the baron then offered a holiday toast
This was a holiday week(s) full of family and food, which made it tons of fun.
I got to share Christmas with my family and the boys for the first time in I can't remember how many years. We stayed in Pittsburgh. My parents drove up from Florida for a week and a half, and katybeth and eub flew out, somewhat delayed, from Seattle for a week. The boys and I decorated trees (inside and out), hung stockings, made cookies, and did lots of those delightful generic christmassy things.
My parents arrived with the first best present evar - several dozen of the Best Grapefruit in the World, which you should all know is grapefruit from the trees in their backyard, grapefruit I grew up eating and which has spoiled me for every other grapefruit, grapefruit which is tart and sweet and seedy (which perhaps I get my disposition from). A few thrift store searches later, and I was able to acquire some grapefruit knives, which were immediately put to good use.
One awesome thing about houseguests and no plans is that I get to cook! A lot! And have adults eat and appreciate (hopefully) my food! I'm not a Cook, but I can follow directions, and I sometimes have patience when it comes to yummy things. So I was able to fix large quantities of some of my favorite foods, suck as chili, salmon and veggies, crockpot chicken and risotto, coconut spinach, roasted green beans, and more. I bought a humongous ham (my favorite) which we only barely dented. I used the fondue pot my mom handed-me-down, and fixed cheese fondue for the first time evar (two kinds!). Then opalnipotent and I teamed up for greek with homemade spanakopita and tabouli and falafal and hummus (and soup, which didn't get touched).
For breakfasts, on a couple days when the boys weren't busy making us all pancakes, I did waffles with a hand-me-down waffle iron, and a couple batches of steel cut oats, which the rest of the family hadn't had. When curiosity about how it differed from regular rolled oatmeal prompted a google search, I came across this page, which described rolled oats as having "lost some of their natural taste, goodness and texture." From this, we determined that steel cut oats are the paladins of oatmeal, while rolled oats are merely neutral, and instant packaged oatmeal, having lost the most goodness, is clearly evil.
Despite our best efforts, I still have fridge and freezer full of leftovers. And that's not counting the cheese ball and spread and cranberry crack I made for snacking, the soup and lasagna and muffins I didn't get to do, or the pies and mashed potato-turnips and pea dip and salads and amazingly yummy bread that my sister and mom and eli made, or the tons of cookies and truffles and nut roll we were gifted with.
I also got other best presents evar of some silicone cookware, CI's New Best, an Ulu, a nice broiler pan, and other things, so I plan to do a lot of experimenting with stuff in the upcoming year. I detect a need for a better food icon.
(I also need to work on getting more exercise. Oof. Even with two days of climbing, this was still an impressively lazy vacation.)
I got to share Christmas with my family and the boys for the first time in I can't remember how many years. We stayed in Pittsburgh. My parents drove up from Florida for a week and a half, and katybeth and eub flew out, somewhat delayed, from Seattle for a week. The boys and I decorated trees (inside and out), hung stockings, made cookies, and did lots of those delightful generic christmassy things.
My parents arrived with the first best present evar - several dozen of the Best Grapefruit in the World, which you should all know is grapefruit from the trees in their backyard, grapefruit I grew up eating and which has spoiled me for every other grapefruit, grapefruit which is tart and sweet and seedy (which perhaps I get my disposition from). A few thrift store searches later, and I was able to acquire some grapefruit knives, which were immediately put to good use.
One awesome thing about houseguests and no plans is that I get to cook! A lot! And have adults eat and appreciate (hopefully) my food! I'm not a Cook, but I can follow directions, and I sometimes have patience when it comes to yummy things. So I was able to fix large quantities of some of my favorite foods, suck as chili, salmon and veggies, crockpot chicken and risotto, coconut spinach, roasted green beans, and more. I bought a humongous ham (my favorite) which we only barely dented. I used the fondue pot my mom handed-me-down, and fixed cheese fondue for the first time evar (two kinds!). Then opalnipotent and I teamed up for greek with homemade spanakopita and tabouli and falafal and hummus (and soup, which didn't get touched).
For breakfasts, on a couple days when the boys weren't busy making us all pancakes, I did waffles with a hand-me-down waffle iron, and a couple batches of steel cut oats, which the rest of the family hadn't had. When curiosity about how it differed from regular rolled oatmeal prompted a google search, I came across this page, which described rolled oats as having "lost some of their natural taste, goodness and texture." From this, we determined that steel cut oats are the paladins of oatmeal, while rolled oats are merely neutral, and instant packaged oatmeal, having lost the most goodness, is clearly evil.
Despite our best efforts, I still have fridge and freezer full of leftovers. And that's not counting the cheese ball and spread and cranberry crack I made for snacking, the soup and lasagna and muffins I didn't get to do, or the pies and mashed potato-turnips and pea dip and salads and amazingly yummy bread that my sister and mom and eli made, or the tons of cookies and truffles and nut roll we were gifted with.
I also got other best presents evar of some silicone cookware, CI's New Best, an Ulu, a nice broiler pan, and other things, so I plan to do a lot of experimenting with stuff in the upcoming year. I detect a need for a better food icon.
(I also need to work on getting more exercise. Oof. Even with two days of climbing, this was still an impressively lazy vacation.)