Christmas and New Year's at Our House

The food!  I haven't told you about the food.  Eric was in charge of Christmas dinner.  So...

Gotta have eggnog!  Man, I love eggnog.

Ravioli filled with black truffle & manchego, garnished with black truffle oil & herbs de Provence.  So good!

Lamb chops coated with foie gras and encrusted with crushed almond.

And for dessert, figs with grated manchego & powdered bacon.  I nearly exploded.

Then just a week later, New Year's Eve!  We hosted this year, a smallish party but a fun one.  In addition to stuffed mushrooms, mini hot dogs, and wings, Eric had fun with his dehydrator and made a dried fruit salad.  It had granny smiths, red delicious, pears, mango, kiwi, and banana.

And I did a parmesan pasta salad.

I also baked amaretto brownies and four different kinds of cookies - langues de chat, whiskey macks, gingerbread animals, and brandy snaps.

Want any of the dessert recipes?  Lemme know.  I wouldn't be able to promise recipes from Christmas, because Eric doesn't write anything down.

I really have to get used to writing 2011?

I love New Year's Eve.  I love starting fresh every year and having a marking point where I can tell myself, "OK, now is the time to do... whatever."  I hate having to remember to write the new year on checks and stuff.  I know for the first month, at least, everything will be written as January 2010, crossed out, and rewritten as 2011.

Geez, 2011 is even weird to type right now.

I guess I should give it more than a day, huh?

So... it's January, and I've got that January quilt kit to try.  I pulled it out, since I figure I should get it done and hang it before the month is over, yes?

Especially since I also have the February one, and would want to hang that one come February.

Why did no one tell me that quilting involves ironing?  I hate ironing!  So I pulled out the kit, pulled out the pattern and fabric, read the instructions... and came here to write this.  I have not yet ironed the fabric.

I guess I should have known.  It makes sense.  I just didn't think of it.

Sigh.

I suppose I should go find an iron (we have two) and the ironing board.  It doesn't look like it should take that long to do this... once I get going and just do it.

Ironing, huh?  Happy new year to me.  

But a real happy new year to YOU!  I mean it.