Fixin' Supper

Oh my word, have we eaten the past few days.

We started with our annual Christmas Eve dinner at P.F. Chang’s. Christmas Day was an anomaly — my biggest meal for most of the day was Chex Mix. FYI, the only things open on I-65 south of Nashville on Christmas are gas stations. Try feeding two children something semi-nutritious from several gas stops.

We had several great meals in Florida with the parentals the next few days, including a luncheon my aunt and uncle threw for NYC sister and her fiance.

Then we came back to Nashville and we’ve been eating cookies and party food ever since. No, my clothes don’t fit anymore, but thanks for noticing. Now I’m really glad I had the foresight [ie., was the victim of peer pressure] to sign up immediately before Christmas for that 5K and half-marathon later this spring. Back to the treadmill tomorrow.

Happy New Year!

• Pecan shortbread cookies
• The chocolate crinkles I mixed up and refrigerated last night
• A sour cream pound cake

So Linda is writing about being the last one to get around to this Christmas meme. Linda is one of the smartest people I know, so I think I must just be late in getting to this.

Feel free to join in if you, too, are late.

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Wrapped, with handmade ribbons. Gift bags are of the devil.

2. Real or
artificial tree?
I have done both but I far prefer a real tree.

3.
When do you put up the tree?
This is hard to answer. I went for years doing the tree Christmas Eve, or maybe the 23rd. Now I’m at the other extreme, sometime in the week after Thanksgiving. I will say, now it’s far less about choice and far more about, when do we have a free night?

4. When do you take the tree down? 
Right around New Year’s. The only time I’ve failed at that is the year I was pregnant with the 8yo. The tree — a real 11-foot tree — stayed up until February. We just closed the door to the room it was in. It was a source of great stress to me, but being 5 months pregnant, there wasn’t a lot I could do about an 11-foot tree.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Blech. I hate all things with eggs. I don’t like any custardy things. So no, this isn’t on my holiday wish list.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
A 10-speed bike. I still remember coming down and finding it next to the tree. At about 2:30 a.m. Christmas morning, because that’s how I rolled as a kid. I must have given my parents serious anxiety.

7. Do you have a Nativity scene?
I have five I can think of off the top of my head. I love Nativity scenes. I would like more. And I’m not a stuff-you-must-dust kind of girl.

8.
Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
There are bad Christmas gifts?

9.
Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. I have gone the way of the Christmas letter, then more recently, the way of the photo-of-the-kids-with-printed-signature card, but I still mail these religiously.

10. Favorite Christmas movie?
It’s a Wonderful Life.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Typically, July. This year, after Thanksgiving. I’m still not done, and I’m feeling about this like I did about that 11-foot tree. Except this is totally my fault.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Homemade candy: Fudge, caramel, divinity, chocolate-covered cherries.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Colored. I’m easily swayed by the idea of a tree with white lights, but I bend to nostalgia when it comes to decorating my own.

14.
Favorite Christmas song?
O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Also: O How a Rose E’er Blooming. And In the Bleak Midwinter and Night of Silence. And Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. Is that too many?

Oh, one more: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. [Doesn't go with the rest, I know. And it's killing Newscoma to see that here, I suspect.]

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Funny, I was just telling a friend tonight how we always stay home, but this year we’re traveling. That, too, is beginning to cause me stress.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
In my sleep, baby.

17.
Angel on tree top or star?
Angel, but I sometimes wish I had a star. On the other hand, I love angel ornaments. That’s it. I want angel ornaments but a star on top.

18.
Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
I grew up opening them on Christmas Eve. And then Santa had come when you woke up Christmas morning. Also, Santa does not wrap presents, people.

The past few years, we’ve done the family presents whenever the 8yo is here, since she spends every other week at her dad’s.

19. Most annoying thing about this time of
year?
The need I feel to do everything.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
People really do that?

21. What do you leave for Santa?
People really do that?

22. Least favorite holiday song?
Mele Kilikimaka

23.
Favorite ornament?
My Metropolitan Museum of Art sterling silver snowflakes.

  A pan of horrific sweetness 

We were looking for some interesting cookies to make to send to the 8yo’s teachers. [Having sent Hershey's kiss cookies to some last week.] And I thought these gumdrop cookie bars sounded fun. Really, I should have re-thought that.

* The recipe called for an extreme number of eggs and too much sugar, in my opinion. Did I let that deter me? Oooooh no.

* The recipe said it made 2-3 dozen, yet you used one 9×9 pan. Still forged ahead.

* And finally, this recipe came from a cookbook that’s been proven to have many, many mistakes in the recipes. And still, I cooked the gumdrop bars.

Sigh. You’d think I’d learn.

Here’s what I wanted: Thin, slightly crispy and otherwise chewy bars — buttery, even — with the gumdrops as a fun topping.

Here’s what I got: Fluffy yet dense ginormous bars, more cake-like than cookie-like, so sweet as to be inedible, even in the 1-inch test bite I cut.

Here’s the lesson: When there are thing that sound off about the recipe, they probably are. Don’t waste your gumdrops, people.

  Ready for the freezer   

I’ve made the rolls. They’re in the freezer.

I’ve got my shopping list ready. We’re hitting Publix first thing in the a.m.

Also Sweet 16th and the liquor store.

End of the day, we’re picking up the fried turkey from the men’s group at church.

In between? Cooking about a bazillion things. I’ll try to post some photos.

Long on record as a Halloween hater, I want to take this opportunity to make it publicly clear why I’m not participating in this evening’s festivities.

It has nothing to do with my hatred of dressing up in a costume. It has nothing to do with a desire to see my children avoid sugar shock or cavities.

Really.

Unless you’ve ever had a 2yo who is terrified of people in costumes, well, judge not lest yet be judged, mmk?

I spent a long time looking for the red horse costume I made the 8yo when she was 2. It was a work of art, but it’s now apparently lost to the sands of time. And one too many Sterilite boxes of children’s clothing in my shed. Once I was unable to find it, I kept procrastinating about getting him a new costume. Since he really has no clue what’s going on.

But last week, we ran into someone in costume — a mask, the whole bit — and a tow truck winched around the 2yo’s waist wouldn’t have dragged him off me. I’ve never messed around with sound files on this blog, and you’re lucky, because otherwise I’d share with you what it sounds like when the 2yo shrieks in your ear. Repeatedly.

And finally I thought, why on earth would I torture my child so that he can participate in the "fun" of the holiday? Forget it.

So while the 8yo goes out haunting the neighborhood with her dad and a number of friends, the 2yo and I will be hiding in the back of the house with all the lights off. Don’t come a knockin’. You’re liable to scare the fool out of both of us.

Side note: I really, really thought I had already blogged this. But I can’t find it anywhere. I was starting to work on my holiday meal plan [Yes, Thanksgiving makes me break out the GTD-type web app, Backpack], and I thought I’d just refer to the menu I’d already written up in my blog. And apparently I dreamed that I already blogged that.

Another side note: I just remembered I wrote up a menu in my Franklin planner. Apparently that’s the same in my head as blogging.

So I’m working on my plan for Thanksgiving. I will be cooking on my NEW! STOVE! [photos to follow shortly], and entertaining a small group of family. Here’s the menu so far:

• Turkey and gravy [Am going to try the recipe from Lynne Rosetto Kasper in the current issue of Saveur]
• Cornbread dressing [Aunt Judy's recipe]
• Golden Baked Potatoes
• Carrot casserole
• Asparagus [Possibly grilled -- My grill gets hooked up along with the stove this week!]
• Homemade rolls
• Chocolate chess pie
• Pecan tart [from Sweet 16th]
• Red velvet cake [from Sweet 16th]

With my well documented avoidance of purchasing store-bought goodies on any of the many occasions that call for them, I’m sure you’re surprised to see that I’m planning to purchase two desserts from Sweet 16th. In fact, I placed their first Thanksgiving order this year.

Here’s the deal: I am a good cook. But these people are incredible bakers. Just incredible. I have never found a red velvet cake recipe I like [although, I must say I received one from Summer several years ago that I have yet to try. It sounds delicious.], and it’s my favorite cake. And the one at Sweet 16th is the best I’ve ever had. The best thing to do is to order this cake when you have lots of people to help you eat it, because it’s so rich. I’m hoping to have enough company in over Thanksgiving to take care of it.

I can’t wait! My favorite day of the year, just a month away!

What a day. The Hungry Toddler turned two today, and so we celebrated in low-key fashion. To each her own, but we are so not having a major party around here for a child who won’t remember the festivities next month, never mind when he’s 10. :) [For the record, we started to get slightly more serious about things when the current 8yo turned 3, but we are still pretty low-key on the birthday scale. Every party we've ever had has been at home or a local Metro park.]

And in fact, we are doing a cake-and-ice-cream party for the 2yo in a week and a half, when his sister and one set of godparents return from vacation [sadly, we are therefore missing another set of godparents who'll be at a wedding; I may not have mentioned before, but HT has five godparents], and when my parents will be in town. There will be an Elmo cake then, so look for photos the first weekend in August.

But today, it was just the Hungry Toddler and me. So I made some sugar cookies and took those and juice boxes to his school for snack, and we were very popular with the other 2yos. I don’t know if you have ever had a 2yo, and if so, if they’ve attended day care. But in case, I will tell you that the one thing you do not want to do is visit a 2yo at day care in the middle of the day, then say goodbye and come back for them later. It’s just a disaster. So, I planned to work from home the rest of the afternoon.

The 2yo was delighted to wave goodbye to his friends, and we got home and I fired up all the computers and planned to finish up a project I’d been working on this week. I set him up with a Veggie Tales movie, which he occasionally pretended to watch to appease me.

Now, I will say this. I am pretty laid-back about a lot of things. So ever since he first discovered it, months ago, I have been letting him play with this heavy aluminum bowl I have sitting out in the living room. It’s not like he can break it. And he enjoys watching his balls roll around in it. You get the picture.

So he wandered in the living room where I was, and picked up the bowl, like he’s done 100 times before. Except this time, he didn’t have it balanced or something, and it fell back and smacked him in the nose. Really, really hard.

No, really: it left a dent.

So then we proceeded with 45 minutes of shrieking, punctuated by my call to the pediatrician [this happened at 4:50 p.m., no way to get there before they closed] to see if it was possibly worth going to the emergency room.

Me [over intense shrieking]: ….so yeah, that’s what he did. Is it possible for a 2yo to break his nose?

Nurse: Oh, yes, it’s possible.

Me: So should I go to the emergency room? I mean, what would they even do?

Nurse: Well, that’s up to you. Do you feel like he needs to go?

Me: If I freaking knew that, I wouldn’t have called!

OK, so that’s not what I said. That part was just in my head. We decided to wing it, and much comforting, rocking, Motrin and a sippy cup of milk later, things seemed better. I tried to give the 2yo a bag of ice, but he held it against his chest instead of his nose. After he mostly calmed down, we ran an errand, with my thinking that removal from the scene would change his focus, and that totally worked.

Now, of course, he has gone to bed with a red stripe across his nose, backed by a bluish tint to the skin. Poor boy!! What a birthday.

On the plus side, we had tomatoes and fried okra for dinner, and those seem to be about his two favorite foods in the world. Whatever happened to his nose, it sure didn’t hurt his appetite.

We’re here in Florida visiting my family over the holiday. I’m pleased to say I’ve already had homemade ice cream [courtesy of a visit with my Aunt Mary in Sturgis, Mississippi, on Monday. We also got to have some of her famous sour-cream pound cake, and a lovely visit with her and cousin Melanie]. That leaves barbecue and watermelon on the must-have list.

If you have never done so, make plans to drive the Natchez Trace Parkway. We took it from Nashville to Sturgis on Monday, spending a very enjoyable day on the road. There are lots of interesting historical sites to stop and take in, places to hike and several nice views. Best of all, there’s no one else on the road. The parkway’s 50 mph top speed limit keeps the gotta-get-there folks on other roads, and you can set the car on cruise for miles and miles at a time.

Bonus: Because you don’t go very fast, you’ll arrive at your destination with plenty of gas!

So, earlier today, I was lamenting the lack of a SpongeBob cake pan for a certain 8yo’s birthday party this weekend. And Paige mentions that Target.com sells them! Holy cow. Am I ashamed….clearly I did not look all that hard for a SBSP cake pan, because once I followed her suggestion, I found them all over the Internet.

Yes, people, I work online for a living.

All I can tell you is that when your Hungry Toddler gets up at 5:30 a.m. for a couple weeks in a row, then you come tell me how lame I am. :) [Bless him, he's been sleeping til 6:30 a.m. for several days now.]

Thanks to Paige, I have a SBSP pan on order, scheduled to arrive on Thursday. I know the birthday party would have come off fine either way, but this is a great contribution to lowering my stress level over the event!