Holiday weekend notes...
Dec. 27th, 2009 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gayathriThis past week has been insane, and flying by, I've had no time to write up notes at all!
Friday, the 18th of Dec, I invited a bunch of friends to come by for wine, cheese, and holiday cheer - I asked everyone to bring a couple of canned food items to donate to the SF Food Bank for the holiday. People were _great_ - we had a huge amount of much needed food items donated by my awesome amazing wonderful friends. People thought it was a good idea, and we had plenty of food to nibble and eat.
Coworkers showed up all sugar'd out from Cake Day at work, and I was glad I had _plenty_ of non-carby, non-sugary items, tho royrappaport and littletranquil were kind enough to make the most amazing cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake for the event (SO YUM, had to give it away so I wouldnt go into a coma eating it) , and byronium was kind enough to make a pannatone. I'd picked up turkey breast, chicken wings, and littletranquil had gone to Rainbow and picked up their top five cheeses of the year for me...
We ran out of bread, which I'm ok with, and everyone used carrots to dip instead. (Also better for some of us vs bread)
So, party was a success! Glad many LJ peeps from the Bay Area came! Lovely surprise to have joedecker and nisaa show up!
Saturday was very lazy! We ended up (byronium and I) going to the _mall_ to go see Fantastic Mr Fox. (I'd seen it the week before, well worth seeing again!) and escaped with a small visit to the book store and the crappy peets coffee. Its getting to the point where I no longer even want to drink coffee from chain stores.
Sunday morning, met up with littletranquil to go to the Dickens Fair. I'll tell you, I was filled with trepidation! Was it gonna be cool, or like RennFaire?? But it was _fun! _ I had a lovely time, best was getting a street urchin calling my name and reading me the sweetest little note and delivering a rose. I really enjoyed getting to the (I think) Musee Fantastique and seeing Phileas Fogg, and Princess Aouda, and we did get to see the naughty french postcards show, also really fun!
Monday thru Wednesday were all about work work work. It was a little insane. I dont even remember what I did!
Wed night, I had dinner with morgasmo, his mom, and littletranquil at Dosa. Poor littletranquil - I apparently tried to kill her a number of times with my choices (But my intentions were good!) - Dosa was TOTALLY spicy that night and poor littletranquil couldnt take it.
Xmas eve was adventures on a motorcycle - I headed over to the Ferry Building when they opened at 10 am to pick up: Cheese from Cowgirl, tasty salted pig parts from Boccolone, and the goose from Golden Gate Meats. Packed it all in the tailpack of my motorcycle and rode home through the crazy traffic. It was like a video game with everyone so insane trying to get to shopping.
i rode over to byronium 's to borrow his car for the rest of the shopping - he was finishing up his pannatone, and the street downhill from his place smelled AMAZINGLY lovely.
Went and picked up the last of holiday food needs, and dropped them off at home - the menu was to be roasted goose, gravy, stuffing, cranberry/pomegranite sauce, mashed potatoes, and soup, with morgasmo's mom making cabbage / apples - I know, I totally forgot anything GREEN in this menu. Doh.
Headed back to byronium's, and we headed over the bridge to visit with Nisaa, et al for their Xmas Eve Tea! It was great! Meeting new people, running into completely hot acquaintances from previous events. (He roasts his own coffee. no, srsly. yum.) His partner was home sick, so he left early after putting together a care package. (Next year, I'm bringing lots of containers for folks to take food home) Ajax cooked a goose as well, stuffed with wild rice stuffing with onions - the rice tasted amazing, cooked in the goose fat. I'd never had goose before, and this was a good introduction. :)
Over to Park Place for Pierogies and Crab - I drank quite a bit of Booker's Whiskey in preparation - I still have some trouble with crab bodies, but I did manage to get crab out of the claws on my own. Anthropomorphic was coming too, and got lost on the various bus changes - she made it and we poured champagne in her until all was better. The pierogies were realy great, but I've been told to reduce my white carb intake, so I didnt eat many, stuck to whiskey and crab - which was ok!
Exchanged some presents before heading out, since byronium and I had to be up fairly early to get the goose in the oven for xmas day.
Xmas morning was fun! There was one present under the tree for me, which was an adorable stuffed dog from Timberline - one of the rescue dogs that is a mascot there (I'll post a pic later) .
Cooking went well, I had started the stuffing the night before, tho in hindsight, will have to break up the bread bits smaller for next time. My mashed potatoes were awesome, tho I really think that's the potatoes vs anything I actually did - all it had was these golden organic russet potatoes from whole paycheck, cream and butter, salt and pepper. (I really think good ingredients make the dish tho. these simple ones really need it.)
Soup was baby potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks and mushrooms in veggie broth - simple! (tho again, hindsight, more fresh herbs to finish it!)
byronium was awesome with the bird - it was exciting, noisy, spattery! Smelled great too.
byronium was teasing about the gayathri effect - originally xmas dinner was going to just be me, kat, and him. Then I invited whipartst. Then I invited morgasmo and his mother, and also eriquita and her husband... and last minute, lekvar!
It was a little crowded, but we made do!
Was good. Food was great, company mixed well, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
Everyone helped clean up, which was truly awesome. I think anthropomorphic just has to clean the kitchen floor. :) (and in a bonus, I did NOT overeat, and my blood sugars were awesome all weekend!)
Then, we headed over to the mall to go see Sherlock Holmes. Which was SO SQUEEFULLY AWESOME I just about peed my pants. I need to go see it again.
I also found out that apparently no one knew I was a huge sherlock holmes fan. I mean, my mom knows. I'm pretty sure my best friend from HS knows. I took up the violin 'cause of him! I wanted to be a detective when I was younger. My folks had a fear I'd try heroin 'cause of how much I liked Sherlock Holmes. Anywhoo, I'm going to see the movie again.
(*Swoon!* and the Watson here was the right kinda Watson as a foil for Holmes!)
Boxing day was lovely and quiet - we were orginally going to get llamaeyes and maybe go to the Star Trek exhibit in SJ before ddropping her off at the airport, but she wasnt feeling well, so instead, we got had breakfast at Toast, went and got her, got some coffee and jamba juice and hung out before dropping her off.
Byronium (and I) had gotten her a LiveScribe pen to help her with her Italian - she was so excited, it was definately a highlight holiday present!
She was incredibly thoughtful with her present to me, and I can't wait to write her a thankyou note, I was super touched! YAY friends!
Byron and I stopped for a super early dinner at the lobster shack. I had a naked lobster roll. So YUM, I could hve srsly eaten another one.
It started POURING on the way back, and we drove through crazy pouring rainstorms to get back, and watch the rest of Inglorious Basterds, and for him to teach me how to make Cinnamon rolls. (Which came out 'ok', I think) We started watching Chasing Amy, which I'd never seen before and so far hate.
This morning, hot cinnamon rolls, coffee and bacon, lazy watching byronium play video games, while I plan tonite's dinner - involving cooking SOMEHTING in goosefat! and shepard's pie! and maybe bourbon chocolate pecan pie. and moar soup.
Friday, the 18th of Dec, I invited a bunch of friends to come by for wine, cheese, and holiday cheer - I asked everyone to bring a couple of canned food items to donate to the SF Food Bank for the holiday. People were _great_ - we had a huge amount of much needed food items donated by my awesome amazing wonderful friends. People thought it was a good idea, and we had plenty of food to nibble and eat.
Coworkers showed up all sugar'd out from Cake Day at work, and I was glad I had _plenty_ of non-carby, non-sugary items, tho royrappaport and littletranquil were kind enough to make the most amazing cheesecake and flourless chocolate cake for the event (SO YUM, had to give it away so I wouldnt go into a coma eating it) , and byronium was kind enough to make a pannatone. I'd picked up turkey breast, chicken wings, and littletranquil had gone to Rainbow and picked up their top five cheeses of the year for me...
We ran out of bread, which I'm ok with, and everyone used carrots to dip instead. (Also better for some of us vs bread)
So, party was a success! Glad many LJ peeps from the Bay Area came! Lovely surprise to have joedecker and nisaa show up!
Saturday was very lazy! We ended up (byronium and I) going to the _mall_ to go see Fantastic Mr Fox. (I'd seen it the week before, well worth seeing again!) and escaped with a small visit to the book store and the crappy peets coffee. Its getting to the point where I no longer even want to drink coffee from chain stores.
Sunday morning, met up with littletranquil to go to the Dickens Fair. I'll tell you, I was filled with trepidation! Was it gonna be cool, or like RennFaire?? But it was _fun! _ I had a lovely time, best was getting a street urchin calling my name and reading me the sweetest little note and delivering a rose. I really enjoyed getting to the (I think) Musee Fantastique and seeing Phileas Fogg, and Princess Aouda, and we did get to see the naughty french postcards show, also really fun!
Monday thru Wednesday were all about work work work. It was a little insane. I dont even remember what I did!
Wed night, I had dinner with morgasmo, his mom, and littletranquil at Dosa. Poor littletranquil - I apparently tried to kill her a number of times with my choices (But my intentions were good!) - Dosa was TOTALLY spicy that night and poor littletranquil couldnt take it.
Xmas eve was adventures on a motorcycle - I headed over to the Ferry Building when they opened at 10 am to pick up: Cheese from Cowgirl, tasty salted pig parts from Boccolone, and the goose from Golden Gate Meats. Packed it all in the tailpack of my motorcycle and rode home through the crazy traffic. It was like a video game with everyone so insane trying to get to shopping.
i rode over to byronium 's to borrow his car for the rest of the shopping - he was finishing up his pannatone, and the street downhill from his place smelled AMAZINGLY lovely.
Went and picked up the last of holiday food needs, and dropped them off at home - the menu was to be roasted goose, gravy, stuffing, cranberry/pomegranite sauce, mashed potatoes, and soup, with morgasmo's mom making cabbage / apples - I know, I totally forgot anything GREEN in this menu. Doh.
Headed back to byronium's, and we headed over the bridge to visit with Nisaa, et al for their Xmas Eve Tea! It was great! Meeting new people, running into completely hot acquaintances from previous events. (He roasts his own coffee. no, srsly. yum.) His partner was home sick, so he left early after putting together a care package. (Next year, I'm bringing lots of containers for folks to take food home) Ajax cooked a goose as well, stuffed with wild rice stuffing with onions - the rice tasted amazing, cooked in the goose fat. I'd never had goose before, and this was a good introduction. :)
Over to Park Place for Pierogies and Crab - I drank quite a bit of Booker's Whiskey in preparation - I still have some trouble with crab bodies, but I did manage to get crab out of the claws on my own. Anthropomorphic was coming too, and got lost on the various bus changes - she made it and we poured champagne in her until all was better. The pierogies were realy great, but I've been told to reduce my white carb intake, so I didnt eat many, stuck to whiskey and crab - which was ok!
Exchanged some presents before heading out, since byronium and I had to be up fairly early to get the goose in the oven for xmas day.
Xmas morning was fun! There was one present under the tree for me, which was an adorable stuffed dog from Timberline - one of the rescue dogs that is a mascot there (I'll post a pic later) .
Cooking went well, I had started the stuffing the night before, tho in hindsight, will have to break up the bread bits smaller for next time. My mashed potatoes were awesome, tho I really think that's the potatoes vs anything I actually did - all it had was these golden organic russet potatoes from whole paycheck, cream and butter, salt and pepper. (I really think good ingredients make the dish tho. these simple ones really need it.)
Soup was baby potatoes, onions, garlic, leeks and mushrooms in veggie broth - simple! (tho again, hindsight, more fresh herbs to finish it!)
byronium was awesome with the bird - it was exciting, noisy, spattery! Smelled great too.
byronium was teasing about the gayathri effect - originally xmas dinner was going to just be me, kat, and him. Then I invited whipartst. Then I invited morgasmo and his mother, and also eriquita and her husband... and last minute, lekvar!
It was a little crowded, but we made do!
Was good. Food was great, company mixed well, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
Everyone helped clean up, which was truly awesome. I think anthropomorphic just has to clean the kitchen floor. :) (and in a bonus, I did NOT overeat, and my blood sugars were awesome all weekend!)
Then, we headed over to the mall to go see Sherlock Holmes. Which was SO SQUEEFULLY AWESOME I just about peed my pants. I need to go see it again.
I also found out that apparently no one knew I was a huge sherlock holmes fan. I mean, my mom knows. I'm pretty sure my best friend from HS knows. I took up the violin 'cause of him! I wanted to be a detective when I was younger. My folks had a fear I'd try heroin 'cause of how much I liked Sherlock Holmes. Anywhoo, I'm going to see the movie again.
(*Swoon!* and the Watson here was the right kinda Watson as a foil for Holmes!)
Boxing day was lovely and quiet - we were orginally going to get llamaeyes and maybe go to the Star Trek exhibit in SJ before ddropping her off at the airport, but she wasnt feeling well, so instead, we got had breakfast at Toast, went and got her, got some coffee and jamba juice and hung out before dropping her off.
Byronium (and I) had gotten her a LiveScribe pen to help her with her Italian - she was so excited, it was definately a highlight holiday present!
She was incredibly thoughtful with her present to me, and I can't wait to write her a thankyou note, I was super touched! YAY friends!
Byron and I stopped for a super early dinner at the lobster shack. I had a naked lobster roll. So YUM, I could hve srsly eaten another one.
It started POURING on the way back, and we drove through crazy pouring rainstorms to get back, and watch the rest of Inglorious Basterds, and for him to teach me how to make Cinnamon rolls. (Which came out 'ok', I think) We started watching Chasing Amy, which I'd never seen before and so far hate.
This morning, hot cinnamon rolls, coffee and bacon, lazy watching byronium play video games, while I plan tonite's dinner - involving cooking SOMEHTING in goosefat! and shepard's pie! and maybe bourbon chocolate pecan pie. and moar soup.
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Date: 2009-12-28 02:34 pm (UTC)Sounds like a lovely holiday.