Back to Life, Back to Reality

Well, that was a whirlwind of a week! I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone. For some reason this year, it felt like it was just suddenly the week of Christmas. Maybe it was because we didn't have snow till earlier that week...it just felt like it came out of the blue. Our Christmas was great, lots of family came to our house this year to celebrate A's first Christmas. We had so much fun and she raked in way too much loot! She has so many toys now we don't know where we are going to store them all. She has an abundance of really cute outfits that I can't wait for her to wear. She obviously didn't 'get' the whole Christmas/gifts thing this year but she is currently really into grabbing things and pulling so she did open a few of her gifts with some assistance. She would concentrate really hard to reach out and grab a piece of the wrapping paper and then she would just yank away and the person holding the gift would sort of rotate the gift so it would actually get unwrapped.


Let's get down to the food. Christmas Eve was hors d'oeuvres which is a family tradition. This year we had the following: phyllo dough pizza (me), tomato basil squares (C), cannibal sandwiches (H), deviled eggs (Mom), reuben dip (Mom), cranberry orange dip (C), tortierre (CY), pate (CY), Hello Dollies (C)....and countless cookies and candies.

Christmas dinner turned out great, I repeated the meal I made two years ago which was the first time we hosted. I felt justified in doing this because only half of the people were there last time. The standing rib roast a la Bon Appetit was wonderful and made for some great left overs. I also made the spinach porcini stuffing, some mashed potatoes that I added ranch dressing and some cream to, and roasted asparagus. There was so much food everyday all day it's a wonder I can even button my pants at this point. Christmas Eve we traditionally do hors d'oeuvres.

We still have many left overs which I am now trying to eat sparingly as I get back to reality and can no longer afford to gourge on all the goodies at whim. Thank you New Years Eve/my part time schedule for making it a short week and giving me M tomorrow at home to help out. Next week is going to be a real bugger when we get back to full time reality.....

Christmas Menu

I feel like I have so much to do before my family comes next week...I'm still menu planning and that includes the cookies I'm baking this weekend! The cookies I'm planning on making are snickerdoodles (made some this weekend so I already have the dough frozen), compost cookies, chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies, chocolate earthquake cookies and whoopie pies. M is a big fan of chocolate whoopie pies with peppermint frosting..he's fixated on some that his mom used to make when he was little and every recipe she thinks it was, he assures her that wasn't it. I think he's given up on finding 'that' recipe now, and is just looking for a solid whoopie pie.

I am planning appetizers for Christmas Eve but have yet to pick them. I am considering doing miniature chicken alfredo in a large shell and a phyllo dough pizza that I've made befor and is very tasty and very easy. Aside from that, I'm unsure.

The main course for Christmas Day is a standing rib roast recipe from Bon Appetit a few years ago which was excellent the last time we made it. There is a spinach and porcini mushroom stuffing that goes with it, I think I'm going to make an au gratin potato casserole (also from Bon Appetit), rolls, I need to decide on a vegetable yet...

For Christmas morning, I'm making cinnamon buns.

I've started making my shopping lists and timetables....but I still feel so scattered!

On top of the meal planning we need to:

clean the house
get liquor
iron the curtains in the dining room (we just put them up right out of the package with the intentions of ironing and of course never did)
find A a holiday outfit
get a tree
decorate the tree
bake the cookies
find the rest of the Christmas decorations

I'm sure the week is going to fly by...I can't believe one week from tomorrow the family is starting to filter in!

Santa! Cookies!

I'm ridiculously excited about taking A to see Santa on Sunday! M thinks it's silly because she obviously won't remember it and no amount of explanation (it's for us, not her) seems to get him in the spirit.

It's at the town country club which has a nice little restaurant too, we might parlay this trip to Santa into our first lunch outing with little Y since I'm sure the place will be over run with small children...I'll be ok with being out with her there if she starts to cry.

I'm plotting what outfit she should wear, I think one that Grandma Y gave her will fit the bill nicely.

This weekend we are having a couple over...I have to make some cookies and pick up some egg nog. What cookies should I make? I'm debating between our friend B's snickerdoodles or a mint chocolate cookie recipe that J's sister sent. The downside to the mint cookie is that M won't touch it if it has chocolate so the snickerdoodle's just might win.

I have to seriously get finalizing the Christmas menu..did I mention I'm cheating and making the same meal I made last time I hosted? I really don't have time to sit and pour over cookbooks at this point so I'm taking the easy road...sort of. Those recipes weren't the easiest to make. Next weekend is the annual cookie baking day with S and A and the kids, so I have to figure out exactly what I'm making. I'm excited that this year there will actually be lots of people at my house to eat them! We have to find time to get the tree also....so many things to do and not enough time!

Thanksgiving Recap and Other Assorted Tidbits

Thanksgiving was nice, M's parents came down for the holiday and it's always fun to have them. It's always a nice low key time, full of cooking, wine drinking, and now....baby ogling. We had the usual suspects: wine, turkey, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls (my contribution), green beans, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.

The next morning, I maded a buttermilk crumble coffeecake thing, everyone else liked it, I found it a bit boring and I don't think I would use that recipe again.

The inlaws left on Saturday so we decided to check out a new bookstore/cafe that recently opened in our town that really has nothing of interest. I was thinking it wouldn't be very good, a half hearted attempt at both, but we were pleasantly surprised! The parking lot has been full since it opened (this place has been listed as coming soon since we moved here a year and a half ago). It's very cozy inside, the cafe offers some sandwiches/wraps and salads and an assortment of baked goods and coffee. The cafe has a roaring fire with leather couches and chairs around it and lots of tables. People were lingering, reading magazines and chit chatting. Little Y was a trooper, she was quiet the whole time and was entertained by this little salt shaker toy that she has. We were sort of doing a trial run for actually bringing her to a restaurant and she passed. The next time we are free we might try going to lunch, like the old days!

In Little Y updates, she has now tried rice cereal and contrary to what my mother said, she is still waking up every three hours at night. There have been two times where she has eaten the entire serving of rice cereal, tonight I think I'm going to double the serving and see what she does with that. Maybe she'll sleep if the quantity is more...

We got some holiday decorations up yesterday, we bought two topiaries to go next to the front door, and a berry wreath for the door. I have some berry garland that I wrapped around the light in the barrel by our drive way and M wants to try to put some lights on the topiaries today. I need to get around to picking out this years cookies and finalize the Christmas menu so I can place an order with the butcher. Due to Little Y's arrival, both sides of the family are coming to our house this year so there's lots of menu planning to be done. My MIL had a great suggestion of having some of the other guests cook for some of the non Christmas nights since people are going to be here for a few nights before and after the actual holiday.

We aren't really doing gifts this year, although I keep teasing M that if he has the desire to buy me something, a nice new kitchen stove would make his wife very happy...and I'm sure he wants his wife and mother of his child to be happy, no? I really enjoy Christmas with no gifts, it's so much less stress and now more than ever, we just enjoy having family around, drinking holiday drinks, telling family stories for the millionth time, and laughing, laughing, laughing.

BBQ

The BBQ was fun, it was nice to see all the people that I haven't seen in a long time. Unfortunately, most of the people I invited had conflicts, but our mutual friends were there. We probably had 15 or so people over, it felt nice to use our deck and patio set. We were unsure if we should lock the cats in the basement or trust that people would read the 'Please keep our kitties inside, keep door shut' signs. We left them upstairs and people were very respectful and made an effort to keep the door closed.

I made the phyllo pizza with mozzerella and cherry tomatoes from the latest issue of Bon Appetit. It was quite a hit, not a single piece left by the time that M went to grab a slice. I don't relish working with phyllo so I grabbed the package that said 'extra thick' slices and it went remarkably smoothly. The recipe is fairly easy, which is not my typical impression after attempting to make something from that mag. It was so easy that I don't need the recipe to make it again.

We have more chips in our cupboard than a vending machine right now, I have never had this many bags in my house ever. We have tons of ground beef left over, I'm planning on making spaghetti sauce and freezing it into meal size portions so that after the craziness of life with the baby sets in, we can just pull a container out and have instant dinner.