{"id":8106,"date":"2020-12-18T10:22:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T18:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alicecarbone.com\/?p=8106"},"modified":"2020-12-22T12:27:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T20:27:48","slug":"muddling-through-somehow-the-winter-solstice-and-a-unicorn-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alicecarbone.com\/staging\/2381\/muddling-through-somehow-the-winter-solstice-and-a-unicorn-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Muddling Through Somehow: The Winter Solstice and a Unicorn Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi guys!<\/p>\n

I hope you are hanging in there.<\/p>\n

For the December newsletter, being that the holidays and all the feelings connected to them can easily fall into the clich\u00e9, I thought about giving you a simple update, and also a little bit of an explanation for why I love this time of year.<\/p>\n

I have always been fascinated with the history of all religions, and I have grown to be increasingly fascinated with the similarities they share. The winter solstice, for example, and the days around it, are a time that most religions, monotheist and pagans, consider and have considered, in a way or another, sacred.<\/p>\n

I find the winter solstice magical; it’s the shortest day of the year, a mystical one when light and darkness connect on a deeper level: one gets closer to death, the other one gets closer to life, all in the same instant, when one becomes the other.<\/p>\n

Solstice<\/em> comes from the Latin solstitium<\/em> (sol<\/em>, which means sun, and the past participle of sistere<\/em>, meaning to make stand). The position of the sun in the sky, on December 21st, appears to stay immobile.\u00a0The mystery of what this might have represented for the people who lived this planet before the modern astronomical discoveries is fascinating to say the least.<\/p>\n

I like to stay still as well during this time.<\/p>\n

For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year.<\/p>\n

Now, let’s get to the updates:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"unicorn
My beautiful unicorn cake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

– Catherine turned 3 (on December 16th), and I made for her a unicorn cake. It was my first time making a layered cake: seven layers of genoise sponge soaked in orange and raspberry marmalade and pastry cream, all covered in orange blossom Italian buttercream. She loved it.<\/p>\n

– I haven’t found an agent for my cookbook yet. I have contacted several, I was really hoping to be read by Kari Stuart, but no response. However, Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, was so kind and emailed me back to tell me that mine was a great idea for a story (the one that inspired the book). The NYT is not publishing either freelance material or autobiographical stories as of now, but his words encouraged me.<\/p>\n

– The kitchen is almost finished and I finally love it. We also painted the front door and finished the entire fencing around the house.<\/p>\n

– This year, I bought all my presents from small and local businesses and restaurants, both here, in California, and in Italy. They are not luxury items, and I have found so much happiness in looking for them, in wrapping them, and in thinking of the joy those opening them will experience. I think that through the pandemic I have rediscovered a sense of community, the value and joy in shopping small, in person, in getting to know the people who make my community unique, and the freedom of giving up Amazon and the like.<\/p>\n

– Mark Bittman<\/a> is following me on Instagram (!!!)<\/p>\n

– I emailed Alice Waters for advice, and one of the things she said to me was that she wouldn’t be where she is hadn’t she had friends by her side along the journey. So I look around me, and I realize that I am surrounded by the most amazing and loyal friends, something I had always longed for in my previous life, and that I never thought possible.<\/p>\n

– I don’t have many resolutions for the new year, but I do want to go back to re-learn French, I want to go to Italy and spend a few months in Europe as soon as it is safe to do so, and I have a lot of hope for the change that 2021 can bring. I do…I do have hope.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being my loyal tribe. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for muddling through somehow…<\/p>\n

Happy Holidays,<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Alice<\/p>\n

ps. the featured image is the view from my office, with no filter. I took the photo at 5:30 pm on December 17th. Catherine saw the moon, and the beauty was breathtaking.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n