Christmasy Things
We had our traditional fancy Christmas Eve dinner again. It's a great excuse to get out the fancy china, silver, & crystal, and candelabra. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the table.
Le Menu
Welcome Cocktail: Trader Joe's Wassail and Crabbie's Ginger Beer
Zakuski table: Pickled onions, homemade beet pickles, homemade pickled sour cherries, peppered wild herring, mushroom caviar, manchego, and black bread and cream crackers
Jewel vodka shot
Dill pickle soup
Hussar Beef (roast beef, sliced and spread with mushroom-cheese stuffing, reassembled and baked under pie crust)
Hussar butternut squash (for the vegetarian)
Kasha with leeks
Roasted cabbage
Beaujolais nouveau
Kutia (wheat berries simmered in almond milk, baked with honey, almonds, raisins, dried apricots, and poppy seeds) served with whipped cream and pomegranate seeds
Krupnikas (spiced honeyed vodka)
Seven different kinds of fudge brought by one of our guests
Some great gifts this year! I was particularly proud of gifting new_man with The Aretalogy of Vanni Bossi, a gorgeous magic book (he did ask for it, but still), and an unusual deck of cards.
lakshmi_amman gave me several nifty little things including a collapsable water bottle, laser-cut wooden herb markers, and body lotion with 25K gold flecks, hand-imported from Poland. I got her a book on vintage-inspired special-occasion hair styles.
My mother sent a bunch of leopard-print items, including a very nice purse with lots of pockets and compartments. I had just been saying to new_man that I needed a new handbag. More on that in a moment.
new_man, who knows me better than anyone, gave me a Wonder Woman mug (we have many superhero mugs, but they're all guys), an academic book on burlesque in Vancouver (clearly someone's text book -- it's full of markings), and... a Handbag of Holding!!!
Just last week I was saying to him that I was thinking about going to the Think Geek store after the holidays, since I needed a new purse and I thought a Handbag of Holding might be just the thing. He gave no hint that one was already sitting in his office just waiting for Christmas. So now I have two nice new purses, one for everyday and one for when I need to be fancy.
Then we had bacon pancakes (cook bacon, dip into pancake batter, and cook again) with blackberries so we could pretend it was marginally good for us and finally watched Ghostbusters. We had to work a little in the afternoon -- he went to the Theatre and I to the studio -- and then had Chinese food, as one does.
Le Menu
Welcome Cocktail: Trader Joe's Wassail and Crabbie's Ginger Beer
Zakuski table: Pickled onions, homemade beet pickles, homemade pickled sour cherries, peppered wild herring, mushroom caviar, manchego, and black bread and cream crackers
Jewel vodka shot
Dill pickle soup
Hussar Beef (roast beef, sliced and spread with mushroom-cheese stuffing, reassembled and baked under pie crust)
Hussar butternut squash (for the vegetarian)
Kasha with leeks
Roasted cabbage
Beaujolais nouveau
Kutia (wheat berries simmered in almond milk, baked with honey, almonds, raisins, dried apricots, and poppy seeds) served with whipped cream and pomegranate seeds
Krupnikas (spiced honeyed vodka)
Seven different kinds of fudge brought by one of our guests
Some great gifts this year! I was particularly proud of gifting new_man with The Aretalogy of Vanni Bossi, a gorgeous magic book (he did ask for it, but still), and an unusual deck of cards.
lakshmi_amman gave me several nifty little things including a collapsable water bottle, laser-cut wooden herb markers, and body lotion with 25K gold flecks, hand-imported from Poland. I got her a book on vintage-inspired special-occasion hair styles.
My mother sent a bunch of leopard-print items, including a very nice purse with lots of pockets and compartments. I had just been saying to new_man that I needed a new handbag. More on that in a moment.
new_man, who knows me better than anyone, gave me a Wonder Woman mug (we have many superhero mugs, but they're all guys), an academic book on burlesque in Vancouver (clearly someone's text book -- it's full of markings), and... a Handbag of Holding!!!
Just last week I was saying to him that I was thinking about going to the Think Geek store after the holidays, since I needed a new purse and I thought a Handbag of Holding might be just the thing. He gave no hint that one was already sitting in his office just waiting for Christmas. So now I have two nice new purses, one for everyday and one for when I need to be fancy.
Then we had bacon pancakes (cook bacon, dip into pancake batter, and cook again) with blackberries so we could pretend it was marginally good for us and finally watched Ghostbusters. We had to work a little in the afternoon -- he went to the Theatre and I to the studio -- and then had Chinese food, as one does.