My recent holiday activities were food-and-cooking-centric, much to my delight, and offered a lot of fun times with family and some very excited cats (really though, our cats love Christmas—hiding under/climbing the Christmas tree, shredding up wrapping paper, jumping in empty present boxes...). Despite having a wicked sinus infection during the Christmas weekend which then led to the discovery of a particularly unpleasant antibiotic allergy, and the need for a new antibiotic, a steroid shot at the doctor, and prednisone (I'm oh so very tired of being sick, but I think everything is good to go now), I still enjoyed Christmas and New Year's.
Christmas was a blur of cakes, cookies, family, and sleep, and my favorite part of the weekend was the time we spent at my cousins' family home. Lots of dessert, some fantastic cooking-themed presents (pictured later in this post) from my cousins Katie and Jess, and the nostalgia that comes with spending time in a home I used to visit regularly every summer till high school (and where so many games of dress-up and Sailor Moon-themed Parcheesi were played).
Now, New Year's Eve and Day are a little different with my immediate family because, ever since I was a little girl, we've always celebrated our own Christmas, just the four of us, on New Year's Day (which I loved as a kid, because that meant I had three Christmases as a child—one at my paternal grandmother's home, one at my maternal grandmother's home, and one at my own home). We have a huge tree we put up and more ornaments than we can count (thankfully, we cut back this year), and there's always a tempting pile of presents tucked in all around the tree (usually, with a sleeping cat curled up behind them).
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| Gracie's enjoying a nap under the tree |
Those tempting presents under the tree (combined with the gifts from my cousins) yielded some fantastic items, many of which will keep me busy in the kitchen every day. From my cousins, I got Ratio (this book will seriously help me in the kitchen), a new whisk, some fancy chocolate, and a bottle of famed Madagascar vanilla. From my parents, I got the most amazing-fantastic-beautiful-fancy-bestthingever: a pasta roller, with more attachments than I can ever imagine. There's also a small deep-fryer on backorder on it's way to me. Beyond those two big gifts, I got ramekins for my own kitchen (which I hope to have soon...along with a job...), a small and large plain white plate to use for plating dishes for photos for my blog, and some beautiful wooden spatulas, plus a few non-kitchen gifts. They also helped my grandma pick out a pasta cookbook, a small tripod for my camera (working my way to better blog pictures), a creme brulee torch, and oval ramekins for creme brulee for me. I am an incredibly lucky girl and I am so thankful for these gifts and for my wonderful family (and I'm SO excited to get in the kitchen this week and try out everything!).
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| Love the pasta maker! |
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| Vanilla creme brulee, anyone? |
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic New Year's Eve and Day. :D
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