A Listless Best of 2011

At the end of every year, there's always a big flurry of "Best Of" lists.  The Top 10 Movies.  The Notable Books. The Must Read Blogs*.  The Coolest Apps.  The Best Meals.  

I read them all, avidly.
But my year wasn't like that.

There's no list.

My year was little wonderful moments, and big awful ones.  Plus all the ordinary moments in between. Some I'll remember and lots that I've already forgotten.  Very few came from movies, books, blogs, or apps.

But food?  Ah, yes.

Fancy meals with my husband, burgers with my niece, crab cakes with my sister and meatball subs with the FGs.

Teaching friends to bake bread, inventing sorbets from cider, savoring soup on a rainy night in Cusco, finding comfort in a casserole, or making Christmas magic from flour, sugar and a whole lot of butter.

Grilling cheese sandwiches with my daughter and interfering while my son made dinner as a homework assignment.   Folding fortunes for a funeral and celebrating a new job with a pan full of blondies.

Discussing books over salad, arguing with my mom over tuna fish, battling fiercely over bolognese sauce with my carpool.
Fretting over pie crust and my kids being far from home.

Making supper on a chilly weeknight, or brunch on a sunny morning.

Making people smile**.  

The smell of bacon, of a cake in the oven, of the slow cooker bubbling away.  The sound of the grill sizzling or the timer going off in the kitchen.

The taste of warm biscuits with butter and honey.

There's no way to list all of what was best about 2011, without recalling the worst of it, too. It was a turbulent, emotional, roller coaster year. But almost every day had a moment that was made better by the gift of good food.

Here's to a calmer 2012, but one that is quietly, tastily, memorable too.

Quietly Memorable Weeknight Roast Chicken
This recipe comes from Patty, a member of my mah jong crew, who made this for us on a chilly Wednesday night.  Do I remember if I won or lost, or what we talked about or why we were laughing so much?  No.  But boy did I remember her chicken.

1 whole roasting chicken, cut in half
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Dried oregano
Garlic salt (optional)
Paprika (optional)
1/2 c. (1 stick) butter

Crusty bread, for serving and scraping up the pan drippings

Preheat oven to 425.

Rinse the chicken thoroughly in cool water, pat dry, and cut in half along the back bone.  Place chicken in a large bowl, and coat completely with olive oil.  Season liberally with salt and pepper.  If you like, substitute garlic salt for all or a portion of the regular salt.  Place chicken, skin side up, in a large roasting pan.  Sprinkle skin liberally with oregano, and paprika, if using.  Cut butter into large chunks, and place a few on top of each piece of chicken.

Roast for 45 minutes, or until skin is crispy and brown on top, and juices run clear in the thigh when pierced.

Set chicken aside to rest on a platter.   The pan will be full of yummy butter/oil/pan drippings.  Collect a good portion of those into a warm bowl, and serve along with the chicken and a loaf of crusty bread for dipping.

Click to print this recipe!

Equally Memorable Green Salad Dressing
I served the chicken with a simple salad, but even that was out of the ordinary, thanks to the salad dressing recipe that Amy, another of the mah jong ladies, brought for me***.

2 Tbs. each flat leaf parsley, tarragon, and fresh basil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
2 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1/2 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. light sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth.

Delicious!!

Click to print this recipe!

* Somehow Cheesy Pennies wasn't listed.  Must have been an oversight.
** Making myself plump in the process.
*** I admit that I'd been stalking her for it ever since she served it at her house one night.  I may have even said something like, "Don't even think of showing up to the next game without it," but that's one of those moments of 2011 that wasn't so memorable for me.

In honor of CES

Perhaps its because I'm in a gadget state of mind here in Vegas, but I loved this.


Created by: MBA Online

BTW, you can follow the fortunes of my new company on facebook, and see a few photos of our first product's big adventures here. The reception for the company has been fantastic, and I'm ahead 200 bucks for the week. So far so good in 2012!

Happy Ending

My niece is here for Christmas*, and we're having a really good time.

On Monday, we went to Magic Mountain, because she decided she was ready to ride the big kid roller coasters.   Not only was she ready to ride the big kid roller coasters, she was ready to ride the no-sane-person-should-ever-subject-themselves-to-this-willingly roller coasters, like this one.



I got off and wanted to check myself into a hospital.  She got off and wanted to go again.

On Tuesday, it was her 8th birthday**. We had Angry Birds Snickerdoodles for her birthday breakfast party.

We went to the Grilled Cheese Truck for lunch.  And we saw (and loved!) the new Muppet Movie at the El Capitan Theater that night***.  Fortunately, we did not go upside down or backwards all day.

On Wednesday, there was roller skating with her dad, Christmas shopping with her cousins, and building legos with her uncle****.

On Thursday, it was my daughter's birthday. There was Monkey Bread birthday breakfast,  Sponge Bob fried rice for dinner, and a new board game to play when we got home.

The game, Wits and Wagers Family, is a riot to play.  Basically, the game gives you a statistic, and everyone tries to guess the right numerical answer.  At one point, the card said:

What percentage of American families speak a language other than English at home?

I said 45.
My sister wrote 50.
My daughter guessed 60.
My son proposed 26.
My niece very authoritatively said,
"Megan."

I don't think we stopped laughing for 10 minutes.

Today, we went to the movies again.  About halfway through, a large bear escaped from the zoo and was being chased by men with huge, menacing, tranquilizer guns. Amanda leaned over and whispered to me:

Her: Is this a Disney movie?
Me:  I don't think so.  Why?
Her: (looking worried) Because if it is a Disney movie, I know it will have a happy ending.

I have to say, spending time with her is like a Disney movie.  Except that it's happy all the way through.

Here's to happiness and family and un-birthday cakes and Christmas time.
And, of course, Megan.

We'll be camping out for Santa tonight.  Hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve, too!

* My sister and brother-in-law are here, too, but they're not nearly as amusing.  I think she was excited about the trip.  She was packed the day after Thanksgiving, and had the countdown going in her room.  I had my penguin up, too.
** You read that correctly.  She was still seven years old on Monday.  She rode Scream and Goliath, too.
*** There were fart shoes! Plus, at the El Capitan there's a hokey Christmas show before the movie, and they give out free jingle bells.
**** As a follow-up act to the Space Shuttle project, they are building Frank Llyod Wright's Robie House.

Christmas Candy

A lot of Christmas candy comes from the mall, beautifully wrapped in cheerful red paper, in handy one pound boxes.
It makes a lovely present.
You can set the box out when company comes.
You pick through it and eat just the ones you like, and leave the ones you don't with tiny bites taken out of them.

Or (my personal favorite), you can re-gift it*.

The other kind of Christmas candy comes from somebody's kitchen, hand-wrapped in wax paper, lovingly bundled and tied with a ribbon or two.

It makes an awesome present.
You can hide it when company comes.
You can eat a piece now and stash the rest for later.
And (my personal mantra), you never, ever, re-gift it.

Being less humble

OK, then.
Here's me, being less humble.
The dessert room was phenomenal this year.

Hmm.  It does feel kind of good to prance about it.  Maybe these reindeer and my son are onto something...

All the recipes are in the recipe box, in case you want to create a dessert room, or even a simple dessert countertop or shelf, of your own this holiday season.  Ho ho ho!

Be less humble

We were driving somewhere the other night, and somehow the conversation turned to our always-conflicted family schedule.  In the course of discussing who needed to be where, when, I said something along the lines of "Well, I can skip my thing and take him to his thing and run back and get her from her thing because my thing isn't that important anyway."

My son turned to me and said:

"Mom, you need to be less humble.  You need to be more like me."

My kind of birthday cake

When you are little (or really old), you don't have a choice.  It's a sheet cake with buttercream frosting, swirly decorations, and writing on it.

If you are a fortunate child, the cake comes from somewhere yummy, like The Baker or Hansen's, or even Costco, or if you are especially fortunate, your aunt makes you a Yo Baby Cake* by hand.

If you are an unfortunate child, you might get something like this:

Did I mention that CakeWrecks is potentially the funniest site on the web?

Anyway.

As you get older (like 5), you start to have an opinion about your birthday cake:

"Can it be an ice cream cake?"

"Or cupcakes?"

"Or a coffee cake?"

"How about if we don't have cake at all?"

Well...sure. It is your birthday**!

Then, as you get even older (like 40-something***), you not only have an opinion, you have A Birthday Cake.  The cake that you have every year.  The one that that someone makes for you or buys for you or orders especially for you. Because that's the cake you like, and it wouldn't be your birthday without it.  The "Don't even think about messing around and trying any of that fancy stuff you saw in Bon Appetit magazine, Missy. Not on my birthday you don't!" cake.

For my husband, it's carrot cake.
For my dad, it's lemon cake.
For me, it'd be this cake.

Unfortunately, I'm rarely in charge of my own birthday cake.
Fortunately, there are 364 other days in the year.
Happy Not-Birthday to me!****

What's your Birthday Cake?