Food, Glorious Food!

Oh, my aching belly... As many of you know, I have been fighting the good fight with the battle of the bulge - the one located between my neck and my knees - for quite some time. I have been a food Nazi for so long, but decided to actually ENJOY the food that comes along with Christmas. For a week (the one between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve), I will allow myself to indulge in the special food. And when it's just a meal, I will be very, very good. I expect I'll have gained about 5 lbs. once it's all said and done, but I've got a whole year to lose that and more before facing the Christmas Week Feastmas (as my friend Kim Ayers refers to it).

We started out the holiday with Christmas Eve Dinner at the Farm. Mom put out a wonderful spread! Ham, turkey, fresh brussel sprouts, baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, salad from their garden (lots of lettuces this year!) and pumpkin pie! Oh, and I brought the green bean casserole. I made it once and now I am the "person who makes the green bean casserole". At least I'm not the jello-mold person anymore!

Christmas Day started at my house with these:

I was lucky to get a picture of the Eggs Benedict that my husband whipped up before they disappeared. Darling Man is an excellent cook. I had an inkling before I married him, but in the 14 years since, he's proved to be an actual wizard in the kitchen. I rarely step foot in there anymore...

The cleanup committee was ready, willing, and able to begin the chores of washing up. They are excellent plate rinsers, but need a little work on the actual loading of the dishwasher.

Later, we went to Joe and Rita's place for Christmas Dinner. Rita is another kitchen wiz... Turkey breast and a ham glazed with brown sugar and Grand Marenier (no idea how to spell that). Sweet potato casserole, green beans, spinach and artichoke casserole, a very interesting mexican-like corn dish, and crescent rolls. And for dessert, white chocolate, eggnog, pumpkin cheesecake! Made with her own two hands. I wasn't a pig, but I did detect a hint of stagger as I made my way to the car afterwards....

I love Rita's big bar that separates the kitchen from the livingroom. It gave me an idea of how I want to deal with my kitchen's layout. You know me... the home improvement ideas just keep stacking up. Finding time to execute them is a whole other issue.

We're not quite done with the food-ie stuff. In a rare event, I've got my parents coming to Sunday dinner tomorrow. I don't even know if we've had them over alone for dinner before in this house... My in-laws are here fairly often but not my parents. I told my husband it was about time we did this and since we're not going out of town during the holiday (dog issues), this was a good time to do it.

So tomorrow, I will cook my first lamb roast. I've already hit the internet to see what I'm supposed to do. Am thinking of making Yorkshire pudding to go with it, even though technically YP is supposed to accompany roast beef. At a big family dinner in England once, they served Yorkshire pudding with lamb so the two are inextricably linked in my head, even if it's not supposed to be. I'll try to remember to take pictures so you can oooo and aahhhh over my culinary expertise (please don't laugh... no, really!).

On the wagon January first!!!!