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Just a quiet wish that you have a safe and happy end to the year. We are opening a time capsule tonight that we put together 10 years ago. I will list the contents and show photos of the box soon. I also have some goals that I hope to write about tomorrow.
See you in 2010!
© JODI ANDERSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
© JODI ANDERSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
It's the last few days of the year and I'm figuratively cleaning house. Okay, a little bit literally as well.
This time between Solstice/Christmas/*insert holiday* and New Year's Day always seems like an at-home vacation to me. I do things that I enjoy and that scratch my tidy-bone. I get out the new calendars, make a few lists, do lots of laundry, think about the new year, and delight in the fact that I can claim it to be Winter for nearly the next three months.
Tomorrow is our 20th anniversary. We haven't made plans yet. TO23 and I are chatting about it online right now. Since it falls midweek, he will come home early from work and go in later the next day.
Edited to add: We booked a room at the Hilton, which is next to the restaurant that has been my nostalgic favorite for 36 years. (My mom worked there when I was four. When she couldn't get a babysitter, I would sit in the kitchen and prep placemats, napkins, etc for the bussers. I adored the fancy restroom and was told that I sometimes slept on one of the benches in the powder room. I remember that I loved to sit at the make-up table and pretend that I was checking my face and hair.)
I don't know why I am so excited about the new year. I have always believed that each day, each moment is a chance to make a change in your life or the lives of others. More on that in a few days.
Still, 2010, I am getting ready to welcome you.
© JODI ANDERSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
If not for fear of alienation, I would probably talk about roasting vegetables every chance that I get from, oh, a few weeks ago until well into this coming spring. Around that time, I'll be hungry for at-room temperature salads and other things.
In an attempt to perhaps get a bit of it out of the way all at once, I want to talk about roasting vegetables right now.
The most amazing thing about this process, to me, is that I have managed to take pretty much every vegetable that I hated as a child and instead found a way to absolutely love them. Sometimes too much. Asparagus, parsnips, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. Oh, how I abhorred the sprouts of Brussel! For the asparagus, it was the Ina Garten recipe. I've played with it quite a lot and now make it in a variety of ways. Or, I stick with the bare essentials -- olive oil, kosher salt, freshly-ground black pepper, and almost any vegetable. Roast until desired tenderness versus crispness ratio is attained.
I have also learned to like quite a lot of new vegetables. Turnips were a complete surprise for me. They can be nicely caramelized, yet there's a burst of tasty juice when you bite into them. And, kale. Oh, for the love of kale. I drizzle a few drops of olive oil onto a pile of roughly torn leaves, rub it in with my hands, and then add a touch of salt. Spread out leaves, put in a hot oven and watch closely. I eat these like potato chips.
Oven temperature. I don't have an exact one to share. I keep my oven somewhere between 400 and 450 degrees Fahrenheit for roasting. With most items, I flip them over about halfway through cooking, so that would be around the time that you notice caramelization. (I don't flip the kale.)
There are a few vegetables that I've yet to roast and that would mostly encompass the squash family. I have a squash fear based upon some sort of experience that I had as a child in which it was paired with brown sugar and butter. I'll take care of that situation next autumn.
Parsnips and carrot sticks with sage are really good. I like my roasted potatoes with a lot of thyme and maybe some rosemary. I also like to toy with spicy varieties containing lemon, mustard, and/or cayenne. Adding shaved grana and a bit of breadcrumbs before roasting asparagus makes it a hearty side dish. If in doubt, start with the basics (in italics a few paragraphs back).
So, roasting vegetables ... I'm doing a lot of it. I will try not to litter the page with all of my experiences.
This is also my chance to ask if you are roasting anything that I should try. I'm really up for some new recommendations. (Vegan, please.)
It is my birthday.
I spent this day with two of my favorite people and I didn't have to leave the house once. TO23 took slices of cake to my uncle and grandma. At first, I was disappointed by the warm rain, then elated when it very late turned to snow. We watched a show on giant catfish that I had previously DVR'd. (If you know me well, you understand how apt this general species is on this particular day. That is one of many personal bonds. I suppose that we all have them, and I hope really so.)
As on most any Winter day, we ate simple, good foods like oatmeal in the morning and roasted root vegetables in the darkened late afternoon. An aside: I can't believe that I had never eaten a turnip until last week, and now I roast them every chance that I get. I had no idea that they would burst with juice, even with a nice caramelization. My husband picked up a store-bought birthday cake from Brennan's, as requested, and I ate more than necessary at two pieces.
I haven't seen all of my dears yet this season, and that is on my list of things to do as soon as possible. I need to catch up with so many people, both family and friends, either by email/internet or written word and, maybe even, PHONE. I dread the telephone so much. I can do business nicely, but I am not so comfortable with the chit-chat. I am better in person or typed word. I like the dynamics that go with each of those. I have also lost any sense of time or courtesy when it comes to snail mail. I hope to recapture that long-lost love this next year.
Tonight, after theother23 and X played a game on the Wii, which hasn't seen much action since the PS3 came along, we watched the aforementioned catfish show on the telly and are now settling in with our individual modern machines -- I am on my Windows laptop. X is on her Mac. TO23 is on his PSP. The house is mostly clean and it smells good. I've had my fill of food and love.
At this moment, I've had the perfect amount of everything, the just enough.
Happy merry.
© JODI ANDERSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Okay, time. Just slow down for a few minutes and give me a listen, please.
I have accepted that you are traveling at a seemingly accelerated rate this year, but there's no need to make a mad dash to get through the holidays and launch yourself, as well as all of us, into 2010. I mean, really, did you have to fly by so fast that I haven't and won't have a chance to go to the market before the weekend? (I have not had a niche of stillness to even make a menu!! Thank you, theother23, who is stopping by Brennan's on his way home from work.) Or, how about those few sentimental gifts that I wanted to create for my grandmas? (I don't have aforementioned sentimental gifts completely figured out yet.) I will not even begin to elaborate on the task of tidying the house, much less the (lack of) seasonal cleaning of one's home.
Time, you are making this very difficult.
I challenge you to just give me a chance to catch my breath, make a little necessary-things-to-do list, listen to the house groan and the doors jiggle, even sometimes slam, as the wind gusts violently, gaze through the windows at the at the white ground and dancing branches, and maybe compose an entry for my blog about how time moves so quickly.
Heh. I probably could have whipped up a menu and started on the market list instead, but for this fifteen minutes, time did slow down a bit.
Enjoy your moments when you can catch them.
(both photos are further experimentation with the Dreamy Diana toy lens that I purchased from Photojojo.)
I find Winter Solstice to be bittersweet.
I love the holiday, the meaning of it. I like the promise that the sun will return, the days will stretch until they are so long that I am weary when the dampened evening finally arrives, and the cycle continues to bring us back to Winter again. But, I revel in these dark days that only reach full brightness if the sun comes out at midday and, even then, the light slants us into tall shadows ... Nordic and strong.
So, the daylight will grow as if a seed was planted yesterday, but that does encompass my favorite season. Now comes a sure two months of struggles -- that deep snow, negative-numbered temperatures, being snowed-in at home, soup and roasted root vegetables and mugs of warmth. Throughout January and February, Winter will rear its head like an antlered female reindeer, shake the glittered snow from its coat, kneel onto the ground for sleep, and I will fold into my fetal self and rest in the curve of her warm belly.
Yesterday, we had a quiet family celebration of Winter Solstice and this morning I lit candles when I arose to welcome the first full day of Winter. Today, we shall bake and cook. Tonight, we shall feast.
May Winter pass ever slowly.
© JODI ANDERSON. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
(The above photo was snapped with the Dreamy Diana lens that I purchased from Photojojo. Oy, the learning curve. So, if you see some not-so-pretty photos on my site, just pretend that you are dreaming, please, and hopefully not having a nightmare.)
Otherwise, today is all about planning for tomorrow -- Winter Solstice! My favorite dark day of the year. I I purchased Sting's new album, "If On A Winter's Night
I can not end this post without acknowledging that my dad died 33 years ago today. He left, but he is not lost. I see that my hands are the feminine version of his hands. My science-minded view was directly influenced by his own. My eyes squint when I laugh, as his, and my eyes squint in the bright snow, as his. I know that he lived as though every day was his last.
I live every day.
This was a very good week.
All of the days were full of simple surprises. It is really amazing when so many nice and natural things happen so closely together. There were moments when big things looked bleak, but everything fell into place in a puzzle that I didn't know existed.
I am excited that the Winter Solstice is on Monday. I will spend the weekend, which came so fast, planning our celebration and embracing the dark before the daylight begins to stretch.
Oh, and there's so much more goodness in the following 11 days. On December 25th, I turn 40. I have been afraid to type that, but no more! On December 30th, theother23 and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I have been married half of my life. I have big plans for 2012 ... dipping my toes into things that were only mulled over and now I shall grasp fortitude and make ... things ... happen.
In celebration, I am going to open comments again. As a disclaimer, I must say that there may be times when I don't have them open, and I'm apt to change my mind about the whole thing completely. But now, today ... open comments, open future.
Life is beautiful.