Odds & Ends: Sunday Dinner

Sunday, January 31, 2021

I'll be returning to work on site tomorrow after having worked remotely since this past March. I'm feeling a little anxiety about it. Also finishing up a slightly modified dry January I went four weeks without a drink. Decided to finish up the Irish cream that's been sitting in the fridge since Christmas. Not much left. Just enough for half a glass. 

Listened to The Nutcracker a couple of times today. The recording I have was conducted by Andre Previn.

For cocktail hour I had a martini. It went down okay but it negatively affected my sleep. Maybe I'll do a dry February too. 

For dinner Dale and I made Tater Tot Hotdish. It turned out wonderfully. There's a rib-sticking quality to this that's especially appealing during winter time. 

For dessert we had a gingerbread cake. Unlike the one I made from scratch for Old Twelfth Night, this one was from a boxed mix. Regardless, it was delicious and especially so with whipped cream. 

Odds & Ends: Christmas Cards

Odds & Ends: Stamps

"A Christmas card without a Christmas stamp is like a birthday cake without a candle." - Nigel Slater

Guilty! The Christmas cards I send are more often than not without Christmas stamps. However, this wasn't the case this year. I ordered two sets of Christmas themed stamps in late November online direct from the United States Postal Service. 

The more secular set featured images from mid-20th century era Coca-Cola Santa Claus ads and were released in 2018. 

According to the USPS website, "The Postal Service issues four new stamps and a souvenir sheet showcasing classic images of Santa Claus painted by famed commercial artist Haddon Sundblom. Each stamp portrays a close-up of Santa's face. The four images featured in the booklet are details from larger paintings created by Sundblom and originally published in ads for The Coca-Cola Company from the 1940s through the early 1960s. Sundblom is the man credited with refining the modern image of Santa Claus."  

From the website Linn's Stamp News: "The tradition Christmas stamp for 2020 features a detail of the 18th century painting Our Lady of Guapulo by an unknown Peruvian artist. The painting is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the museum is identified in small type along the stamps bottom."

From the USPS website: "Enrobed in a pyramidal gown speckled with jewels and holding a scepter woven with roses and leaves, a crowned Virgin Mary looks down at a similarly adorned Christ Child in her left arm." This stamp was released in 2020. 

The first Christmas stamp issued in the United States came in 1962 after many years of requests from postal customers for just such a thing. The stamp proved to be quite popular. According to the U.S. Postal Service 1 billion of these stamps were printed and distributed by the end of 1962. 

Mom always had Christmas stamps for our family's Christmas cards. I remember her sitting at the dining room table with quite a station set up to get the cards ready. They had to be addressed and the circular letter she wrote had to be inserted in the envelope along with the card. People used to send out so many more Christmas cards than they do now. Pictured above is one stamp I remember from childhood. 

Odds & Ends: A Very German Christmas

I have a number of books in this series. The German edition is the only one I've read cover to cover and I rather enjoyed it. According to the teaser on the back of the book: "The fifth volume in the very popular Very Christmas series, this collection brings together traditional and contemporary holiday stories from  Austria, Switzerland and Germany. . . . Eine frohliche Weihnachten - A Merry Christmas - made all the more festive with therse literary treats redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, the Christkindl, roast goose and red cabbage, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, accompanied by plenty of schnapps. 

My favorite story in the collection was On Christmas Eve by Helene Stokl. It involves an emotionally frozen woman traveling to a place significant to her past possibly seeking closure and maybe even redemption. It resonated with me due to the significant number of times I've felt stuck in my own emotions this past year. This was the type of story I want to revisit at some point. 

Odd & Ends: Gingerman Cookies and Chocolate

Recently Dale and I had some Pepperidge Farms Gingerman cookies along with some Tillamook Chocolate Mudslide ice cream. They went together extremely well. 

Earlier this season we had chocolate ice cream with Stouffer's ginger cookies. Equally delicious. 

Odds & Ends: New Year Cigar

My first cigar of the New Year was January 14.  Warren brought back a box of little Cohibas for me from Cuba. 

MLK Weekend - MLK Day

Monday, January 18, 2021

Largely quiet day today. Dale and I went to the gym this morning and the store in the afternoon. In the alley Athena and I found evidence of Christmas slowly slipping away. 

Had a nice amount of time to read and blog today and also get in some gingerbread and coffee as the afternoon wound down. 

Also had a chance to listen to some more music. Sting's If On a Winter's Night is perfect for mid-winter.  

MLK Weekend 2021 - Old Twelfth Night: Dinner and Music

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Had lots of time to listen to music. Acknowledged our place in the season with a couple of my favorite albums. 

During cocktail hour I found some wassail songs to listen to in honor of Old Twelfth Night. 

Dale and I made a lasagne for dinner. For dessert we had the gingerbread Bundt cake (previous post). 

MLK Weekend 2021 - Old Twelfth Night: Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Quiet and restful day today. Was checking some old blog posts and realized today is Old Twelfth Night. According to Karen Burns-Booth's blog, Lavender & Lovage, "Today, the 17th of January, is Old Twelfth Night, a date that is still celebrated in many rural communities throughout Great Britain, particularly in the  English counties where apples and orchards are prevalent, mainly Suffolk, Kent, Somerset, Herefordshire, and Devon, and, where wassailing the apple orchards and trees is still celebrated. These English counties are also the main cider (cyder) and apple juice producing areas of the U.K. too." The different date all has to do with the conversion of the old Julian calendar to the Gregorian one. For me it comes down to having and excuse for one more celebration to recognize during the cold, dark winter months. 

Since I didn't get to making a cake for Twelfth Night on the 5th I decided I'd make one for tonight, Old Twelfth Night. Something with apples probably would have been more appropriate but since I didn't get to make anything gingerbread this Christmastide I decided to go with that. A number of years ago I tried making a gingerbread cake with a house shaped Bundt pan from Nordic Ware. I didn't turn out right. It didn't quite bake through. This time I decided I'd try it but with a regular Bundt pan in case the odd shape of the previous one had something to do with the shape of the pan. 

It looked okay when it came out of the oven. 

However, upon turning it over I discovered the result wasn't quite what I'd hoped for. What you see on top of the cake was stuck to the pan. Although the recipe recommended baking it for 55-65 minutes I kept it in for 70.  I guess I didn't use enough cooking spray. 

The cake ended up being rather crumbly. In reviewing the recipe afterward I realized I only used two eggs instead of the required four so this is most likely the reason for that consistency. Regardless, it still tasted fantastic and a huge amount of whipped cream covered up the imperfections. Maybe I'll retry making it at Valentine's Day keeping in mind the cooking spray and the eggs. 

MLK Weekend 2021 - Acknowledging the Message of Winter

Saturday, January 16, 2021

Dale and I are both exhausted. The heightened tension nationally from the insurrection a week and a half ago has taken a toll not to mention the cumulative effects of the pandemic and the past four years of the current presidency. We've really taken some time these past couple weekends to really take care of ourselves and regroup even more than what we're getting used to. I'm trying to keep in mind my belief that the biggest message winter has for us is to look to nature for the clues to slow down. 

Last weekend we made a chicken pot pie. 

It's one of our favorite winter meals.

I'm doing a dry January so I had Bubly for cocktail hour. Dale had his usual red wine. 

We listened to the album Like Someone In Love by Ella Fitzgerald. It's awesome and Dale mentioned that he especially liked it. 

For dinner we prepared a salmon quiche. Another one of our wintertime favorites. 

And for dessert we had our ever-lovin' Oh Ho roulade from Kowalski's. 

We watched some of our favorite episodes of The IT Crowd. The last few years we've watched this on the evening of Christmas Day after dinner with Mom. She loves the show and finds it hysterical. We didn't get to it this year.

Epiphany 2021

Wednesday, January 6, 2020

Epiphany 2020. Sadly, today was a day brimming with pure ugliness and evil. The president incited a mob attack on the United States Capitol. I decided to watch the electoral votes be certified and then watched with concern and then growing horror as supporters of this president stormed the Capitol. 

I don't have words. Actually, I do but all of the ideas in my head are bottle-necking some I'm having a hard time formulating anything coherent. 

Christmastide 2020: The 12th Day of Christmas - Twelfth Night

Tuesday, January 5, 2020

Quiet Twelfth Night. 

The Santa I ordered a while ago finally arrived today.

The 3 Kings arrive tomorrow.  Simple dinner of tuna open-faced sandwiches tonight. 

Christmastide 2020: The 11th Day of Christmas -

Monday, January 4, 2021

Tchotchkes are slowly being put away however the manger scenes remain up. 

Christmastide 2020: The 10th Day of Christmas - Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

Sunday, January 3, 2021

I needed a project to distract me from having to go back to work tomorrow. This  did the trick and it turned out really well too.  

The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's book 

It takes some attention to detail to make but it's well worth it. The batter is very firm and hard to spread out over the maple pecan filling. 

It made the house smell great as it was baking and cooling.  

I haven't made this for a number of years. It makes for a wonderful Christmas cake. 

Dinner was a most delicious lasagne.