Surprisingly alert

[jethrien]

I went to bed at 8 yesterday - after four hours of sleep the night before and spending all day yesterday entertaining and cooking, I was wiped.


Christmas
Good: Seeing my folks, wine-tasting dinner on Christmas day, waffles (utterly crucial for it to be actually Christmas), cool presents (gorgeous alexandrite necklace from Chuckro, really awesome picnic backpack from my parents - the outer pocket is neatly stacked and belted dishes, glasses, and silverware for four, the inner is insulated for keeping your food hot/cold, and there are outer straps for holding on the waterproof blanket and a bottle of wine)
Not so good: Chuckro was allergic to car.

Wedding
Good: Wedding was in a Frank Lloyd Wright building, bride and groom were deliriously happy, food was excellent, and Israeli folk dancing was fun
Not so good: Chuckro still allergic to car.

New Year's Eve
Good: Lots of friends, lots of food, really good time had by all
Not so good: Lost a couple people at the last minute due to illness. Didn't spoil the party, but I felt bad for the folks who needed to stay home and nurse colds, stomach viruses, and god-knows-what-else. I hope they're all doing better now.

New Year's Day
Good: Delicious food, congenial company, and everything came out ok in the end.
Not so good: Woke up feeling lousy at 7am (hence 4 hours of sleep) and couldn't get back to sleep. Felt better by breakfast. Then the disasters of cooking began. The cardamom for my bread wouldn't grind. Chuck's sister's ice cream staunchly refused to solidify. The eggplant for Chuckro's mom's curry was rotten in the center. The Indian restauarant we called as a backup plan was closed. It all came out ok in the end, but it wasn't much fun in the middle.

Overall, net positive.

(And for those keeping track, the New Year's foods this year were spanikopita rolls, bacon chocolate chip cookies, duck stuffed with parmigian and fennel seeds, cranberry raisin cardamom bread, bacon-shrimp scampi, brown butter spaghetti, eggplant-sweet potato curry, Heath bar cake, lobster and crab, and ice cream (after the gingerbread ice cream failed, we ended up with little containers of strawberry cheesecake, moose tracks, and dulce de leche).)

Comments

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I was much happier with this batch than the last one--the bacony saltiness works nicely in combination with the chocolate; and I used bacon fat instead of some of the butter and flaked chocolate instead of some of the chips, which gave it a better overall bacon+chocolate flavor. Also, half bacon fat/half butter makes the cookies nice and chewy.