Holiday Shorts

After the frenetic pace of posting in Tokyo, I haven't been updating, partly because I needed a break and partly because I've spent an embarrassing number of hours watching Fullmetal Alchemist in the last couple weeks. But due to popular demand, here is what I've been up to in the last weeks of 2009:

• For the first time, I hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year for assorted friends and Thanksgiving orphans. Since my rule of thumb for dinner parties and potlucks is to never cook anything I haven't cooked before, I immediately ruled out turkey and substituted beer can chicken instead. Besides, beer can chicken looks theatrical and complicated while being really easy. In essence, you put an open can of beer inside the chicken's chest cavity, and the beer evaporates into the chicken and keeps it moist. My other concern was carving the chicken, and I spent a while reading the wikihow on how to carve poultry. Luckily, Sean volunteered to cut up the chicken for me; this kid is definitely getting invited to all future dinner parties. The rest of the menu included sun-dried tomato hummus, vegetable crudite platter, acorn squash-apple soup with pepitas, zucchini cups stuffed with cannellini bean, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms over cheese grits, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.
• Due to a series of (un?)fortunate events, I recently got a stand mixer. That's right, this is the Kitchen Aid stand mixer, something I've coveted for years but could never justify buying myself because I don't bake nearly that much. But now that I have a shiny cobalt blue stand mixer, I have been making an effort to bake bread once a week. The results have been mixed (har), and I have yet to duplicate restaurant quality bread, but hopefully it will get easier with practice. After I get tired of breads, I plan to move on to macaroons, meringues and marshmallows. Or, maybe it's time to splurge on the attachment appliances, which you can use to turn your mixer into an ice cream maker, pasta roller, meat grinder, grain mill, etc. Pictured below is focaccia topped with Bergkase mountain cheese, rosemary, red pepper and onion flakes.

• After seeing this amazing barbershop video and Tomas' Lymph Notes project, I was inspired to do some singing of my own, and decided to rope people into going caroling with me. I tried to recruit people who either a) were strong musicians and would be able to read music or b) were ballsy enough to sing in public with me. Unfortunately, the two sets did not really intersect. This meant that the people who were singing correctly were far too quiet, and the people who were out of tune were singing quite exuberantly and enthusiastically. I did my best to belt out the melody to cover up any discrepancies. At any rate, it was still fun and I can now say that I've caroled under the Millenium Park Bean.
• With Chester off to college and out of the house for the first time, the parentals have been relishing their newfound status as empty nesters/having a mid-life crisis. For instance, my mother informed me the other day that she signed up for belly dance lessons. (Do not make comments on how my mom is a MILF.) And for the holidays, we are abandoning the traditional New England Christmas for Christmas in...Vegas. Yeah, this will be hilarious. My uncle (#7) and his family are coming too. Also my aunt (#8) and her family. And their two dogs. And also my aunt's brother in law and his family are coming along. And my mom's friend from St. Louis and his brother. I have been assigned the task of finding family-friendly activities to keep the not-yet-legal high schoolers entertained. Do you think we can go looking for the stripper mobile? No?? Ok, I am also planning an excursion to see Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. As it so happens, J&P will also be in Vegas at the same time, so I might sneak off for a bit to hang out on the Strip with them.