Obligatory Holiday Post
Merry Happy Christmahannukwanzica to all!
We had a lovely holiday weekend. Mom-in-law arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday we all went to my mother's house for Xmas Eve. My mother roasted a goose which I find to be the tastiest of all fowl - the flesh is so rich, and when done right the skin is crispy and divine. It's much less fatty than a duck, but still has enough fat to baste itself during the roasting. Hers was perfect and tasty. We stopped off at my aunt's house before dinner for a quick champagne toast and appetizers, and then back to Mutti's for the goose, followed by presents and
stven's lovely chocolate pie.
Slept in a bit on Christmas Day, and then got up and had some tasty jam filled croissants for breakfast with Husband and mom-in-law. There's a snooty French side of me that's completely appalled at the heresy that is a jam-filled croissant; you'll find pain au chocolat which is a lovely, flaky pastry bread filled with chocolate, but you won't find real croissants in France filled with anything but lovely, buttery soft pastry goodness. Croissants, incidentally, should NEVER bear a resemblance to bread when you pull them apart. That's simply a roll in the shape of a crescent, NOT a croissant.
Did I mention the snooty French side of me? What can I say - went to kindergarten in Paris, and they start early on the gastronomic lessons of life.
After breakfast we tore into presents, and then I worked on our meal: standing rib roast, thin green beans, rosemary potatoes and a big salad with lots of vegetable goodness. We've always had trouble roasting in our oven, and it's always taken longer than expected. Finally figured out that our oven thermometer is completely off, so we compensate for that now and have our own thermometer to tell us the REAL temperature. I used a recipe from my father (an amazing gourmet chef) that called for slow roasting at 200 degrees to get a medium-rare roast. Um. Yeah. Didn't so much work for us. Completely rare beef, anyone? So although I thought this year my meat would finally be done when expected, instead it went back in the oven for an additional 30+ minutes while I tried to keep the potatoes and beans warm.
Our lovely friend Marc joined us, plus Mutti and
stven, so it was a nice group of six. We ate, drank some excellent wine, had mom-in-law's delicious homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and then lay around and digested. In the evening Husband and I went next door to
eyeheartjamaica and
gibbs_vol's house where we drank more good wine and played games until almost midnight.
I got some very cool presents - an absolutely gorgeous glass bowl from my aunt, an iPod Nano from Husband to replace my iPod Mini that I lost (he had already gotten me a clock radio that plays an iPod when I lost mine, so then he had to add the new iPod to my gifts... he's very sweet and generous.) I got some pretty jewelry, a very cool shirt from
whyvette that says "Fake News" (in Daily Show font) "Is All I Trust", the "Teacher's Edition" of Jon Stewart's "textbook" from mom-in-law (with encouragement from Husband), Amy Sedaris' new book from
eyeheartjamaica, neat deco platters from
stven, a convection/toaster oven from Mutti, and lots of other cool and thoughtful stuff I can't think of off the top of my head but thoroughly appreciate.
I did wind up getting that USB Rocket Launcher for Husband, which made him grin gleefully and vow to ignore the "no flying objects" rule in his cube farm.
All in all, a lovely holiday.
Oh, FYI to our friends and loved ones, Husband printed out mailing labels for our holiday cards last week and even affixed them to the envelopes. But somehow we haven't had a chance to actually write the cards themselves, so consider them New Year's cards when you get them... or just please don't move in the next year and we'll send them out NEXT holiday season...
Thought this was a nice photo: me, Husband, Mutti and Stven at Mutti's house.
We had a lovely holiday weekend. Mom-in-law arrived on Saturday, and on Sunday we all went to my mother's house for Xmas Eve. My mother roasted a goose which I find to be the tastiest of all fowl - the flesh is so rich, and when done right the skin is crispy and divine. It's much less fatty than a duck, but still has enough fat to baste itself during the roasting. Hers was perfect and tasty. We stopped off at my aunt's house before dinner for a quick champagne toast and appetizers, and then back to Mutti's for the goose, followed by presents and
stven's lovely chocolate pie.
Slept in a bit on Christmas Day, and then got up and had some tasty jam filled croissants for breakfast with Husband and mom-in-law. There's a snooty French side of me that's completely appalled at the heresy that is a jam-filled croissant; you'll find pain au chocolat which is a lovely, flaky pastry bread filled with chocolate, but you won't find real croissants in France filled with anything but lovely, buttery soft pastry goodness. Croissants, incidentally, should NEVER bear a resemblance to bread when you pull them apart. That's simply a roll in the shape of a crescent, NOT a croissant.
Did I mention the snooty French side of me? What can I say - went to kindergarten in Paris, and they start early on the gastronomic lessons of life.
After breakfast we tore into presents, and then I worked on our meal: standing rib roast, thin green beans, rosemary potatoes and a big salad with lots of vegetable goodness. We've always had trouble roasting in our oven, and it's always taken longer than expected. Finally figured out that our oven thermometer is completely off, so we compensate for that now and have our own thermometer to tell us the REAL temperature. I used a recipe from my father (an amazing gourmet chef) that called for slow roasting at 200 degrees to get a medium-rare roast. Um. Yeah. Didn't so much work for us. Completely rare beef, anyone? So although I thought this year my meat would finally be done when expected, instead it went back in the oven for an additional 30+ minutes while I tried to keep the potatoes and beans warm.
Our lovely friend Marc joined us, plus Mutti and
stven, so it was a nice group of six. We ate, drank some excellent wine, had mom-in-law's delicious homemade apple pie with vanilla ice cream, and then lay around and digested. In the evening Husband and I went next door to
eyeheartjamaica and
gibbs_vol's house where we drank more good wine and played games until almost midnight.
I got some very cool presents - an absolutely gorgeous glass bowl from my aunt, an iPod Nano from Husband to replace my iPod Mini that I lost (he had already gotten me a clock radio that plays an iPod when I lost mine, so then he had to add the new iPod to my gifts... he's very sweet and generous.) I got some pretty jewelry, a very cool shirt from
whyvette that says "Fake News" (in Daily Show font) "Is All I Trust", the "Teacher's Edition" of Jon Stewart's "textbook" from mom-in-law (with encouragement from Husband), Amy Sedaris' new book from
eyeheartjamaica, neat deco platters from
stven, a convection/toaster oven from Mutti, and lots of other cool and thoughtful stuff I can't think of off the top of my head but thoroughly appreciate.
I did wind up getting that USB Rocket Launcher for Husband, which made him grin gleefully and vow to ignore the "no flying objects" rule in his cube farm.
All in all, a lovely holiday.
Oh, FYI to our friends and loved ones, Husband printed out mailing labels for our holiday cards last week and even affixed them to the envelopes. But somehow we haven't had a chance to actually write the cards themselves, so consider them New Year's cards when you get them... or just please don't move in the next year and we'll send them out NEXT holiday season...
Thought this was a nice photo: me, Husband, Mutti and Stven at Mutti's house.