CELEBRATIONS
I love the holidays! I like the decorating. And the food. So far we have had only two cooking disasters. Both involved frying food for Hanukkah. Yes, Hanukkah. We are equal opportunity celebrators in our house. Why celebrate only one holiday when you can have two, or three if you count New Year’s?
On to the disasters. I got John a deep fryer as a Hanukkah gift (yes, I know it doesn’t start until Christmas night but I didn’t want it to get upstaged and we’ve always been a little lax about the proper day to celebrate things.) We planned on making fried calamari which is totally not kosher having no fins and scales but pretty yummy and carciofi alla Judea. Well, the artichokes came out oily on the inside and too crispy on the outside. I ended up marinating the rest that we had bought. The calamari was cooked perfectly but tasted terrible. Forget the calamari. If we need a calamari fix we can always go up to Mustard’s. So , yay, Mary, great gift (being sarcastic.) When Jonathan comes over tonight along with Ryan her mom, dad and sister, he will make latkes. Hopefully, this will turn out better.
Tonight is the big Christmas Eve do here. And by big I mean eight people, a record family gathering for us. We have an all hors d’oeuvres dinner. This is an old tradition in my house. Since my parents were all about cocktail hour and nibbles, we always did this for Christmas Eve. My sister, Phyllis, does it too. Except she’s having 50 people. In addition to the latkes, we’ll be having shrimp, croque monsieurs, pigs in blankets, crudites and dip, Sarah’s spicy bean dip with tortilla chips and potstickers, a real international smorgasbord. Also mulled apple cider, wine, beer and soft drinks. The tree will be decorated and we will sing holiday songs. A good time should be had by all.
Tomorrow is my blogversary. One year since Ryan gave me my blog for Christmas. During this past year I have really enjoyed writing my thoughts and I’ve really enjoyed hearing what other peoples’ thoughts are. I know I’ve pissed some people off and amused others. I’ve connected with old friends and hopefully made some new ones. Thank you for coming here and reading this stuff. It’s been a really good mental health exercise for me. A special thank you to Ryan who gave me this page and takes care of it for me.
At the expense of annoying some more people, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!