Long winter holiday weekend

It has been such a relaxing weekend, despite social obligations. Friday night we went to Vault for a coworker-friend's birthday. We left after about two hours, using my recent stomach flu as an excuse. We walked to the video store and stopped on the way back for tea at Palio. Through miscommunication it was served in mugs, so we stayed and read the weekly papers while sipping tea. It was so relaxing and quite an enjoyable change of pace.

Saturday morning I went for breakfast with my brother, prepped the bathroom ceiling for painting, and tried to do all of the grocery shopping for xmas cooking. That night was a holiday party at a running buddy's house, at which we also stayed for two hours. We barely left the house on Sunday. Instead we stayed home, took care of chores, and ended up drinking tea and hanging out in the kitchen nook listening to jazz for a few hours. I read Veganomicon and Erik played WoW on the laptop, while Kenard lapped up affection. We dinner with Erik's parents at Lauro, now that they have a bit more time to themselves.

Monday I went out to buy sequins, and candy for gingerbread house-making. Fred Meyer was so parked up that I went all the way out to Target-- where no regular-sized candycanes were to be had. I also painted the bathroom ceiling (second coat) and made a pumpkin (not technically a pumpkin, but a winter squash, okay?) cheezcake with grahamcracker crust for xmas dessert. Erik and I went for a run, and I think we watched a movie or two. Maybe that was Sunday. It starts to blur together, doesn't it?

Tuesday we went over to Erik's brother's newly completed house for gift-opening at 9am. Our 4 year-old nephew had awoken at 4am to open all presents featuring his first initial on the gift tag, and when one of them had a note from Santa he woke up his visiting maternal grandmother to read it for him. Consequently, his mother had to wrap a number of gifts back up. Despite threats that he wouldn't have anything to open, however, there were tons of presents. I think everyone was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed seeing my one-year-old nephew hug the stuffed animal I bought for him at Crafty Wonderland.

Back home, of course, I finished making No Knead Bread (with oregano, lemon thyme and rosemary from the garden), roasted green beans with garlic and lemon zest, and a kindof sortof attempt at seitan wellington. Whatever it was, it turned out awesome. Onions, leeks, Italian tofurky, seitan, all sauteed in my biggest pot, with red wine to deglaze, soy sauce, parsley and herbs from the garden, and my spice trinity of coriander, cumin and powdered mustard, all wrapped up in puff pastry. Leave it to puff pastry to make everything _that_ much better.

Aspen came with us for dinner at Erik's brother's house, and then we went home to decide on gingerbread house plans, cut out and bake the pieces, and assemble the main frame. We got two sides candied up before tuckering out around 11pm, all bah-humbugged by thoughts of work the next day. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable winter holidays I've experienced, and I even have something to show for it.

Thankfully Thanksgiving

I thoroughly enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. I haven't taken more than one day off since March, to go to Costa Rica, and I can't remember the last time I stayed home for more than a weekend.

Thursday, I spent most of the day cooking. I started around 10am, took a break around 2pm for a run with Erik, and finished right at 5pm, when we took everything over to Erik's parents' house for our holiday meal.

Friday was my day to relax. I stayed on the couch in pajamas for entire morning, watching "What Not to Wear" and "Man vs Wild" marathons. Erik raked the leaves, since our first leaf collection was the next day, and I worked on putting the garden to its winter bed.

Saturday was our shopping day. After checking out Bob's Red Mill for breakfast with Julie, we went to Lowes, Costco, back to Lowes to make returns, Home Depot, Fabric Depot, and Ikea. It was six hours of exhausting shopping, but we investigated and/or bought many things we'd meant to for quite some time.

Sunday I planted spring bulbs while on the phone with my mom, and we put strings of lights up on the house. Erik did more of the light-stringing, as he's better on the ladder and has much better reach. I climbed the apricot tree and lassoed lights around its branches, and worked more on the garden. I completely cleared and then winter-planted a small raised bed with Swiss chard and broccoli. I hope the latter fares better than my summer broccoli, which succumbed to the most incredible plague of aphids I've ever seen.

It was a rare, relaxing holiday, and over far too soon, despite the feeling on Friday that we still have a full weekend ahead of us.

Thanksgiving menu

Just when I worked out the bare minimum four dishes I would prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, a new recipe comes along that I cannot ignore. Candied Lime Sweet Potatoes! Oh gawd. It certainly doesn't help my willpower that the author is a great food photographer.

So here's my menu:

• cranberry sauce, based loosely on Alton Brown's recipe


• maple-walnut greenbeans-- a flavor idea I had while driving to White Flint mall, visiting my hometown last weekend


• Candied lime sweet potatoes from VeganYumYum


• plain stuffing from a bag, which I always crave, and probably some gravy from a mix


• Tofurky


• a variation of Curried lentils with pumpkin/butternutsquash, emailed to me by Julie


• Gingerbread cupcakes from the PPK, with creamcheez frosting

fourth recap

The Fourth of July turned on summer like a switch. Julie, Kim, Erik and I went to Genie's for breakfast, and then we (minus Erik) took Kim to the airport and ran errands. I went for a short run, and even though it was hot then at 1pm, it got much hotter for the Deep Fried 4th party a coworker invited us to. I had deep fried peanutbutter & jelly sandwich, sweet potato, Walla Walla onion, zucchini, and okra. There were many more interesting items there to be battered and fried such as Scotch eggs, pretzel-covered cheese sticks, and bacon-wrapped Twinkies.

Erik and I made two pilgrimages to 7-11, making the holiday official with slurpees and delighting in the Kwiki Mart-ization to promote the new Simpsons movie. We hung out at Erik's parents' house for a while, and set off fireworks with Erik's brother, his wife, and our nephew. It was his first enjoyable fireworks experience; at four years old, he's sensitive to sudden loud noises. He was still nervous and needed to cuddle while the sparks flew, but afterwards he couldn't wait to pick out the next one to light.

We went home around 9pm, loaded a water bottle with red wine, and went down to a dock on the river to watch fireworks and use the new tripod. It was a gorgeous evening, the kind that reconfirms my suspicion that everyone on the east coast is nuts. I can walk to the river from my house here, just before the main fireworks start, find a place to sit with a view of at least three different displays. The heat of the day still sits in pockets on the cement, but insistent breezes erase sweat, insects, and cares. Sweet summer evening-- like nothing I grew up with.

Last night I made a rather elaborate four-dish dinner, ate outside, gardened, and still went out to First Thursday for a short hour to walk around with John. Walking-- it's the new reading.

solstice

Today is the solstice, the height of darkness. I love this day because from now on, the sun will slow in the sky and night will recede. This far north it makes a tremendous difference.

I've been dwelling recently upon what makes me so busy, how I spend my time. I'm not sure why I always have so much to do. So many people? Obligations? Range of interests? A friend of mine in particular tells me that I put in too many appearances and never concentrate on anything. Most of the time I'm just grateful when people like me. There are so many things I want to do, so much that catches my interest, and it's a common trait in my family to set your own nose to the grind.

My grind just isn't my work.

foreignsgiving

Left the country for the long Thanksgiving weekend. I have to say, it's my preferred method for dealing with holidays.

It's a bit of a farce, though. Erik and I drove up to Vancouver BC. We've got my car, all of our electronic devices, and we can still use our cell phones. At the same time, Canada is definitely not the 52nd state (Puerto Rico is 51 to my mind) we joke about. More on the differences and our adventures later.

tofurkery

People are invariably surprised by this, but I love Thanksgiving. A holiday based on cooking and eating? The only thing that could make it better would be costumes.

This year Erik and I are driving up to Vancouver BC during the long holiday weekend, so we'll miss all the feasts. That's why I was very excited when John invited us over last night for a pre-Thanksgiving tofurkey feast. I guess that should be Tofurkey(tm).

Besides tofurkey, there was gravy, fresh veggie salad, quinoa and tempeh salad, a risotto corn dish, a rice dish with accompanying collard greens, and I brought mashed potatoes. Yum! They also had glogg, which was incredibly tasty, like warm, spiced cherry wine. Love those Swedes.

This, however, is not where our Thanksgiving ends. I'm picking up my own Tofurkey and dinner rolls from our favorite bread bakery tonight after work. We'll probably devour it next weekend.

I'm pretty excited about Vancouver. Erik's coworker who has spent time there and was supposed to go with us bailed, so now the trip has got a more adventurous feel. And I printed out a list of 101 vegetarian restaurants, cos now I know I can drag Erik around to them. My main hope is to walk around alot and see neighborhoods. Hopefully Vancouver is nearly as wonderful and quirky as sweet Portland.