Twas the Night ....
It is Christmas eve and dinner is done. We had sloppy joe's and home-made macaroni and cheese. Not your traditional meal, but hey, we are looking for new traditions. It was OK, but we all agreed that the recipes need some tweaking. The mac and cheese formula came out of a local book that tells about old restaurants and eateries in our state. I suspect that many of the recipes are of the old variety where the ingredient quantities and the details of the cooking are somewhat suspect. This mac and cheese version had onion and garlic in it, which are two of my favorite things and appear in almost everything I make, but have never been in a mac'n'cheese formula that I have tried. But then, this is only the second time I have made it from scratch.
The sloppy joe recipe came out of a collection of family jewels on my wife's side of the fence. Some of the quantities there seemed a little questionable too, which isn't too hard to believe when it is something that is put together on a completely amateur level. I know how hard it is to eliminate typos and other editorial gremlins from any document and a book of recipes is prime territory for errors. A big "C" or a little "t" where the opposite was originally intended can cause a whole pot full of effort to wind up in the garbage. Fortunately, I had my helpers up in the kitchen with me tonight so that someone was reading ingredients and quantities to me as the cooking progressed. I heard a couple of things that just didn't sound right when they were read out to me, so we adjusted on the fly. Plus, we were a little shy of the amounts called for in a couple of cases, so we just made do.
It wasn't roast goose, but it was something we all had a hand in and that was nice. I always like it when we are all in the kitchen and doing something together.
Now it is quiet time. We talked about watching one of the traditional chestnuts that always are shown on Christmas eve but we couldn't agree. One wanted to watch "A Christmas Story" with the leg lamp and the BB gun. One wanted to watch "A Wonderful Life" and one suggested "Bad Santa" which got raspberries from the other two. So, right now, we are just doing our things. I am here writing. The boy is chatting someone up on the phone and the girl is in her room IM'ing I think.
To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind crawling in bed and reading for a bit and then calling it a night. My day started early as usual and I have some mid-night appointments to attend to (or maybe early morning). Fortunately, Santa can come around dawn without fear of wee-ones spying now that the teenage sleep patterns are firmly in effect. Santa likes the more relaxed schedule.
So, peace to all of you out there tonight. May your stockings get stuffed just the way you like them.
Ta.
The sloppy joe recipe came out of a collection of family jewels on my wife's side of the fence. Some of the quantities there seemed a little questionable too, which isn't too hard to believe when it is something that is put together on a completely amateur level. I know how hard it is to eliminate typos and other editorial gremlins from any document and a book of recipes is prime territory for errors. A big "C" or a little "t" where the opposite was originally intended can cause a whole pot full of effort to wind up in the garbage. Fortunately, I had my helpers up in the kitchen with me tonight so that someone was reading ingredients and quantities to me as the cooking progressed. I heard a couple of things that just didn't sound right when they were read out to me, so we adjusted on the fly. Plus, we were a little shy of the amounts called for in a couple of cases, so we just made do.
It wasn't roast goose, but it was something we all had a hand in and that was nice. I always like it when we are all in the kitchen and doing something together.
Now it is quiet time. We talked about watching one of the traditional chestnuts that always are shown on Christmas eve but we couldn't agree. One wanted to watch "A Christmas Story" with the leg lamp and the BB gun. One wanted to watch "A Wonderful Life" and one suggested "Bad Santa" which got raspberries from the other two. So, right now, we are just doing our things. I am here writing. The boy is chatting someone up on the phone and the girl is in her room IM'ing I think.
To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind crawling in bed and reading for a bit and then calling it a night. My day started early as usual and I have some mid-night appointments to attend to (or maybe early morning). Fortunately, Santa can come around dawn without fear of wee-ones spying now that the teenage sleep patterns are firmly in effect. Santa likes the more relaxed schedule.
So, peace to all of you out there tonight. May your stockings get stuffed just the way you like them.
Ta.
Copyright ©2003-2007 Phaedrous
posted by Phaedrous at 8:24 PM
2 Comments:
Merry Christmas dear... I am going to e-mail you a mac n cheese to die for...hugs!
wow, i'd be hard pressed to even write my sloppy joe recipe down since it is more or less add and taste, add and taste...
wishing you and the larvae a very merry christmas and may your stocking get stuffed right nice as well.
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