Entries Tagged 'Holiday' ↓

last friday, jason hosted a get-together with friends for christmas celebrations and rock band (of course).

he made egg nog cookies. they are magical things.

egg nog (with optional rum) was served in very fancy glasses. we have a lot of fancy glassware, by the way. many options.

the host always spends time in the fridge. (right?)

after dan arrived (in his very festive vest), jason kicked off the christmas celebration with a “yankee” gift exchange.

everyone brought a gift that cost $1 or less.

during round one, after everyone had drawn a number, each player picked a gift from the pile — no unwrapping yet! player #2 could either keep their gift from the center or trade with a previous player (#1, in this case), and so on. i like this round because it is fun to create speculation about what a gift might be!

i actually think it’s fun to do this mystery-gift-trading round once or twice more, but jason decided to skip right to round two.

to kick off round two, player #1 unwraps his or her gift. then player #2 unwraps his or her gift, and can either keep it or force player #1 to exchange. player #3 can keep, or trade with one of the previous players. and this continues through all of the players…

but, in the end, player #1 get final choice! he or she can claim whichever gift, of all of the gifts, that he or she desires.

during our exchange, melissa was player #1. she picked a kazoo out of the gifts and at the very end of the game — she wanted that kazoo back!

i actually traded a yoda-shaped usb flash drive for this giraffe bust. i want the whole collection of miniature busts!

after this, some friends stayed to enjoy santa’s slay with us, then we played rock band until about 2 a.m. — another fun evening!

i’m wishing a very happy holiday season for you and your friends, too.

Last weekend, I attended another wedding party for Bertine — also known as “my first quilting bee.” And, according to Bertine’s plan, the desire to make my own quilt is overwhelming lately.

Bertine has been quilting-central all year long, so a few of her family members decided to host the bee as a sort of wedding shower. The quilt we worked on was for Bertine and Zach, of course.

I can’t resist cake pops. Are they the best new thing ever, or what?

Bertine’s brother, Jens, was really into the whole production, too — which is awesome.

Step one: complete!

There is a lot of ironing involved in quilting. I will need to get a larger ironing board if I actual pursue my dream in 2012.

One of the duties for the day was to hold Kethry, Bertine’s new niece.

Here is where all of the pieces started to come together…

Bertine was using the “Caramel and Cocoa” pattern from Amanda Murphy.

See how it’s coming together? Pretty neat!

This is the prettiest bobbin case I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

I held Kethry for a while before I left. That was the easiest job of the day — she was sleeping the whole time! (What do babies dream about?)

I wanted to stay for the final product, but had evening plans with my mister. Luckily, Bertine posted a photo of the quilt top after everything had been sewn together — so I stole this from her Facebook page to share with you. Looks great to me!

My first quilt pattern (which cost a whole $1.50) arrived in the mail over the weekend. Hopefully I’ll get it made for sharing in early 2012!

crystal and jess threw a bachelorette party for bertine the weekend before thanksgiving. i think i avoided uploading the photos for so long because, although it was a super fun night, that was some hangover the next day.

when i finally reviewed these photos, though, i couldn’t stop giggling. we had way too much fun!

jess was giving massages, starting with bertine, of course.

we were tested on how well we knew bertine.

you know that bridal shower game of making a wedding dress out of toilet paper? we made lingerie out of crate paper instead.

i may have helped empty that bottle.

temporary tattoos! note: if you should ever need to remove a visible temporary tattoo because you need to go to work or something, scotch tape does wonders.

claire taught us some naughty sign language.

bertine and i both got kitty tattoos. and now you know why i know that scotch tape is awesome.

bertine’s shirt glowed in the dark, so we both tried to hold really, really still in the bathroom to capture it. or maybe i was the one who needed to hold still.

i wish i could share the whole series of photos in this set with vani, because i think they’re hilarious. but i can’t. just know that there is context to this photo, and it is awesome.

isn’t it amazing when the camera captures exactly how you were feeling?

bertine’s wedding is in one week!

jason and i had friends over on saturday for a thanksgiving feast. it was amazing. i made the turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing and rolls. our delightful guests brought a multitude of other delicious treats to share.

on friday night, i decided to pull our turkey out of the brine and prep it for roasting the next day.

i can’t even begin to tell you how much this step grossed me out. it probably didn’t help that i had no idea what i was doing. i mean, i was certainly trying to massage rosemary and butter evenly into and under the skin of this bird. but. it was so gross. i wasn’t properly mentally prepared. and i was so exhausted afterwards.

next time i’ll know better, maybe. hopefully.

despite my momentary desire to become a vegetarian, i pushed on the next morning with anne burrell’s pan gravy recipe.

4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 ribs celery, cut into ½-inch dice
2 large onions, cut into ½-inch dice
1 large celery root, cut into ½-inch dice
1 bulb fennel, cut into ½-inch dice
5 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh sage, tied in a bundle
1 bundle fresh thyme
Kosher salt
1 quart chicken stock, plus more if needed
1/2 bottle dry white wine

Place the garlic, celery, onions, celery root, fennel, bay leaves, sage and thyme in a roasting pan and season with salt. Put the chicken stock and wine in the bottom of the roasting pan and place the turkey on top.

To finish the gravy (after the bird is finished roasting and removed from the roasting pan after resting for at least a half hour): Remove the bay leaves, sage and thyme and from the roasting pan. Using an immersion blender, blend the veggies together until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

that gravy was so delicious — and simple! i will definitely use this recipe again.

i made the stuffing in the crock pot to conserve room in the oven, but it didn’t work out as well as i had hoped. it was lovely to prepare, though. so many colors!

jason entertained our guests while i freaked out about everything in the kitchen. if you didn’t know this about me: i am good at worrying. and being a touch too o.c.d. about things.

hannie was the first to try out the rolls i baked. she approved, though i thought they probably would’ve been better served the day of baking (i made them late in the afternoon on friday).

my first turkey was gorgeous. and delicious. and totally worth the trouble! i was so proud. (i still am.)

jason did the honor of carving, of course.

jared helped carve the ham.

seriously can’t get over how easy and delicious this gravy was. it’s too bad our leftovers slipped out of my hand this morning and exploded all over the kitchen floor. i am so sad, but i guess i’ll just have to make it again.

clockwise, from the top: garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

kristi was the first to sit down and enjoy a full plate.

crystal’s corn casserole arrived a little after we had started eating, but it disappeared almost immediately.

dave brought us some very pretty flowers, which was a nice addition to the giant pile of food we already had.

after dinner, we watched “thanks killing,” a terrible b-movie about a homicidal turkey. a holiday classic, i’m sure.

then we played rock band, as per usual.

this is the only photo of me (from my camera) from the day, because what’s not pictured is me fretting all day long, washing every dish a couple of times, and not willing to sit down longer than a few minutes. luckily, everything went off without a hitch and we all had a great afternoon together.

First things first: let’s pour some motivational coffee.

Then ask Google for some measurement conversions.

Okay, get mixing!

Turkey Brine from Anne Burrell:
¾ cup kosher salt
⅓ cup sugar
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, smashed
3 bay leaves
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
1 onion, diced
One 12- to 14-pound turkey

Combine 8 quarts cold water, the salt, sugar, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, red pepper flakes, garlic, bay leaves, carrots, celery and onions in a large container. Immerse the turkey in the brine and refrigerate for 2 to 3 days.

(This salt was a housewarming gift from my good friends, Bridget and Lindy — they also brought a loaf of bread.)

Just a touch of sugar!

(I’m not yet fancy enough for fresh herbs. Maybe someday.)

My sister shared some veggies from her CSA for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday. Since these onions were a bit small, I used two instead of one.

Someone was very excited about both the turkey and the sunshine beaming into the house on this gorgeous Thanksgiving day. Can you believe temps in Minnesota were in the 50s? That is insane.

So, that’s a lot of brine.

The bird and the brine are wedged into a cooler to sit until late tomorrow night, or very early Saturday morning. I haven’t decided when would be the better time to remove the bird from the brine. Our friends are coming over for dinner later on Saturday, so either way I’ll have plenty of time to decide.

Sorry, Ellipses, we’ll have to wait just a couple more days!