Three Five-Year-Olds and an Eight-Year-Old

Wow. This is the definition of cute.

Home For The Holidays: Cabin Living

My immediate family is spending Christmas Eve at my parents' cabin this year. Relaxing here on Christmas Eve Eve. *sigh*

New family tradition? Fondue tonight!!!!

Home For the Holidays: Shopping 2

Here I am shopping with Mom. She is trying to combine a Groupon voucher with a gift card with a normal coupon. This is rather confusing for all involved. Required to spend $26 dollars, I purchased a pair of weird blue pants.

Home for the Holidays: Shopping 1

Christmas shopping with Dad tends to be very efficient and quite painless. This, of course, leaves us more time to enjoy coffee and some delicious silence.

Quiche 2.0

I was welcomed in by Sam's parents for Thanksgiving this year so I was compelled by gratitude to bring a dish to pass. After last year's Jewish-Grandmother vs Mashed-Sweet-Potatoes-with-horseradish fiasco, I decided to try something new. I mashed up some acorn squash with onions, shallots, and goat cheese to make a pie. When all was said and done, though, it turned out to be more of a quiche and a pretty unremarkable quiche at that. It was palatable if one melted a sizable helping of cheddar onto it but it garnered a B+ at best.

Bring on Quiche 2.0! Same basic recipe with a few changes. I added more garlic, more onion, and substituted the goat cheese for a heaping addition of Cabot Extra Sharp Cheddar (cheaper, at a greater volume, thanks, Tony!). I also used two egg-whites, instead of entire eggs. This didn't mask the cheese flavor, kept it all lighter, and scored Dig a couple yolks as a treat.

Finally, knowing that Grandma Stambler wouldn't be there, I added a couple spoonfuls of horseradish to the filling. Bam! Zippy, spicey, sharp, amazing.

The end result is a much improved quiche/pie/cheese tart that I am enjoying as we speak along with the Today show and a cup of terrible coffee. Tasty!

Morning musing

Buying/making/procuring the perfect Christmas gifts for the people you love is wicked hard. Take me back to the day when this was easy.

Self portrait

It's both humbling and narcissistic to stare at a photo of oneself for 90 minutes.