Merry (belated) Christmas, y’all. 

Is anyone else a little depressed that the holidays are over? 

Christmas is by far my favorite time of year.  Warm mulled cider, twinkling lights, five billion fresh cookies, the smell of pine in the air – I can’t get enough and I’m always a little sad when it’s over.

Christmas this year was short, but wonderful.  I was able to fly home to see my family, something I haven’t been able to do for two years, and it was so great to spend some good quality time with everyone. 

 

Christmas Hath Come Early

The trip started on Christmas Eve morning.  I had to get up at 3:30am to make my 6:30am flight to Newark, which would then take me to Houston.  And since it was the morning of Christmas Eve, I knew I would need the extra time to compensate for the crowds of screaming children and fighting spouses reacting to inevitable flight delays.  Before I even get to the flight counter, I hear that my flight to Newark was delayed half an hour, ensuring that I would miss my flight to Houston and get stuck in Newark for two days.  Luckily, the little Spanish gentleman at the gate was my Santa Claus, who NOT ONLY booked me on a straight flight to Houston, but also bumped me to first class (the first time EVER in eight years of regular flight between Boston and Houston – THANKS, CONTINENTAL!).  This also meant I didn’t have to pay for a checked bag (woo hoo!). 

Note: A first class ticket does NOT, in fact, get you into the President’s Club. 

But it DOES get you this!  For FREE. 

Honey badger don’t care that it’s 6am.  She drinks what she wants.

(And, coincidentally, my peasant ass never knew that they actually mixed the drinks for you in first class.  I figured they’d hand me a nip of vodka and some tomato juice and call it a day.  Nope.  The bartending flight attendant actually did a decent job.)

I promptly curled up in my gigantic leather chair like an oversized cat and passed the eff out, only to be awoken by this:

Sausage, mushroom omelet, cheesy potato…thing, strawberry yogurt, fresh fruit, coffee and a warm buttermilk biscuit.  All served on actual glass platters with…silverware?  Apparently being fabulously wealthy prevents you from being a danger.  Regardless, it was warm and not bad at all. 

 

My Big, Fat Texas Christmas Eve

I always knew that different families had their own Christmas traditions, but I guess it never dawned on me that different areas of the country did too, until I spent a few Christmases in New England.  KnightlyBoyfriend’s family, like many families in the area, usually spends Christmas Eve celebrating the Feast of the Seven Fishes, complete with scallops, shrimp, several filets and a big, flaming red lobstah. 

My German/Czech family, on the other hand, has a tradition of gathering with all the extended family on Christmas Eve and eating meat out the wazoo.  Everyone brings a dish and we do a present swap.  The house is warm, full of chatter and laughter, and bursting at the seams with delicious homemade food.

Several varieties of chips and crackers, spinach artichoke dip, vegetables with ranch dressing, and a cheese platter complete with brie covered in habanero jelly.

My stepdad’s homemade queso with ground beef.

My cousin’s stuffed mushrooms are always a hit. 

On the buffet table we had an assortment of Christmas dinner staples.

My mom’s homemade stuffing and my cousin’s sweet potato souflee next to the cranberry sauce.

An EXPERTLY carved turkey (by yours truly), my mom’s gravy, and my aunt and uncle’s special salad.

A nice, juicy honey ham.

Fresh rolls, my cousin’s green bean casserole, and a fresh fruit salad from my sister.

And finally…

My squash casserole (I’ll post the recipe separately).

The entire feast was topped off with a delightful dessert buffet and enough alcohol to fill a swimming pool.  Because we Germans know what’s up.

It was wonderful.

Me with my sisters and my mom.

I miss my family already, but luckily I get to go back in February for my cousin’s wedding.

I hope your holidays were filled with love and joy!

What’s your family’s holiday tradition?

• 2nd January 2012 at 6:23 pm
• About Me, Reviews from the Road, Travels
• 1 comment

1. Which food items are impossible to pass up when you see them on a menu?

Duck, wild mushrooms, and bread pudding.

2. Least favorite foods?

Tomatoes.  Unless we’re talking marinara, I hate them.

(Yep.)

And frozen vegetables make me want to vom.

3. If you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life, what would they be?

Strawberries, freshly baked french bread, and mushroom soup.

4. Last supper?

Chuy’s.  Chicken taco salad (no tomatoes) with creamy jalepeno dressing, unlimited chips/queso/salsa, and a big ass Texas martini to wash it all down.

5. Most embarrassing food secret?

I like the Olive Garden.  YEAH.  I SAID IT.

(The salad is good!)

6. Food pet peeve?

#1: Trying to eat while someone is blowing secondhand smoke in your face.

Closely followed by: people who can’t chew with their mouths closed to save their lives.  Basic manners, people, basic manners.  If you must talk with your full mouth gaping open for all the world to see, politely hold your palm in front of your mouth to block the carnage plsthx.

(Source.)

Also: pickiness, chain restaurants, and people who don’t use salt.

7. Weird food behaviors?

I hate pickiness, so I train myself to like foods.  I used to hate onions, peas, olives, and a whole host of other things before forcing myself to eat said foods so many times I developed a taste for them.  I now love onions and olives, and I’ll tolerate peas (in the sense that I won’t pick them out), but for whatever reason I cannot eat enough tomatoes to get over my aversion to them.  It’s a shame because tomatoes are in everything, and I wish I liked them, but I just…don’t.

8. Favorite alcoholic beverage?

Currently, I’m on a dirty martini kick.  I can’t get enough of them.  But my go-to drink of choice is champagne or prosecco, the drier the better.

9. Best meal you’ve ever had?

Toss up between two meals in Paris.

The first was a three course lunch at this hole-in-the-wall cafe down a tiny alleyway in Paris’ Latin Quarter.  It was cramped and hot and incredibly charming.  For 20 Euros (about $30 at the time), I had three courses and a half bottle of French red wine.  The quality was that of the finest restaurants here, and the experience was delightful.

The second was a picnic on the grounds of Versailles.  We did a bike tour of the palace on the same day as France’s largest open-air summer market.  Our group loaded up on freshly baked breads and French cheeses, freshly roasted chickens, farm vegetables and two bottles of wine from a delightful French gentleman named Guillermo.  Every loaf of bread bore the unmistakable signs of a brick oven, the cheese was unevenly formed because it was shaped by hand, feathers from the fresh chickens littered the ground by the roasted chicken station and the vegetables still had dirt on them from when they were removed from the ground that morning.  Nothing beats the incredible freshness of that rustic meal, combined with breaking bread and drinking French wine from plastic cups with friends on the grounds of Versailles.

(Source.)

10. What are the most necessary kitchen utensils?

A sharp knife and a wooden cutting board.

Your turn!  What are your food quirks?  Answer the questions on your blog or in the comments section!

• 21st December 2011 at 2:02 am
• About Me, Discussion
• 1 comment