Oh yeah... my blog!

Yes... it's been quiet.  The wheat-free continues to bite, big time.

I actually did really good on our trip to Vegas... the only two incidents I had with wheat were one that was my own fault, and one that means I'll never get a grab&go salad from Burke in the Box again.  Our first meal we went to Hash House A Gogo and I *know* I'd seen on some food/travel thing that they cooked their chicken breasts to-order in a pan and not in the communal frier, so I thought I'd be OK with their potatoes.

We walked back to the hotel, and the hubby flipped on the Travel channel just as we watched the - at the Strip location - throw a chicken breast into the shared frier on an episode of Man vs. Food.

Ooops.

The Salad Incident made me angrier... sure, there was a sign that mentioned "shared equipment" at the Burke in the Box at the airport on the way home, and I checked ALL off the packaged salads and NONE of them appeared to have croutons in them or listed in the contents... so I got a salad.  Aaaaand then 3/4 of the way through the salad while I was on the plane, I found a flippin' crouton that managed to stay on the bottom even when I picked through it to just check and cause enough cross-contamination when I shook it up.  Yay.

Otherwise... Vegas was good.  Didn't leave all our money there, the weather was nice, and the bestest thing of all was that I couldn't even take my work laptop with me since it was getting upgraded to Windows 7 while I was on vacation.

This week (of course) starts the prep of Turkey Day items... which this year also means my attempt at a gluten-free cornbread stuffing (it's just not Turkey Day without stuffing) and an attempt to do some wheat-free crepes for a crepe cake (crepes layered with whipped cream).  Other than that, it's the same old cranberry sauce, beans and sweet potatoes that I usually bring to my mother-in-law's.

Happy Easter!!!!

Urp.

Is everyone else out there as full of Easter food as I am??

There was much to celebrate this year... after last year, knowing layoffs were looming and having a week of furlough before the holiday, I threw myself into food prep for Easter and went nutso... so far as to make my own pierogies.

Yeah, not this year.

While there is much to celebrate, like being employeed again and having a beautiful new sink......

(ain't it purty?? The first pan I washed in it made me so excited I had to run upstairs to the computer room to tell the hubby "IT'S SO AWESOME!" I mean, seriously... I knew a 6 inch sink was seriously lacking, but I had no idea that two more inches of sink would make such a HUGE difference. It's nice to not get my whole shirtfront wet when I try to wash a pot)

... back to the story....

... this year, I'm just burned out. Don't know if it's all the work (had some extra stuff pop up in the part-time contracting job also) or what, but my whole attitude about Easter this year was "meh".

We were already committed to bringing the cheesecake that has been taking up freezer space since around Valentine's Day (someone at the hubby's work has a kid that uses them for fundraising, and while they are pretty darned good cheesecakes, that's a lot of freezer space to sacrifice!). I did want to make a Gingerbread cake from some little Cook's Illustrated special issue thingy that I bought since the hubby wanted to try that. Other than that, I was pretty content to not worry about bringing much - especially since my brother in law and his family weren't going to be eating with us this year.

But, well... sometime during the last week I got a craving for good ole Knorr spinach dip in the big old Hawaian bread bowl. Easy enough to make and bring.

Oh, and I know that my favorite part of spinach dip is the water chestnuts, so I figured I'd double up on the water chestnuts that I added. The verdict? I loved it and everyone else was "oh... this is sooooo good!"

Double water chestnuts.... good thing.

Can't find an online (free) source for the gingerbread cake. It was in a "Best of 2010" or "Best for 2010" issue thingy. I did make the decision to ditch my silicone bakeware and went and bought a real bundt pan to make it. Worked like a charm.

Hubby loved the cake, everyone else said they liked it also. If it gets made again, I might cut back on the ginger in the glaze since it crossed just over into the "too much for me" category. But all said... still good.

And now, for the late-night munching... it's frozen pizza time since the hubby walked into the kitchen and said "I want something that is not eggs or tuna or ham or polish sausage". Bring on the frozen pizza, baby.

Which does leave me in a pickle for dinner on Tuesday since the new Jim Butcher novel comes out that day and we'll each have our noses into our own copies of that book during the evening, I wager. I figured frozen pizza would be A) quick and B) easy to eat while reading. Hmmm.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Ladies and gents... I give you, Irish Soda Bread.

It looks scraggly. I know. But it was good. And I didn't cook it in my stoneware pie plate... that is where it ended up after I pulled it out of the cast iron skillet.

It was easy to do... and it was tasty. I whipped it up on Sunday morning before we headed over to my in-law's for my mother in law's traditional corned beef dinner. She may be Polish... but that lady makes a mean corned beef and cabbage.

And Ireland always makes me think of soda bread.

I think it was fifth grade... we had to do a report in some class on a country, and I got stuck in a group with "Ireland" as our country. Being a budding foodie at the time and a big fan of Jeff Smith (I still think that guy got a bad rap) and the international food stuff he was doing at the time, I decided I was going to cook.

I made Irish Soda Bread (not the ATK recipe) and potato leek soup. My mom made a special trip with the heated up soup to deliver it to my class... it was AWESOME. Everyone got a slice of soda bread and a cup of soup. Soda bread was a hit. The soup was kinda so-so for the average fifth grade taste.

I took the leftover soda bread and soup to the teacher's lounge. And I got nothing but compliments from every teacher at the school for the next week.

I also remember running to the store to purchase and then eat a half of loaf of soda bread back when I was in college. It was the day of the Chicago South Side Irish parade (RIP). If you're not familiar... it's basically a big reason to get drunk in public. I was working for a radio station at the time, and me and the other intern did all the details of the float and the scheduling and ordering up the sweatshirts for everyone at the station.... and it was my first St. Pat's where I was over 21. So I actually got sent off the float at some point to run into a liquor store that was on the parade route because we were low on Guinness on the float. Yes, it's not only a parade where the people watching are drinking... it's a parade where the people on the floats are also drinking. Someone almost feel off the float - don't remember who.

(That is the same job where Pat Boone whacked me in the back of the head with a door, hard - so hard I actually blacked out for a moment - ahhhh.... memories.....)

And there was a lady in the crowd that I will remember forever... the lady watching the parade with her husband and kids, who gave us a "woooo!" and raised her - I kid you not - box of wine as a salute.

Yeah.... I was more than slightly drunk by the time I made it back to the dorm room after that parade.

What else says "Valentine's Day" like squid???

Happy belated Valentine's Day!!

So... the instant I saw it being made on TV, I wanted to try Braised Calamari Stuffed with Shrimp, Spinach and Herbs. When I mentioned it to the hubby, his reply was "You can do that?!?!?!?!!!!"

I always see frozen squid at the one market I go to and it is dirt cheap... why not try it?? And heck... it'll make a nice Valentine's Day dinner, right??



Oh, because the squid are TOTALLY NOT CLEANED?? That might be a reason.

I usually don't get squimish about food... but dead calamari eyes looking up at me as I tried to clean them? Not the most fun thing ever.

However, they were easy to clean. Really. Pulled apart easily, I thought the outter membrane was going to be hard to peel off... totally not.

The filling? As long as you have a food processor, totally easy. I'd consider doing just the filling as some nice seafood burgers in a minute. And I used frozen chopped spinach, mainly because I was not smart and did not check the recipe before I went shopping. But it all turned out OK.

Now, the actual recipe calls for larger squid than I had. Which is probably well worth the effort to find, since filling the calamari tubes was not easy. The way I was fumbling with them and trying to get them filled... well... maybe it was just the Valentine's Day mood... but all I could think about was condoms. And I am not good with condoms. I've "been" with the hubby since I was 18 and I am well into "30" territory now, and while we've been married only since 2004... well... I was thankful to be on the pill and not have to deal with condoms too much. Because my crappy lack of manual dexterity leaves me totally frustraited.

And, apparently, when you're dealing with small squid, it's much the same situation.

But... being Valentine's Day and all... I finally managed to get the buggers filled....



And then into a sauce bath for 20 minutes. Didn't make my own sauce. Used Prego. Deal with it.

Overall?? Hubby loved them, and since I did the squid ahead of time it was quick when I actually got dinner started. I don't know if I was still picturing dead squid eyes or what... I didn't enjoy as much. Mind you... cooked perfectly, nice and tender, but it just wasn't floating my boat.

Oh, and while I was worried that I wasn't filling the squid tubes enough... totally not a problem. The filling expands as it cooks and I had a couple small squid blowouts... but still, all turned out OK.

So... filling? Awesome.

Small squid? Do they make a pill for that????

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

I like the holidays.... I really do.

But the past few years, I find myself liking them much more when they're OVER.

Maybe it's because it seems like I always start jobs in the fourth quarter (and even in November and December) and the added stress of learning the ropes at a new place plus the holiday just makes it worse... maybe I'm getting cranky(er) in my old age... who knows. But yeah, this year, I was Very Happy Indeed to make it to Dec. 26th and claim a holiday for myself, Do Nothing Day.

Putting up the tree is a stress. And I never really finished, since our $3 Ikea star we've had for ten years broke, and I gave up on any idea of trying to search for a new one (and I also had to tell my mother, MANY TIMES, that no, I did not want her to go out and look for one for me since I've been looking for a real, adult, star tree topper for ten years and *I* haven't been able to find one I like). Christmas cards are a stress. I'm known by different names by my family & the Man's family, so just signing each card is an excercise in "wait... what do they know me as?" and there are always the addresses you KNOW you wrote down but cannot find (thatwordguy... um... yeah... sorry, that is what happened to your card this year...).

By about the 23rd, I gave up. If it wasn't bought or done, it wasn't getting done.

It was a good Christmas though... good gifts given, good gifts recieved, and holiday cheer all around.

My usual "munchie fest" on Christmas for the mom unit and the parent in law's was a no-stresser. Yet another year of How To Impress Your Mother and Mother-In-Law By Unwrapping Cheese....

I put my cheeses out a few hours before anyone was set to arrive... gotta let them come to room temp...



I did go a little nuts with the variety. This is what happens when I am standing in front of the cheese section at Trader Joe's and they have a TON of French cheese I've never even tried (but at least I learned I looooove Port Salut).

Did the usual reuben dip thing that we all love... cream cheese, saurkraut, Carl Buddig corned beef and thousand island, melted in my little slow cooker until melty-good...



Did some meatbals in the "jar of chili sauce/jar of grape jelly" sauce, since those are also a hit....

Need something sweet?? Mini creme puffs from Sam's Club....

And a drumrool... she unwraps the cheese and sets out crackers....

Also had some salami and proscuitto, olives, veggies and dip....

Oh, and the Beef Salami Stick that we got from the hubby's boss. Still have the turkey stick and a couple of small cheese balls to attack, but we'll get around to it.

And after all that... it's back to work, and then....

On Wednesday I'll be in Vegas.

Even if all the rules are still up in the air about airport security right now (and since we were the first people through security at the United terminal at O'Hare after the "no liquid" thing - ah, the infamous incident of "How Many TSA People Does It Take To Determine If Granola Bars Are a Liquid or a Solid" (and apparently, it's five TSA people, and at that point in time they WERE a liquid since they had filling...) ) it shouldn't be too bad. I was thinking about actually packing the laptop (my own one, not the work one) in the checked luggage, but I'm turning into a chickenshit about it. Even though I already know how to replace the screen if it gets broken (not that I want the expense... but....)

Ok. Now it's time to finish watching the Bears game to see if we can at least mess up the Vikings, even if we can't win the games that would mean anything to US.....

The Remains of the Bird

Hope everyone out there in cyber-land had a good Turkey Day!!!

It was a usual year around here. Well, other than the youngest nephew who was still suffering from the H1N1 "live" vaccine that he got... poor lil' guy was so miserable he pretty much slept through the whole day except for the absolutely heartwrenching minutes before they left, where in his three-year old voice he just kept saying "Daddy... hurt!" while he dealt with being miserable. They don't think it's actually H1N1 at this point, but the poor little guy is obviously still sick enough to be miserable. :(

Anyway... cooking duties for me this year... I actually took it "light".....



Clockwise from the top right, that is a artichoke/white bean spread (Giada recipe), pecan pie, green beans in browned butter and spanikopita. Wasn't totally planning the spanikopita, but I had phyllo dough in my fridge and spinach to use up.



Oh, and say hello to the roasted brussels sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes that were hanging out in the oven keeping warm.

Food was all good at the mother in laws, company was good, and a good time was had.

Oh.... and the Artichoke and Bean Crostini were actually pretty good... filling though. I did NOT need to make a double recipe of this - those things are FILLING. I snacked on a couple before we went over to the in-laws. I did crumble my prosciutto and mixed it in with everything since I just brought the toasts and the artichoke-bean spread so people couple glop it on themselves.





Was I actually stupid enough to travel outside among the shopping masses on Friday?

Sadly, yes.

My first ever experience out among the black Friday shoppers was a few years back when I was up in Wisconsin visitig my aunt over the holiday, and frankly, when you're in the middle of Wisconsin, there isn't much else to do. And since I was apparently not thinking straight when I was packing, there were some things I really needed (oh, like bras... how I forgot to pack them is beyond me, since as I discovered it's not always easy to find the sizes I need). It was not the most fun experience of my life.

But, there were some sales I wanted to take advantage of. I was lucky though... the place I wanted to hit the most was Staples. SUCH the hotbead for Black Friday activity. I swear, there were four people in the store when I got there. I really really needed to get a wireless mouse for my laptop, I kinda wanted to get a pair of speakers for my desktop PC, and the "I might just get them if they still have them" item was an 8 gig Micro SD card to use with the new MP3 player.

So, of course, they didn't have the mouse I was looking for, or the speakers. At least with the speakers, they didn't have the "sale" ones left, but they had another set of speakers that was $20. Fine by me. The mouse? Um, yeah. The one I wanted was like $13, and they were also supposed to have a $10 or $11 one. No $13 one, no cheaper one either. Now, if they'd have had another model on sale for like $20, I would have happily walked out of there and called it a day. But no... the rest of them were all full-priced $40-$50 models. No thank you.

And the memory card? They had RACKS of them. Silly me... I thought they'd be one of the first things to go. But I guess a lot of parents must not be hip on what a great stocking-stuffer an 8 gig micro card can be for the cell-phone and device-mad kids. Oh well.

But, at least for lunch, I had leftovers on hand for a very nice lunch of a turkey hot brown... turkey on toast, covered with a cheese sauce and some leftover crisped prosciutto.....

Tres yum.

No dinner cooking on Friday night. Hey, it's a holiday weekend.

And on Saturday... what do you make when you're getting kind of sick of turkey??

Seafood lasagna!!

Always a hit around here. And this time I was actually smart enough to look at my copy of the recipe, especially the part where I added a note to myself that REALLY VICTORIA, LISTEN TO THE INSTRUCTIONS AND BAKE IT UNCOVERED, because it turned out wonderfully. And I usually use it as an excuse to use up cheap frozen seafood, like salad shrimp, snow crab and bay scallops.

Today, since it was rainy out and football was on, I also decided to hit the dreaded Kohl's. Would NOT step foot in there Friday or Saturday, but one of the straps on my purse busted so I needed a new one. And they tend to have the best selection. Mind you, most of the selection is butt ugly, but they do have some good ones mixed in.

I tend to be pretty plain about my day-to-day purse... I'm all for a fun evening bag, but give me something sturdy, basic and black for my every day purse. And I was surprised to actually find exactly what I wanted. Even in real leather.

Then was on to the fun task of changing out the purse. And who doesn't love that scene from the Breakfast Club when Ally Sheedy when she dumps out the contents of her purse???


USB drives, nail files, various lip balms, various cold medicines and acid reducer meds, tire pressure guage, various tools, and a total of 12 lighters. Heh.

That project done, I went on to two others.... finding the Christmas cards I bought after the holidays last year (they were luckily in the first Xmas box I looked in) and doing some massive re-organization of my MP3 player, which took longer and I'm still working on. I have yet to totally figure out how the heck Windows Media Player decides to sync or not sync based on your playlist, but I'll get it figured out. Someday.

Dinnertime? How about some turkey chili...

Since I am of the mind that you can't have enough turkey aroud Turkey day, I actually threw a turkey breast in the crockpot on Thanksgiving so we'd have additional leftovers. Because everyone needs more than once chance to live the "turkey + mayo + white bread" sandwich over the course of the weekend. And leftover turkey come Sunday is a very, very nice thing to have.

And I did learn, the hard way, that one should NOT "guess" at the number of jalapenos to use... yeah, I roasted some poblanos and jalapenos and added four jalapenos... which had this stuff at nuclear levels. But thanks to that, I did also learn that a peeled potato in there to help draw out some spice is good, as is a sprinkle of baking soda. At least it went from "OH MY GOD WHAT KIND OF GUATEMALEN INSANITY PEPPER DID YOU USE IN THIS?!?!?" to "the spice builds up on you hot" thing where you could finish a bowl.

And that is the last of the turkey.

Happy Halloween!!!

(A scan from the CUTEST HALLOWEEN CARD EVER! that my cousin - and lurker around these parts - sent to me this year)

Hope everyone is having or had a safe & happy Halloween. I'm listening to my Halloween-ish tunes (bring on the Ministry and Murderdolls!) and enjoying my Saturday. Especially the part where I was trying to get my grocery shopping done before trick or treat time around here started and they were playing "Season of the Witch" as one of the 'holiday selections' of music at the grocery store. Yes, I was singing along. And yes, people were looking at me. And no, I don't care!

Cooking has been especially lame around here lately.... been fighting a nasty case of heartburn which has meant a lot of BLAH food. Nuttin' worth clouding up the internet with, trust me.

I am, however, very excited since I've got an interview on Monday. Sounds like a good position and a good company, but it's long-term contracting (5-6 months) at this point... but right now that is better than nuttin.

Happy 4th of July!!

I'm rather proud of myself.

We went to the usual parade party at my brother-in-law's house this morning (their yard is prime viewing space for one of the bigger/better parades in the NW 'burbs) and some fun was had.

1. I'm surprised I showed enough self-control to not take a run thru the yard to go into the street to whack our current governer in the head, since he's apparently just as useless as good ole Blaggo. But the thought did cross my mind.
2. I'm also surprised that no violence came to the "jazz clowns" by my hands. Clowns that play jazz. It's the stuff that nightmares are made of. I took the time they were passing the house to go make myself another bloody mary.
3. My sister in law's father can apparently be spotted by a politician at 50 yards. It was hilarious - EVERY politician walking the parade went over to shake his hand.
4. Since when do churches have floats in parades? And have people trying to convert you on the spot? Apparently the hubby tripped someone's "heathen radar" and some chick came beelining off the float and made a path right to the hubby (I was in the chair next to him) to hand him some literature. He just replied "Sorry, but you have picked the WRONG person" and we all went into hysterical laughter. Seriously - the woman had eyes ONLY for the hubby in the crowd. It was just odd.
5. Funniest kid moment - when the parade was just starting up and the first round of bagpipers started up, my oldest nephew saying with MUCH excitement "I *LOVE* bagpipes!"

Good times.

Happy Pączki Day/Fat Tuesday!!!

I'm an equal opportunity food lover... we celebrate both Pączki Day and Fat Tuesday in this household.

For those who don't come from areas with very large Polish populations, "Pączki Day" is a mostly Polish-American tradition for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday (I think in Poland proper they actually do it on Thursday). There are many people of Polish decent in the Chicago area. I am married to one of them. Every Pączki Day, his mom heads out early to pick up Pączki to bring to my father in law's office, and she always saves a couple for us. Who doesn't love a huge jelly or cream filled doughnut every once in awhile?

First up... enchiladas...

Add some filling to the bottom of the dish....



I did some in corn tortillas for me (for tonight, and some for lunches for the week) and some in flour tortillas for the hubby. He hates corn tortillas. When he told me this, I looked at him like he had two heads.



Top that with the rest of the filling, and then cheese. I've learned that no matter how much cheese I put inside enchiladas, the hubby doesn't believe it unless he sees cheese on top. So I usually put most of the cheese on top. Just easier that way.



The proper directions give instructions on putting them in the oven to melt the cheese and heat through. I usually just throw them in the microwave and heat them up that way, because "enchiladas = microwave" to me after our old apartment, when turning on the oven to any temp for any length of time meant it would be 90 degrees in the apartment - no matter what time of year. But this time, I decided to throw them in the oven.

Yeah. Should have gone with what I know. The cheese on top did kind of melt, but they were stone cold in the middle and I ended up nuking them anyway. Go, instructions!

For a side, red beans and rice. I use a bag mix. Deal with it.



I actually love Vigo rice mixes, for the most part. In college, the read beans & rice was cheap and easy and was dinner very, very often.

I also picked up some already-boiled and frozen crawfish at Whole Foods over the weekend. They looked good, but I suspected they might not be. I was right. I just steamed them and they weren't overcooked, they just also weren't very tasty.



But they do look pretty, at least.

The enchiladas... or what was left after I scooped out our servings that I threw in the microwave.



The jalepeno was not NEARLY as strong as yesterday - good thing - and they were very tasty. Filling was a little runny but that was my own doing, since I added some more milk to try and tame the heat, and the Wondra flour I also added didn't do much to thicken them. In any case, it was a nice, tasty dinner, and I was able to get it all done while running up and down the stairs while trying to get my workout done in the basement.

And the workout was worth it, because I got to have desert tonight....



That, my friends, is a Bostome Cream Pączki. Chocolate glaze, and a very non-sweet cream on the inside. And HUGE. Like twice the size of a regular doughnut. And I enjoyed every bite.

Valentine's Day - Hausfrau style

Hope everyone out there in the blogosphere had a nice day celebrating Valentine's Day, or just an easy time trying to ignore it.

We're not big on the whole "forced romance" thing, and I'm not fond of cut flowers (they look pretty but then it's just slowly watching them die... depresses me) and the hubby always forgets my fondness for all things Fannie May chocolate so I'd need to buy myself candies if I wanted any. Which is probably a good thing since I really need to make up for the lost time where my elliptical was out of service.

We're not big on the "romantic gestures" for Valentine's Day. I set the stage early on... for our first Valentine's Day, I was off in college and the one thing I really, REALLY needed at the time was a set of nice screwdrivers. The hubby hardly believed me when I said that was indeed what I wanted. So I got a nice set of ten Craftsman screwdrivers. I was overjoyed. We still use them.

I was hoping I'd be able to show off the bling of a new, shiny, huge water heater, but that did not happen this weekend. Looks like instead of getting a new water heater for Valentine's Day, I'm getting a new water heater for my birthday. Do we know how to gift-give, or what??

I got the hubby Jason and the Argonauts DVD (old Harryhausen one) and we watched that last night. Nothing to put you in a holiday romance mood like fighting skeletons....

The hubby got me the world's most fantastic poster for my kitchen...



Yep. The Infamous Kwanzaa cake. I can't wait to get it up.

For last night's dinner, we ended up ordering a pizza. That was the plan, I knew I'd be cleaning all day so cooking would NOT be happening. But, I did take the time to whip up a Warm Chocolate Raspberry Cake since chocolate/raspberry is one of the hubby's favorite desert flavors.

Melted the stuff for the "frosting" in the microwave and poured it into my dish...



Yeah... the recipe calls for a round cake pan. Mine were in sorry shape so I guess I tossed them awhile ago. And forgot. Whoops. So, I just went for it with my square Pyrex pan.

Mmmm... chocolate liquid stuff....



Started the batter, and I was a little concerned that it looked a little curdled...


Action shot! Pouring in the chocolatey goodness...


The final batter...


In the pan, ready for the oven...


... and out of the oven.


I made it right about lunch time, and just let it sit out until I threw it back in a warm oven while we were eating pizza. As you can see above, I overcooked it a little, so I was wary of following the exact reheating instructions, and I also wasn't planning on doing the whole "flip it over, warm flowy chocolate frosting goodness ooooh ahhhh" bit, I just sliced it in the pan and flopped it bottom-side-down in some bowls, and added some raspberry sorbet and vanilla gelato and called it desert. There were no complaints.




All in all... very good recipe. Nice chocolate/raspberry goodness at the bottom, and even the cruchy edges weren't too bad since this was a bit more like a cake-like brownie than cake. Great flavor, easy and quick to do, and it even left a minimum of kitchen mess behind...


And now, it's time to deal with the fact that the weekend is over, and there is a hard work week ahead. At least I can relax for now....



Ah. 'Tis a good thing.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I saw this one on Demetri Martin's new Comedy Central show and since I am TOTALLY not one of those women who demands one of those $25K engagement rings, I thought this was hilarious....)

Important Things with Demetri MartinWed 10:30pm / 9:30c

Timing - De Veers Diamonds

Joke of the Day
Stand-Up Comedy

Get Funny Ringtones
More Funny Videos

Happy 2009!!!

I wanted to do a real post... really I did.

I even took some pictures of the dinner prep tonight (duck) and got as far as downloading them.

But then I started to take down the Christmas ornaments, and for the first time ever, I broke one. Sorry, Superman. Don't know if we've got an odd spot that has a red sun in our place, but Superman got dropped and lost a foot. And it pissed me off. It's one of the ornaments that has gone at the top of the tree since the hubby and I started shackin' up. I had to spend some time on Ebay, and for $27ish including shipping, the replacement should be here soon.

For now... I'll leave you with one thing I have already learned in 2009....

When you're making yourself a morning Bloody Mary and you're too lazy to go digging thru the spice cabinet to find the celery salt, Bacon Salt works might, mighty fine as a replacement. Maybe even a little better than the celery salt.

(Man... I wonder how it is sprinkled on your usual Chicago hot dog... might have to try that.....)

How to impress your in-laws without really trying....

... AKA, the Christmas Day spread I usually do and we invite the parental units to come by, see the tree, and just chill.


I love this wreath... sparkly and glittery and pretty.

Ok... on to the food. You will see this....


.... turn into a lovely spread. Really. All that is is some crackers, fig spread and cranberry sauce I made ahead of time, meatballs, pickled garlic, a couple types of olives. Stuff that can be bought or made ahead of time.

Yum... baked pita chips and some store-bought hummus. Just dusted the hummus with a little paparkia for color.



Pickled garlic, some oil-cured olives, a couple of cheese spreads.....



Meatballs in that "jar of chili sauce + can of jellied cranberry sauce" sauce in my little slow cooker.... just throw in, set to high, and cook until bubbly (I stirred a few times).



Salami and prosciutto and Parmesan shards and olives and fig spread on one plate, Reuben dip and cocktail rye bread on the other plate. Reuben dip is just a block of cream cheese, a couple packaged of Carl Buddig corned beef (chopped up), some drained sauerkraut, shredded swiss. I mixed it up ahead of time, and just warmed it up in the microwave before company arrived. I've made it before and it always goes over well with the in-laws.



Any my in-laws are always awed by my ability to unwrapp and place cheese on a tray....



That's some camembert, brie, blue cheese, some pepper cheese, Dubliner cheese and boursin. All purchased while they've been on sale over the past few weeks.

That Le Crueset pot on the stove.... Christmas present from my mom. She actually bought it MONTHS ago... right about the time I was going to treat myself to one (there was some drama about that... but all is good and my pot is beautiful and I have veal bones in the freezer that will likely be turned into veal stock starting tomorrow - YAY!!!).

Put out a variety of crackers and call it a day.....


Oh.... wait... put out some hot-spicy almonds, cheese straws (store-bought) and Chicken in a Biscuit crackers on the coffee table. I've been hiding those Chicken in a Biscuit crackers for like a month, because they are the hubby's favorite and they've have been gone by now if he knew they were in the house.



Everyone munched.... nice to have some different food than yesterday... nibble a little, converse with people, head back to try something different. My kinda no-fuss entertaining.

Did have the stuff on hand for a quick holiday cocktail... half champagne, half sparkling pomegranate juice... but we didn't break into those. I know I had more than enough (coughcough*a whole bottle of Riesling*coughcough) yesterday.

And when you're cleaning up, remember God's creatures big and small, with homes and homeless.....



The "rather gourmet" feral cats were ALL over the prosciutto I threw out. The may live outside but they at least keep out of my garbage (if only the squirrels were so nice). They looooove prosciutto. And it's usually only two cats... don't know if these guys have taken in another one or if family was visiting. Either way... a feast for all!

Merry Christmas!!