"Whoosh" is actually the sound of the last five or so days whizzing by my head. We've been so busy that I didn't even get an Eye Candy photo up for Friday... so here's a pic of the Ship Inn in Exeter, Devon, England, which became our favorite pub (you have no idea how much of a non-sequitur it feels like to say that I have a favorite English pub). Local legend says that Sir Francis Drake said that it was his favorite pub, but scholars argue about it. Go ahead and argue, folks, I'll just go in and have a great dinner in a place with some atmosphere.
The Christmas shopping is finished, the boxes for points far off are packed, taped, and shipped. We're already deep in the Holiday Social Whirl, but haven't done the Home Decoration phase yet. I'm planning to skip all but a small amount of cookie baking as there are only two of us and we don't want to have piles of temptation in the kitchen... a few will do. Hmmm, what should my Christmas Day menu include?
Turkey (roasted with herbs, not stuffed)
roasted sweet potatoes (I posted this recipe last year sometime)
Brussells sprouts
something to do with cranberries
mince pie
If it doesn't seem like much, I think that it's an appropriate amount of holiday food for two people. There's a protein, a starch, a green thing, and dessert, which is more than many people around the world are going to get. And, we'll have leftovers we'll actually eat.
Note that I didn't mention gravy... although it will be there. I make a wicked turkey pot pie with leftovers as long as there's gravy. You take chunks of leftover turkey, put them with some gravy, add frozen peas and carrots, and put it all in a dish with some pie crust (or puff pastry) on top, and bake it until it's brown. Make sure you throw all of the filling stuff into a pot and heat it through first, then put it under the crust. If you make mashed potatoes for dinner, save the leftovers and instead of using a pie crust you can top the filling with mashed potatoes and a little cheese and have a kind of shepherd's pie.
Shepherd's Pie and I have a long and checkered history. Years ago, when I was dating one particular guy, I tried making it, and it was a disaster. Yeah, I know, how could something so simple end up as a disaster? but it did. The boyfriend christened it my Meatcake, after George Carlin's comedy routine wherein he described the stuff that you find in the back of a refrigerator that's been there so long that you can't remember what it was. "Is it meat? Is it cake? It's a meatcake!" Anyway, I tried to make this several times, both at his place and at home, and it never, never worked. So, I have avoided Shepherd's Pie ever since, at least until our most recent trip to England. I had three different versions of it and it was great. One was called "Admiral's Pie" and it had lovely chunks of fish in it. Well, I tried making it a couple of weeks ago, out of leftover meatloaf, some veggies and mashed potatoes, and it worked. Maybe it was just getting away from that boyfriend that did it, although that was a long time ago.
We now interrupt this interruption to say that knitting continues at Orchard Ranch. The Spumoni Sock second heel is being turned, and the Fiesta Ballet Scarf is showing great progress, finally. I'm re-thinking my color choices on the Celtic Tote, but won't pick it up again until at least one of these two aforementioned projects is finished, most likely the socks.
No comments:
Post a Comment