Day 365: It’s the end of the year as we know it (and I feel fine)
Today we managed to leave ourselves two meals to cook, as we didn’t want the bonus recipe, number 366, to be cooked in a different year from all the others. Obviously the best laid plans and all that meant that we didn’t cook one meal for lunch and one for dinner, but rather we cooked them one after another at dinner time. Speaking of plans which fall through, we also neglected to go grocery shopping before early closing time, so we had to improvise a little on a couple of aspects.
First up, we made Hamburger and Onion Stuffed Bread which seemed a bit of of a misnomer, given that we were cooking with beef not pork. Anyway, this was bread stuffed with a ground beef, onions and Worcestershire sauce concoction, seasoned with salt and pepper. Mustard was spread on the bread under the filling, with Swiss cheese melted on top. We had this as a starter rather than a main course, and it went down very easily. It was uncomplicated, simple, tasty food. But it wasn’t wildly exciting, just fine. Would we bother repeating this meal? Probably not, in all fairness; it was lacking a bit of punch.
*
About twenty minutes after we ate the stuffed bread, we moved onto making the second recipe of the evening, And Last But Not Least… Christmas Pasta [very similar recipe]. Our final recipe was certainly consistent with much of the year, in that it featured a huge amount of meat. This dish has pancetta, sweet Italian sausage, hot Italian sausage, ground veal and ground beef. It is a lot of meat. Also included are some vegetables in the form of onions, garlic, carrots and crushed tomatoes. The other ingredients include allspice, beef broth, red wine, Romano cheese and parsley, And the pasta of course. The sauce is very rich and meaty; pretty satisfying. The allspice lends an interesting cinnamony clovey piquancy, which seemed seasonal-ish. I would imagine that this dish would improve with time, which is good as we have a mountain of leftovers. If you wanted to serve many people quite easily, this meal would do the trick. Although, in all honesty, I would be disappointed to eat this for Christmas dinner. It’s good but not extra specially special, as Christmas food should be, in my humble opinion.
***
Well, well, well. 2007. That was the year that was. That was the year of morning sickness, of trying to sell a condo, of selling a condo and buying a house. Of remodelling a house then moving in. Of bathing our little girl in the sprinklers outside and calling it fun. Of cooking on a portable stove outside and trying to call it fun. Of being woken up every day by various contractors stomping around the house, and simply failing to call it fun. Of running to the basement bathroom every 30 seconds during the night when heavily pregnant, and failing to contain my swear words. Of trying to act oblivious to the mess, noise and stress of the move and be thankful for the progress. Only to realise that everything that could go wrong was pretty much going wrong. And finally when the house was almost finished, and mostly beautiful, Baby N was born and Baby A became Little A. And then we asked the contractors to come back again.
So here we are on the cusp of 2008. We started 2007 as a working couple with a baby living in a condo, driving relatively ok cars, and having a sporadic social life. We finish the year with two beautiful little girls, a house with a garden and a garage, and a minivan. And I’m now a stay at home mum. And of course throughout it all, every single night we cooked a Rachael Ray recipe from “365: No Repeats A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners“. When we started this cooking project we had no idea whether we would be successful or not, and although we had a vague idea that we might move house or have another kid at some point in the vaguely defined “future”, we had no idea that everything would happen so fast. And no idea that Rachael Ray would peculiarly become a constant in our increasingly hectic life.
At various points during the year, I have been desperate to end this project, to return to life where we dictate what we are going to eat, when we are going to eat it. But actually, as the end finally looms and we have a tattered, battered (autographed) copy of the recipe book complete with a section of pages which fall out every single time we pick it up as a souvenir, we have found that we are mysteriously reluctant to give up the process. Not having to discuss what to have for dinner every night has been immensely liberating. Not wasting time mindlessly wandering up the aisles of the supermarket desperately looking for culinary inspiration has been refreshing. Having a food action plan has actually proved to be a good thing. In a way, whilst this has been an intense process, it has also been a mindless activity- we have managed to follow recipes when we have been so stressed that we can barely remember our own names. I started the year writing down the title of each meal in my day planner diary thing, finding it immensely amusing that I could tell anyone who asked what we would be eating on any given day of the year. I gave up that process after a couple of months, but it is still incredibly strange that we have a visual and literal record of one meal a day eaten for a whole year.
People often ask us how we found the food, how we would rate Rachael Ray’s recipes. Overall, I would say that we ate very well this year. There were a few humdingers, but generally we ate better than we expected, and undoubtedly better than we normally would have done. The project forced us to do some things we would never do, such as eat macaroni cheese for five days in a row, but it also prompted us to eat a far greater variety of dishes than we ever do. We enjoyed things we never imagined that we would bother to cook. With the benefit of hindsight, this project was an extremely interesting pursuit, albeit a ridiculous one. We could have done without the pressure to cook on high-stress days, like moving to a construction-site-house or giving birth, for example, and also on the rare occasions when we went out and ate, then came home and cooked. But we have certainly learned that we really are as stubborn as we suspected. We hoped that we would finish the task we set ourselves, we anticipated that we might, but I don’t know that we envisaged that we actually would complete the project. I certainly thought that we would call on our back-up guest cook at some point, but remarkably we never did. On the one hand that’s a bizarre achievement, on the other hand it’s a testament to our lack of a crazy exciting holiday-filled existence.
All year I have been planning to make a gallery of images of every meal documented in this blog, so that we can see at a glance what the year held for us. I might still go back and do that as time mysteriously seems to have run out. Blogging itself has been a bit of a revelation to me. There are a number of blogs I read and enjoy regularly, but I had never thought about starting one. We originally thought that we’d only write about food, but life has a strange way of insinuating itself into everything. Shear exhaustion has recently stopped me saying all the things that I intended to say when sitting down at the computer, but there’s only so much people would probably want to hear about how wonderful yet exasperating toddlers are, and how delicious yet tiring new babies are. And how children + life= exhaustion. (Incidentally, as I sit typing this feeding Baby N, I have been listening to the happy sounds of two toddlers bathing together and pretending to be lions. The button on the whirlpool tub got pressed accidentally, and suddenly as the jets roared into action, I listened to the delicate strains of two terrified toddlers and two shocked adults trying to do damage control. Would it be awful if I said it was quite funny from this side of the wall?).
And so, as the final hours of 2007 draw to a close, we find ourselves with decisions to make regarding next year. We have decided not to go back to free-form meal decisions; the structure has actually been really good for us. Having said that, we can’t make the same kind of commitment again- blogging every single night has played havoc with my TV and film watching, book reading self. And cooking a meal after cooking Christmas dinner was a little on the insane, not to mention gluttonous and wasteful, side. So, we are going to continue with the cooking from recipes, but maybe only 5 days a week. That gives us room for the occasional takeout, and to make good meals into leftovers, and maybe even to go out for dinner, should there be a pig flying over a blue moon.
Happy New Year! And thanks for reading.
Day 364: Yes, there were times, I’m sure you knew, When I bit off more than I could chew
This evening L made Nacho Bread Pizza [recipe] while I rocked Baby N and sort of read directions. When I went upstairs to change and feed the baby, L finished and photographed the meal. He didn’t process the chopped and seeded and diced part of the instructions so our toppings were a little on the chunky side, but that was not a big problem. This meal is essentially the salad from the base of a plate of nachos with the refried beans, cheese, salsa and toppings from the top of a pile of nachos, minus the nachos. Obviously the nachos were replaced by bread. Overall, it was enjoyed by the people. It was an interesting sandwich but not one which I personally was madly in love with. We had a pleasant evening debate over which of the stuffed sandwiches to date was the most successful. Let’s see how Hamburger and Onion Stuffed Bread is received tomorrow.
So tomorrow, the last day of 2007. What a year, what a lot of changes we’ve made. What a lot of food we’ve eaten. People keep saying to us “I bet you can’t wait to finish the Rachael Ray project”, but oddly enough that isn’t the case. Although an odd thing to do, now it just “is”. A year is a long time, and now this is our normal. Which is why we are going to continue in some shape or form. We still haven’t hammered out the details, that’s what tomorrow is for presumably.
Day 363: Quickie
I am very much in danger of going out with a fizzle rather than a bang this year. I am so tired I can barely stand up, or sit down for that matter. So, without further ado; Quick Cassoulet Stuffed Bread Melts. A cassoulet is a slow-cooked bean and meat casserole, this meal is obviously much faster to prepare. We used chorizo and hot Italian sausage which we browned in a pan. Then garlic, onions, thyme, carrots and a bay leaf were added, white beans bulked everything out, then the pan was deglazed with white wine. The mixture was piled onto the hollowed out bread shells, topped with Swiss cheese and browned under the grill.
Something about the cheese on top of meat on a slice of baguette reminded me of bad generic French Bread Pizza, but actually it was pretty tasty. It seemed much more like a tomato-free meaty pizza than anything related to a casserole. Which is not to say that it was bad; the mixture was rich and flavourful. I did find the beans and carrots to be odd in a sandwich, but maybe that was because of the pizza feeling. Tomorrow we actually make a bread pizza with Nacho Bread Pizza.
Day 362: These days
This evening we made Chopped Antipasto Stuffed Bread which is basically a fancy meat and cheese sandwich. Two Italian cheeses and two different types of salami were chopped into bite-size pieces and mixed with lettuce, pickles, olives, parsley, black pepper, lemon juice, olive oil and basil. The bread was warmed in the oven, split, one side was spread with pesto, the filling piled in, and the whole shebang assembled. This is a very good, tasty, spicy sandwich, although again a little more labour intensive than your usual fare. However, what I really liked about this recipe was that by chopping up the meat and cheese, and adding in plenty of greens, you make a much lighter-seeming meal. This is very much like a deli sandwich, but the assembly method makes it seem far less hefty and stodgy. The other thing, which seems so simple in retrospect, is putting the baguette in the oven while the filling is prepared. In just a few minutes at a very low heat, the bread is revitalised, becoming as fresh and crispy as intended.
Once again we failed to eat the sandwich for lunch, maybe we can manage that tomorrow for Quick Cassoulet Stuffed Bread Melts. Having two toddlers in the house with two different routines makes for an interesting day, every day. We always bring Little A home for a post-lunch nap, which on a good day can be up to 3 hours. I am trying to get Baby N to sleep at the same time. Today was so successful that I managed to go to bed for a nap myself for a whole 12 minutes. Generous to a fault are our children. Anyway, our toddler guest doesn’t nap at home but rather naps in her stroller while out and about. So every day we start off like a travelling circus in the minivan, then sometime after lunch we splinter into groups. Later on we reconvene in the ‘van, and the “My Daddy” “My Daddy”, “My Mummy” “My Mummy” chorus resumes its beautiful strains. On particularly fabulous trips Baby N contributes some vocals too. This morning Little A ran in front of someone at the Children’s Museum and I watched helplessly as she got kicked across the room into a waiting chair. It was an accident, the woman she collided with was holding two kids and couldn’t see her feet, but Little A ended up with a split lip. Between her eyebrow stiches, the mysterious cut on her nose, her bruised forehead and her bloody lip, she looks quite a sight. It also turns out that she has an ear infection, poor wee thing. Still, at least the ear tubes are working, if the gunk in her hair is anything to go by. But really, she is very beautiful, just maybe not today.
Day 361: Final days
Tuna with Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink, Hold-the-Mayo, Stuffed Bread was easy enough for an evening meal, but seemed a bit labour-intensive for a sandwich. The filling was made with tinned tuna (in oil), capers, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, red onion, spinach, basil, parsley, lemon zest and juice, mixed with olive oil and black pepper. The baguette was warmed and crisped in the oven, then split and hollowed out a little. An unexpected bonus for the sandwich maker is getting to eat the removed pillowy bread from the baguette. The filling was piled up on the bread, the top of the bread replaced, and the sandwich squished. To avoid spillage, one end of each sandwich was wrapped in a paper towel.
This is a reasonably sandwich; it is rather upscale, a fare cry from tuna with mayonnaise and sweetcorn. The lemon zest and juice made for a very strong citrus flavour, one which dominated virtually everything else. The sun-dried tomatoes added a pleasant sweetness to an otherwise salty zesty meal. The olives, capers and artichoke hearts all became a bit much of a salty muchness, and the subtleties of the herbs were overpowered by the lemon. In fairness though, I did use a pretty enormous lemon. Having said all that, overall this was a good sandwich, but maybe more of a special occasion type of snack. Too much chopping by far for a quick bite.
I am cutting this short to spend some time with our prisoners visitors, as finally the kids seem on good form again and the adults are all awake after 10pm. Tomorrow we will be having Chopped Antipasto Stuffed Bread. Lunch please.
Day 360: Let’s hear it for the boys
Today Little A was feeling so sorry for herself that practically the only words she uttered were “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, my Daddy”. For a whole day. We went to visit friends for Boxing Day mince pies and trifle, and A was a clingy mess. The Daddy Chorus was not the best addition to the festivities by any means. I have to confess that I didn’t feel even a teeny little bit rejected by her utter father favouritism, it was actually a relief not to be on the receiving end of such clinginess. When I was pregnant, the Daddy obsession hurt a little, but since Baby N’s birth, Little A always wants me to push her or carry her or whatever. Probably so that I can’t hold the baby at the same time, but she is getting very much more accepting of, and interested in, her little sister. Not compared to our toddler guest, however; she is utterly infatuated with babies and is always trying to touch or hold Baby N. Little A probably goes days at a time without touching her sister voluntarily. Which I’m actually discovering is a good thing- I don’t need to worry too much about accidental aggression with an overenthusiastic hug. There are other things to be concerned about however, like this neverending cough and cold that keeps her miserable and awake. Not so fine.
This evening we made Incredible French Endive Salad with Aged Herb Goat Cheese Toasts, and by popular demand we served it as an appetiser rather than a main meal, followed by pizza which is always good. The endives were rolled in a dressing of garlic, salt, lemon juice, parsley and olive oil, which had been prepared in the food processor. The endives were then put in a dish and browned a little under the grill, until tender. Meanwhile slices of goat cheese cut from a log were rolled in Herbes de Provence and warmed under the grill on slices of white toast.
The individual leaves of endive placed on top of the cheese on toast were a novel addition to the toast. They added a little interest and crunch, but incredible they were not. A plate full of them was simply too much, even when we had 5 endive heads between 4 people, rather than the 12 heads called for in the recipe. The vegetable is a very strange thing; it’s anaemic whiteness and shape make it look like something grown in a test tube underground. The internet tells me that it pretty much is grown that way. I wasn’t a big fan, by any means, but the others were reasonably happy with this meal. I must qualify that the satisfaction was dependent on the size of the portion- no one felt they would want to be served twice as much and call it dinner.
Tomorrow we enter the closing straight of the year with the first of five bread-based meals followed by the Christmas pasta. Tuna with Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink, Hold-the-Mayo, Stuffed Bread certainly sounds like a good candidate for lunch.
Day 359: Oops I burnt it again
Little A woke up wailing this morning as she wasn’t feeling well. Despite repeatedly telling her that Christmas is a happy time, she was thoroughly out of sorts all morning. She did seem happy with the play kitchen we got her, the one which took our man guest a couple of happy hours to assemble last night while L cooked. It seemed an appropriate gift, what with all the cooking around here. She told us she was making strawberry banana pasta, which is no stranger than some of the things that we have eaten this year, I’m thinking of you, Zippy Italian Popcorn. She was also given a kids laptop computer. Maybe she can blog about her creations. Everyone else went for a pre-lunch walk, while I intended to catch up on some much-needed sleep after a very fractured night. Unfortunately by the time Baby N had worked through her feeding/ excreting cycle, twice, everyone returned. For about ten minutes the three children were all napping, and I could here the excitement downstairs as the adults decided which film to watch. Then, the earth rotated ever so slightly on its axis, and as if by magic, all three were awake. Little A couldn’t stop crying long enough to take a nap, which hasn’t happened since the ear infection days. But there was a return of Christmas spirit later in the day when we played in the snow after a coffee and cake break. We took the girls sledging, which was hilarious, and the snowy world couldn’t have been more picture perfect. The kids’ day ended with the toddlers in the bath pretending to be seals, feeding each other foam fish. Comedy gold.
This evening we ate a most tremendous British Christmas Dinner, followed by all American apple pie and ice cream. Some gin and tonics were orbiting in the room, then we finished with a cup of tea and some chocolate. Baby N was hanging out looking magnificent in her Christmas legwarmers, and gradually becoming much more fussy. Around the time that I remembered that we still had to cook Roast Crispy Mushrooms and Grilled Tenderloin Steaks with Green Onions, she very much needed to be attended to. So L and I sort of did touch-tag cooking, while chatting in the lounge with our guests. The dinner seemed to be low maintenance, so we set it up and left it to it’s own devices…
Bad idea. First we slightly burnt the steak, which had been simply pan fried and seasoned. Next we burnt the mushrooms which were being oven roasted at a high heat, coated in parsley, garlic and olive oil. In fairness the recipe said to resist the tempation to open the oven door whilst cooking, but still… The mushrooms were supposed to be dark and crispy; they were actually pretty much charred and crumbly. The steak was topped with grilled spring onions, and the wole lot was served with crusty bread.
It is hard to evaluate a meal when you are so stuffed that you can hardly move, before you even start cooking. Once you have burnt most of it, it is even harder. Although I tasted the least charred mushrooms, I have to guess a little at the result. This seemed to be solid, yet uninspiring food. The steak and scallions were ok, although the onions were very garnish-like. The mushrooms had promise. All in all, it would have been an above average meal, in other circumstances.
Tomorrows meal, Incredible French Endive Salad with Aged Herb Goat Cheese Toasts probably would be a good lunch if we get our act together; at least either way it won’t be an exercise in futility like dinner tonight. I am utterly unable to keep my eyes open for any longer, so I bid you a very merry Christmas, if you celebrate that sort of thing, and a fabulous end of year to all and sundry.
Day 358: The best meal of the year
Christmas Eve was a day of highs and lows- we were at the zoo this morning which was excellent- our toddler guest had never seen tigers and such before, and they do look magnificent in the snow. But this afternoon the ladies wrestled with two overtired, stroppy, ill toddlers while the menfolk battled the lines at Target. Neither option was pretty but I’d take retail aggression over Playdoh mutiny anyday. By the time we put Little A to bed she was the tiredest that I’ve ever seen her. She literally couldn’t stand up to have her teeth brushed and while she was “swimming” in the bath on her tummy, she put her finger in her mouth and was about to put her head down to sleep. In the bath, not so fine. Then Baby N had the most spectacular diaper blowout yet… But eventually all the kids were sleeping and we had a lovely bout of adult time.
This evening we made two meals, L made Danish Christmas Dinner, whilst I made Fresh Tomato and Basil Chicken over Super Creamy Polenta. One of the meals was fabulous, and unfortunately the meal I made wasn’t receiving the praise. At least the project dinner was easy to make, as I tried to weave in and out of the kitchen avoiding getting in the way of the grand cooking of the duck and its accompaniments. The polenta was made with chicken stock, mascarpone cheese and Parmigiano cheese. The chicken was seasoned with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes and browned in olive oil. Red onions and garlic were added to the pan, followed by chicken stock. Once half the liquid had been reduced, the grape tomatoes and basil were added to the pan. We were supposed to have yellow and red tomatoes, but we couldn’t get our clammy hands on any yellow ones. The food was ready to serve once the tomatoes split.
The chicken stock “sauce” was underwhelming, in as much as it tasted of chicken stock with a little heat from the red pepper flakes. The polenta was cheesey and grainy, as always; not a winner. Tomatoes and basil are always pleasant, but this was about as interesting as it got. Tomorrow our guests will be cooking British Christmas Dinner, and I’ll be making Roast Crispy Mushrooms and Grilled Tenderloin Steaks with Green Onions. If we can manage to time it right we could have steak for lunch or breakfast, and turkey for dinner. Or a steak turkey dinner, that works too.
Day 357: Who would have thought it?
This evening we got the two bigger kids to bed and made Crispy Turkey Cutlets with Bacon-Cranberry Brussels Sprouts [recipe]. All of the children seem to be in some stage of illness of the cough/ sore throat/ fever variety, which is less than good. Also C, our lady guest, appears to have broken her toe on our radiator. It looks mightily awful, that’s for sure. Oh dear. Baby N currently sounds a little bit like a seal when she cries, and Little A is coughing every couple of minutes, poor wee thing.
Tonight’s recipe sounded to us like a canteen version of Christmas dinner (UK) or Thanksgiving dinner (USA), but we were surprisingly very impressed. As a child I’d always have to try a little of everything on my plate, and I would dread the annual Christmas sprout sampling with a vengeance. I have never enjoyed sprouts and would never willingly eat them. So without this project, we would never ever have made this meal. However, for the first time in my life I can say that I willingly ate a plate of sprouts, and actively enjoyed them. The sprout, onion, thyme, bacon, chicken stock, parsley, dried cranberry combination is a winner, I’m sold. The seasoned, floured, egged, breaded, fried turkey cutlets were excellent; crispy on the outside, succulent on the inside. If we weren’t all set to cook a Christmas turkey, I would actually seriously consider adopting this meal as an easy dinner solution. What a pleasant surprise. And other than the cleaning of the many bowls used in the turkey breading production line, this was easy to make and easy to clean up.
Tomorrow we will be having Danish Christmas dinner with roasted duck stuffed with prunes and apples, served with caramelised potatoes, red cabbage, and other delights, courtesy of L. Presumably then, for lunch we will be having Fresh Tomato and Basil Chicken over Super Creamy Polenta, courtesy of Rachael Ray. Let the eating season begin. We may well end up snowed in anyway, we may as well insulate ourselves.
Day 356: Almost gone but not forgotten
This evening I almost went to bed without posting an entry, it completely slipped my mind. That would be great, to blog for a whole year even through extreme morning sickness, on the day we moved house, during the weeks of construction chaos, when in labour and the night after giving birth, only to just forget to post ten days from the end of the year. Luckily(?) Baby N woke up again, reminding me of my duties. But, I have finally got a decent set up where I can feed and be on the computer, so I can say farewell to one-handed typing, which is a relief. I must type a good 6 words per minute faster with four fingers typing rather than two.
Anyway, today was interesting in many ways. It certainly started early, with our jetlagged guests getting up around 5am. Unfortunately our walls are made of paper so once one person wakes up, everyone is awake. We had fun, although the addition of 3 kids into the mix of friendship certainly changed the quality of the day from our last visit. Far less relaxation, how strange. My major observation for the day is that for at least ten minutes this evening, all three of the children in the house were neither crying, puking, exploding out of nappies or running riot, but rather they were all sleeping. That was the first and only time during the day when they were all quiet. Baby N does seem to be on better form, sleeping more which is delicious. Little A had some serious exhaustion inspired meltdowns and also woke from her nap covered in vomit, which is not so fine. She is doing ok though, hopefully it was just a one-off thing. We think it may be because she’s coughing so much. She’s no longer in daycare, so really she can’t be getting ill. That can’t be right, who would we blame for the inconvenience? This afternoon we nearly froze the children by going for a walk, because we were going a little stir-crazy inside. Still, permanent red cheeks are cute, right? No real damage done, surely. Think of all the money the girls could save on make-up in the future. The two toddlers had a bath together this evening which was incredibly sweet and something which blows your mind if you think too hard about it. The bathing together of children of friends is that quintessential picture in the family album. I never really thought about it from the perspective of being one of the parents, not one of the children. We just had our very own Polaroid moment, capturing an image that the kids may look back at and say “who’s that?” or maybe they’ll see the photo as defining a moment in an ongoing friendship. Either way, it makes me feel old and mysteriously nostalgic.
The meal tonight was Honey Chicken over Snow Pea Rice, which was a MYOTO meal, meaning Make Your Own Takeout. In this instance, I would have to agree with the label; this really was like good take-out food. Part of that was that we didn’t really know what we had ordered- this was called honey chicken, but really the ginger was a far more dominant ingredient. I’d certainly refer to this as ginger chicken in future. The rice was browned in butter and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, joined by lemon zest and wine. Once the white wine evaporated, the rice was cooked in chicken stock with sliced snow peas added just before serving. The chicken was browned and cooked with honey, garlic, onion and ginger with red pepper flakes for some added heat. Chicken stock provided the liquid content, with cornstarch thickening the sauce and lemon juice adding some depth. Scallions were added just before serving.
The meal was mellow but with an excellent depth and warmth added by the ginger. I used to think that I didn’t like ginger, but this year has certainly helped convert me to the cause. The honey, lemon and ginger sound like a cold remedy, and this meal would probably be very comforting if you were sick, but the balance of flavours worked well. This doesn’t taste like sweet and sour, it is more delicate and less contrasty, if that makes sense. I have to say I enjoyed the meal a lot. The rice was also almost good enough to eat by itself, which is always a bonus.
Well, I am now the only person awake in the house, although it is far from silent, Between the snoring and the coughing, the cats and the stirring children there’s a sleep symphony going on, I think I should go and contribute. It’s only polite, really. Tomorrow sounds very much like Christmas dinner, interrupted; Crispy Turkey Cutlets with Bacon-Cranberry Brussels Sprouts.