Nog, nosh, and laughter
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Yes, that’s my Christmas bush being overshadowed in every way by Kimberly’s present. It won best in show. Trust me when I say that the picture doesn’t do it justice.
So, I’m guessing that you want to hear all about my wild and crazy night with the girls, my Bubble Buddies. Well, to begin with…there was food and nog. (Keep reading for the recipe.) I had picked up some Garlic and Herb Boursin, which when paired with Tomato Basil Wheat Thins is one of my favorites snacks. And I’m sure since you hear about it so often that you may begin to wonder if it is a paid endorsement. Alas no, but I’m willing to change that if they are. In addition to making the nog, I also made some Magic Cookie Bars. As always, the secret ingredient…was love.
Laura went all out. She brought all beef wieners wrapped in filo dough. And she brought goat cheese and figs wrapped in filo dough. And she brought a crab dip and these amazing wafers. Yum to all of it. (Okay, my love of cheese and goat cheese in particular made the figtastic combination a standout.)
Laura and I visited and wrapped and noshed for about an hour before Kimberly arrived. It was fun. We compared notes, caught up on each other’s life, like how I had decided against doing the Martha Stewart show on blogging in January and how Ed had bought her a Roomba. I hate talking to people who know me sometimes because I feel like I might be a bit repetitious to them if they are reading the blog. Sometimes, Laura does. Only lately she hasn’t had time.
Laura: What do I need to read you for? I talk to you. Reading is for people who don’t know you.
Okay. I understood that reasoning. She made a valid point.
Then Kimberly arrived. She walked right in with her big basket of presents, dumped her stuff, and proceeded to commence eating and wrapping.
me: Hey! You didn’t admire my Christmas bush.
Kimberly: I saw it online. What do I have to see it in person for?
Really? So one wants to talk and won’t read me, one reads me and thinks she’s off the hook. Ha!
Well, Laura and I quickly tired of wrapping presents. Sorry, kids. I may just tape the store bags shut…nah! (FIne, I’ll throw a bow on the bag, too. And that’s my final offer…) We were a tad distracted by Kimberly. She wrapped…like a professional. And every time we commented she would say…
Kimberly: I love to wrap!
No, she didn’t just tape the package together to the best of her ability. There were creases and folds, matching ribbon, not bows, and tags that matched the paper. It was a bit intimidating. So, we hoped she’d pace herself and have the time and energy to wrap ours. Sorry, kids. Once again, you will recognize my handiwork. Apparently love can only take you so far. (The same is true for my really cool wrapping paper cutter. The gadgets only do so much, I still needed skill.)
Laura has graciously offered to play yenta for me, which by the way, has nothing to do with Barbra Streisand and her movie Yentl.
Laura: I have set lots of people up. And now they’re happily married.
me: To each other?
Laura: Yes, to each other! Now what kind of man do you want?
me: Hmmm. I seem to be better at finding the kind of man that I don’t want.
And I explained that these days it was a game of process of elimination. I wanted a man I could talk to. Couldn’t with J. Could with Sam. And then I started breaking down the other basics. Not an alcoholic. Preferred non-smoker. Financially stable. (I can’t take care of one more person on what I make…) Live on his own, not mom’s couch. The reality is that maybe while I know intrinsically what I want, I may not be able to adequately express it at the moment. I seem to be finding guys that SEEM okay initially, but after a few emails, or chats, or phone calls, or even a few minutes into the date…I know it’s not going to work. Ah…elimidating at its finest.
So, maybe if I let Laura have at it, she’ll have more luck at this than I will. She was pondering it for a while. She claims that I’ll be on the note section of her next bills for the landscaping business. (Not that this seems very scientific or superior to Craigslist to me…) If nothing else, it gives me something to write about.
The night grew later and I could feel us fading fast. We needed…sugar. So, like the hostess I am, I pulled out the Magic Cookie Bars. They were a pain to get out of the pan. When I finally managed to free some and plop them rather unceremoniously on Laura’s plate, she looked at me.
Laura: And this you thought you might serve to Martha?
We were rolling on the floor laughing. There was some choking on the bars. And then there was some soda nearly shooting out of nostrils. It was officially a party.
Laura looked at me.
Laura: You may write about this.
Kimberly: Good luck stopping her.
Laura: I just don’t like my name being out there.
me, inspired by Mir: I could call you notLaura.
Kimberly: She could call you the First Lady of the Bubble.
me: Only I’d shorten it to FLOB.
There was much giggling.
Laura: I don’t want to be referred to as Flob.
She looked at me.
Laura: There better be a ‘p’ ‘h’ in there.
me: Okay, we could call you Phat Flob.
For some reason, Laura liked that idea even less. So, I guess we’ll just stick with ‘Laura’ for now. And I sent everyone home with cookie bars which left them complaining that they all would be phat flobs if they ate all that. There was still some nog left…probably because Kimberly didn’t drink any!
Here’s the recipe. Hope YOU like it…
Egg Nog
- 1 dozen egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 Tbl vanilla
Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Mix well with wooden spoon. Set aside.
Pour milk into saucepan. Cook over medium heat while stirring. When the milk begins to simmer, spoon two or three ladles of milk into the egg mixture and stir constantly. This is tempering the mixture and will prevent curdling of eggs.
Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan and stir over low heat. The mixture will thicken as the temperature rises. Shoot for around 160 degrees. The mixture should be thick enough for a finger streak to be visible on the back of the wooden spoon.
Cool in an ice bath. (I’m lazy and usually just stick it in the fridge.) Strain when cooled. Add vanilla.
Makes approximately 2 quarts.
Enjoy!
Okay, so even though we had this amazing feast that we can snack off of for days…we get tired of eating the same foods over and over and over again. So, while the food has held out, our interest in the food has waned. Amazingly enough, it seems to pick right back up as soon as we take a break. With that in mind, let me share with you some of our favorite easy break meals. I like to post recipes that I think you will enjoy, that will make your life easier, that will make your belly happy. And these meals will do just that.
Yeah, so Kimberly has never baked cookies before. And I think I told you about the
By the end of last week, my kids were up in arms, complaining about the quality of our meals. Food is VERY important to us. Eating well and having variety in our foods is of the utmost importance. And so while I focused a lot in the week leading up to my early Thanksgiving on all the baking I did, I may have glossed over the actual meals we were consuming.
Well, our Thanksgiving morning was dark and ugly, which was rather perfect. I had been warned previously that Ed was planning on working unless weather prevented it.
Then everyone arrived. The teens sat at the counter. The four youngest had the table. And the adults gathered around the coffee table and the football. Ed and Jay rigged the television while we finished the meal preparations. Everyone has a role.
Okay. I’m home with a sick kid. And in my effort to temp his palate and get him to eat himself well, I’m fixing a family favorite. When I was sick, my mother used to make me poached egg on toast. It’s good. It worked. It was also time consuming. I have no idea how she did it. Anyway, here’s the version that I make my kids that you might enjoy. It’s so much faster and they love it.
So, this recipe was a product of my diets. See, I went through this taco/fajita phase. They are…mostly good for you. At the same time, let’s face it, there is such as thing as too many tortillas.
Well, I told everyone on Friday that Rachel had become this great chef. It’s time we benefit from her expertise, so we’re going to partake of her favorite dessert tonight. I asked her to come up with a nice create name for it. Please enjoy…
Really. Rachel called. The young chef has requested my broccoli casserole recipe. She believes it would be a nice accompaniment to the rotisserie chicken she’s working on and the chocolate mousse she’s making for dessert. (I’ve had her mousse…and it rocks!)
I felt compelled to post to the recipes. Seriously. Rachel compelled me. For some reason, my daughter who last year proudly cooked me dinner with the help of my other 





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