The mashed potato bar, part 2

For Thanksgiving, I made a Mashed Potato bar... check it out over on my SIL's blog. She didn't believe I would do it, which of course made me want to do it even more.

I thought it was fun, easy, and tasty, so I am doing it again at a friend's New Year's Eve party. Photos to come!

Holiday week is the best week... to work

I get more done at work during the week between Christmas and New Year's than usual. Why? It's so quiet! There's nobody to bother me! I can get stuff done without having to go to meetings all day! I love it!

And it lets me take an extra vacation week next year, while everyone else is working. Can't beat that. Well, as long as I don't work on vacation, which is never a guarantee.

I guess that means that it's time to plan a vacation without computer access. Any suggestions?

Free food doesn't mean you have room for it

The kids have off from school this week, like all other kids everywhere. This of course poses a challenge for a family that is not vacationing. Fortunately, my parents do not live too far away and they offered to take the kids for 2 days/1 night. Yay, thanks mom and dad! Now the boy is kicking mom's butt in Quoridor all day... sorry!

The husband and I took the opportunity to enjoy a new, ecologically aware restaurant here in NJ. I'd been there once before for lunch with a coworker, and experienced my third hotel or restaurant evacuation in two months (the story for another blog entry on another day...)

The food is very good... seasonal and local. We had gone to the grand opening where they had tastings of some of their appetizers, and I LOVED the mixed tomato bruschetta. And when I say LOVED, I mean I'm still drooling over it several months later. Unfortunately, there are no locally grown tomatoes in December, and that means no bruschetta today. Boo.

We had a $100 Amex gift card from my employer that I got as a gift several months ago. So of course, we thought that gave us the opportunity to order multiple courses and eat it all up. OMG there was so much food and we could barely make it through.

First Course: Big Eye Tuna Tartare for me, squash risotto for the husband. Both were yummy and we finished these completely. Of course, the menu had a much nicer name for the risotto, but I can't remember it. The portions were very big for appetizers.

Soup Course: Casalinga Onion Soup for me, Potato & Leek Soup for the husband. Both soups were really good, and HUGE portions. They each had a slice of toast in them that tasted very smoked. Lots of flavor. We got halfway through the soups and were full. We decided to take the rest home so we had room for dinner.

Which, it turns out, we didn't have room for. I had Hand Rolled Potato Gnocchi. With cauliflower, mascarpone cheese, pancetta and herbs. YUM. The husband had a sampling of sausages (Fresh Garlic, Smoked Chicken & Spiced Lamb), served with creamy polenta, green onions and mustard. I didn't even get to taste the sausage. We packed up all the food and took it home for another time.

Didn't even attempt dessert. Next time. Someone at the bar had ordered a rice pudding with some kind of brittle that looked freaking awesome.

Color my world

I consider myself lucky to have made it this far without coloring my hair. But the time has come... I see more and more gray strands every day. My hair is sooooo thin that from a distance, it's not even noticeable. But, I see it, the husband sees it, the kids see it, and it makes my hair look.... sparkly? glittery? or just old?

I dyed my hair today for the first time ever - to match my old color. It's almost like I paid someone to do nothing to my hair. Crazy. People say it looks "brighter", whatever that means. As long as it's not glowing (or gray), I'm good.

Fresh sauce with your coffee

I'm new to the whole blogging sisterhood... I have always blogged for myself and never really shared. I've recently followed my SIL onto this saucy site and it's made me want to give going public a try. So, hi world (she said, while peeking out from behind the blog).

And, yay for giveaways! I hate coffee, but love Keurig. Lots of variety, easy cleanup, single servings only for those who want it. A dream come true for the wife of a coffee drinker!



They even have chai for me! yum!

Funky Latkes

I want to thank my wonderful SIL for the recipes for Cauliflower Latkes with Za'atar Aioli... both the original recipe and her version. The SIL is an awesome cook whose palatte has grown SOOO much since we first met her... when she would ONLY eat sweet and sour chicken!

Anyway, on the first night of Chanukah, she and I made the latkes and aioli together. Admittedly, we improvised a bit. Cooking the latkes proved to be an exercise in patience. They fell apart while cooking, over and over again. We tried very hard to modify the batter to save it, because they tasted sooo good, but never ended up with anything that looked presentable. Even so, every bit was eaten by the adults in the house (but not the kids).

So, here I am on the last day of Chanukah, with some cauliflower in the fridge. I grabbed the recipe and figured, it has to be better this time, right??!?

Not.

I mixed up the batter, and started frying the latkes, and each time the oil ate up every bit of the pancake before I could even try to flip it. Literally. The whole thing fell apart in the oil gradually, from the outside in. It's like it was a happy little fish being attacked by invisible piranhas.

I added another egg. Same thing.

I added more breadcrumbs. Same thing.

I added MORE breadcrumbs. Same thing.

I lowered the temperature of the oil. Same thing, but slower.

I blinked. What to do now? I had already made the aioli (with different spices, and homemade mayonnaise, yum). And I really really wanted the latkes.

Desperate, I added some flour. Some progress - they stayed together while flipping, at least.

I added more flour, and had some success. I'll be serving them now. They even look a little like the original photo from Bon Appetit! Hopefully the boy and the girl will eat them... I know the husband will.



Lessons for this recipe:
1. Make the pancakes SMALL.
2. Double the breadcrumbs.
3. Use large eggs.
4. Add 1/4 cup flour with the breadcrumbs.
5. Do not use very high heat.
6. Do NOT blend the cauliflower until smooth. I think that was the main issue with the whole thing.
7. Have a little luck, or be smart and follow the original recipe better!!!

Wii for me

The kids use their Wii occasionally - but they don't play video games as often as most kids. These days, you'll find them playing Disney's online multiplayer Wizard 101. Most of the game is free but we gave them a membership for Chanukah which allows them to go to the "members only" worlds. They are completely addicted and don't even realize that the game is EXACTLY the same as another Disney multiplayer, Toontown. They abandoned Toontown about a year or two ago as "boring". Little do they know that the gameplay of Wizard101 is exactly the same but themed differently.

That leaves the Wii open for me. I received a Wii Fit from my parents who bought holiday gifts early. It's more about balance and yoga than anything else, but I've been doing the aerobics and letting the system give me grief for not losing weight. I have used it every day for almost a week now, though, so we'll see if this continues.

Time to move on

At one point in my life, I worked for General Motors, and ever since then (>15 years), we have always bought American cars. This was not because I had any particular love for the cars themselves. I've been proud to buy American, but the main reasons have been brand loyalty and plain laziness.

Today we are likely to change that pattern when we purchase a new car to replace our failing Oldsmobile. It's bothering me a little. I have been getting e-mails and letters from GM basically pleading with me to remain loyal, but is has been very difficult for us to find GM cars that meet our needs. I also received a holiday card yesterday from a former GM coworker whose husband is still a GM engineer in the depressed economy of Detroit. Her letter was gloomy about the future of GM and I wish the best to them and all GM families.

But, we're still buying a Nissan.

Is it a good or a bad thing?

So, I'm pretty excited that I actually wrote four (now five!) blog posts today. We'll see if this actually sticks this time. Of course, this all means that I'm not getting anything ELSE done... I'll have to figure out the right balance.

No Tugging Allowed

The husband brought home a Chanukah gift for himself the other day. Yes, it was Superman's Cape, a replica from the movies. #70-something out of 200-something. This has to be the pièce de résistance of his comic book collectibles... and he has already proudly hung it in the entryway to the shrine.

Shrine, you ask? The shrine is a room in our basement, and, along with thousands of comic books, it holds a vast array of collectibles: the bat signal, the Bottle City of Kandor, Green Lantern's power battery, Wonder Woman's wristbands, and many many more. I barely knew what half these things were before the shrine was built. It's not hard to understand why I laugh so much at the TV show "Big Bang Theory".

It's interesting to note that Superman's Cape has a small pocket in the side. Who knew? Also, the cape is not actually wearable. You'd think for $300 that it would have that feature. Sigh.

Moulting Queen

Queen, the girl's new pet crayfish (that she got from a school science project), moulted today. I forgot that this would happen, and when the boy brought me the crayfish shell, I initially thought Queen was a goner. After a short three days.

Phew.

You have too many blogs (!)

Blogger just told me this:

You have too many blogs
You are only allowed to have 100 blogs per account. Please reuse or delete one of your existing blogs or create a new account.

If you think that you are receiving this message in error, please contact the Blogger Help Group. We apologize for any inconvenience.

It's like someone noticed my profile, and is teaching me a lesson. I'm awfully glad that I had this one available for reuse.

You may be asking yourself why I have 100+ blogs. I ask myself that every day. No worries, I don't touch very many of them at all... I started many for other people. And others just take up much appreciated blogger disk space.

New games for 2009

The family got several board games for Chanukah this year:

Quoridor was on our wishlist for many years and BRO2/SIL picked it up this time around for the boy. This is a very straightforward abstract strategy game. Extremely simple to learn yet has tons of strategy. You move your piece or place a wall, and try to get your piece to the other side. I couldn't beat the boy for the first few times we played... he is awesome at it. He picked up on the strategy immediately. Now if I can only teach him to be more of a gracious winner...

Race for the Galaxy is an extremely different animal. It was a gift to the boy from BIL/SIL, who were advised by my SIL's SIL. This is a 2-4 player card strategy game with a space theme, and the rules are absolutely overwhelming. We're just simple wannabe gamers, not even close to full-blown game players... it took us a good long while to get used to the game play. I mean, the reference sheet alone was a mile long. It's a fast-paced game once you get it, and can even last under 30 minutes, but you have to get it. And, there is little interaction with other players. It's almost like everyone is playing themselves and the winner is the person with the most points. The boy and I ended up in a tie this first go-round. (I won the tiebreaker according to the rules, which made the boy a little mad.) We liked the game in general, but I don't think we will successfully teach it to the girl or the husband. They simply won't have the patience, and crave interaction too much. Will have to wait for the next time we see the BIL/SIL - they are up for all games!

We played Quelf with BIL/SIL and laughed a lot. The girl chose this game as one of her Chanukah gifts. The game is an entertaining party game good for the whole family (so far). Look out though, we haven't seen all the cards and the game may very well get a little more inappropriate. It is hugely reminiscent of drinking games. The "rules" make the whole game - requiring people to touch the floor or say everything twice or talk with a pirate accent. I personally had to pretend my seat was a toilet and I had to flush every time someone else got a penalty. Lovely. The kids had a ball.

Next game up: Pirate's Cove. The boy chose this game as one of his gifts. We'll see how it goes!