Merry

Thursday night was the Little House-themed Christmas party at my place. Very loosely themed, to be honest, but we did make fried apples 'n onions (Almanzo's favorite), and button strings, and I gave out stockings that contained shiny pennies and horehound candy and Christmas candy in pink mosquito bar bags, and a whole orange for everyone! Could one ask for more?

Tonight I finished up the Greek cookies with my mom, and then Allison came over (look for our very first double blog post soon!) and we started a new Christmas tradition. The final cookies we made, theples, are fried in boiling oil. When they were done, it occurred to us that, hey, we still had a pot of hot oil. Why not fry some more random items? We battered up some Candy Cane JoJos, a chocolate chip cookie, a piece of almond bark (that one was a mistake) and two Whoppers. The JoJos were by far the tastiest creations. Hooray for frying! I also later made sweet potato pie with a pecan and brown sugar topping. It overflowed a bit in the oven - fortunately just onto the baking sheet where it was sitting - and it's currently chilling overnight in the fridge. Final verdict on its success will come tomorrow - it could go either way, folks. This concludes the Christmas baking, though I will also be pitching in for Christmas dinner. And I'm planning a healthy New Years pumpkin cheesecake (no, really) made with stuff like Fiber One cereal and fat free cream cheese.

Tomorrow (today, technically) is Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve. My responsibilities are pretty much limited to the gym in the morning, 4:00 mass at church, and then hanging out with my family all evening. I wish everyone a safe, warm, and very merry Christmas. Here's hoping it's a funky, funky one too.

Kindergarten recipes

With Christmas just over a week away, many people are busy with holiday baking. I'm always eager to help my readers with tips and tricks to make your lives easier. In that spirit, I'd like to share with you some recipes for this holiday season. They're perfect for family gatherings, Christmas parties, or just fixing a delicious meal or dessert for a cold night. These were originally compiled for Mother's Day, but I'm sharing them now in the hopes of making your holiday season just a little bit brighter and tastier. Don't just thank me - thank Miss Clarke's P.M. kindergarten class of 1986.


MAIN DISHES

Chicken
(recipe from David C.)
Directions:
Put it in boiling water. Turn stove on. What we are going to do is put some barbecue sauce on it. It tastes good. Take out of oven and eat it and nothing else.

Spaghetti
(recipe from Amber J.)
Directions:
On it put sticky cheese and tomato sauce, not tomato juice. Put salt and pepper on it. Well noodles. Then you cook it cause some of it's after you cook. Then you eat it.

Spaghetti and Meatballs
(recipe from Tony C.)
Directions:
First, box of string things. Put in pan. Put sauce in pan. Take hamburger, put sauce over, then it would be done.

Steak
(recipe from Gregory L.)
Directions:
Put steak in oven, has to cook for awhile. Make corn on cob, put butter on it then. I would make more steak. Then make carrot, cut them, take off corn, cook carrots. Then ice cream cones for dessert and chocolate pudding and more steak.

Bacon
(recipe from Marcy B.)
BACON

Chocolate Meat
(recipe from Lia C.)
Ingredients:
-powder
-salt
-pepper
-dough
-sugar
-meat
-chocolate
-chocolate milk
Directions:
First you start with powder and last is salt. You put it in the oven for 10 minutes and the rest of it is second and then you do dough then pepper. You do sugar fourth.


A fine transition to... DESSERTS

Cake
(recipe from Jesse O.)
Ingredients:
-3 candles
-put flowers in there
-dough
-milk
-different kinds of cookies in it
Directions:
Turn knob on right, put in oven. When it buzzes take it out. Candles around cake.

Pie
(recipe from Heidi E.)
Ingredients:
-strawberries
-pumpkin
-berries
Directions:
Make dough, put it in the oven, take it out, eat it.

Chocolate Cake
(recipe from Eric B.)
Ingredients:
-3 scoops of sugar
-chocolate frosting
-some of that chocolate mix in the middle of the whole cake
-with chocolate chips inside
Directions:
First you need a pan and put in the frosting first and then the middle and then spread the frosting on top and then put the chocolate chips in on the top, then bake it 20 minutes.

Apple Pie
(recipe from yours truly)
Ingredients:
-5 apples
-pie crust from the store
-cinnamon
Directions:
Cut the apples up, put them in a bowl, put the pie crust in a pan and put the apples in the pie crust. Sprinkle cinnamon. Put leftover crust (if you have any) over the top of the apples, then put in oven and bake for 20 minutes, take the pie out and eat it all yourself.

Cherry Pie
(recipe from Daniel M.)
Ingredients:
-powder
-knife
-cherry
Directions:
Pour sugar, stick a knife in it, press it down, slice pie. Cut ends of crust, put cherry in, put sugar in it, put more crust, cut square holes, then you eat it.

Cookies
(recipe from Jimmy C.)
Ingredients:
-chocolate chips
Directions:
Make round circle, put chocolate chips in it and put in oven for 6 minutes.

Chocolate Cookies
(recipe from Keith B.)
Ingredients:
-dough
-sugar
-chocolate
Directions:
Bake 'em.


Happy holiday baking, everyone!

Decking the halls

First Christmas here! Lots of snow outside! Things are decorated! Hooray!

Winter wonderland

This week on Tuesday and Wednesday, I marked my fifth year of spending more than 24 hours at Piper's Alley in Chicago for the Letters to Santa Benefit at Second City e.t.c. There's not a lot I can say about the experience that I haven't said in previous years. I saw a bunch of wonderful performers from literally one or two feet away on a tiny stage. I took part in a few onstage dance parties with the cast of comedians, a game of freeze tag, and two field trips out into the snow. I went on numerous coffee/tea runs. I endured the customary five or ten minutes of soul crushing stress during the big live charity auction for a private concert, which luckily ended on a positive note yet again. I ate little cups of Jell-o from my snack bag at 3:00 a.m. while Kim and Kelley Deal interviewed Steve Albini. I watched Sooz knit a fantastic striped scarf for her new stuffed penguin. All, still, for $10. All told, with the auctions (including, for the second straight year, the chance to peg Joe Canale in the balls with a football) over $80,000 was raised in that 24-hour period. I can't wait to hear about the families who are helped this year. We had a solid 24-hour group this year, with Sooz, Paul, Sam, and Leah in for the long haul with me. I hope we can add even more people in 2008. It's fun, you guys! Sure, there are times when you briefly want to die, but you totally bounce back!

Pics:
Janet Bean and Sally Timms

Jeff Tweedy

Joe Canale narrowly avoids a football to the groin

Kelley and Kim Deal interview Steve Albini

The charming and talented Sofia Mia visits before school

Kelly Hogan and Robbie Fulks

The Blisters

Alexander von Humboldt the Irish penguin in the spotlight with TJ and Pete