Christmas Weekend

So I'm alive after all! The past week just - I honestly can't account for half of that time. What happened, people? But good times were had, so I really can't complain. I was firmly planted in the kitchen for five days straight, which was beyond awesome. I'm not even going to get into that now because I'm planning an epic picspam/storytelling sometime tonight.

Christmas turned out nice, even if we didn't do much. I was sort of nostalgic re:decorations, because they just didn't happen; we did get a tree, but didn't decorate it or hang stockings. IDK, they were just so iconic as a kid that I really missed them now, especially since it's my last year at home and all. My parents found me an elliptical though, so that was awesome! I wasn't expecting anything like that, because even secondhand ellipticals are well over $100 and that tends to be the family limit. But a neighbor got one and hated it, so she sold it for $50 just to get it out of her house. Whatever, I'm psyched! It's definitely an improvement over working out after school in the gym basement, because now it's stuffed with the lacrosse boys who're training. (Okay, so that admittedly wasn't exactly a hardship, but.)

And then AND THEN. I drove up to Pennsylvania early Friday morning (ugh, I did not sleep at all last week) to help with another family dinner. ( So much more than you ever wanted to know about the Italian side of my family! )

I spent Saturday night in Pennsylvania and then took the long way home yesterday. All back roads, no highways - it was fantastic. I was really disappointed not to find any little coffeeshops (I have a thing), but it was still so relaxing. Mmph. Good way to end the week.

I really hope all of you had happy Christmases as well! ♥

Christmas Food YAY

A picspam of my five days in the kitchen! I really only have pictures from the two days devoted to Christmas dinner, though, so there's a fair bit of storytelling involved for the others.

The first day was spent baking different Christmas cookies, but my camera apparently ate those pictures? The cookies were just too irresistible, I suppose, although I really wish I had them. :/ I made classic chocolate chip cookies, peppermint twist candy candy cookies, & Turiano Italian cookies. The last don't really have a name; it's just the general idea which came from that branch of the family. It's one of those recipes where nothing was ever written down, so we all claim to have the right recipe even though we're making very different types. Mine, however, are totally the right ones! :)

I do have all of the images for the Christmas preparations, however! Days two & three:
( EXTREMELY image heavy. Known to cause pangs of hunger. In severe cases, foodgasms may occur. )

Like I mentioned in my previous post, days four & five I went up to Pennsylvania to help out with the annual Italian family Christmas dinner. Every year, there's a different theme & it's hosted by two of my cousins, Ron & Dale, who are brothers. This year's theme was African and we were cooking for seventy-odd people.

We made twelve lemon-olive chickens, twelve chickens with a couscous-almond stuffing, crab & okra soup, chicken tomato peanut soup (with six pounds of baby spinach), pureed ginger vegetable soup, lamb sausage, lemony beef boharat, spiced creamed collards, tomato-onion-preserved-lemon salad, spicy plantain chips, green banana fries, morning glory with peanut sauce, harissa, Tunisian & Moroccan olives, garlic puree... seriously, I'm still forgetting about half of the dishes. It is an EPIC meal. And that's not counting dessert - almond snake filo rolls, koesisters, almond pudding, and six traditional pies. Un-be-lievable.

For all the silly drama and more-than-slightly crazy people I'm related to, this one meal totally makes up for it.

The family doesn't usually exchange gifts, because that'd be a huge drain with such a ridiculous number of cousins, but after everyone left on Saturday around two in the morning, Ron & Dale, Kim (Ron's wife), & I just sat down for a few hours to unwind. As a thank-you for coming up to help out, Ron & Kim gave me my own set of Santoku knives. I still don't even know what I ought to write here, because I am so grateful and excited and DUDE, MY OWN KITCHEN KNIVES. They are amazing & I am so excited to use them!

Anyway, awesome Christmas in the kitchen. I got my own Joy of Cooking after abusing Mom's for years, my own knife set, and melamine prep bowls. I am happy. And really really full.