Merry Christmas! (a little late)

Last night I drove home to my parents' house for our family Christmas. It had to wait a few days because of the freezing rain. It was definitely worth the wait! I got off work a little after 3, getting me home at 6 just in time for Christmas dinner! I wish I'd gotten home earlier to help, but Mom and I will have today to do some baking together, that should be fun. We always talk about getting together to cook together, so hopefully today's the day.

Anyway, last night was awesome, the big one for me was a stoneware Le Crueset covered roasting pan, it's beautiful cobalt blue, I had them save it behind the counter for me months in advance (yeah, it wasn't a surprise, but that's fine with me). I also got a nice new Cuisinart waffle iron, some coffee from Ka'u, a big book about herbs, Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", the first season of "The French Chef" on dvd, new dish towels and pot holders, a ladle (my old one was inevitably sucked into one of those pesky black holes that devour things when you move to a new place), some new shirts, and all the episodes of Star Trek with Q in them! This morning I made waffles with my new waffle iron and I was very pleased with it It's been a good Christmas :-) I can't wait to get baking with my mom, we have a few things on our to-do list in that regard. I'll definitely post about the results

Shall I play for you...

As is usual for me at Christmas time, I find myself without much money to spare, so one thing I enjoy doing is taking an active role in the kitchen, making up for the possibly less-than-stellar storebought gifts I hand out. I feel like I've spent a lot of time making soup, that's been a big request around the Stehn household. I made French onion soup on Saturday and tonight, since my mom and I are a little under the weather, I made a healing batch of chicken soup. It was a good opportunity to practice my cuts! I even boned out the thighs and showed my mom that we could stuff them if we wanted (we opted out this time). I love making soup, there's something almost magical about making something so good from what most people throw away (bones=flavor!). I've been using my time at home to teach my mom a few tricks, like how beef stock easily becomes espagnole sauce, which then can become a demi-glace, etc. I improvised a variation of a demi to go with ham last night, by whisking in a tablespoon or so of apricot preserves. It was very good, but I might try adding red pepper flakes next time.

Tomorrow we'll probably make cutout cookies, I might try to find another use for some leftover ganache, so it'll be a good day all around I expect. Since we celebrated Christmas a little early this year, to accommodate my older sister's visit, it feels like it's already come and gone, so I'm going to try to bring a little cheer into the house tomorrow. I just got the idea to make a batch of croissants, which with very little provocation can morph delightfully into pain au chocolat! There's no telling what tomorrow will bring!

Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum :-)