mamohanraj
Mary Anne’s website: http://www.maryannemohanraj.com
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