Saturday, December 30, 2006

Xmas food. Because it's all about the food.


December 30th, Saturday-Well, it's just been a whirlwind of holidays parties and after being well-fed and plyed with chocolates and pears we got to the actual Christmas night dinner and it was just the two of us. I made a standing rib roast with au jus (Oops. Didn't skim off enough of the fat.) and yorkshire pudding (gluten-free, of course), cornbread sausage stuffing (also gf), steam-baked potatoes, haricot verts (overcooked, unfortunately), and pumpkin pie. I mistakenly thought the rib roast was thawed (Big oops!) so even though I wanted sort of a late afternoon start to the dinner it turned out to be more like regular dinner time. I basically made a dinner for six for just me and Daryl. Lots. Of. Leftovers. All of the recipes were from the Julia and Jacques cookbook except for the gf yorkshire pudding. And the yorkshire pudding turned out great even though it was gluten free. It puffed up nicely out of the muffin tins. (See below.) Thank you, internet recipe forums.

And I got a lot of stuff from my Xmas list, a 10" braising pan with lid, shirts from LLBean, a little Flash drive, and a gravy boat featured in the picture above. (Daryl also got a Goth box set, a set of Looney Tunes cartoons, a car duster, and the Scrabble mugs above, along with a gift certificate.) Daryl insists that I ask for "fun" stuff for Xmas. I asked for a mop, some shirts and cooking stuff. He said that it wasn't exactly "fun." Well, ok, but I still wanted them. Microfiber, people! It's the way to clean. And who couldn't use more shirts? Especially when they're pima cotton. And for me cooking is fun. (When I'm not working two jobs at the same time, that is.) Shouldn't you be allowed to want what you want? As much as I love getting stuff, I really do think people go a bit crazy about gifts for Xmas. I think we should make Xmas all about the dinner, much like Thanksgiving. Or maybe we could extend Thanksgiving through to the end of the year? Just a suggestion.

I was pretty stressed about work, since I got a video to work on and then had to work at Disney again. I love Disney, but working when I got home from Disney was a pain. Luckily, I worked the week just before Xmas and then the week after so it was pretty low-key. The three-day weekend for Xmas was also great for de-stressing.

One of the silly things I did before Xmas was clean the windows. It was one of the coldest days of the year! And I nearly fell off the stepstool and pulled a muscle. Arg! My periformis! Bending is now a problem. So one of my resolutions for 2007 is to do more Pilates.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

SICK SICK SICK

December 6th, Wednesday-SICK! This time it's the stomach flu. Oy vey.

If you can imagine vomiting and diarrhea all night long then that would be my night. I actually felt so bad I was lying on the floor because I couldn't get up. And it was COLD on that floor, people. I could feel my entire body tingling in a way that was not fun. Daryl was afraid he'd have to take me to the hospital. Listen people, if you get the stomach flu, drink your fluids. It won't be fun, but at least you won't be dehydrated. Thank God for coconut water.

Daryl got sick two days later and nearly threw up on a friend who was in town visiting. Luckily, he wasn't staying with us. I just hope our brief hugs didn't contaminate him. And poor Daryl was still working the two jobs! Now I understand a deadline is a deadline, but seriously, the stomach flu trumps all work as far as I am concerned.

In my recovery, I discovered a lovely recipe for easy egg-drop soup. It's fantastic if you can't really eat. I had that and corn chips almost exclusively for a week.