The Christmas Eve Big Show!

Christmas Even dinner - Ham, rolls...

Peas, asparagus, corn casserole, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts and carrots, mac & cheese...

My sister's trademark cathedral cake! This is a pumpkin strudel cake and it was fabulous.

My sister also made 7 layer bars.

Here are the cookies that I made the day before. No one believed that I actually baked them. My family assumed that they were store bought and that I was trying to pass them off as homemade... Not that I have ever done that in the past.... Okay, I have done that in the past but these really are home baked - by me.

Pre-Christmas Festivities!

I made about 10 dozen cookies for the holidays. I rarely ever bake, so this was a big undertaking for me. The plan was for the kids to help out, but they could not have been less interested. When given the choice of playing video games, playing in the snow, or helping mom bake cookies, the first two win out every time.

We always host our families on Christmas Eve and that requires me to cook my ass off. I like to save my energy for "the big show" in the days preceding Christmas Eve, and that means that we order pizza so that I don't have to cook or clean. This pie is from Flyer's.

Here's Ian at his first grade class Winter party. As is typical at public schools, the Winter party is non-specific to any holiday or religious event (as it should be). I had a great time helping out and hanging out with the kids.

I also joined Connor's third grade class for their party. Oddly enough, theirs was Christmas specific. The teacher even read a book about Christmas and the Christ child's birthday. I've been to half a dozen Winter parties at the kids' school and this is the first one that was specific to Christmas. Looks like someone's teacher decided to pull a Sara Palin and go rogue... The kids didn't seem to notice the non-secular nature of the party and had a great time.

Soup & Salad, and Tony's Antics

Lunch at Lindey's last week was so good that I was inspired to recreate it over the weekend when my sister and her husband came over for dinner.



Baby greens with feta, mozzarella, roma tomatoes, and olive oil vinaigrette.

Onions and lots of 'em! Other ingredients: butter, bay leaves, sea salt, cracked black pepper, beef broth, thyme, red wine, and garlic.

Finished product topped with sourdough bread slices and provolone and finished under the broiler.

Tony wasn't home for dinner and decided to make a salad for himself when he got home. In typical fashion, he took what had the potential to be a delicious and healthy meal and ruined it with creamy dressing, excess amounts of cheese, and crushed saltine crackers. The best part of this photo is that Tony wasn't posing for it. I just happened to catch him talking while he was mid-bite. Like I've said before, you can take the boy out of Indiana but you can't take Indiana out of the boy...

Guest contributors - my mom & sister-in-law!

My mom and sister-in-law, Mandy, were kind enough to email me pictures of their recent dinner at The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory is known to be generous with their portions and my mom's entree was no exception. She ordered chicken (on the left) and steak (on the right) in a red wine sauce with mushrooms, served with mashed potatoes.

Mandy ordered shrimp scampi and salmon with asparagus.

Dessert! I can't remember the specifics of this dish but I can tell that involves apples and ice cream.

Okay, this portion size is over the top. Even by Cheesecake Factory standards.

pizza

Homemade pepperoni pizza from a couple of nights ago. I also made a whole wheat, pesto and tomato pizza but I overcooked it a little because I got distracted doing other stuff. Whammy. It wasn't picture worthy.

Grub from this week

I've been cooking my ass off this week! Stuffing, pan roasted pork tenderloin, redskin mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts. I *heart* brussels sprouts. I love them so much that I actually had them for breakfast twice this week.

Close up of the meal. Look at those brussels!

Another homemade meal - chicken paprika. My mom used to make this when I was younger and I loved it so much. Chicken, garlic, onions, tomatoes, chicken stock, parsley, and sour cream. What could be better?

Thank you to The Boss for taking me and a colleague out to Lindey's for lunch. The best salads are the most simple - greens, lemon vinagrette, grape tomatoes, blue cheese, and smoked Gouda.

Also from Lindey's... French onion soup! So good.

No Square Dogs! Part II

Much to Tony's delight (okay, not so much), we've added another member to our family. Her name is Lucy and she was adopted from the Capital Area Humane Society. She's about a year old and looks to be a German Shepherd/Lab mix. She's a sweetie. And because this is a blog about food, I am obliged to inform you that she eats Science Diet dry food.

Out of the park, grand slam home run!

I took the kids out to Iacono's in Hilliard for dinner last night. The meal started with a very contentious match of tic-tac-toe. Ian won several games, but was getting increasingly pissed off every time that he lost. I could see a shouting match brewing so I finally had to take the activity/coloring book away.

Ian ordered chicken fingers, Connor had an Italian sub, and we all shared a pizza (1/2 cheese, 1/2 sausage and mushroom). Connor and I had the following discussion regarding the quality of the food:

Connor: "Mom, how do you think the food is tonight?"
Me: "Amazing, I think that they hit it out of the park."
Connor: "Like, a home run?"
Me: "Yeah, it's a good thing. Like a home run for food"
Connor: "Ahhh, well then this is a grand slam home run. An out of the park, grand slam. Oh - it's a walk-off, out of the park, grand slam!"

Please check out Freshbox Catering

Freshbox Catering is a not-for-profit company and 100% of their proceeds go to support The Faith Mission return to work program. We had a work lunch catered by them this week and the food was fresh, high quality, well made, affordable and they delivered it at no cost! I highly recommend that you use Freshbox Catering!

Check them out here - http://www.freshboxcatering.com/