I’m alive people, honest I am! I’ve just been preoccupied with day-to-day craziness, trying to dodge the little black cloud that seems to be following me around. Now here we are in the thick of the holiday season . . . how the hell did that happen? The calendar says I should be shopping and tree-trimming and cookie baking . . . so far, I’ve managed only one of those 3:
This photo was taken with the camera on my new cell phone. I know people have been emailing cell phone photos for years now . . . but I just learned to do this last week. So I am once again armed with a photographic device and ready to document the holiday season in all its honey-glazed, sugar-plummed glory!
In fact, I attended my first Feast of Wintery Goodness last nite! My pals Liz and Jimbo hosted a Sunday nite shindig of epic culinary proportions. Liz is a great cook . . . someone who knows how to “simmer” or “baste” things, and how to make soup and pie crust from scratch. Everyone else brought a side dish to add to the feasting fun . . . my contribution was a salad (surprise!) . . .topped with almonds and cranberries. Basically, I combined bags of pre-packaged greens and toppings in a large bowl. Others were slightly more ambitious – Kevin made Sweet Potato Pie that could make baby angels weep with happiness, and Alison provided delightful baked turnips that made other root vegetables everywhere seethe with jealousy. Liz whipped up an amazing Pumpkin Soup, cornbread stuffing (who knew there was such a thing?! I always thought ‘cornbread stuffing’ was a Dickensian fantasy food like ‘figgy pudding’) and cornish game hens, followed by a sinfully yummy pecan pumpkin pie. There was not much conversing and plenty of chewing, the sign of a truly successful meal.
The evening also showed that you don’t need to have a fancy-ass, Martha-Stewart style table setting to have a perfectly legitimate and successful dinner party. Good food is still good even when it is cooked in disposable pans with Ikea tools and eaten off a plate in your lap while camped out on the sofa. I sometimes forget this when I survey my abysmally small and ill-equipped kitchen. Yes, it would be awesome to have a KitchenAid stand mixer or a counter to put it on – but these minor challenges need not hamper my culinary abilities forever! Back in the day, people prepared Christmas dinner for families of 12 on a woodstove. At the end of the day, its not about how tricked out your kitchen is, or how perfectly the table is set . . . its about good friends, good food, and the sharing of both.
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