COMensarations
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Christmas Eve Day Live Blogging
What’s going on in this household on the day before Christmas.
The day started early; as in 4 am, for normal folk.
Woke up. Could not get back to sleep in 30 minutes. Got up. Checked out the sorry state of the world, via the web. Did some minor modifications/tweeks on code for an app I’ve been working on.
7:00 am: Worried the distaff into a state of wakefullness, commensurate with the tasks ahead of us this day.
8:00 am: Discussed, over coffee and some rather spicey breakfast burritos, what we needed to procure for tomorrow’s feast. These burritos, provided by a man who came to our door selling them, to order, in order to raise funds to buy his son a computer, were rather spicey. I had to eat some sour cream—straight—in order to tone down the fire. And these were only the X version. He offers XX and XXX as well. However, he suggests the XXX only for people you are trying to punish. I can believe it.
8:30 am: The menu is decided upon....
Wake-Up
• Pineapple fritters
• Champagne
Appetizers
• Cheese ball w/crackers
• Martinis
• Kirs
• Bourbon
• Nuts
• Crudettes
Meal
• Fresh baked ham in the English tradition
• Smashed potatoes with garlic
• Honey-glazed carrots
• Peas pudding
• Sour dough bread
• Dry white wine
Dessert
• Coffee
• Brandy
• Warm Chocolate Souffle Pudding w/Milk Chocolate Sauce
9:00 am: Went out to purchase said items.
9:44 am: Back from shopping and putting things away. Contemplating the feast for tomorrow.
The main dish is a fresh ham, with rind, i.e., skin, in order to prepare it in the classic English tradition. I’ve seen this in the Good Cook series book on Pork and always admired it. But it was difficult to get a fresh ham with rind in Denver. It’s so much easier to do it here in Pueblo. I think it’s because we’re ‘closer to the earth’ here than in Denver. Seriously. I asked Tony’s for it and they could not deliver. Here in Pueblo, go ask Frank’s. No problemo, compadre.
10:00 am: The distaff and I discuss who’s going to do WHAT in the kitchen, and when. It’s relatively largish place. Room enough for two to work. But we both have designs on the oven, as she wants to bake some cookies of various sorts and I’m interested in baking a hazelnut-chocolate souffle-cum-cake-cum-bread pudding. The cookies are for the open house. The hc s-c-c-c-bp is for dessert.
10:25 am: Did the math on the ham. I have to get up at 3 am tomorrow in order to get it into the oven in a timely fashion. We need fully programmable ovens. Next years Xmas gift for the cooks.
12:15 pm: Back from a run to the package store. Discovered I was running low on brandy. Interesting surprise. The proprietor gave me a Christmas gift in the shape of a wine bottle. I’ll open it tomorrow.
12:30 pm: Fried pasta with marinara sauce and cheese for lunch. The pasta is leftover from the ragu alla bollognaise dinner the other night. The distaff is doing the second batch of short breads. It’s in the traditional form—think of Walker’s. The previous batch is a new recipe, using bourbon. I’ll begin working on the hc s-c-c-c-bp as soon as she is clear of the oven. In the meantime, I’m working on the 82d Airborne Cheeseball, as she has finished chopping—in the Cuisinart—all the nuts she needs today.
12:50 pm: Susan’s folks tell us they’re coming over with a ‘sleigh’ full of things to put under the tree. The house, at least the kitchen and dining room are a shambles with all the activity, but they can come ahead. Susan’s mother reports that her house is the same way. It’s that time of year.
Susan is still smashing out and cutting up the second batch of short bread. The cheese ball is in the bowl and all it needs now is to be smashed together and formed. Then it is to be rolled in a so many minced walnuts.
2:23 pm: Folks have come and gone. The packages under the the tree have tripled in mass. We’ll need a bigger house come three more years, at this rate.
Back to cooking and baking. The traditional short breads are the best. We could compete with Walkers with these.
2:30 pm: Cheeseball is finished and in the frig to ‘mellow’. The flavor and texture are as to be expected....superb.
2:35 pm: The distaff offers me half of one of the bourbon shortbreads. It’s a KILLER!!!! Need more brandy....
2:40 pm: While we were connoodling with the folks, the mail came....
Paul Roasberry has sent a response to our Christmas card, sent on Monday, last. It’s a riot. Literally. A work of art. A latter-day metaphysical anarchist channeling Salvador Dali, in pen and ink. A Carlos Casdanada-esque outside. Inside, a huge, blood-shot eyeball with the statement, “Homeland Security is watching you...” Bombs of ‘white phorphorus’ Hey! I used to work with that stuff. I know how and when and where to use it.....all legal too. I had a crew that could drop a round in a chamber pot, when I lead a mortar platoon in the 82d.
My immediate thought is whether he’ll feel the same way when al Qaeda detonates a nuke in Denver. Or will he blame it on all of the above.
Time will tell....
3:45 pm: These CIA [Culinary Institute of America] can be a real ‘pain’. But the pictures look great. Hopefully this thing will turn out good as well. I feel like Mrs. Cratchit as the husband samples the figgie pudding.....
5:35 pm: ENOUGH! Most of tomorrow’s feast is prepared, as far as ti can be at this time. Dinner is finished. Time to relax...a bit.
Merry Christmas Eve, to one and all....
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