That Was the Worst Christmas Ever

Sufjan Stevens actually recorded a song by that title, referring to the year his family got into a big fight and some of the Christmas presents were thrown into the wood stove. For my family, this year's Christmas was certainly the longest Christmas ever, but it could rank up there with the best. I know I'll not soon forget it.

There was the traditional Festivus celebration on Dec 23, complete with the aluminum pole, feats of strength, airing of grievances, and a screening of The Strike. On Dec 24, we did the traditional chili and tamale dinner, birthday party and cake for Auntie, and Christmas presents with Dad's side of the family. Dec 25, more food and presents, fun fun, but my family waited to open presents from each other until Katie got home. So you can imagine that Christmas seemed like really old news by January 9.

On top of that, we didn't even complete the festivities and open all the presents in one night, so Christmas went to round three a few days later. It became a running joke that we were still celebrating Christmas two weeks into January. We were determined to make round three the knockout round, and Scott said in a menacing voice, "Tonight we end this!"

We started with our traditional Eggs Benedict. This year for Christmas, one of my gifts was three sets of Poach Pods. Though I subscribe to Alton's 'Death to uni-taskers' mantra, these are pretty cute and useful little apparatuses. You just crack the egg in the pod and set it in the simmering water. Some of the reviewers on Amazon complained that it's too hard to remove the cooked egg from the pod. I found it worked well to run a knife between the silicone and the egg's edge, then invert the poached egg onto the serving plate, but it certainly doesn't slide out easily. Then again, getting an egg to poach in a nice oblong shape every time is hard to do as it is. I think the pods helped simplify things, in that one doesn't have to shock the eggs in cold water and drain them on paper towels before moving them to the serving plate. The main complaint I had is that the shape of the pods does tend to make the eggs look rather round on top, like a scoop of ice cream, instead of the flat, ovular shape I'm used to.

I don't think I've ever made the same hollandaise recipe twice. I know the first few times I made it, each attempt had huge differences in thickness and the strength of the lemon flavor. Nowadays, my concoction is a hybrid of Martha Stewart's Hollandaise, Brennan's Hollandaise (no idea if this is the famed Brennan's recipe - it looks a little low on acidity to me), and America's Test Kitchen Hollandaise recipes. Martha uses white pepper, for example, prettier than black, unless that's not a problem for you. Brennan's recipe calls for a little red wine vinegar, but Martha and ATK use lemon juice. I use mostly lemon juice but have started adding a bit of vinegar, too. And Brennan's and ATK call for a touch of cayenne. The three recipes vary a bit on their egg/butter/acid ratio.

This year I used three egg yolks, two sticks of butter, juice from one lemon, a teaspoon or so of vinegar, plus salt, black pepper, and cayenne. I happened to have only Meyer lemons, and since they are a sweeter variety, everyone complained that this year's sauce lacked the lemon flavor they're accustomed to. The best and easiest method for mixing the ingredients is to melt the butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave; mix the egg yolks, lemon juice and/or vinegar, and seasonings in a blender; slowly add the butter while the blender is on; then add hot water as needed to thin the sauce.

One interesting dessert that we ate at round two of Christmas was the Norm Thompson Chocolate Coconut Snowball. Devil's Food Cake + a little chocolate frosting + marshmallow frosting + coconut. They were very tasty. Something to think about getting for next year, I suppose. Also, check out that Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas collection. In addition to the aforementioned, look for such fun titles as:

"Get Behind Me, Santa,"
"What Child Is This, Anyway?"
"Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!)"

My Year in Cities

Saw Miss Nemesis do it, so I thought I would, too. List all the cities where you stayed at least one night in 2007.

2007:
Las Vegas, NV
Dallas, TX (times three trips)
Provo, UT
San Diego, CA
New York, NY
and obviously Lubbock, TX

I left off some of the small suburbs, like Boulder City, NV, and Richardson, TX. I don't think I'm forgetting anything major, though. I feel pretty happy about that list. Even though it is short, I really had a lot of fun travels. New York was definitely the most fun of last year's trips. I still think about it every day. It's a couple of months until the Taiwan/Hong Kong trip. That should get 2008 off to a nice start. After that, who knows? At the very least, I seem to make a few annual pilgrimages to the Metroplex.

I would love to see your 2007 lists in the comments. If 2007 wasn't a great year for your traveling shoes, feel free to post a better year or your 2008 wish list. I know Auntie has a fun upcoming trip...!

All Is Right with the World

Or at least all is right with my little world. It is even more fun than I imagined it would be to have all of the family in one city again. We're all just a little bit giddy. I looked forward to coming home tonight and not being the only one home. But then I beat Katie home, so I ended up being home alone as usual. Then I was further saddened to realize my little sister was out later than I was. Made me want to go out on the town, just so that I wasn't the old fogey that was the first one home for the night.

Katie spouts a lot of random Chinese phrases in conversation now. It's cool, but a little unnerving, because she often laughs afterwards. I just know she's joking about me. Last night, she and Dad were sitting in front of the computer watching this clip, which inspired laughter as well.



Who knew "Hakuna Matata" was a Chinese phrase? I need to brush up on my Mandarin before our Taiwan trip in a couple of months. Or I could buy these T-shirts:

Time to Panic

• School's about to start!
• Katie will be home in 36 hours!
• Christmas bills are coming in left and right!
• My e-mail is not going to check itself!
• I attribute my winter blahs to a crazy infection or a case of mono or something worse!

It's disturbing, isn't it? You want to look away but can't. And doctors have proven useless thus far. Oh so many reasons to panic.

Fortunately, Unfortunately

Did you ever read or write a 'fortunately, unfortunately' story in grade school? I remember writing one in second grade that involved a New Kids on the Block concert. I feel like writing another tonight, just without Joey and Donnie.

• Fortunately, there was food in my house.
• Unfortunately, it all appeared to be inedible.
• Fortunately, I had milk in the house with which to make a hot drink.
• Unfortunately, I got too excited about that hazelnut steamer and burned my tongue.
• Fortunately, my house is so cold that the steamer quickly cooled enough to drink safely.
• Unfortunately, I have a five years' supply of hot chocolate mix in my pantry, and that hazelnut steamer ain't gonna put a dent in it.
• Fortunately, I made fast friends with toast smeared with butter and some crazy apple cider jelly.
• Unfortunately, I had only enough jelly for one slice of toast.
• Fortunately, I cleaned out the jelly jar and got to throw it away. One less thing in the fridge!
• Unfortunately, I will be in Lubbock for New Year's.
• Fortunately, I will have someone cute to kiss (the only fulfilled resolution from last year?).

I'm pretty sure my second grade story was better. Fortunately, it is time for bed. Unfortunately, I should have gone to bed before writing this second post.

Deathly Cold

My house feels particularly tomb-like tonight, quiet, cold, and depressing, and it's adding to my serious case of the blahs. I'm suddenly ready for summer or at least spring, with their long sunny days and warmth. Every morning, I dread the mile hike from the parking lot into work against the north wind. That's only a slight exaggeration. At least work gets me out of this cold house.


Last night, I tried out Alton's Steel Cut Oatmeal recipe. Scottish oatmeal is my new favorite breakfast. Alton's variation kicks it up a notch - wait, wrong host - Alton's variation turns humble horse feed into good eats. He notes that you shouldn't add salt to your oatmeal before cooking it, because salt soaks up too much water and keeps your porridge from getting creamy. He also toasts the oats in butter before adding the water. He adds milk, buttermilk, brown sugar, and cinnamon to the final product. I ate it for dinner last night and again for lunch today.

Today marks the first New Year's holiday that I've been in Lubbock in awhile. I've been in Houston, Las Vegas, Austin, and Vegas again over the past four years. I say, if you have to ring in the new year in Lubbock, you'd best be drunk and unawares. But if that's not your thing, Google "non-alcoholic cocktails new years" as I did, and you'll find some interesting mocktails. I found a link to the Great Pretenders Pamphlet with several mocktail recipes. Shows how tired I am, I thought it said it was put out by AA, but it's actually AAA. Now there are a couple of groups who know how to party!

Deck the Halls

I've still got a few more ornaments to hang on the tree. Okay, it ain't Martha Stewart or the Rockefeller Center tree. My star tree-topper isn't even vertical right now.

I've been drafting this post for about three weeks now. I figure it's time to let go of my perfectionism and update everyone. My life has been busy lately with holidays and the associated get-togethers, my piano students' recital, finishing up the school semester, and a week-long trip to New York.



Yes, I got to see amazing holiday window displays (as seen above) and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. I had a fabulous time in New York. I can't remember a trip that was more fun. I could write a ton about all the things I did and saw, but I'll try to stick to the highlights.

One of the best things we did was watch a live taping for the weekly broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. Listen to the December 15, 2007 broadcast here. Garrison Keillor and the other cast members were hilarious, and the two musical guest groups were spectacular as well. We also saw Les Misérables on Broadway. We lucked out and had front row center seats in the spit zone, seriously. It put every other play or musical I've seen to shame. Our hosts, Gordon and Kamara, gave us a private concert, and their respective bands, Smyer and Earl Greyhound, are definitely worth a listen.

The museums were incredible. I got a little overstimulated by it all, but we went to the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (took an afternoon to see only a tenth of it), the Brooklyn Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art. We also saw an interesting Jack Kerouac exhibit at the New York Public Library.

The food was great. My favorite food was probably at Choice Market in Brooklyn. We grabbed breakfast there a couple of times, and I think I could eat there everyday for a month and not get tired of it. We also went to Stand, and I tried the toasted marshmallow shake that I burned my fingers trying to create. Their shake tastes better and has no risk of third degree burns! The burgers were unremarkable. We got some good, inexpensive food at Bistro Lafayette and Cafe Martino. We ate brunch at a fabulous Italian place by Prospect Park, but I don't know the name of it. I have to say that I preferred the restaurants in Brooklyn to those in Manhattan/Little Italy/Soho.

Although we did eat at a great Indian place near Broadway and Times Square, Bombay Masala. I ordered the Chicken Vindaloo, listed as 'highly spiced' on the menu, "extra hot, really spicy." That prompted two Indian men seated at the next table to come over to our table and introduce themselves. They were impressed that we could eat our meal so spicy. Later in the conversation they found out we were from Texas, and they said that explained it. Chet likes his chicken spicy! I'll admit that he can take the heat better than I can. We had a contest. He won. But I'll train and beat him next time.

The only time I got cold and miserable was the morning we went to see the Statue of Liberty. It was really early in the morning, and riding on the top level of the ferry with the cold ocean breeze in your face was just not pleasant. That passed quickly, though, and seeing Lady Liberty and Ellis Island was very cool.

The only blah that I can think of was the Empire State Building. In the movies, characters go there to be all romantic and meet up with their lover at the top. Maybe we just hit it at the wrong time, but we waited in line for a couple of hours to get up and then back down. And it cost about $70 for the two of us to get to the 102nd floor. There are so many people and you have to wait in line for such a long while. Nothing romantic and spontaneous about that.

I loved being able to walk and take the subway everywhere I needed to go. It's fun to gawk at the buildings and sights. I got in this mentality that everything was cooler just because I was in New York. Like I would probably mock the same outfits in Lubbock, but in New York, they're eclectic and original. The other phenomenon is sticker shock. You'll see some things that are exorbitantly expensive, and it makes the merely expensive items look like bargains. I probably ate the most expensive sandwich of my life at Katz's Deli. A grilled Reuben was ~$15, but then again, I barely finished half of it. How come they don't stack the meat that high at Subway?

You knew I was going to be that person that came home from vacation and made everyone look at her pictures, so here you go. Sorry, I know there are lots of duplicates and duds.



I'm off to do some more Christmas shopping...

Thanksgiving 2007

I'd like to be live blogging Thanksgiving today to fill all of you in on the play-by-play action over here. It would be fun chronicling cooking disasters and triumphs, but there's too much to do. Maybe I could hire a ghost writer.

I didn't make it to the grocery store until last night. I figured it would be total bedlam at Market Street. It was crowded but wasn't anything I couldn't handle. I didn't see anyone cute. The kind of people that do their Thanksgiving shopping late Wednesday night are lazy procrastinators anyway. Since opposites attract, not my type.

I did have a guy approach me, though. He said, "Can I ask you a dumb question?" He held up a 9x13" foil cake pan. "You can use this pan for cakes, but can you use it for green bean casserole, too?"

"Oh yeah," I replied. "I would use that." Except I would never make green bean casserole, so boy did I lie to him.

Then I came home and ate some bread and took a nap. No need to start cooking yet. It's not Thursday morning. Mom and Wendy came over to help. We finished filling up the dishwasher, and I started the cycle. A few minutes later, we smelled something strange, and smoke, not steam, was coming out of the dishwasher vent. I'm not really sure what's up. I just know I'm out of a dishwasher the night before Thanksgiving, which is probably the worst day that could happen. Bad karma. Ooh! I am totally low on dish soap. The turkey is finishing its thaw in cold water. Next year: five days ahead for turkey thaw. Duh.

The American Farm Bureau reports that the average cost of this year’s Thanksgiving dinner for 10 is $42.26, a $4.16 price increase from last year’s average of $38.10. Where are they shopping? I'm feeding eight, and my grocery bill was higher than that.

Mom set the table for me and chopped vegetables with me. She's the best. I think the next step is making the Pumpkin Cheesecake. After that, the dressing and gravy. The turkey will need to be in the oven at nine for dinner at two o'clock-ish. To get in the cooking mood, I've been streaming NPR segments like: Cooking Disasters: Tales from the Kitchen and Getting a Time-Saving Jump on Thanksgiving Dinner.

11:00 am update: Well, I kinda slept in. Big surprise. So the cheesecake is cooking in Mom's oven. The turkey is in my oven. It looks pretty. No billowing smoke like last year. Still need to do the dressing and gravy and take a shower and then the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. Mom is a dear and sent the cranberry salad. She's also bringing broccoli and rice casserole, rolls, and pecan pie. I can't say I did it alone by any means.

Also, big gigantic snowflakes are falling from the sky right now. Also, Wendy put me on Facebook. I mean, I asked her to do it, but I still think it's dumb. Now I can feel guilty that my Facebook page is as dull as my life. Add me as your friend.





12:45 pm update: I don't have time to be blogging! Mom just called and said there was a mishap when she took the cheesecake out of the water bath. I don't think she was kidding. Looks like I'll be making another cheesecake tonight. I can't let Thanksgiving pass without it. The turkey is out of the oven. The dressing is going in. Still working on potatoes and gravy. Forget the shower. There is a lot of snow on the ground.

6:00 pm update: Dinner is over. The gravy was the last thing to the table. Besides me, that is. Mom said she liked the dressing and the cranberry salad. Daddy said the turkey and gravy were very good, but we need to go to meat-cutting school. Wendy liked the cranberry salad. Scott said it was all good. Grammy ate some Cool Whip and said, "This ice cream is not good." I was glad that my lover wasn't at dinner, so I could wear fat pants and eat as much as I wanted. Helluva day for the dishwasher to break down. Thanks, Mom, for doing the dishes.

Menu:
Roasted turkey and gravy
Buttermilk cornbread dressing
Mashed potatoes
Mashed sweet potatoes
Broccoli and rice casserole
Cranberry salad
White rolls
Relish tray
Pecan pie
Apple pie
(also a Pumpkin cheesecake that didn't quite make it)
How come there's always something on the menu that "didn't quite make it?" Mom wasn't kidding about the cheesecake. The details are still a little fuzzy, but she said that the bottom of the springform pan fell out when she was moving it. I tried the remnants. Not awful. I'm very sad. I am a baker by trade, and I want dessert to be the highlight of dinner. Maybe next year.

This snow has definitely put me in a holiday mood. I'm going to start putting up the Christmas tree tonight. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Start the Timer!

I just moved the Thanksgiving Turkey into the refrigerator to thaw. I meant to do that last night or at least this morning but completely forgot. The packaging said to allow for four hours' thaw time per pound. Hopefully that 16.73 lb. bird will be thawed on Thursday morning. I'll probably wind up doing the cold water quick thaw method again like last year. I hope this year's meal is better than last. I think my cooking skills have improved.

It's time to get geared up for holiday baking and shopping, and I couldn't be happier about it. I spend way too much time these days browsing recipes online and in cookbooks. Cooking is really the only hobby I'm keeping up with these days. Football watching has definitely fallen by the wayside. Imagine! The A&M, UT, and Oklahoma games passed without comment from me. I didn't even watch the UT game last week, usually the biggest game of the year for me, choosing instead to make a chocolate cake. After starting off the season with such faithful attendance, I missed the last football game of Scott's life. I haven't made time for piano practice. I haven't read a book cover to cover in months. Instead, my reading lately has been restricted to blog trolling and cursing those that don't offer a full RSS feed.

My kitchen was an absolute disaster after making a trifle for last Friday night's dessert. The trifle has layers of sponge cake, raspberry puree, custard, almond cookies, with a lemon whipped cream and more raspberries and cookies as a garnish. You can probably imagine the scene. It was a dark and stormy night. Mixing bowls and measuring cups were littered about the kitchen. Parchment paper was strewn across the table. Baking sheets and dishes sat on the kitchen chairs. The stand mixer and Cuisinart hummed in tandem. The smell of sponge cake wafted through the air. A raspberry thumb print and scattered bits of lemon zest and crumbled cookies sullied the counter top, and sugar dust glistened on the floor. As I reached into the spice cupboard above the stove for some nutmeg, a container of paprika fairly leapt out, spilling its bright red contents on the stove and counter. You see the kind of drama that I had to clean up after last Saturday.

Luckily, I thought the trifles turned out very well and I would make them again. I made individual servings inside glasses, rather than layering the dessert in a trifle bowl. They looked very pretty with the red raspberries and puree alongside the sponge cake and lemon whipped cream.

I'm sans piano lessons tonight, so it's a great excuse to do some baking and some much needed cleaning in the kitchen. I do have a homework assignment due tonight, which is another good reason to hide in the kitchen. Tonight in the oven it's pecans spiced with cumin, cayenne, and paprika. Depending on how the homework is looking, maybe later it'll be some dark chocolate cupcakes. I have some leftover coconut buttercream frosting to use from the latest edition of the Chocolate Blackout Cake. Much like last weekend my kitchen looked like a war zone, this time where a coconut bomb had exploded.

The Thanksgiving menu isn't set in stone yet. I have plans to do some major grocery shopping tomorrow, though. Thanksgiving is really the ultimate foodie holiday. I can't wait. Back to the homework...

Fall Back

I had a wonderful birthday last week. Thanks, family and friends, for making it so great. Marmee made the most wonderful birthday cake. I am requesting it every year from now on. It was a chocolate cake with some pumpkin in the batter, which made it very moist. The orange frosting was addictive. It had cream cheese, chocolate, cinnamon, heavy cream - a few of my favorite things. To top it off, there was a chocolate ganache that looked beautiful and tasted even better.

I actually got up early on the morn of my birthday to make a German Chocolate Fair Cake. I had been promising to take one to work for awhile, and since I share my birthday with two other people in our little department, I thought it would be a good day to eat cake! I was a little nervous about taking it, though, what with all the high expectations. I tried to be careful and meticulous measuring and mixing, but I only realized after the cakes were out of the oven that I had forgotten to put the salt in the cake batter. There was a definite difference. The cake was still gone in a flash, so we won't advertise that.

This weekend Chet and I went down to Dallas to see Spoon and The New Pornographers at the House of Blues. Those are a couple of my favorite bands. If you haven't heard the latest Spoon album, you can stream it here. It's called Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, because all of the other possible album titles were already taken. It was a great show. We also hit La Duni for dinner Friday and Whole Foods on the way out of town yesterday afternoon. I had such a fun time. He didn't try to push me off the bridges and overpasses.

I was glad to get an extra hour of sleep last night. I would not have made it to church on time without it. That wouldn't have been good, since I had the lesson for the kiddos. I had to take quite a nap this afternoon, too. I'm not used to this wild, fast-paced lifestyle. The last rock concert I remember going to was Chicago many years ago. I was probably among the youngest fans there, and I distinctly remember that the people behind me were angry that I was standing and singing along. "Young whippersnapper!"

Tonight for dinner, I used my new Le Creuset Grill Pan to make panini sandwiches. I thought I should have Chet over to inaugurate my birthday gift. Here's what I did, more or less. It was a bit hodge podge tonight. I thought the panini were good, but they would have been even better with some roasted peppers and crazy condiments. They're very quick and easy to put together. Anyone can cook... not that everyone should, but:

INGREDIENTS:
* boneless, skinless chicken breasts
* olive oil
* fresh rosemary, chopped
* garlic, minced
* salt
* black pepper
* thick, crusty bread, sliced (used Whole Foods French bread)
* cheese slices (used Pepper Jack)

PREPARATION:
Add a small amount of oil to a grill pan and heat pan on medium-high heat. Pound chicken breasts to a uniform thickness. Brush chicken with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and garlic. Place chicken in pan and cook for a few minutes on each side until juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink. Remove from pan. Put cheese slices on each bread slice. Place chicken breasts on the bread slices and cover them with another slice of bread. Brush outer sides of bread with olive oil and place in grill pan. Cover with panini press or weight. (I used a dutch oven. Those are heavy enough to break a toe or two. I just covered the bottom of the dutch oven in foil and set it right on top of the sandwiches.) Cook sandwiches for 3-4 minutes per side or until cheese melts. Remove from heat and serve.

The pan made lovely grill marks on the chicken and panini. Plus the pan is orange and matches my mixer. And it's heavy enough to use as a weapon, in case the knives are out of reach when your alarm clock goes off. I get an extra hour of sleep again tonight, right?