Holiday cooking, including Yule Drop
Kevin and I have been giving out cookies this week, and those we've mailed have been reaching their destinations, so the stories have begun. People are hiding these cookies from their families, eating huge quantities of them in place of a meal. It makes me queasy to think of it. What evil do we cause, innocently, with our butter and love?
Today was an awesome day off. I rode my bicycle out to the neighboring villages, delivering cookies to friends, for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. The day was clear and dry and the roads were in good shape. After deliveries, I watched "Chinatown." Jack Nicholson is young and sexy in 1974 pretending it's 1930-something. Roman Polanski directs, and the plot is lurid. Recommended.
A few days ago I stewed up the rest of our Thanksgiving turkey, two drums and a thigh, in turkey stock with vegetables, then took all the meat off the bones and shredded it and strained the vegetables out. I cooked down the liquid a little, then made batches of gravy with it, starting with a roux and adding the liquid til it was nice and thick. I used all of it, probably most of a stick of butter, and a cup of flour, again probably. Made turkey pot pie filling by mixing all of this gravy into the turkey, vegetables, and a bag of frozen peas. The vegetable mix included a couple of organic cipollini onions I found in Produce when I was looking for shallots for this. Kevin ate some plain with bread for lunch til I worked out a solution for the pie part. I hate making pie crust. So I bought puff pastry. I wish it were made with butter instead of margarine, but it is what I wanted. I break off a square of frozen pastry, let it thaw 15 minutes, put it on top of a serving of turkey pot, and heat up in the toaster oven, 20 minutes at 430 degrees F. Now Kevin can yell, "Bring me mah turkey pot pie!" and I can, in just 35 minutes.
I had a serving of this for lunch while watching "Chinatown," then went to the gym. I was pleased to report to my PL friend both that the cookies should arrive tomorrow, and that I'm no longer doing that wimpy ab machine. Real sit ups. I can't do as many as I want, properly, but I'm getting there.
I was at the gym during the after work rush hour, which is kinda fun because I'm in an exhibitionist mood lately. I think I'm awesome and want to be admired. I also dare them to notice that I'm nonstandard. This even, "they" were played by a collection of enormous, muscled guys talking, for several minutes, about the various handbags they were buying for their girlfriends. Even without that bonus, I am just not intimidated by these guys in the gym, any more. It has been a while now that I've felt I hold my own and have nothing to be ashamed of in the weights area.
After gym, I could have done some shopping for items to fill Kevin's stocking, or for some little gifties for the monkeyboy, but it was too cold to do that and also my main priority downtown, which was to eat a Local Burger. The giant Local Burger "Local Burger" is two six-ounce pink-in-the-middle patties of locally raised beef, bacon, cheese, and roasted onions and red peppers. OMFG on a bun, which disintegrated under the sheer juicy deliciousness of it. It was worth the half hour wait, because I know it will be, and I came prepared with a "New Yorker." I had set out for the gym with this end in sight. I had some fries, but not too many, and quite a few napkins, and some greasy smears on an article about Somalia.
Now I'm home with Kevin and we're hanging out, each doing our computer thing. He played some Johnny Cash for me by request. I scored some stöllen at work, shrink, and warmed up some slices in the oven just now for a snack. It's delicious. There's a core of almond paste, that you smear over the slice of bread that's just full of dried fruit and ginger. Lovely. It would make the best French toast.
Today was an awesome day off. I rode my bicycle out to the neighboring villages, delivering cookies to friends, for a couple of hours in the early afternoon. The day was clear and dry and the roads were in good shape. After deliveries, I watched "Chinatown." Jack Nicholson is young and sexy in 1974 pretending it's 1930-something. Roman Polanski directs, and the plot is lurid. Recommended.
A few days ago I stewed up the rest of our Thanksgiving turkey, two drums and a thigh, in turkey stock with vegetables, then took all the meat off the bones and shredded it and strained the vegetables out. I cooked down the liquid a little, then made batches of gravy with it, starting with a roux and adding the liquid til it was nice and thick. I used all of it, probably most of a stick of butter, and a cup of flour, again probably. Made turkey pot pie filling by mixing all of this gravy into the turkey, vegetables, and a bag of frozen peas. The vegetable mix included a couple of organic cipollini onions I found in Produce when I was looking for shallots for this. Kevin ate some plain with bread for lunch til I worked out a solution for the pie part. I hate making pie crust. So I bought puff pastry. I wish it were made with butter instead of margarine, but it is what I wanted. I break off a square of frozen pastry, let it thaw 15 minutes, put it on top of a serving of turkey pot, and heat up in the toaster oven, 20 minutes at 430 degrees F. Now Kevin can yell, "Bring me mah turkey pot pie!" and I can, in just 35 minutes.
I had a serving of this for lunch while watching "Chinatown," then went to the gym. I was pleased to report to my PL friend both that the cookies should arrive tomorrow, and that I'm no longer doing that wimpy ab machine. Real sit ups. I can't do as many as I want, properly, but I'm getting there.
I was at the gym during the after work rush hour, which is kinda fun because I'm in an exhibitionist mood lately. I think I'm awesome and want to be admired. I also dare them to notice that I'm nonstandard. This even, "they" were played by a collection of enormous, muscled guys talking, for several minutes, about the various handbags they were buying for their girlfriends. Even without that bonus, I am just not intimidated by these guys in the gym, any more. It has been a while now that I've felt I hold my own and have nothing to be ashamed of in the weights area.
After gym, I could have done some shopping for items to fill Kevin's stocking, or for some little gifties for the monkeyboy, but it was too cold to do that and also my main priority downtown, which was to eat a Local Burger. The giant Local Burger "Local Burger" is two six-ounce pink-in-the-middle patties of locally raised beef, bacon, cheese, and roasted onions and red peppers. OMFG on a bun, which disintegrated under the sheer juicy deliciousness of it. It was worth the half hour wait, because I know it will be, and I came prepared with a "New Yorker." I had set out for the gym with this end in sight. I had some fries, but not too many, and quite a few napkins, and some greasy smears on an article about Somalia.
Now I'm home with Kevin and we're hanging out, each doing our computer thing. He played some Johnny Cash for me by request. I scored some stöllen at work, shrink, and warmed up some slices in the oven just now for a snack. It's delicious. There's a core of almond paste, that you smear over the slice of bread that's just full of dried fruit and ginger. Lovely. It would make the best French toast.