A lazy day
I don't know why, but I feel really exhausted right now. It's been a lazy day, and I could just sleep.
Yesterday was good. Had calls from Li'l Bro, Mom & Dad, and MiL. This was the first Christmas for both Geo and me that we're completely away from our families with no plans to visit. Instead, we went to some friends' house. But I'm getting ahead of things.
Geo and I exchanged presents in the morning. I received a new 2-tiered steamer and Julie and Julia on DVD. George received a deluxe set of Abbot & Costello movies on DVD and a DVD of Logan's Run (which isn't nearly as cheesy as I thought it would be, considering I only remember it vaguely from when I was a kid). Then we made mashed potatoes to take to dinner at friends' house.
Oh, and I finished the cake I started yesterday:
It was quite a success, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I have discovered, though, why 7-minute frosting is such a challenge to work with. But since my mom tells me that Grandmama was an expert with the stuff, I've decided I should probably master it, too.
As an aside, if I'm ever in a position to bake a cake for one Jensen Ackles (yeah, right. Like that would ever happen *snerk*), this will be the cake to bake. It was judged rich and chocolatey without being too sweet, and I have found recipes for chocolate 7-minute frosting. For myself, I think a peppermint frosting with crushed peppermints might be a good choice. Or with an orange flavor, since the citrus from the Grand Mariner wasn't apparent in the flavor. But the cake itself was fantastic, and the ganache was really, really rich (a little goes a long way for me).
Also, if you've got enough prep time, there is no reason not to make homemade mashed potatoes. They're stupid easy, and I've been given a wide variety of choices of ingredient to add to the creamy flavor. The recipe I used yesterday called for cream cheese (I also tossed in the remaining whipping cream from the ganache recipe), Aunt J1 uses evaporated milk, and my dad uses whatever is in the fridge (sour cream or milk or even cottage cheese, I think). And homemade mashed potatoes is one of the premiere comfort foods ever.
So, anyway, we spent the day with Friends and their two sons (age early-20s and college freshman). The food was great, and the eldest son wants to be a brewmeister or whiskeymeister or something similar. Basically, he's a beer and whisky connoisseur. The family had made their own mead--which was very tasty, and hard cider, which doesn't have near the kick of my version of hard cider (though it does have more alcohol, I'm sure).
They're game players, so we played Yahtzee, Rack-o, and after dinner we played a new game, You've Been Sentenced. Then Geo pulled out the Pit game. Which is fast and loud and hilarious. It was a good laugh. (If you want a true challenge, play silent Pit--wherein you're not allowed to say anything. Not as easy as it sounds, and there's much more hitting and slapping.) We topped it off with a game of Apples to Apples, the Geo and I headed home.
All in all, a quiet Christmas, but a delightful one.
Forgive me if you find me spamming you this week. I'm sure I'll be getting kind of thinky within the next few days as we finish out the year and the decade, and my next birthday approaches.
Yesterday was good. Had calls from Li'l Bro, Mom & Dad, and MiL. This was the first Christmas for both Geo and me that we're completely away from our families with no plans to visit. Instead, we went to some friends' house. But I'm getting ahead of things.
Geo and I exchanged presents in the morning. I received a new 2-tiered steamer and Julie and Julia on DVD. George received a deluxe set of Abbot & Costello movies on DVD and a DVD of Logan's Run (which isn't nearly as cheesy as I thought it would be, considering I only remember it vaguely from when I was a kid). Then we made mashed potatoes to take to dinner at friends' house.
Oh, and I finished the cake I started yesterday:
It was quite a success, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I have discovered, though, why 7-minute frosting is such a challenge to work with. But since my mom tells me that Grandmama was an expert with the stuff, I've decided I should probably master it, too.
As an aside, if I'm ever in a position to bake a cake for one Jensen Ackles (yeah, right. Like that would ever happen *snerk*), this will be the cake to bake. It was judged rich and chocolatey without being too sweet, and I have found recipes for chocolate 7-minute frosting. For myself, I think a peppermint frosting with crushed peppermints might be a good choice. Or with an orange flavor, since the citrus from the Grand Mariner wasn't apparent in the flavor. But the cake itself was fantastic, and the ganache was really, really rich (a little goes a long way for me).
Also, if you've got enough prep time, there is no reason not to make homemade mashed potatoes. They're stupid easy, and I've been given a wide variety of choices of ingredient to add to the creamy flavor. The recipe I used yesterday called for cream cheese (I also tossed in the remaining whipping cream from the ganache recipe), Aunt J1 uses evaporated milk, and my dad uses whatever is in the fridge (sour cream or milk or even cottage cheese, I think). And homemade mashed potatoes is one of the premiere comfort foods ever.
So, anyway, we spent the day with Friends and their two sons (age early-20s and college freshman). The food was great, and the eldest son wants to be a brewmeister or whiskeymeister or something similar. Basically, he's a beer and whisky connoisseur. The family had made their own mead--which was very tasty, and hard cider, which doesn't have near the kick of my version of hard cider (though it does have more alcohol, I'm sure).
They're game players, so we played Yahtzee, Rack-o, and after dinner we played a new game, You've Been Sentenced. Then Geo pulled out the Pit game. Which is fast and loud and hilarious. It was a good laugh. (If you want a true challenge, play silent Pit--wherein you're not allowed to say anything. Not as easy as it sounds, and there's much more hitting and slapping.) We topped it off with a game of Apples to Apples, the Geo and I headed home.
All in all, a quiet Christmas, but a delightful one.
Forgive me if you find me spamming you this week. I'm sure I'll be getting kind of thinky within the next few days as we finish out the year and the decade, and my next birthday approaches.