Christmas has come and gone

Sarah and Aaron were here for ALMOST a week. Things went awry because of the snowstorm that shut down (almost) everyplace in the US except Kentucky, it seemed. They were supposed to fly in on Sunday morning the 20th. On Friday we phoned them to suggest that they might want to get out of town before the storm hit, but they didn't; they were also planning a cocktail party for Saturday night. Saturday morning they discovered that their flight was already cancelled; they re-scheduled for Monday night (first available), and reserved the last one-way car rental available for Sunday in NY, they think. Sunday the computer said their Monday flight was cancelled, but Delta said it wasn't. Sunday afternoon after it stopped actually snowing, they decided to get out of town, collected the car, and drove to KY, arriving about 2:30 a.m. on Monday. Interstates were cleared; nothing else was.

They missed Lessons and Carols as a consequence. The rest of the week is a blur, but we had a great time...we made cookies and a Yule Log (Buche de Noel). Martin made things. I finally actually made the cassoulet and froze it; we'll eat it later.

Martin made a gingerbread train, and two batches of fudge (one perfect, the other needs a sledgehammer to cut), and a batch of brownies with Reese's miniatures in them.

We also made Mexican wedding cookies, gingerbread men (decorated), pizzelle, canneles, can't remember what all. Brenda phoned the 23rd and asked if I had an extra Christmas pudding lying around as she couldn't find one anywhere. I didn't, but I made Christmas pudding (if you've never had it, it's basically an English fruitcake, steamed in a mold for something like 6 hours, served with brandy hard sauce), and it was too much for my mold, so I actually made two. Gave the second one to Therese. Have to download the photos of the Buche de Noel; it's a masterpiece, and it ought to be, given how much of a pain it was to make.

We went to the Curtz's on Christmas Eve for their traditional buffet: boiled shrimp, foie gras, beef tenderloin, some wonderful cheese they bought at some place they discovered in Boston, asparagus, etc., desserts of various sorts, generally a blow-out. Later we went to the late service at Christ Church; music was good, sermon by the Bishop was pretty bad. All of us went, and Martin was of course in the choir.

Christmas day we had a great time, even if I did spend too much of it cooking. Jim Krupa came, as well as Kay and Madhu (both graduate student, Kay a student of Phil's...they are from India), Therese and the boys came as usual. John dislocated his shoulder and recently had surgery on it; he's still doing poorly, as they say.

The kids left this morning, and I am absolutely whacked. I think we all are, but I have a wonderful stack of books to read (Christmas presents), so I think I'll tuck in...

Lillie

cassoulet

I'm in a mood to go back to France, even though the weather there is at least as bad as it is here, and all my joints hurt here, so it really wouldn't be better there. But it smells different...looks different...things like that.

I did something drastic a week ago, and ordered a Cassoulet "kit" from d'Artagnan. Included not only confit duck legs (which I can make myself), but also the right kind of beans, sausage, garlic sausage, and a couple of other things I can't get here OR make myself. Have started the beans, so I need to make the cassoulet tomorrow. We'll see if it's any good.

I'm also trying to figure out what to make during Christmas week. We're not having turkey, rather leg of lamb, which is okay to make, but I don't eat lamb (allergies...), AND a leg of lamb won't be enough to feed as many people as we'll have here for Christmas dinner.

Am thinking about making a Buche de Noel. Sarah and I have been threatening to make one for years; it's a traditional Christmas dessert in France.

I may also make a Beef Wellington while Sarah and Aaron are here, but won't make it with pate and truffles as the "stuffing" (the stuff wrapped around the beef tenderloin between the meat and the pastry), but rather a mushroom stuffing, including some rather strange mushrooms, as well as the regular ones. Not sure what else.

Please advise...

Cheers, Lillie

Christmas and a few other things

Well, we had the semi-annual lab party last Saturday. Can't believe I keep agreeing to do this. We invite all of Phil's graduate students, plus students who just have him on their committees (I think), a few faculty types in ecology, and occasionally some unrelated people. This year I did Indian food (and Kay and Madhu are actually INDIAN from INDIA, talk about coals to Newcastle...). It turned out pretty well, though, despite the fact that there was no definite number of bodies until they actually arrived, so I was prepared for 30-50 people. Made a great deal of chicken curry, basmati rice, koftas (pork meatballs in spicy yogurt sauce, supposed to be made from ground lamb but I couldn't find any...), raita (made the yogurt myself, thank you very much), potato stuff (supposed to be turned into samosas, but I ran out of steam...), gujerati green beans, papadums, condiments, etc., can't remember what all else, but I think there were a couple of other things...

Lydia Curtz and Ben saved my skin on the deal; they organized the service, made some punch in that thing on the back porch, set everything out, etc. I would have been seriously under water without them...

But it was actually fun.

So there...

Lillie

p.s. turned out there were 41 people who put in appearance, and ONLY ONE annoyed me by not talking to me...I guess some of these people either don't know who I am and don't bother to find out whose house they're at, or find me scary...

back to food

So today I made yet another recipe out of the Babbo cookbook. Heretofore, EVERYTHING I have done out of that cookbook has been really, REALLY good, and there are several I've made more than once. This was bass cooked (grilled, actually, in olive oil), and served on Belgian endives cooked for a very long time in O.J., honey and white raisins, with a vinaigrette made from O.J., saffron, white vinegar and olive oil (actually it called for Champagne vinegar but I used white wine vinegar). And actually I made it with cod instead of bass (hey, they had cod at Kroger, Martin loves it, etc., what would you do?!?). Cooked fettuccini, tossed it with butter, pepper, and Parmesan.

Had a LOVELY 2005 not-very-expensive red Bordeaux with it.

The pasta was good; however, it is hard to mess this up, unless you overcook it, use margarine instead of butter, ground pepper out of a can, and Parmesan out of a box, none of which I EVER do.

The wine was VERY GOOD. 2005 was an exceptional year; we weren't in SouthWest France that year, but have heard about it. The temperature was up to 50 degrees centigrade for quite awhile, late summer, and the wine as a consequence is supposed to be very good. This is indeed very good.

The cod was okay. The sauce, endives, etc., were pretty lousy. And I spent most of the late afternoon and evening messing with it. Drat.

Lillie

Sesame Street

It took me approximately the entire week to figure out that the "logos" on Google this week were Sesame Street characters because this week is the 40th anniversary of the invention/creation/release of Sesame Street. And there was an entire "Fresh Air" hour devoted to it, a great deal of which I heard while driving back from Lexington this afternoon. Sarah and I spent a great deal of time watching Sesame Street in the house on Nicholasville Road (also Mr. Rogers, and Today's Special--I found Mr. Rogers a bit dull but she didn't, and we both thought Today's Special was great, at least I think we did--I know I did). I have a couple of distinct memories. One was of her (Sarah, about 1, I think) wreaking havoc in the pantry, moving stuff off the shelves, I think, and suddenly saying "Pogga, Pogga, Pogga...", and making a bee-line for the living room, where Kermit was talking about something or other (Pogga being, of course, "frog"). Another was when I had my brief career doing latch-hook, and made the cover for a pillow of Ernie. When I had FINALLY finished, and showed it to Sarah, her only response was, Where's Bert?!? I think I MAY have actually turned Ernie into a pillow, but I HATED latch-hook stuff, and sorry, Baby, but Ernie never materialized.

Love, Mom

food

So twice in only one week I've tricked the boys into eating spinach. First was the ravioli that I stuffed with spinach (fresh), can't remember exactly what else, but I think shallots, ricotta, parmesan cheese, some fake egg... Butter and parmesan cheese on top. Not only did they eat it, but they ate it left-over (both are generally opposed to left-overs, unless it's cheese enchiladas).

And then last night I made some crepes, which were actually fake crepes, since I used fake eggs and soy milk instead of eggs and milk. And I didn't manage to make enough because I took some out to make some dessert crepes (added some sugar and orange liqueur) that I stuffed with cherry pie filling.

The real crepes had spinach in them, also mushrooms, onion, a bit of ricotta (couldn't find any goat cheese at Food Lion--recipes call generally for cream cheese with the spinach stuffing for crepes, and I try to avoid cream cheese, as I don't want to get sick). Instead of a proper veloute sauce, I used chicken broth instead of milk. Put some frozen shrimp in half of them (for some reason, Martin hates shrimp in any guise). rest of the sauce and some grated (seriously mediocre) Swiss cheese (also from the Paris Food Lion). Not only did they say it was very good, Martin asked if there would be any left over. I didn't tell him the active ingredient in the filling was spinach.

I also bought a pie pumpkin, and am trying to figure out a way to get them to eat that. It certainly won't be in a pie. Soup, maybe?

Cheers,

duck

Just read Garlic and Sapphires, by Ruth Reichl, lately editor of the late Gourmet. Read it again actually; I read it when it first came out several years ago, and didn't enjoy it all that much then. I've since been to NYC several times, and when I read it before, I was still mad at her because of the changes she'd made in the magazine when she took over.

This time I loved it.

I also cooked tonight. Not sure what you'd call it, but it was the breasts from that whole duck I bought at Critchfield's last week, and I marinated them for awhile (probably not long enough) in Madeira. Sauteed them in butter, rapidly, until they were rare. Made a sauce with the Madeira, some red wine, shallots, mushrooms (shallots and mushrooms sauteed earlier in butter), chicken broth, the syrup from a can of dark cherries, and finally the cherries. Didn't manage to thicken the sauce but the boys thought the duck was really, really good. Served it sliced and spread onto mashed potatoes (I forgot that I had some french bread....) with the cherries and mushroom sauce poured over everything. Evidently they really liked it all.

Also made garlic soup (Gascon staple in the wintertime, doesn't keep at all well, but easy to make, cheap, and good for you), and a green salad.

Wasn't ready until 9:00 p.m. but they were watching the World Series game anyway.

Lillie