Blizzard Warning

They're saying 12-18" before it winds down tomorrow night. 

I was out and about earlier today.  Sunday, day after Christmas... it was dead.  Very little traffic; only a few people in the grocery stores.

There's a weather advisory for a foot and a half of snow, 50-knot winds, and zero visibility, and no one is out stocking up on anything.  They've already got it.  Water, check.  Food, check.  Safety lanterns, emergency radio, auxiliary heat source:  check, check, check.

Some would call this endemic pessimism.  Perhaps.  But it seems wise to me.  Expect the worst - and you are both unlikely to be disappointed, and more likely than your sunny counterpart to be pleasantly surprised. 

We will take this storm in stride.  And it too shall pass.

Christmas Day

Until about lunchtime we didn't even know if we'd be opening presents today.  It all depended on how my mother, who came home from Brigham & Women's late last night, was feeling. 

She desperately wanted to be here when the kids had their tree.  My stepfather desperately wanted Christmas dinner.

But between the pain and the medication therefore, her condition was not, as it turned out, such as to allow her to make the eight-mile trek to our house - or even to get out of bed until this evening.  Around noon we decided (mutually) that the kids should go ahead with presents (the other options being, truck everything - spiral ham, steamed pudding, and gifts - to her house and hope she was well enough to function; postpone Christmas until such time she is feeling better; or some combination thereof). 

We opted for Door #3.  The four of us had our family gift exchange, made dinner, then packed up some food and went to my mother's house, where we made a plate for my stepfather (my mother being not so interested in eating just now), delivered presents, and visited for a bit - Mother being through some combination of willpower and pharmacological assistance able to sit downstairs.  Then we came home for warmed-over ham and au gratin potatoes.

I have to hand it to my kids - they are troopers.  Especially Thing One, who had no presents from his grandparents because the last three shopping days before Christmas were spent in the hospital. 

We were all just glad to be together.

Christmas Eve

On this day in 2010: 

Oysters on the half shell

 Learning new vocabulary with Dad while he shucks the oysters

Emergency run to Wal-Mart to get seed for the bird feeders (OMG, bad idea)

Lobster stew... with buttermilk biscuits, salad and pecan pie



The kids open one present - cozy new pajamas and a book for each

Two phone calls between here and Brigham & Women's

Tracking Santa on Norad even though we started putting air quotes around "Santa" three years ago

Watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

The next-to-last bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau

Putting all the presents under the tree

Trying to identify contents of said presents

Reading new books in new pajamas by the fire

Stockings hung by the chimney with care

Leaving out a gin and tonic for "Santa"

And to all, a good night.

Christmas Eve Eve tradition #2: Lobster Stew

Actually this is technically a Christmas Eve tradition - the eating of it, anyway - but the making of it should happen the day before.  It has to be cooked very slowly and gently and then it has to sit, you see.  Something wonderful and miraculous (which my children are too young to know about) happens overnight.

First, get half a dozen or eight (depending on the size) lobsters.  I like soft-shell lobsters because hard-shell shells are really hard on the old hands.  (At this point you can choose to introduce the lobsters to your housepets.  Or not.)

Boil a couple of inches of salted water in a big water-bath canner, then plunge the lobsters – two or three at a time – in headfirst.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Remove the lobsters set aside until they're cool enough to handle.

Note:  Lobsters do not scream while being cooked.  They don’t have vocal chords or respiratory systems, both of which are required in order to phonate.  That noise people talk about – which I have never ever EVER heard in many years of cooking lobster – is steam escaping from the shell.

Pick the meat, cut larger pieces into chunks and set aside.  

Confession:  Everything up through this part is messy.  No pictures.  Camera + steam + lobster juice = bad combination.

Before:

After:



Now melt a cup of butter in a stockpot, then stir in the lobster chunks.  Simmer on low heat for ten minutes, stirring frequently.  

While the lobster is getting to know the butter, heat three quarts of half and half in a separate pot.  It should get hot but not too hot. 

This is my secret ingredient.  

Dissolve a good-sized glop (about 3 tablespoons) of lobster base in the cream.

Over very low heat, slowly stir the hot cream into the buttery lobster.  Season, then put in the fridge uncovered (lest it curdle as it cools) and forget about it until the next day.

 

Reheat gently and serve with oyster crackers, salad, and biscuits.

Here's the recipe written out:

Lobster Stew

6 1-1/4 lb. new shell lobsters

1 cup butter

3 qts half and half

3 tablespoons lobster base

Salt & pepper to taste

Paprika (optional)

Steam, cool and pick the lobsters.  Cut large chunks of meat into bite-sized pieces.

In a 5-quart stock pot, melt the butter.  Gently cook the lobster meat in the butter for about 10 minutes.  

While lobster is warming in the butter, in a separate large saucepan heat half & half and lobster base until it is hot but not simmering.

Over low heat, gradually stir the hot cream mixture into lobster, stirring constantly.  Season with salt and pepper to taste and add paprika for color if desired.

Remove from heat and allow to cool, uncovered, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

Reheat gently, uncovered. 

8 servings.

Christmas Eve Eve tradition

Let's call this one "Introduction of the Animals" or "Inter-species Fellowship." 

It has everything to do with the spirit of the season and nothing at all to do with mildly antagonizing the cats.

And nothing at all to do with harassing the lobster.

The lobster has long since come to terms with his fate - he is about to give his all for lobster stew.  Watch this space.

First real snow of the season

Winter can uncomfortable and dangerous but breathtakingly lovely.  The kids moan about shoveling and hauling firewood one minute, and begging the Flying Spaghetti Monster for a snow day the next.  The meteorologists insist on a total accumulation of one inch even as there are three on the ground and it's still falling thickly (which is the situation my stepfather and I found ourselves in driving home from Boston last night at 40 mph).

Earth stood hard as irony.... 

Christmas topiaries

This weekend we have made gingerbread men, peppermint bark, peanut butter bars, toffee cookies, shortbread, gumbo, roast beef, and topiaries.  I can't wait to get back to work so I can sit down.

Here are the topiaries.  Started out a couple of weeks ago by painting some terra cotta flowerpots with a gold wash.

This afternoon we cut florist foam to fit in the pots.

By "we" of course I do mean "the help."  I adore compulsory labor.  Should have had more children.  They did a bang-up job decorating cookies today, with the exception of the anatomically correct gingerbread man, but that's a story for another time. 

I digress.

We took a couple of small Styrofoam cones and one larger one, and put three cinnamon sticks in the base of each to make a trunk.

Planted in the pot, with a healthy glop of hot glue in the (probably vain) hope that the thing will stay together.

Now the balsam tips (salvaged from the bottom branches we trimmed from the Christmas tree).

Finished with moss around the base and the top, with a red bead "star" because I didn't know quite what else to do.

I had every intention of gluing more red beads and small pinecones on the trees but ran out of glue cartridges, so we're calling it the simple look.