Merry Christmas from the whole family!

My talented friend, Kris, presented us with our family in gingerbread. It can be noted that if stranded on a desert island, I would eat Mia first if my gingerbread nibblings are any indication. Chris wasn’t sure if he appreciated his “man diapers,” and I may be topless with a squiggle of a skirt. So what else is new?

Our Christmas was really spectacular. You know, growing up I always hated to be asked “What do you want for Christmas?” That question was so disappointing to me, like people should magically know (ahem, Santa) and shouldn’t have to ask. I also found it very embarrassing to ask for anything when we had so much. One year I told my grandmother I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (I didn’t want to come off greedy), and, sure enough, I got one beautifully wrapped underneath the tree (along with a mind-boggling assortment of other gifts).

My grandmother also set up what now seems like a horribly cruel precedent by always having a secret present mysteriously delivered from “the Prince.” One year it was a magnificent hat with a big feather plume that arrived by doorbell but, amazingly enough, no one was there! I’m surprised it didn’t turn me into a nightmare for all future boyfriends. Note to self….do not delude children into thinking some mysterious romantic stranger is going to come into their lives bearing generous gifts. (My grandmother was an amazing person, and I know her heart was in the right place.)

Yet this year….there were magnificent gifts (from people we know, of course):

I'm not shy about asking for what we need now!

In fact, when Chris’ mom asked what she should get us I just sent her the link to the exact page on the Williams-Sonoma website! (I was gonna link to it but it looks like it sold out – anyway, they’re having a huge sale on Wüsthof knives)

Without peeking (Chris doesn’t believe me, but I swear!), I took a picture of everything once Chris had gotten it out of the shipping boxes:

We had a lovely time opening gifts and most of my haul fit nicely into my new (wait for it) fair-trade mushroom gathering basket!

I’m also the proud recipient of a mushroom knife! A foraging knife that has little bristles at the end for brushing off dirt (Chris had to explain it to me). I also got a small collapsible colander, Swedish Fish (a candy indulgence),  fingerless gloves that turn into mittens, a lovely Coach coin purse from my sister-in-law, Fat of the Land by Langdon Cook (the local forager whom we did not get to see read the night our refrigerator broke down), and a beautiful sweater from my dad (the dandy dresser). A lovely Christmas indeed!

For dinner, I broke out the Christmasy dishes mostly because I realized we were going to be eating white fish and white potatoes on white plates if some sort of intervention didn’t take place!

If you're a super observant blog reader, you'll notice that a certain Chocolate-covered blogger's dad has the matching mug to this set. Spooky!

Christmas dinner was Marine Stewardship Council certified Chilean Sea Bass (from Whole Foods, on sale, still expensive but we only bought a pound), Brussels Sprouts (to break up the whitey-whiteness) and re-purposed mashed potatoes frozen since Thanksgiving (remember I joked about Chris making 14 lbs of mashed potatoes – no lie!).

On Tuesday, our friends turned us on to reruns of Jacques and Julia Cooking at Home:

The very night they told us about it, we ran into Jacques and Julia and saw their recipe for souffle made from mashed potatoes, eggs, and cheese (we just happened to have some leftover goat mozzarella). It was a Christmas miracle!

Actually, the dish would have been better with the Gruyère that they suggested, but we made do.

That's sea bass on the left - poached in corn lemongrass soup - and potato souffle on the right. Not easy to tell apart!

It was a delicious dinner, and we skipped dessert since we’d “stocked up” the night before.
Next up – goals for 2010!
PS. I know there are a lot of bloggers who weren’t terribly aware of Julia Child before Julie & Julia, but I watched her when I was a kid. It’s hard to see her in these “newer” shows when she was getting up there in age. Like watching a relative grow older. You gotta hand it to her – she hung in there!

All was quiet and sparkling with lights in the little town of Lake City where we spent our Christmas Eve. The table was piled high with an hors d’oeuvres assortment the likes you’ve never seen…..and I took no pictures. I know! Can you believe it????

I was kinda busy at the kids’ table. I also ate way too much and would rather forget that night. Becky made these Martha Stewart-esque lemon sandwich cookies which I tasted (divine! Apparently you can buy lemon curd at Fred Meyer – who knew?), and she also made, for the first time ever, chocolate-hazelnut sandwich cookies with Earl Grey ganache on the inside. We agreed that they were so delicious but, if they had any fault at all, they were too big. They were sooooo rich that they really had to be more French macaroon size than chocolate chip cookie size. I was definitely over the cookie edge at that point and THEN, her sister-in-law arrived with Mt Rainier macaroons that were dipped in chocolate and then white chocolate to resemble our snow-capped mountain.

They looked exactly like that but delicious!

I did not take a photo, but I did take a cookie home for later.

As they are want to do (and one of the many reasons we love them), Becky and her husband put together an assortment of handmade goodies for our gift:

From left to right: Homemade plum jam, body cream made with their own honeycomb, hot cocoa mix, honey from their own hives, Lavender lip balm made with their own honeycomb, and three kinds of homemade soap. Becky really outdid herself this year.

Okay, this post has taken wayyy too long. Not to spoil any Christmas surprises but I did get a new copy of Photoshop Elements which did require a full-system install yesterday (oh joy – but at least we now know Time Machine works!), and I’m still getting used to the new PE.

More to come….before 2010. I promise!

Here’s a Flashback Friday for the Salt Lake City gal!

Christmas 1997. Totally my idea, and I’m super glad that Mr. and Mrs. Claus agreed to play along! I was in the best shape of my life (Sorry you can’t tell. I have a jolly old fat man covering my fabulous figure!).

Six months later, I moved to New York to start a next chapter in my life. There I found my husband and many fabulous friends I still have to this day! I would never have been able to guess how my life was going to change.

Janetha‘s so good about posting old pics so this one’s for her! Happy Holidays!

Ooh my little pretty one, pretty one.
When you gonna give me some time, Kabocha?

So cheesy, but you know you laughed! (I have a friend who made out with one of The Knack, but that’s a story for another day). Today’s story is about breakfast (a cheer goes up from the five of you reading!!!! Hooray!!!!)

But let me back up a second to say that we’d never had kabocha except in soup. (I know, such novices! *eye rolling*). But we’d stocked up when they were cheap, and I’d figured I’d just roast them the way HEABS does.

Well, I had a little sitch-ee-ation, when I thought I’d turned on the timer, but really hadn’t. Chris said, “I think something’s burning,” and I said, “Oh they’ll be ok. They only have 7 minutes to go” as I peered in from the den. Um, no. It was 7 o’clock. That was NOT the timer that I thought I’d set – just the clock that tells you the time. Like clocks are supposed to do. Not keep track of burning squash – that would be timer’s job if. I’d. set. it.

Yeah.

You’ll be happy to know that kabochas are amazingly resilient and came back beautifully from a near “on fire” sitch-ee-ation.

They were splendid in what I like to call my Kab-Oat-cha Bran:

Yes, those are my entire Christmas decorations behind there. I went all out this year!

Usually my oven light turns everything this orange, but this really was that orange.

OMGoodness! Soooo delicious. I could barely stand it. Actually, I’m a little turned off now by throwing the Kabocha back in with Thai spices after enjoying its sweetness. Guess I’ll just have to find my way back to the savory with this blessed squash.

Next up were Kabocha pancakes as channeled through Heather from Marissa. Now both these ladies run circles around me in the kitchen, and that’s never been more apparent than during what I like to call The Great Pumpkin Pancake Fiasco of 2009. I’ll spare you the details, but here’s the finished product:

Served with my friend Becky's canned peaches - Yum!

Yep – my plate was THAT orange. It was spectacular and all the more delicious with some sugar-free syrup and a glop of almond butter. I was full for days!

I’ll work on my pancake skills. These just wouldn’t “pancake” for me at all. I made sure the eggs were fully cooked and ate them anyway. Next time I might add a little more flour (I tried adding coconut flour to the next batch but that soaked up ALL the moisture, and I was left with dusty crumbs). This is why I stick with smoothies on the weekdays, when I’m stressed and have to get to work on time.

PS. A little kabocha in a Green Monster is fabu!

Speaking of the culinary talent that is Marissa, here she is when I stopped into Healeo for a little gift exchange:

Neither one of us can wait until it’s warm and light enough to start walking the lake again! While in Healeo, I decided to give E3 Live another try, even though you’ll recall it reminded me of this:

Image credit: www.crowanimations.net/

I really think it brightened up my skin, and I’m willing to give it another month. If I start peeing Sea Monkeys, then I’ll give it up. Otherwise, what’s the harm?