happy new year, internets!

it’s time for the catch-up post, photoblog style.

orphan thanksgiving

thanksgiving is pretty much my favorite holiday. orphan thanksgiving, as hosted by the gracious Keenans is a wonderful, four-day turkey extravaganza, where guests and friends are welcome (and do) return for leftovers throughout the weekend. which is good, considering the quantity of food that we created this year. it included two turkeys (one smoked, one brined and then roasted), salads and green beans and Palmer Cheesy Beans (don’t ask) and i think three kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and rolls, and of course booze of all kinds. my contribution is a vat of turkey gravy (why is the quasi-veggie in charge of making the meat sauce? i have no idea. but i’m good at it). oh, and don’t forget the Ice Cream Freezer and the Pie Triumvirate. i heart my chicago family.

holy cheese tower, batman!

in december, my roommate, anne, and threw our annual holiday party, Fondukkah! the party in which we celebrate all things christmas, hanukkah, swedish, and cheese. why those four? it’s the ideal recipe for the pan-cultural holiday party, something for everyone. we have a tree and gifts and cookies set out under the stockings (hung over the radiator with care) and the usual trappings of christmas, we have latkas and dreidels and hanukkah traditions, we make a swedish smorgasbord of glogg, meatballs, crepes with lingonberries, cured salmon, and, to top it all off, several pots of fondue. culturally, if not in practice, anne is jewish, i’m catholic, we’re both from swedish families, and in case none of that resonates for ya, everyone likes cheese. admittedly, this was not a party where a vegan could nosh with abandon.

sweet, sweet procrastination

in my gradual quest to become a competent baker*, i have recently moved from cookies and quick breads into the realm of pastries. on christmas eve i made my second attempt at making pie crust (and an apple pie) from scratch, and was pretty pleased with the results. the process took about three hours, at least three hours, but, really, what else does one want to do on christmas eve morning than watch the snow fall and bake an apple pie? i’ve still got a ways to go when it comes to a blemish-free appearance, but the crust was delicious, light, flaky, fully cooked on the bottom and not at all chewy or tough (these are all improvements over my previous attempt). the recipe (thanks cyn!) came from Cook’s Illustrated, and the secret ingredient is…vodka. for real. what’s up, food science?** aside from vodka, the key to pastries is to keep your fat (butter or crisco (shudder) or whathaveyou) COLD at all times. it needs to be chilled between every step, or the room temp and your warm palms will emulsify the grease and then you don’t get the desired flaky texture.

kitty terrorizes gingerbread town

continuing on the theme of holiday sweets was our the modern art gingerbread house. the kit provided the pieces and instructions for making a gingerbread train, but how boring it is to just follow the directions. carrie, the art major in the family, deserves most of the design credit. i mostly just functioned as a backseat designer/peanut gallery. oh, the cat helped, too.

there was snow, and lots of it. and skiing! (though not nearly enough of that). but i got to finally break in my new birthday skis and boots. this is the first time i’ve had new gear since i was in high school, and the technology has definitely changed. up until last week i was still skiing on my pair of 185cm K2s, long skinny skis that were so cool when i bought them in, oh, 1994. while i’ve loved those skis and they’ve served me very well, i’m pretty happy to change my allegiance to my new nordicas. shaped skis, what a concept! the epiphany i had about shaped skis was realizing that half of what i need to do is simply get out of the way and let the skis do the work. if i just relax and stop working them so hard, they practically turn themselves. i can’t say that about the old K2s.

and finally, some gems from travel, including the ipod vending machine (las vegas has everything), the handmade-quilts and guns store, and the some other things you only see in idaho:

oh, yeah, i’m writing this on january 9 and our christmas tree? still up. still lit. i feel a little guilty about it, but it’s not still up out of pure laziness, but a combination of laziness and my continuing love for having a bright, shiny ornament in the living room. i’ve been taking special note of how many other apartments on my street have trees still glowing in their windows. apparently, i am not alone in my love for holiday decor lighting the dark days of january. it’s better than the store windows full of spring fashion, yo. it isn’t nice to taunt chicagoans with displays of sundresses and tank tops when there are 10″ of fresh snow on the ground and the lake is frozen over for the foreseeable future.

how were your holidays, comment box?

*actually, it’s really just that my favorite way to procrastinate is by baking.
**gluten, which forms when water and flour combine, can’t form in the presence of ethanol. so the point of using vodka is that you can have liquid that makes the dough pliable and workable, but it doesn’t count as water. clever, no?