80 Plates: Spain/Tapas

Last night my book club met and our dinner theme was tapas. I was excited because not only do I love, love, love tapas, but the theme fit in nicely for my new cooking goal! I did some research and came upon the site Spain-Recipes.com, which claims to have authentic recipes from Spain. It is a great site, and some of the foods my Lit Chicks were mentioning bringing were mentioned on the site, so I decided it must be pretty authentic. I selected two shrimp recipes to prepare: prawn and bacon brochettes and torillas de camarones (shrimp fritters). I was also tremendously excited by the prospect of breaking in my new Wusthof knife, a gift from Elizabeth who read my knife lament in the Coq Au Vin entry. Thank you, Elizabeth!

The recipes looked pretty easy, which is why I selected two of them. I made my shopping list and went and picked up supplies. This was not easy, however, and unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of time to go running around looking for things. So, I was forced to substitute medium shrimp for small shrimp, which my local grocery store elected not to carry, and also I was unable to find pimentos, but I accept that maybe I was not looking in the right place. Additionally, my store didn't carry thinly sliced bacon--my choices were thick cut and center cut, so I went with the center cut, which looked a bit thinner than the thick cut, but was not what I would call thin by any stretch of the imagination.

Ok, so I'll start with the tortillas de camarones. This was a recipe I had high hopes for. I love shrimp and I love fried anything. The recipe looked pretty straightforward. It called for either chickpea or regular flour, and I went with regular as my local store didn't appear interested in carrying chickpea flour either!! (What was it interested in carrying!?) I peeled and boiled up the shrimp as directed, reserving some of the water. I put the shrimp and the water in the refrigerator. What was most maddening about this recipe as I read it was that EVERYTHING had to be cooled. You heat the shrimp, then you cool it. You boil the water, then you cool it. And to be honest, I didn't have a whole lot of time.

As soon as that was going, I started chopping up the green onions. Usually this is a task that is a royal pain in the butt. But not problem with my new knife! The onions were literally falling apart at the slightest touch of that thing. I experimented with the cuts, cutting thick slices and thin, paper thin in fact. Honestly, it reduced strain and pain and work by a thousand percent. I've got to get some more of these--at the very least I need to pick up a Wusthof chef's knife.

So I got that all chopped up beautifully and began to prepare the batter for the fritters. It was a very simple batter--flour, salt, onions, parsley, and the pimientos I would have added if I'd have found them. After mixing that together, I slowly poured in the water and it became a nice batter.



And guess what?! It needed to be refrigerated for at least an hour! AUGH! By now it was 4:30 and it was getting close to time for me to leave to head north for book club. I quickly put the bowl of batter in the fridge to start cooling off. I also needed to chop the shrimp. The shrimp was supposed to be the size of coffee grounds, and so I decided I could either stand there all night chopping shrimp or I could bust out the food processor, which is what I did, taking the path of least resistance. I pulsed them instead of letting it run, since I didn't want shrimp paste. I kept a very close eye on them, so I actually did a good job with getting them chopped into little bits. I wouldn't say they were coffee ground sized, but they were definitely teeny tiny.



Ok, so all that went in the fridge, and then I had to decide how to transport everything to Alexandria, keep it cool so that it could somewhat refrigerate until I got there and be an appropriate temperature and be ready to cook. I spied the leftover disposable pans from our dinner party on Saturday and decided to construct a mobile refrigeration unit. I scraped the batter into a Ziploc container, and put it in the middle of a pan, and then surrounded it with ice cubes. The shrimp went into a second container, which I put in an insulated lunch bag with an ice pack.



This may seem excessively fussy, but the recipe said the fritters should be served immediately, so I was concerned that I would be able to cook them as close to time for book club (7:30) as possible. I was determined to cook them up north.

Ok, time to move on to the prawn and bacon brochettes. These were going to be relatively easy. Wrap shrimp in bacon, skewer, season, roast. Which is pretty much what I did. However, because the shrimp had to be skewered through both the tail and the fat part of the shrimp, I recommend you wrap the shrimp so that the loose "end" of the bacon is either at the tail or the fat part so that it'll stay skewered, laying the shrimp on the bacon like so:



If you start out by putting the first loose end right on top in the middle of your shrimp and then wrapping it around, ending where the skewer goes in, your little bundle should hold together quite nicely.

Because my skewers were pretty large, I put 4 shrimp per skewer. I didn't add much salt due to the bacon being pretty salty, but I did grind black pepper over them and drizzle them with olive oil a bit. I thought they looked quite pretty when laid out.



Everything prepared, I put these on ice as well, and loaded up the car, hauling butt up to Alexandria. I made it in about 45 minutes, which was not bad considering I left at 5:00 and once you hit the Beltway in Alexandria, you never know what's going to happen. As soon as I got there, it was time to start cooking!

I preheated the oven for the brochettes and began heating the oil for the fritters. I unpacked all the supplies and mixed the little minced pieces of shrimp into the batter. Then I began scooping them by the tablespoonful into the hot oil.

This turned out to be a little bit of a challenge, as after they were in the oil, they had to be pressed to a 3 1/2 inch disk and could only cook for one minute per side. This called for SPEED. I must say, I probably didn't do as well as I could--they certainly weren't three inches in diameter, but they were thin and crispy on the outside, which is all I could hope for. I let them cook a bit longer than 2 minutes.

When the first batch was done, I tried one and thought it was a little bit bland, honestly. I had my sister try it and she thought they were a little tasteless too. I made another batch, and same thing. So I finally decided to doctor them. I added some seasoning salt, a little minced onion, and a pile of garlic paste to the second half of the batter. It improved them some, but honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by this particular dish. And I can't honestly think that adding a half teaspoon of pimentos would make that much of a difference. It did help when they were done and I drizzled lemon juice over them, but not really enough to say so.

Meanwhile, I put the brochettes into the hot oven (425 degrees). After the recommended cooking time, they looked a little iffy to me, the bacon was rather pale. So I left them in an extra few minutes until they were really sizzling.



Again, I considered these just alright, if I'm being honest. Some of the girls in the book club seemed to really enjoy these appetizers, but there were A LOT of leftovers, and in this crowd, people eat very well (my sister brought a HUGE dish of mini cream puffs and eclairs and they were G-O-N-E gone). So I would have to speculate that these were not a huge hit.



In fact, typically if I have book club leftovers, I'll bring them home, but I wound up sending these suckers home with Judy last night. I didn't hate them, I just didn't love them.

I think I will have to re-visit Spain in the future, and perhaps make paella or something else interesting. All the other tapas we had last night was really, really good, and other tapas I've had is fantastic, so I know it can be good, and I don't happen to think that I particularly screwed up the recipes or anything. I think I may have just hit on a couple of duds!

Two countries down, 78 to go. Planning on trying to find Kenyan and Indonesian recipes for inauguration day. I've eaten Indonesian food before and really enjoyed it, but have no idea about recipes for Kenya! And the General has requested our next experiment be something from South America, so I am actively scouting out recipes from South America as well--perhaps Brazil? If anyone has any great, authentic recipes, lay 'em on me!

Happy eating!

Special Day Today

I woke up and sat with the mister while he was waiting for his carpool this morning and he reminded me of something special: exactly 10 years ago today he called me on the phone for the very first time.

Since we've known each other for ten years, we're likely to be really mushy this year with the tenth anniversary of our first date less than a month away. But even I was impressed that Michael remembered the anniversary of our first phone call. I swear, he has the world's best memory.

I really, really want to go to Newport to re-enact our first date, especially all our driving around the Ocean Drive--still one of my favorite things to do in New England. And today I called him, instead of the other way around. Granted, it wasn't for that purpose, but still, it happened.

To celebrate, I downloaded some mushy love songs and a few songs he wanted from Amazon.com We've come a long way since that first phone call, and Lord only knows where we're going next!

Article & Video Link

To read the article about our Christmas party, please visit THIS LINK. :-)

You can also see a great video HERE.

Par-Tay!

So last night was our fifth annual Epiphany dinner. Each year the event has gotten slightly larger and last night was our largest gathering yet with a total of 26 friends in attendance. I think we are probably going to have to cap it about there--besides begging for people to bring chairs, I wound up sitting at a card table that was in the kitchen.

However, I must say that I think last night was our most successful night yet. I took off Friday. In part this was because this year's dinner was being covered by a reporter from our local newspaper (the story will be in tomorrow's paper, so I'll post a link then!), so I wanted to have time to chat with them and they wanted to get some pictures (and video it turns out!) of me cooking and preparing for the event. But I also just wanted to get everything together and be on top of things with such a crowd expected.

Lucas was a good brother-in-law and did my bidding in Judy's absence--she had to go back to work on Wednesday, so pressed her husband into service in her stead. Last year after the dinner, we made a list of what exactly we should cook for everyone. I got the list out Thursday night and Lucas and I went shopping Thursday night when the stores were empty. When we were done, the little old Polish lady in me broke free and started to get nervous that we hadn't gotten enough food. But I decided to put my faith in the list.

Friday morning, Lucas, Dottie, and I all slept in till 10:30ish. I got up and ran to the Giant to get the few last food items we hadn't been able to procure at Super Walmart. I got back and we had lunch and then Cathy and Pete from the paper showed up and we got going on making ham and pierogi. They were over for more than 2 hours and I really liked both of them so much. They were easy to talk to and very interested in the details of the party. Pete the photographer also commented on my photography, so I really was glad to hear good things about it from a professional.

Judy and Michael got back from their respective job sites and we did the baking Friday night--18 mini lemon bundt cakes were prepared. By the time Friday was over, the hors d'oeuvres were ready to go, the cakes were done, the first main entree was complete, and the pierogi were finished.

Saturday morning I got up to go to Weight Watchers. When I got back, I grabbed the General and we made our first run to the dump. As we got back, Judy was swinging into high gear baking bread. We put the General in charge of Dot and Lucas and I started moving furniture. Pete called to say he was going to have to come earlier than expected since he had a work thing pop up and asked if he could come at 1:00. He was most keenly interested in catching us put the tables together, so Lucas, Judy and I hauled the monster table out from the shed and wound up putting our couch out on the front porch. (With us parking our cars in the backyard later to free up much needed driveway space, our house looked like the redneck house!) We got the tables put where they needed to be and happily took note of the fact that we didn't have to take down the Christmas tree, a very big bonus for us, as we really wanted to keep it up for the party.

Pete came for a couple of hours to take pictures and captured our famous glaze gulp (Judy and I drink whatever's left of the lemon glaze we make for the cakes--trust me, those cakes get frosted VERY generously!) and shot pictures of us setting tables, cutting up kielbasa, etc. He made it really easy not to feel self-conscious and to just go about our business, which I liked. Plus he's of Czech descent so he had a LOT of interest in the party and food.

Pre-party dining scene

Somehow, however, all our planning had really panned out. I was able to take a shower and get in a little bit of reading time. Judy managed to get a little bit of time on the Wii. Dottie was cooperative in being a good baby till party time when she started to get fussy, but most of the time was content to sleep on Uncle Mike. Lucas only made 3 runs to the grocery store for forgotten or replacement items.

So the little Alberta Clipper they predicted started up and brought lots of rain. They had predicted snow and ice, which thankfully didn't happen, but one person in Maryland cancelled due to the weather. Melissa arrived early, which I don't blame her for. God only knows what could happen on I-95 when the weather turns lousy. Other guests started arriving at 6:00 and by the time Cathy the reporter was in at 6:30, it was a rollicking time already. As the last few folks arrived bearing chairs (hooray for chairs!), we dished up the food and got everyone upstairs for some food.


Everyone gathering to eat dinner

Dinner was great. We had lots of delicious food and I got to sit with Lucas and Joe and Joe's new honey, which was fun and interesting. A 'spirited' debate about the U.S. tax code broke out amongst several guests, followed by a 'rousing' discussion of the Israel-Palestine question over dessert. As the men argued politics, the ladies hid in a corner and discussed literature. We distributed the presents that the Three Kings had brought as well, and made a big splash with the kids--giving Jacalyn's boys lightsabers and Little Anne's son Nicolas a Mr. Potato Head that's dressed up like Santa--he loved the hell out of that thing! The grown ups got tower treats and Cathy and Pete were touched that we had thought of them too--Cathy gave me a big hug.

The party broke up around 11:15ish. We worked at cleaning up until nearly 1am, when we were all too exhausted to continue. This is what I woke up to this morning:










And actually, I really didn't think that was too bad for a dinner for 30 people. I emptied out the dishwasher and loaded it up with only glasses, which really cut down on the amount of visible clutter--plates are stackable, so it makes it seem like there's less to do! What made the dishwashing interesting is that, like clockwork, on the chime of 6:00, our garbage disposal broke. So I wound up having to rinse everything into a strainer in the sink and them empty that into the trash instead of happily grinding everything up into the disposal. But oh well, in the scope of other things that have gone wrong, that really was no big deal.

While the dishwasher was running, the General came downstairs to see if he could help, so he and I decided to make a run for the dump. By the time we got done, I was able to do another load of dishes in the dishwasher and then I handwashed all the platters and oversized goodies and got them all stacked. By the time Judy and Lucas surfaced around 10:30, the main things left to do were move furniture and haul things to the shed, and I happily let them do it as my legs and back were KILLING me. I wound up taking a 2 hour nap, which they diligently worked through and by 4:00, the house was in good enough shape that I could sit and work on reading my book.

The party was fun and we really got a lot out of it. It was our historic fifth year, so it was kind of nice that this was the year we'll be in the paper. There wasn't anyone who was there that I would think I wouldn't want back and we are all trying to figure out how to accommodate the people we'd like to add for next year.

I've ultimately decided not to add this event to my "Around the World in 80 Plates" goal because I didn't make anything I didn't already know how to make, so keep your eyes peeled for something new and fun from Eastern Europe in the hopefully not too distant future (maybe around Easter). This will be made even easier by the kind generosity of Elizabeth, who thoughtfully provided me with a brand new Wusthof paring knife so I can no longer claim that my knives all suck. When I opened her gift, I sat on the half of the couch we had put in the kitchen and just stared at it adoringly. So THANK YOU, Elizabeth and Groom! It was so, so thoughtful of you and I look forward to using it soon to create something fabulous!

So with that, Christmas is officially over in the Kosior household. Everything is packed up and put away for another year. It feels good to get back to a simpler existence with all the furniture back where it belongs, but also I enjoy knowing I'll get to do it all again in only 9 more months and in the meantime have some fun things planned. 2009 is off to a great start!

VICTORY!

I have defeated The Lace Reader. My New Year's resolution to finish all book club books ahead of the meeting was severely tested by The Lace Reader. It wasn't because I hated it or loved it or anything else. It just was the kind of book that takes forever to read, and typically I just don't have that kind of patience for books like that and give up. Last night at the party I announced I was throwing in the towel. Everyone ridiculed me for giving up on a resolution by January 10th, which I must say spurred me to read hard this afternoon after the house was picked up and put back together. That and Plum Spooky staring at me and begging me to read it.

So I'm glad I did it. The book was OK, but the fact that I've made it to 3 meetings having read all 3 books this year makes me happy snappy.

Report from the Oral Surgeon

Well, she stuck her finger in my mouth, pushed on the spot for 2 seconds, asked if it hurt, I said no, and she told me to come back in 3 months.

It is some sort of calcification. It is unusual for white women to suffer this type of malady--typically black women are more like to get it.

If the spot continues to grow, it will have to be removed. Removal will involve approximately 3 root canals.

Let's all pray that it stops growing.

Weather

I know by now not to put too much stock in the weather hype around here for freezing rain and ice and snow.

But a little part of me believes that I might just get a day off work anyway. Hope springs eternal.

Unfortunately, that little part of me is now sitting in the corner with her blankie, crying her eyes out yet again. The rest of me is saying, "Told ya so" and sticking its tongue out.

I was at VDOT yesterday and all the guys were sitting in their trucks, motors rumbling, each truck filled with salt and sand, ready to roll. I wonder what they're doing now?

Back when I lived in Boston, there was an hilarious Dunkin Donuts commercial. It featured three guys, each in his own snowplow, drinking DD coffee. They are all giving each other the eye as well as keeping a close watch on the world in front of them. All of a sudden, the three of them see the same single snowflake fall from the sky and it's a chicken race for them to be the one to plow it. It was absolutely hilarious. I've looked for it on YouTube, but can't find it.

Every time Virginia gets weather hype, I remember that commercial. The dude at VDOT here in town wouldn't service my state car because they "have to prepare the trucks for the big storm". I think they're going to have a lot of free time on their hands.

Oh well. Maybe next time.

Dental Update

I have made an appointment with the oral surgeon for Thursday at 8:30am to have the spot on my jaw evaluated. I'm hopeful that it's nothing serious, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

This is why I don't go to the dentist for years at a time :-)

I'm Thinking of Trying Something This Year...

This morning I woke up, dazzling in my success with my last blog post. And a thought popped into my head. The Julie and Julia thing has been done with French cooking, but why not try world cuisine?

So I think I'm going to try "Around the World in 80 Dishes". That comes to approximately 6-7 dishes per month, will give us a nice variety, and I can pick recipes from all over the world and we'll give them a whirl.

So that's the plan. France complete. This weekend I'll be doing a lot of cooking, and we'll see where it takes us. I won't have time to do a lot of documenation, so I may not be able to count this weekend, but we'll see what happens!

I'm excited about this project. :-) Hope you will be too.

UPDATE: The title of this project will officially be Around The World in 80 Plates. Anyone who wants to suggest recipes or request a certain country, feel free to email me at s u s a n k (at) m k o s i o r (dot) c o m.

UPDATE 2: I've started a new blog for this venture. However, I will also continue to cross post here so that if you just want to keep reading here, that's fine with me. In case strangers come looking for me and don't give a fig about my personal life, I thought it'd be a good idea to have a separate blog for this new hobby. It can be found at http://aroundtheworld80plates.blogspot.com/. Again, I will cross post here, there is no need to go back and forth to that blog.

Butchering the Art of French Cooking

Ok, I'll confess here and now. I am deeply obsessed with the idea of culinary school since reading The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. It was a real upbeat way to end my 2008 reading year. I love cooking and baking. I love watching the Food Network--especially the shows which make things that I'd never in a million years dream of making. This mainly includes the Barefoot Contessa and Alton Brown--the Contessa because everything is faaaaab-ulously full of cream and butter or lamb and Alton because, despite loving him even more having met him, everything seems rather complex--lots of weighing, lots of getting the timing just right. I am devoted to Top Chef and Sunday nights I tune in to see Iron Chef America just because it's the only thing on.

But having read Knife, I decided that in 2009, I should try some new and much more complex dishes culinarily speaking. Or perhaps old dishes that I'd never given thought to. Or maybe just try to find the best recipe for something we take for granted. This year, I'll be on the quest for the perfect biscuit, for instance. My husband absolutely loves eating biscuits, and having watched Feasting on Asphalt and seeing them stop at the biscuit place in Washington, GA had me dreaming of a big, buttery incredible biscuit.

So one of my culinary goals this year is to determine what the perfect biscuit recipe is and bake it to perfection.

However, the question at hand was preparing a complex dish I'd never attempted before, and I turned to Flinn and her recipe for Coq Au Vin et Thym. My experience with coq au vin has been limited to the coq au vin fondue at The Melting Pot. I knew it had something to do with roosters and wine, and making a kind of stew out of them. I have a vague idea that perhaps it was a dish French peasants ate when they ran out of good chickens--they got the crustiest old rooster, slaughtered it, and stewed it to make it palatable. If that's true or not, I'm not sure, but I think I heard that.

[A side note: I won't be posting the recipes here on the blog. There are probably 10 billion copyright laws I'd be violating. If you want the recipe, I'd suggest getting the book at the library or asking me for it in a pinch. In the pictures, you'll see what's involved, but I will leave the specific amounts out in the interest of not being sued.]

So, my goal for Sunday was to make coq au vin. I read through the recipe, wrote down the ingredients and headed for the store.

Problem number one of the day: the ABC store is not open, and this recipe called for brandy. Two tablespoons seems like a significant amount. The General and I are not big drinkers however, and I can count on the thumbs of my feet the number of hard liquor beverages I've had in my life. I have some bourbon in the cupboard which I use for my infamous New Years and Easter ham, but I have no idea if bourbon and brandy are even remotely related. I hemmed and hawed about it and finally decided that I had no choice but to omit the brandy in case the bourbon did bad things to the dish.

Fortunately, however, I can buy wine at my local grocery store on Sundays. Otherwise, this entire project would have come to a screeching halt. Flinn recommends a dry red wine, preferably French, preferably Syrah. Now, again people, I'll be honest, I wouldn't know a Syrah from a Shiraz from a Chardonnay. So I wound up spending a good bit of time in the wine aisle looking for a bottle of Syrah. Eventually, I stumbled upon Red Bicyclette, which had the benefit of a) being from France and b) being a Syrah and I bought it. If it is a good wine or not, I cannot tell you, although half way through this project, I was slightly tempted to take a sip of it!

Ok, next find was pancetta. (Flinn offers that unsmoked bacon would also be acceptable.) I have never purchased pancetta before, have never cooked with it before. However, on New Year's Eve when I was shopping for provisions, I happened to notice that my local Giant had pancetta, so I went and grabbed some. Unfortunately, that stuff is EXPENSIVE!! To purchase the quantity I needed cost nearly $10, and I did not buy that much! Still, all in the name of culinary genius. I added fresh vegetables, fresh herbs, and went and got my chicken thighs and chicken STOCK, not broth. Chicken has also gotten quite expensive these days and though I was buying thighs, which are typically cheaper than breasts, I still balked just a bit.

As for the serving, Flinn recommends either noodles or mashed potatoes. I picked up some No Yolk egg noodles for me and 4 cheese mashed potatoes for the General.

I got home, unpacked the groceries and got to work.

Voila mes ingredients!

Now, I will admit, this whole thing took me a heck of a lot longer than necessary for a couple reasons. Number one was that I was taking pictures along the way to document on my blog. I wanted everything arranged nicely enough that at least you could see what I was up to and what everything looked like, plus I figured it would be easier to cook if everything was ready like on TV and I could just start dumping stuff into the pots.

Number two was that I bought the wrong chicken.

What I read in the directions was that I needed to buy chicken thighs. This is precisely what I did. I got a value pack, since I needed a lot, and I used my food scale and measured out the correct weight in chicken. There were 2 thighs left in the pack, and I tossed them into the fridge. Then I turned back to the recipe and noticed, with a bit of horror, that what I actually needed were boneless thighs. Darn it! Well, no time like the present to learn how to remove bones from chicken thighs. The first two thighs came out looking as if they'd been at Normandy. But after that, I must say, I got the hang of it and while they didn't look as good as they could have, especially after I finished skinning them as well, they didn't look awful. Unfortunately, I now had a full pound less of chicken than expected, and even after taking out the bones of the 2 remaining thighs, I was nearly 3/4 of a pound short.

"Ahh, who cares?" I thought. I put the chicken aside and began working on the other ingredients. There was A LOT of chopping to do, as I was basically creating a mirepoix, a mixture of carrots, onions, and celery. I did the celery first, and did my best to make it pretty uniform--how hard can it be, I reasoned. I failed spectacularly. I wound up going back through everything and and chopping up the big pieces so they were more in line with the smaller ones. Then I turned my attention to the carrots. Carrots are a pain to cut. I was dangerously close to slicing up my fingers. They are rolly and when you slice them, the little discs shoot off everywhere. (I don't cook much with carrots due to the General's culinary demands--usually I bite up the baby ones and feed the big ones to the rabbit!) As you get to the thicker part of the carrot, it gets harder and harder to slice. They took quite a while to do. The onions proved the adage in the book from whence it got its name: sharp knives don't squeeze out the onion juices and make you cry. I do not have a sharp knife. Thus I was crying. Slicing mushrooms was mercifully easy.

The pancetta offered its own challenges. This particular pancetta was incredibly thinly sliced, and offered a lot of resistance to being diced. Because I don't have the world's best knife, apparently, the pancetta caught on the blades and simultaneously tore and stuck, creating a dandy of a mess. Finally, I decided to just make do with it kind of sliced and resolved to get myself a quality knife for further culinary adventures. Though I did consider just taking scissors to it, which I think would also work quite well.


Here's everything prepped for cooking!

All of this chopping, deboning, skinning, slicing, and dicing made my arms and back sore, and for the first time I was really aware of how physical a process cooking could be! But I was aware of it in a good way, and the soreness actually felt good--like a virtue of accomplishment.

So, the first thing to do was to heat up some olive oil over high heat and season the chicken with salt and pepper and then brown it in the oil. It was HOT in that pan and that chicken hit with a sizzle. It browned up pretty quickly. What I had expected to use was my big kitchen tongs to turn it, but I quickly discovered that a silicone spatula was much easier. If little bits of chicken were clinging to the bottom, I could easily scrape them up with the spatula, and the one I have is good up to 500 degrees, so it wasn't in any danger of melting. It also allowed me to conserve utensils so I didn't have even more dishes to do--although I definitely created a lot for myself!

Once the chicken was done and set aside, I threw the pancetta into the pot. I was of a mixed mind about it--I guess I expected it to smell more bacony or something, but it didn't. It didn't smell bad, it just smelled different and I started to get nervous that maybe I wouldn't like the flavor of it. But in for a penny, in for a pound. After the pancetta had browned up a bit, I added the mirepoix and cooked the veggies until they were tender (sorry this picture is fuzzy!). I put in the wine and garlic and chicken stock and herbs and eventually put the chicken back in.

And this is when I started to get really nervous. As I said, I've never eaten coq au vin. There were no pictures of it in Flinn's book, and I don't have any French cookbooks. So I was taking it on faith that it looked like it was supposed to. And what it looked like to me was a chicken bloodbath. I stared at it in horror and revulsion. By now, I had been cooking for the better part of two and a half hours, and this is what I have to show for it?! I think I have made a terrible mistake! But it was too late to turn back. All we could hope for was that it would all come out right in the end.


I've created a monster!

I slapped a lid on it and threw it in the oven. By now it was 5pm and it had to sit in the oven for a good 2 hours. This was a long time, but gave me a chance to run a load of dishes through the dishwasher and get the last remnants of the meal ready to eat. While the chicken was happily stewing away, I cleaned the kitchen top to bottom, cooked up the remaining mushrooms and onions, and made a pan of mashed potatoes and a pan of egg noodles. By the time it was time to eat, our mouths were watering. It smelled SO GOOD. I pulled it out of the oven, and I have to admit, I was still not too impressed by how it looked, but it looked better than it had going into the oven, so that was a plus in its favor.


The finished product

I mean, honestly, is it supposed to be that soupy? Should it have a saucier sauce? It was quite runny.

Well, who cared anyway? It smelled DIVINE! We could not wait to eat. I started dishing it up onto our plates, trying to present it nicely. Because we have so many picky eaters, I did not stir in the additional mushrooms and onions as it suggested, instead just serving them on my plate with my own coq au vin. I did drizzle a bit of the wine sauce over everything so we had a bit of the wine to make a nice flavor.


Bon appetit!

And then it was time for the ultimate test: OUR FIRST TASTE!

Michael dug in first, and I was still a bit reticent as to whether I'd like it, so I let him take the first bite.

"Oh my God, wow!" he said, sighing contentedly. "This is fantastic!"


Believe it or not, this is the face he makes when he likes something!

"It is?" I asked, not daring to hope, and then took my first tentative nibble.

Was it ever. Holy cow, it may well be one of the best things I've ever eaten. It was certainly some of the best food I've ever cooked in my life. I took a bigger bite. I was filled with pride. I had made this, me, little ole me! We shared a toast to ourselves entering year ten (ten!) of our relationship and then we pretty well ceased talking and focused on eating. At one point, The General pulled something out of his mouth and said, "What is this?" I said, "That's celery." And do you know what!? He popped it back in his mouth and swallowed it!!! He ate everything on his plate--carrots, onions, celery, the works. The chicken was so tender you literally could not stab it with your fork without it falling apart. Instead, you had to kind of scoop it up and eat it. Fantastic! The General absolutely loved it as much as I did, and has even requested it in his lunch!

I got home from work tonight, and I was like, "I just want more coq au vin for dinner" and so that's what I reheated and ate. It's honestly amazing. After dinner last night, we sat down with the book again and looked through it to pick our next recipe. I'm going to try making Kathleen's quiche. That recipe is on Kathleen's website at http://www.kathleenflinn.com/quiche.html. I will modify it for The General--I'll make the tomato and onion for me and make him one with the leftover ham from New Year's. I have a feeling it'll be spectacular.

I learned a lot from the experience--things like reading the recipe and getting the correct ingredients, not waiting till Sunday to get hard liquor, and that I need a good knife! It was definitely a great start to a year I hope is filled with culinary delights. I also hope that any wealthy benefactors out there who might be reading this will consider paying my tuition for culinary school. :-) This was such a fun project to embark on, I really enjoyed myself cooking this meal and pretending to be a chef if only for a few hours. I have a feeling cooking "fancy food" will turn into something I enjoy more often than just on my birthday!

Entertaining Quotes of 2008's Holiday Season

I meant to post these earlier, but I totally forgot about them till tonight. What am I doing up at 12:49AM blogging? I took a 3 hour nap earlier, so sue me!

So anyway, over the holidays, Lucas and the General came out with the two most adorable things ever, and I want to preserve them for posterity. I'll start with Lucas.

For some reason, everyone found the sight of me twirling around the basement like an idiot while I did my 60's Blast Off compelling viewing. Honestly, Judy suggested I sell tickets to my next show. I'd no sooner turn on the TV than everyone would gather around the couch and watch me exercising for the next 27 minutes. I gave up being self-conscious about it, figuring if I can do it I should be proud of showing off my mad skills.

So I got done with the work out and Lucas and I had the following exchange, which I found just too adorable:

Lucas: Is Richard Simmons gay?

Now, mind you, Lucas has no idea if anyone is gay. He just doesn't have that sense about him. So this is the type of question his is liable to come out with in sheer innocence, because he genuinely doesn't know. However, it just shocks the heck out of the rest of us, although to be fair, none of us has ever spoken to Mr. Simmons to confirm this information personally.

Me: Ummmm... What do you think?

Lucas: Oh, I thought he was just festive.

HAHAHAHAHAHA I absolutely love this. And I must admit, Richard does look particularly festive on the 60's Blast Off DVD, which I now just LOVE doing, in his hot pink outfoot with the sparkles, especially when he does a nifty little slice maneuver at the end.

But even better than that was an exchange The General and I had in the car while we were driving around during the holidays. Recently, he had run out of shampoo. Usually I buy him Suave for Men shampoo, but the store we were doing the grocery shopping at had run out of it, so I was forced to locate an alternative. I picked up a bottle of Gillette shampoo for men, figuring that as the General wears Gillette deodorant, it would stand to reason he'd like their shampoo as well. This led to the following exchange...

The General: Susan, you know that shampoo you got me?
Me: Yeah?
The General: Is there something in it?
Me: What do you mean?
The General: I mean like an ingredient or something.
Me: I dunno, honey.
The General: Because when I put it on, I feel a sensation!
Me: I gotta get me some of that shampoo.

G'night all.

Last Three Books of 2008

I feel quite happy that I was able to end 2008 on a high note, literarily speaking. I read three books in the month of December and all three were noteworthy to one extent or another.

The first is Carrie Adams's The Godmother. I first heard of this book from Nicole's blog, where she posted a glowing review of it and offered her copy to whoever might be interested in reading it. I read the description on Amazon and decided that as it was a) set in England and b) sounded good and c) recommended by a friend whose literary judgement I trust and d) free, I'd give it a whirl. Nicole sent it off to me and I discovered just the book I was looking for to get me through the December insanity--nothing to heavy, nothing too serious, just something to read.

The book centers around Tessa King, a single thirty-something woman who is living in London and is known in her circle of married and parenting friends as the one you call for a great time and to whom they can turn for help and advice, though she has no experience in many of the issues they need help with. She is the godmother to seven of their children. Lately, however, Tessa feels a bit empty inside, and when tragedy strikes her group of friends, she is put in the position of deciding what will make her truly happy.

I really enjoyed the heck out of this book. It was definitely chick lit, I don't know that many men would enjoy reading it. It left me a bit weepy, and re-ignited my dreams of living in London and being one of these fabulously British single women. Being as I a) live in the US, b) am American, and c) am not single, this is unlikely. However, a girl can dream. Tessa was a fascinating character, funny and flawed, reliable and irresponsible at times too. She is the kind of friend so many of us would love to have and so many of us need. You could feel for her in her own struggles as she fought to make the good choices for herself, her friends, and their families. And I had to laugh at times too.

Thanks, Nicole, for a great read! Would you like your book back or should I pass it along to the next interested party? And if so, are there any interested parties out there who would like to read it?

Second book on my December list was The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright. I came upon this book rather unusually--I was in Wegman's for lunch and as I hate eating by myself without something to read, I was scanning their books and magazine section to find something to read. This book's bright red cover leapt out at me. The description was intriguing, as was the fact that in the back of the book was a sealed envelope containing a letter. I read the first few chapters in Wegmans and then promptly forgot about the book for 2 weeks until cleaning out my car in preparation for Christmas. I brought it in and barely put it down.

The book is about the lives of Jack and Laurel Cooper, a married couple who run a B&B in Woodstock, VA. Jack is terminally ill, but has spent his married life sending a letter to Laurel each and every Wednesday of their marriage. One night, as they are preparing for bed, Laurel suffers a fatal heart attack. Jack writes one final letter, crawls into bed with his wife, and dies in his sleep. As their children arrive for the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes of the Wednesday letters, memories of a life built together, and contained therein, some shocking secrets which force them to re-think the parents they thought they knew.

I really loved this book until the bitter end. Towards the end, it devolves into a "Jesus loves and forgives each one of us" festival, which for me is an ultimate turn off. I very nearly stopped reading the Mitford books by Jan Karon, as each grew increasingly preachy as the series wore on. I ultimately finished them and I ultimately finished The Wednesday Letters because I believed in the story and wanted to know what would happen. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed that the author couldn't make the story come to a conclusion without that type of writing--particularly when it came out of the blue and nowhere else in the book did that type of thing exist in the first couple hundred pages. If I'm being honest, I was also disappointed in the letter in the sealed envelope at the back of the book--but mainly because the letter I expected to be in there was not.

At a scant 288 pages with great big type and lots of white space, this should be a fairly easy read for any reader who cares to commit a couple of hours to it. I'm very happy to have read it, and I admit, it was another tearjerker for me indeed. Jack and Laurel's story is one of an amazing marriage and life, and worth reading.

The final book of the month was Kathleen Flinn's amazing memoir The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry. Flinn was a 30-something American living in London working at a job she hated. Returning from a vacation to get back to work, she was met at the airport by her boss, who took her to a nearby hotel to let her know that she had been let go from the job she had increasingly grown to hate. Getting another job in London would be a challenge, and in despair she called her boyfriend Mike back in the US and asked him what he thought she should do. Without hesitating, Mike told her she should follow the dream she had once told him she had and enroll at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and become trained as a chef. Still, Flinn had her doubts, chief among them not knowing anyone in Paris. Thus did Mike get out of his business entanglements and join her in Paris so she could accomplish her dream.

I absolutely loved this book. Flinn is a master writer. I felt like I was right there with her in the kitchen, feeling her frustrations and victories over the stove and cutting board. The book was vivid in its descriptions as well. About a quarter of the way into it, I began to build my own dreams of attending Le Cordon Bleu and learning to be a great chef. And then I read about them having to chop off rabbit heads and duck feet and kill lobsters with trussing needles and and I came to the conclusion that perhaps I wasn't cut out of the general cuisine lessons and I'd have to stick to patisserie. There was also a vivid description of a huge meat market on the outskirts of Paris, with horses, cows, and pigs hanging from hooks on the ceiling, ready for purchase. But Flinn admits towards the end that eventually the chefs become desensitized to such sights and are more in touch with their food in its most basic state, before it's butchered and packaged prettily for sale in the market.

While I doubt I will ever attend Le Cordon Bleu, be it in Paris or here in the US--after all, it's her dream, and am I just being sucked into it or is it my dream as well?--the book led me think about what I really want out of life. I am unhappy at work, but keep showing up as long as they keep paying me. But here I am in my 30's and isn't it time I figured it out and went for it? What am I waiting for? I don't know, honestly. But I've been giving it much more thought and hope I come to some answers soon! This book was everything I wanted from Eat, Pray, Love and more.

I was also pleased to see that Kathleen included a pile of recipes in the book. At the end of each chapter is one recipe she prepared during the course of that chapter's lessons. I plan to prepare them here at home so I may at least feel like a chef for a few hours. The General is of course balking at the prospect of such fancy foods as coq-au-vin, but I think he'll come to like it in the new year. We're expanding our culinary horizons! You're in my kitchen now, General! (Love you, Sugar Bear.)

So, definitely check these out if you have the time and inclination. If you could only pick one, go with Kathleen Flinn, The Sharper Your Knife being one of my favorite reads of the year. I will update the blog with my attempts at her recipes in the not-too-distant future.

Happy reading!

Late Blogging

Well, courtesy of a nasty Trojan that got on my computer somehow over the holidays (which one of you bastards downloaded what, Family!?), I have been extremely limited in what I could do. As in, Twitter worked and nothing else. I could get on the main page of Facebook about 50% of the time, but couldn't do anything, including change my status, once I got there. Thus do I owe many of you comments and notes back and I will try to get to them this week.

Anyway, I wanted to do some blogging on New Year's Eve/Day, but had to wait until my new computer arrived from the Stan Clan, which it did last night. And then we were up till 11:30 tweaking the settings, so I was too stinkin' tired to do anything but crawl into bed.

Alrighty. Well, it was a race to the finish, but I managed to finish the year at approximately 105 books read. Considering that by the time my book club met on December 8th, I had broken 100, this is not much of an accomplishment. However, I do say approximately because I noted that I had forgotten to post many of the things I'd read on GoodReads this year, so there may have been some I forgot about.

This leads me to my first 2009 Plan (I refuse to use the word resolution, as I can't be sure what the heck might happen this year after what I endured in '08, so no sense resolving to do things I'm not sure I can keep up with): to be better about logging and blogging my book reads throughout the year. Mostly this will take place on my GoodReads profile, so if you're interested in what I've read, then feel free to head over there and friend me. However, notable books will still be blogged about over here. After I finish off this post, I'll be starting a new one about the last 3 books I read, all of which I think are worth mentioning.

I have four other reading goals for 2009:

1. To read all my book club books in time for the meetings, regardless of whether or not I like them. This presented an extreme challenge already with finishing off The Shipping News in time for the December meeting, because I absolutely hated it. And this month, although I LOVE our book, I am struggling to finish The Lace Reader, as thus far it's not a terribly festive little book and it's a rather festive time of year. But I will have it done in time for our meeting in a week and a half.

Yes, girls, confession time, I haven't read every single book. Bad Susan! I have tried to read every book, but frankly, I never used to force myself to read books I couldn't get into after 50 pages, so it's a whole new world for me out there.

I noted that I haven't posted this year's reading list for the Lit Chicks, so here's what we'll be reading so far:

* The View from Mt. Joy by Lorna Landvik
* What Was Lost by Catherine Flynn
* Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
* Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
* The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Schaffer
* The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

Obviously, several people haven't yet selected their books, but already we have an intriguing and eclectic mix of books here. I'm excited about this year's reading list!

2. This year, I will read Gone With the Wind. Sound familiar? That's because I pledged to read it last year, but I didn't. Since visiting Mike and Lesley in Atlanta, I have really wanted to read it, but oddly enough, putting it on my wish list at Paperback Swap hasn't garnered me a single copy! So I'm going to have to go and pick up a copy at either the library or the store.

3. Jacalyn and I were sitting around talking the other night and her hubby mentioned reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and how tedious it was. For some reason, this led to the two of us deciding that we must embark upon reading it together. She's got it on audio and is going to make me a copy for when I finish The Lady Elizabeth. The good thing about listening in the car is that I'm essentially trapped, so I feel confident that I can finish it within about 2 weeks' time.

4. My sister told me about the Alphabet Challenge. I don't know where she heard about it, but apparently the goal is to read one book with a title corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I will complete this, though as far as I know, Sue Grafton hasn't gotten to X yet, so I'm slightly concerned...

So those are my reading plans for the year. I expect I will probably break 100 again this year, for a perfect trifecta. At least, I hope to! I'm about halfway through my first book, You Can't Curl Your Hair With Holy Rollers, which is very entertaining. It should be a rather quick read, but I've been so exhausted at the end of each day that I haven't gotten done with it like I thought I would. Today, perhaps.

So 2008 was a year I was only too happy to say "good riddance" to, although I am the only one in my family who feels that way. Michael listed off the good things about the year, many of which I agreed with, but overall, I spent a year in a lot of unhappiness, which led to a number of poor choices, and a few good outcomes as well.

I don't want to get too deeply personal here, as for the most part I try to keep this as a day-to-day blog of just the basics of my life. But 2008 will be remembered as the year I decided to basically eat myself into an early grave. I was so despondant with the way things were turning out, with relationships with my family, with our inability to start a family of our own, that I just started eating. And I didn't stop for two months. At the end of that little orgy, I'd gained 20 pounds, I looked and felt even more miserable than I already had, and it was in danger of becoming a downward spiral until only one conclusion could be reached.

But fortunately, there was a glimmer of hope shining at me, and not only was I able to work through some of the issues that I was having with the family--though they are by no means fully resolved--I was able to take strength from Annette, Russell, and Amy having the courage to join Weight Watchers, and decided to do the same. I will never forget the feeling of dread that first meeting-stepping on the scale with a total stranger. It was humiliating. While my leader didn't care a whit--I guess after a while numbers are numbers to them--to me it was proof of just how far I had allowed myself to go. I resolved then that if I could just get it together and put myself back into the driver seat of my own life, I would never let that happen again. Will I be successful? I don't honestly know. I do know that I have lost 56 pounds in 7 months. I weigh less now than I did at our wedding. I feel better, I am exercising, and I am working hard to conquer my personal demons one day at a time. I fell off the wagon this past week, so I'm somewhat dreading the scales tomorrow, but having not gained any weight at all over Christmas, I'm willing to give myself a little leeway. But I'll be back on the horse on Saturday, and won't look back.

So, I do resolve to continue with my Weight Watchers efforts and with working hard at being an honest person and saying what I need to say, even if that might be hurtful at times to others. I can't go back to how things were in March of last year. And I won't let my real self be covered under thick layers for the sake of others any more.

Additionally disappointing was not being able to see Mike and Lesley last year for the first time since we've become friends. We have selected Mike and Lesley to be our children's guardians, should we ever have children and then die a sudden and definitely most tragic death. I picture something painless yet dramatic. Still, we didn't get to Atlanta this year, and with Lesley's crazy work schedule, they weren't able to get to Virginia either. Hopefully next year the four of us can take a nice beach vacation somewhere, even if only for a long weekend. We all deserve it, and Lesley and I have to go parasailing together. So I plan for that to happen.

On the bright side, we did get to finally meet Russell and Amy and see Annette again--thank you, Annette, for bringing us all together as friends! :-) It was a wonderful trip and I have such happy memories of our time in Savannah. Hopefully we will be able to do it again sometime or get you all up to Fredericksburg! ;-)

The final thing I hope to keep up with this year is a daily gratitude journal. My book club gift this year for the gift exchange was a The Reading Woman engagement calendar. Starting yesterday, I jotted down a few things I was grateful for that happened during the day--things like The Stan Clan's friendship, snuggling with my niece, and one of the games on my Wii that I enjoy playing. I've got the calendar here by my computer, since this is where I typically end my days, checking my e-mail "one last time", and I can jot a few words down and remember the things I have to be thankful for. By the end of 2009, I should have a lovely momento of the wonderful things about my life, as I definitely don't remember much about the good things of 2008--though the General can rattle off a steady stream of them. Mainly I remember the warmth and comfort of friends and friendship and that is what I'm most grateful for in 2008.

So, those are my goals and plans for '09: reading, gratitude journal, Weight Watchers. I've learned not to expect too much, not to promise too much, not to plan for too much, because you certainly never know what curveballs life is going to throw your way. I hope 2009 is gracious and good to all of you and to all of me :-)

Thank you for reading and being a part of my life. Who knows where this blog may lead us next!

Christmas Come and Gone

Well, Christmas is over and I can hardly believe it! Never have I ever been so busy. My usual favored Christmas activities didn't get done as I barely managed to keep my head above water, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about that!

We were not expecting guests until the 22nd, so imagine our surprise when people started arriving on the 19th! Judy, Lucas, and Dottie arrived on Friday evening and this somewhat spurred us to action that perhaps we should get a Christmas tree. Saturday morning, the General and I got up and went down to the Roxbury Garden Center in Old Town F'burg and bought a tree there. It was/is much fresher than our usual Home Depot trees, but not as big. Still, I loved it and the people who work there were so, so nice to us and helped us bag it and mount it to the roof of the car.

Saturday evening my mom arrived, and by Monday my dad was here. Tuesday, the General and I had medical appointments--I went to the doctor at 8:45am and then we both went to the dentist at 2:45pm. You all know how much I hate going to the dentist anyway, so I decided I would just go ahead and get all the work done at once. And we decided to get the General's crown done as well, since they were having a special $200 off and we couldn't pass that off for his teeth!

Ok, so lo and behold with one thing and another--and some possibly worrisome news on my end (my x-rays show that I have an "abnormality" growing on my jaw and I have to go and consult with an oral surgeon)--we didn't get out of the dentist's office till nearly 6pm. Tuesday was the last day most people were working before Christmas, and traffic was akin to one of Dante's 7 levels of hell. My father didn't beleive me about sticking it out and waiting for the HOV lanes and thought he could do better in the main lines, which was a HUGE mistake. Finally when we hit Woodbridge, he decided to try Route 1, which I also knew was a mistake--traffic PLUS traffic lights! However, his blood sugars were dropping and making him dangerously unpleasant to be around and so at least on Route 1 we could stop at Thomas's and pick up pizzas for the crew when we got home. I called my mom to let her know we'd be home as soon as we could, and that was that. We stopped in at Thomas's, picked up some pies and calzones, and hit the road.

Unfortunately, as we were hungry, we bit into the calzones and the General's temporary crown broke in half and fell out of his mouth. Well, there was no way the dentist was open, so we were left with a dilemma on our hands of what to do next. There was no way to get back up north, and no way we were going to go back up there only to get back in the line of traffic. We decided to go home. I took over driving, and headed west instead of south, cut through the PW Forest on Rte. 619, hit route 1 below Quantico, followed Rte. 1 to Eskimo Hill in Stafford, shot off there and took 2 back roads to our house. We got home at 9:30pm. Judy and Lucas and Joe had just gotten back themselves from Dottie's doctor's appointment.

We sat and ate pizza and debated what to do about the tooth. I called the dentist and left a message that we'd like to come up first thing in the morning. Then as we got to talking, Judy suggested that since I'd left our car at her house, why didn't she drive us up north, we could stay over at her house, and then go to the dentist first thing and come home in the morning? So that's what we did. It was dead quiet up there, we got our car back, and hit the dentist's office at 7:30am. They didn't open till 8:00, but we got in at 7:45 and the General was the first person they saw. Fortunately for us, one of their office managers/receptionists lives in Woodbridge and felt our pain.

So now it is Christmas Eve, and as yet, I have not baked a single cookie. Good for WW, but not so good for me--baking cookies makes Christmas 'Christmas' for me. So we haul it home, I don't let the General eat any breakfast, and I get home, and Judy is baking cookies, my parents are out shopping, Lucas is on the Wii and Joe is hanging out. The phone is ringing like crazy with my mom calling to ask various questions, and the General goes upstairs. Well, as it turns out, Judy and Lucas had slept in our room the previous night and there was some stuff around the room. Judy ran up to move it out of the way and the General said something about his phone charger being unplugged. This sent Judy into a screaming burst of tears and she literally ran down the stairs, slamming doors, screaming and sobbing. In an attempt to make peace, I went down to see what the matter was, but she couldn't even talk, so I went back upstairs to demand some answers from the General, who thought Judy was laughing. So I took him by the hand and shoved him in the room with Judy to work out their differences. The cookies were burning, so Joe and I attempted to take care of that.

My parents got home, and my dad decided to take Lucas and head to Richmond to meet up with his girlfriend's family (my dad's girlfriend, not Lucas's). So they left and Judy and the General had rejoined us by now, and we all had lunch and then Joe and I headed to the store to get dinner--as Christmas Eve dinner is now traditionally my job, and I love doing it. We decided to make crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms and Joe's famous linguine with shrimp. I was in charge of the mushrooms, so I got that stuff, and Joe got everything else. We also got some cheese and crackers for a little pre-dinner yumminess to go with the mushrooms, which the general was not going to touch.

My dad and Lucas got back around 3:30 and Joe and I started cooking. We ate and unfortunately, the General's crown fell out again. Fortunately, it didn't break this time, but I was so aggravated, and so was he. We had some "fix it" crown glue, so I put it on there and he put it back in. It seemed to hold OK, but I called the dentist and from their recording gleaned that they would not re-open until Saturday. I left a message that we'd be back up on Saturday, but I was inwardly fuming about having to go back to NoVa again. My sister, sensing imminent meltdown on my part, volunteered to take the General, and I agreed that would be a good thing.

By 10, I think most of us were in bed. Christmas came and went in a blur. We opened up our presents and had a nice breakfast. My dad and I went to Mass, my once yearly tip of the hat to Jesus. I hate the church down here--the masses are so overblown and all that singing drives me crazy. Just say what you want to say and shut up. Well, they announced who the priest was going to be and the old guy behind us said, "Oh God" and groaned, which filled me with dread, and rightly so. This dude wound up giving us a history lesson on the early history of the church, persecution of the Christians, and the heresy of the Aryans. He stopped in the midst of the prayers and didn't seem able to start back up again. Finally my dad leaned over and said, "Do you think he forgot the words?" which led me to giggle uncontrollably.

We got home and Mom was doing battle with dinner, so I helped out where I could. Dad and Judy were watching TV, everyone was just kind of hanging around. We took some pictures, as the General and i got everyone bathrobes for Christmas, but for once everyone was too hot, so they didn't stay on very long. The above photo was with the robes, below is without (obviously).



We had a nice meal, and then the General and I dug in and decided to fix my mom's computer, as she was leaving the next day and had had a major crash the day before. A lot of the files had been encrypted, so we had to figure out how to hack into the files from XP home, and I did so. Man did I feel like Queen for a Day when I got those files up and running :-) We backed everything up on a flash drive and restored it all to the hard drive, so everything was fine.

Meanwhile, my mom and sister were getting into it downstairs, having one hell of a screaming match complete with several creative curse words thrown in. The rest of us just stayed out of the way and everything was resolved.

Friday, my mom left around 10:30. The General and I had finished up with her computer that morning and I helped her pack up. She and little Sidney Pup were headed back to the warmer climes of Florida. My dad was buying me a new digital camera for Christmas, and I noted that the one I wanted was on sale at Ritz Camera, so he decided we should go and grab it. So we did. We took Judy with us, and I got the camera I wanted--a Panasonic TZ4 (thanks, Brian, for the info!)--and not only, but I also go it with 18 free camera classes, a warranty, free photos, and a free photo book, all for less than what it should have cost retail. What a sale!

Then the three of us hit Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch. And man, did we eat! It was the kind of meal you get only once in a blue moon, but it feels so good when it's hapening. I literally ate nothing else all day--just that meal. We had nachos and fried ice cream, enchiladas, queso, chips and salsa, and sopapillas. No doubt it used up my full points allotment for the day. We got home around 4 and Lucas and Joe were leaving--Joe to go home and Lucas to bring a load of stuff up to their place to get it out of our house--Dottie got tons of presents for Christmas--clothes, formula, diapers, toys, etc.

By 6:30, my dad and I were getting antsy. We had our annual trek to Richmond to the Ginter Gardens light show planned and we were hoping Lucas would get back in time to take care of Dottie so Judy could go. That didn't wind up happening, so close to 7, my dad and I headed out. The gardens were gorgeous and I got to play around with my new camera some. Most fun, Dad and I climbed into an igloo made of blue lights and we immediately looked like Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka.



On the way home, we stopped at the nearby BK. Last year we stopped there, and some jerk had parked so close to us that we couldn't get into the car and we wound up dumping my Sprite all over their car door for revenge. This year, we decided to hit the drive through and the guy manning the drive through talked like he had marbles in his mouth. We literally couldn't understand a word this guy was saying. And the more he talked, the worse it got and he seemed to be yelling at me for something. Finally, my dad busted out laughing, and I started laughing and we could barely get the order out. As it was, I cancelled getting my apple fries. I just couldn't repeat myself again. We are curious what the BK will have in store next year.

Saturday, we were all busy again. I went to Weight Watchers in the morning and Judy took the General back to the dentist. As it turns out, the General has something called a Class 3 bite, which makes temporary crowns all but impossible. (When the General bites, he bites hard!) Two different dentists were there to work on him. They wound up using permanent glue to attach that bad boy and we are now on day 3 without anything making a move. So we are hopeful. Dad and I went to the dump in the morning and then hit the Linens N Things going out of business sale. We spent $23 and wound up with a pile of stuff. I don't even know if all of it works or not, but I was excited to get it. On the way home, we went to the post office and he asked me about how much it would cost him to send Judy and I to tea. I made a guess, and when we got home, I called over to the new tea shop in F'burg, but they were closed, so we didn't get to go there. Instead, we went to Tea Thyme. We made that tea last for 2+ hours. It was a lot of fun. There was a group of women there, all with their little girls and we started dreaming of bringing our own daughters some day to tea after Christmas. We finished up and hit the Tea Thyme gift shop and then decided to go back to Linens N Things in case there was anything left worth having. There was not. We went to Borders and Old Navy and Catherine's as well. I got my new hat (thanks to all for the fun comments on it--I LOVE this hat!) Then we watched The Muppet's Christmas Carol, which was fun, and some Faerie Tale Theater, which is now out on DVD. I used to love it when we were little, so I got it for Dottie for Christmas, but I think her mother and aunt will be more interested in it than she will be. I set up a little photo shoot with Dottie in the afternoon to try the baby setting on the new camera. Now that she's a month old, she's not as pliable to my will--she has very definite opinions about posing for pictures. She also had definite opinions about wardrobe, but Old Navy had a little top and frilly skirt on sale that I couldn't pass up and I wanted her to wear it for her pictures, so I was determined she'd wear them. Finally, she acquiesced, but she screamed for a few minutes just to let me know she wasn't happy. The pictures came out great though, don't you think? (of course there are more on my flicker at http://www.flickr.com/photos/katekosior)




Then it was my dad's turn for a meltdown. He was making us meatloaf for dinner, and couldn't find anything. It turned out we were out of bread crumbs, which I did not know, and then he came upstairs yelling about us not having potatoes. (I was in the middle of my photo shoot and was kind of busy) I went downstairs to get him some potatoes and he was standing there with a bag of potatoes in his hand. I said, "What are those?" "Well, there are only five, how can I make french fries out of 5 potatoes?" They were 5 HUGE potatoes. I said, "Well, I'm not going to eat any, so don't worry about it. I'll make potato pancakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes."

So he was not happy about that but finally agreed. He also couldn't find a CD. I guess he was pretty pissed because he was still steaming about it yesterday morning and the General told him to settle down and that with 5 extra people in the house using stuff and moving it, I couldn't possibly be expected to know where everything is.

Sunday morning my dad left, and Judy and Lucas hung out till 10 (!) last night. We got the house kind of picked up and I helped them pack some. Judy and I went to Old Town and she took the pictures of me in my new hat. I'm finally starting to like the way I look in pictures, which is a huge step forward. And it feels good, too. I also took a picture of a mega-cool mailbox I saw while we were driving around. That was the excitement to be had in the burg on a Sunday afternoon.



It was clear Lucas was ready to roll after supper, which Judy bought and prepared for us as a "thank you" for our hospitality. Hilariously, she forgot to buy french fries for the General and asked me what to do, when I spotted the potato bag atop the fridge and discovered that my dad had only used 3 of the 5 potatoes. So she made fries from those.

Once they left, I spent about 20 minutes picking up a few things in the house, sweeping up dog food and crumbs, tossing the burned cookies into the trash, putting away papers and gifts, and making a "deal with it Monday" pile on the kitchen table.

So that was our Christmas. Of course, our Three Kings dinner is on January 10th, so I am leaving everything as is, decorations wise and furniture wise, till then. I think because we got a much smaller tree this year, we might even be able to leave the tree up, which is exciting. Last year we had to take it down.

Today, the General and I will be making another dump run (our 5th run in 2 weeks). We plan to meet up with Jacalyn and Doug and the boys for pizza and will go up to Alexandria for New Year's Eve, as they are supposed to have the best fireworks around. The General is going back to work on 1/2 for a day, so I'll get a day to myself at the end of this week, but honestly, we've just enjoyed today and last night immensely. It's been weird though too, and almost too quiet. It was a good holiday, just way too busy. I'm not sure what we'll do next year--I want to be able to enjoy my December more and do things like baking and decorating with a bit more joy in my heart. With doctor's appointments, book signings, old jobs ending and new jobs starting, the stomach flu, The General getting sick, people in and out, new babies, etc. it was a crazy month. Thank God for online shopping--honestly I don't know how I'd have gotten my shopping done without it!

Hope everyone else had similarly great holidays. I'm going back upstairs to snuggle with my honey. :-)

Jon Krakauer

I am not so much of a non-fiction reader, I admit. In general, when I am reading, I am practicing my own form of escapism, and consequently, I have very little interest in reading about real life. Unfortunately, where it comes to audiobooks, occasionally they are cheaper if you purchase non-fiction. And as I drive a TON for work, it is a challenge to keep up with audio, even from my local library, which sadly has more cassettes than CD's, and I do not have a cassette player in my car.

Before Lauren gave me her copy of The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir, I was desperately seeking cheap audio books to read on my travels around Virginia. I stumbled upon Jon Krakauer on two separate occasions, and as his books fit the "under $20 and unabridged" criteria, I purchased them. I got Under the Banner of Heaven first and followed it up with Into the Wild.

Heaven was a great read and very interesting, but I want to talk more about Into the Wild. I first became aware of the story a year or so ago when the book was turned into a movie. From the previews, I thought it was more of an adventure type of movie, in terms of dude goes to Alaska, hunts bear, and decides he loves the great outdoors. However, in browsing the shelves at Borders, I came upon the audiobook version and found the description to be completely different than my expectations.

This did not mean, however, that I actually wanted to read the book. The book is the true story of the doomed Chris McCandless, a Northern Virginia boy who gives away his trust fund and strikes out into the west in search of life away from the privileged upbringing of his youth. His ultimate destination is Alaska, where he wants to live off the land for a few months and be "in the wild".

I think I picked up and put down the CD's for this particular book 4 or 5 times. It was a similar situation with Heaven. But there literally was just not anything else on the shelves that I could quickly purchase and read. (Those $14.95 books are generally abridged--buyer beware!) So I gave in and decided to read about this kid.

I am not going to lie. I have not one clue about what this kid was attempting to accomplish on his quest. I somewhat understand what he was looking for--I went through a period of my life where I was trying to figure out who I really was and where I was actually going, and I suspect that's kind of what he was working on as he got away from all who knew him and just got to be himself. And there are many days I understand the appeal of getting away from the phone, the computer, the television, the creature comforts and just getting back to a quiet existence. I think this is probably why I love going to the beach so much--we never pack computers, we turn off cell phones, we just go and let it be.

But we always have a contingency plan. There is a phone available, God forbid there's an emergency. We have maps. At the very least, if this kid had just brought a map with him, he would have been able to rescue himself. Many people apparently point to such things as lack of map and inability to cure game as evidence of his stupidity. I think it's merely evidence of his rash youth. I don't think young males consider much of their own mortality, and I'm sure he was pretty well convinced everything would be just fine--he'd eat some moose, hike around Alaska, and have a heck of a tale to tell his grandchildren someday.

I've done some reading up on Chris since finishing the book and the one quote that has stuck with me was someone wrote about him, "Chris may have f***ed up, but he f***ed up brilliantly." I don't know that I even necessarily believe that--I'm not sure I understand what starving to death lonely and scared in the middle of a little used trail proved even unto himself, but his story certainly does continue to fascinate a good 16 years after his death.

What really made Wild and Heaven for me, however, was Krakauer's storytelling. While I had no interest in the subject of Chris McCandless's life and little understanding of his mission, as I have detailed, I scarcely wanted to turn off the CD's. I would get so disappointed when I'd reach a client's house and would have to go in. I ate lunch in the car so I could listen some more. The writing is just that good. Under the Banner of Heaven is about the Fundamentalist LDS church (remember those whacko polygamists in Texas? Yeah, them), and while I had more of an interest in that subject, I'm not big on history, and Krakauer delved deeply into the history of the church and the fundamentalists, framing it in the context of two crimes that occurred at the hands of FLDS men--one the murder of a young woman and her infant daughter, the other the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart. However, Krakauer even made what could have been dry historical fact riveting.

He has written a couple of other books, and I have to say that even if the subject matter doesn't appeal to me, I will probably read them if I can get my hands on them. It makes a nice change from my usual reading fare and leads me to think I can enjoy a little non-fiction now and again, even about things I don't really think I'd be interested in. My "to be read shelf" is heavily fiction--approximately 250 books--while the non fiction side is about 75 books. Maybe I'll work a touch more dilligently to clear some of them off.

(NB: Anyone local who cares to borrow either audiobook, let me know! I'm happy to share)

Time To Vote!

No, not for that... It's time to help out my friend and yours, Amy of Seraphim's Wittle World.

Please go to https://youroldhouse.thisoldhouse.com/gingerbreadhouse/ and vote for her gingerbread house, Forever Autumn. It's at the end--you will have to do a lot of clicking past a bunch of, frankly, substandard gingerbread houses to get to it, but it's worth it :-)

You can vote as many times as you like, so let's get her that gift card!

Christmas and Other Matters

I haven't been feeling all that Christmasy this year, for reasons most of you can imagine. But we've been working hard this weekend at getting a bit more into the spirit. I spent Friday afternoon shopping like crazy and with just one or two little exceptions, I got it done. I got tons of great bargains off Amazon.com--I probably slashed the bills in half for what I thought I'd pay for certain items and I know the recipients will be pleased with what they get. I also know my brother-in-law will love what my dad is getting, as when I told Lucas about it, he started writhing with joy and anticipation. So at least I've hit on one winner for sure.

Do you have tough people to shop for? I sure do! MY MOTHER! (I know you're reading this, Mom, and I want you to know you are the toughest person on my list this year!) Ask my mom what she wants for Christmas. Go ahead. I dare you. Dimes to donuts, she'll tell you, "stamps". She will also tell you this for her birthday, Mother's Day, Flag Day, and Easter. Stamps don't cut it with me. The laugh's on her, however. I came up with a few little things and yesterday had a stroke of absolute genius, so fortunately I know what she's getting now, and it's brilliant.

My husband is also a challenge. I was going to get him a nice surprise of satellite radio this year. I went to Best Buy to find out about getting it. Why is it that those little geeks at Best Buy treat women shopping alone like gum on their shoe? I hate that! This little twerp was so condescending about what I'd need and spent all of 15 seconds with me before turning to the guy behind me and talking his ear off with a completely different tone of voice and body language and everything. This is the second bad experience I've had at Best Buy in the past couple months. So I'm not going in there unless I know what I need and I don't need to ask questions about it. Jerks. So now I'm stumped on a gift for the Mister. I know one thing he wants, but I need to find him a surprise too!

Yesterday, we spent the day at our friends Paul and Kris's home in Springfield. Each year, their church puts on a big shindig. It's a lovely concert for Christmas with a huge choir and orchestra, the pastor says a few words, and there are a few dramatic interpretations (although they save that largely for Easter). I don't know why, but whenever I go to big productions like that I get all weepy, and yesterday was no exception. I handled it, you know, but frankly it's getting embarrassing. I'm becoming one of those weepy women.

Afterwards we went back to their house for a big lasagna dinner. Paul is a fantastic cook, and we really enjoyed ourselves being loved up on by the dogs and cats, meeting their nephew and his wife, as well as catching up with a friend of theirs that we see at every Christmas and Easter show. Driving home, we both agreed that now it feels like the holidays. The show really kicked it off for us both.

Then we returned home to our cold, dark little house. We didn't do Christmas lights this year. I'm a bit sad about it, but a) my sister is the one who always goes up on the ladder, and she's in no fit state to do so this year, and b) I'm not so sure I want to pay the electric bill for it this year. We don't have up a tree yet, and that's going to have to wait till next weekend. Pretty much all that's up are the two nativity sets. One was my grandfather's and one is one that my dad gave me a few years ago.

I got a defective advent calendar this year! There was no little box for 12 or 13, and one of the boxes didn't have a number on it! Freakin' German paper engineering!

Today will be grocery shopping and enjoying the last few days of peace and quiet before the storm arrives. Everyone is arriving on the weekend and next Monday. Tuesday I have 2 medical appointments--the doctor in the morning and the dentist in the afternoon, but I've commanded my dad to take me to the dentist as I'm having both sides of my mouth done, because I just want to get it over and done with. However, I don't especially like going, the General is getting his crown replaced, and I just don't want to have to drive. I'm going to let Mom cook for everyone :-) Or something. (Surprise, Mom!)

This week at work will be pretty laid back. I have very few appointments to handle as most people don't want to see you this week. My busy day will be on Friday--I actually have 3 people pencilled in. And I have 2 on Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday I'm still trying to work people in so I don't have to go to Fairfax. I have one a piece then. Monday is our big office party and staff meeting day. Apparently we're going out to eat, Kris informed me, and I have to ready myself for the gift exchange. I drew a hard pick this year, so I'm going with the infamous baked goods gift. I also have to make Kris some scones today--she won my baked goods auction item for the Combined Virginia Campaign at work.

And we have to go to the dump and the grocery store. So today will be quite busy. Fortunately there are some very good football games on today, so I can enjoy the sounds of the General hollering his head off while I bake up goodies for other people to eat. They warn us in Weight Watchers about "food pushers"--people who are constantly trying to get you to eat a little of this and a bite of that, or a bunch of something else. I have become the ultimate food pusher. I don't want to give up baking, but I'm not eating much of that stuff any more, so I send it work with Michael, I let him eat it, I take it to my office or to book club. Anything to have it out of the house. I still have about a dozen scones left (should have given out more at book club!), so they're becoming part of my gift for the gift swap. Hope she likes 'em!

Michael is loving the new job and I am loving the new him! He has so much more energy from getting an extra hour and a half of sleep that I fear I may not be able to keep up with him a whole lot longer. He rolls out of bed ready to take on the world, and comes home with a grin on his face. He keeps saying, "I made a good decision, Susan." And I believe he has. I think he likes the Marines way of doing things. You say, "Joe, I want a cup of coffee" and two seconds later, you have a cup of coffee. There's no taking it to the committee, discussing for days the various coffee additives, and what you might have meant. There's just coffee. That certainly appeals to his no-nonsense side.

As for me, we have two exciting new retail businesses opening here soon and I am strongly considering trying to get myself hired at either one. We are getting a Barnes & Noble here, and I'd love to work there doing something other than stocking and selling. I'll have to check their job listings to see if maybe they need an event planner or something like that. The other is Wegman's, which is opening in June. I really would like to open a decent bakery here in town, and I really don't know the first thing about it. So I thought if I could get myself hired on at the Wegman's bakery, which is a real bakery, not a fakery like the grocery store, then I could learn tons about what goes into it and would probably wind up forgetting all about the dreams of working there. I asked the General, "Would you still love me if I quit my good job and went to work at a grocery store?" and he said, "I'd still love you even if you were just bagging groceries at the grocery store." Awww. What a guy.

So that's the news from here. I hear him in the shower, so I'm going to get myself dressed and ready to roll for the day's tasks. Hope everyone's having a fun weekend!

My Giggle For the Day

This morning, bright and early at 7:30, the General had an appointment with the podiatrist to have his final check up on the ingrown toenail he had removed.

We were the first appointment of the day, but the doctor was a tad late and the General was feeling his oats by the time the guy arrived. Fortunately, the doctor is kind of a ham himself, so it didn't really matter when the doctor arrived apologizing for his tardiness and The General said, "It's about time! The Marine Corps is waiting for me!" But he said it with a laugh, and no harm done. (Though I think this job may have gone to his head just a bit.)

Anyway, he and the doctor were talking and they were discussing that in ten years, the General might expect that he'd have to have his toenail done again, because...

Are you ready for this?

...The General's feet are showing SIGNS OF AGING!

My husband is getting to be an old man!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The doctor said the only cure for it was to quit having birthdays.

Oh man, The General showing signs of aging is just cracking me up!

What a way to start a Friday. I'm going to go buy his Christmas present today so he will be cheered up.