Christmas Part 3

Most of us have taken naps to recover from the excitement of opening Christmas presents into the early afternoon.  Santa was very good to everyone.  As evening approaches we start to get ready for another fine culinary experience.

  Drinks are offered and Sach makes an excellent rendition of a Black & Tan for himself and me.

Chris has been busy at the stove cooking for awhile.  He is making Frico Friulano.  He's been slicing and dicing for awhile.  His appetizer contains shredded cheese and cooked Arborio rice that is sauteed to form a crust and then layered with boiled, sliced potato and onions.   After a golden crust forms on one side the Frico is flipped to cook/sear on another rice layer. It is then accompanied by a simple tossing of Arugula, lemon juice, EVOO and salt & pepper.

Pictures coming soon when he is done.

Meanwhile Dan and Sach bring out Uma's last gift of the day - the Retro Kitchen that we spent hours assembling.

Uma is excited and checks out the sink first.  It's non-working but still fun to swivel the spout and turn the handles. 

It comes with an apron which her daddy helps tie on.

There is a little toy phone that she can talk to Nanima on.

  Pots and pans and all kinds of fun.

Nancy is feeling well enough to come down and open her stocking items.  The stocking is new this year, made especially for her by Cathy.

Chris continues working in the kitchen in the background.

Joy manages both girls at the same time.

Beef tenderloin is on the menu this evening.  Chris worked hard at trimming it up and getting it ready.  He seems to end up with this job each year.  As part of the process he makes Beef Tartare .   It's yummy!

Chris continues working on his Frico Friulano.

It's done cooking and turned out onto a cutting board.

Arranged atop the dressed arugula this is ready to be enjoyed.  And enjoyable it was!

It's Sach's turn at the grill tonight cooking the beef tenderloin - and not even a jacket!

 

The tenderloin is sliced and ready to serve.

It's been a wonderful Christmas and very enjoyable spending it all together.

I hope yours was a good as ours. 

 

Merry Christmas!

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Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and we've had a busy day of running errands, grocery shopping and getting ready for the traditional Christmas Eve grazing with family and friends.  Harley and Elyse, friends of Joy and Sach are coming over with their daughter Daffney.

Earlier in the day it was time to start making Sweet Rolls, part of our traditional Christmas morning breakfast.  This year Uma got to help.

For several years Chris helped Cathy, but this year Uma stepped in to learn the tradition.

She learned about adding lots of raisins.

  And that it's important to dig to the bottom of the container.

Uma works at critical placement for maximum flavor enhancement!  Once the right amount of raisins have been added, the sweet rolls are "rolled up" and stored in the garage, where it is cool but not freezing, till morning.

There are already a few presents around the Christmas tree in the front living room.

A nice fire is blazing in the fireplace.

It's time to start cooking the beef satays, one of many delightful things to eat this evening.  It's my job to cook them and yes the temperature is in single digits.  But you can't let that stop you from cooking on the grill!  With the grill lid down during most of the cooking, they turn out great.

The dining room table it starting to get full.  There are fine cheeses, mussels and pommes frites that Chris made, the beef satays I grilled, chilled shrimp, baked brie, chestnuts wrapped in bacon, latkes, smoked salmon and home made humus.  I'm sure I'm forgetting something   Everything was delicious.

Uma and Sach head outside briefly.  When they picked out their Christmas tree, Uma got to put together a bag of Reindeer Food to leave outside for Rudolph and the other reindeer to munch on while Santa was leaving presents inside.

Uma found a good spot and dumped out the contents.

Now Rudolph and the other reindeer will have a nice snack.

  The reindeer all taken care of, Uma learns about leaving milk and cookies for Santa.  One of the cookies left for Santa was one she decorated herself.

There are questions about how Santa will get down the chimney with the fire going, but once reassured, Uma is ready to head upstairs to bed.

It's exciting to watch Uma.  She is so delightful.

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Uma - The Human Bridge

Uma and I spent some time reading today.  Uma would pick out a book and bring it to me and I would read it to her.  After a while she showed me how she makes a "bridge".

She then challenged me to crawl under her!  Needless to say I didn't make it but it was fun trying.

I'm reminded of this blog post on UmaNation where she was learning push-ups at a young age!  Check it out.

Tonight we are all heading to Manny's Steak House for dinner.  I understand they have steaks as big as your head and lots of other scrumptious items to eat.  Check them out here and be sure to view the "Meat Cart" under About Manny's!

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Christmas Is Getting Close

Yesterday Chris arrived in the evening and Cathy and I picked him up from the airport.  Dan and Nancy drove in and completed the trip in a few hours less than we did.  They live a couple hours closer so that helps and they didn't have the heavy snow at times like we did, but they still had some icy conditions.

It's bright and sunny today but still right around zero outside.  Lucky for us we don't have anywhere to go.

Uma and Ani are up and Chris is getting some time with both of them.  They were asleep last night when he got in so this is their first visit.

Uma is dressed and checking out the stockings.

The next picture shows all the stockings better.  There are too many to hang by the fireplace so this spot works well.  Above, Uma's stocking is on the left with the snowman.

You can see Uma's stocking better in this photo and just to the left is Ani's new stocking.  One of the stockings (mine) will play the Frosty the Snowman tune if you squeeze the toe.  Uma is having fun showing her mom.

Dan and Nancy brought a retro kitchen for Uma and it has about 400 little pieces to put together.  It's a good thing we are getting a head start on assembly.

That's Dan and I working on it while Uma takes her afternoon nap.  We still have a long way to go!

Meanwhile in the other room, Cathy is busy pondering the assembly of our gift, an art easel.

Cathy reads the directions while Joy is making a shopping list on her iPhone.

Uma is awake from her nap and Nancy spends some reading time with her.

After awhile Ani joins them and Nancy reads to both of them.  Nancy was a good story reader and Uma brought her several books to read.

Christmas Cookies

After a good night's sleep and breakfast it's time to make Christmas cookies.

Cathy and Uma start by mixing up the dough.  Uma is standing on a step stool at the kitchen island.

The mixing is done and you can tell that Uma is excited as Cathy gets ready to turn out the dough and roll it out.

Uma is concentrating hard on rolling out her dough.

Some dough gets scraped off the edge of the counter as Uma plays with the dough.  You can see it accumulating on the step.  Even though it's below zero outside by double digits, Uma still likes to be barefoot.  Luckily it's warm and cozy inside.

Cookies are cut out and baked.  Now that they are cool they get decorated.  The Christmas trees are for everyday eating.  Other shapes come later.

Uma is getting ready to decorate her cookies with Joy's help.  Note the other cookie shapes including snowmen, mittens and gift tags with everyone's name.

  Uma doesn't do too well with icing in a pastry bag but instead prefers sprinkles and M&Ms.

All this time Uma's little sister, Ani has been eating, sleeping and playing.  Ani is a very happy little girl.

Here's another photo of Ani as she watches the cookie making process.

That's it for today.  Cookies are made and ready to be eaten as Christmas approaches.

It's Cold

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We have finally made it to Minneapolis after a 16 hour drive. It's -7 and snowing lightly. We traveled through some heavy flurries and very icy conditions for the last 4 hours or so. We must have pasted 3 dozen cars off the side of the road, most from icy roads.

Ralph traveled very well in the back seat. She is such a good dog. Some times she didn't want to get out of the car to pee in the sub zero weather. I don't blame her.

But all that is behind us and we are looking forward to spending Christmas with Uma and Ani.

Time for bed. More later.
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Studio Christmas Party

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Our studio Christmas Party was last Friday evening.  We made a return visit to St. Stanislaus Church to eat and drink in the basement.  In the wine cellar in the basement!  We were there a few years ago and eagerly looked forward to a return visit.

I know what you're thinking, but really, it was a wonderful time.  Lots of good food and wine and singing and gifts.  What more could you want!  This is an amazing Church.  The cornerstone was laid in 1886 and the building was completed in 1891.  It is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever been in.   

We were guests of Father Mike, pastor of the church.  Fr. Mike is a Franciscan Friar of the Assumption Province of Wisconsin.  In another life Fr. Mike must have been a chef because in his spare time he enjoys watching the Food Network and cooking for others.

Here is Fr. Mike welcoming us to his church.

  

Everyone is hanging on his every word, especially the food part.

As we headed to the basement we passed the kitchen and I peeked and saw a glimpse of good things to come.  I caught this quick photo.  More about this later.

This sign on the wall (Pod Wieza Stanistlawa) of the steps to the basement is written in Polish and roughly translated means "Under the Tower of St. Stanislaus."  And we were literally under the bell tower of the church.  The bells were tolling as we headed for the basement!

Candles lit the way down the steps.

We were headed for the Wine Cellar and it truly is a wine cellar.  It is, however, small.  Move in a couple of tables and some chairs and you have cozy seating for eight.  We were nine but were one person short due to Barb's cold but I'm sure with a shoe horn we would have all fit.  You can see what I mean below.

Once seated Fr. Mike offered up a beverage to accompany the appetizers.  It was a Polish vodka that was infused with buffalo grass called Żubrówka.

The bottle comes it it's own fur trimmed "coat" which may be only decorative but the vodka did a good job of warming me up on a snowy evening.

To go with the vodka was a plate of appetizers which featured two kinds of kielbasa (one smoked,) ham, a kind of vinegar based coleslaw, great pickles and a "condiment" for your bread made mostly from lard.  Also check out the separate plate of fresh butter.  There were two kinds of bread on the table as well.

Bob our "Esteemed Leader" and gifted orator offered remarks and a toast.  Then he sat down and enjoyed the food.  Monica wouldn't let him eat any of the lard, however.

The wine rack part of the room appears to be made out of concrete.   Many years ago the Friars actually did make wine for church in this room and stored it here.  Fr. Mike says that the concrete is wonderful for keeping the wine at a steady temperature year round. 

There were candles placed in many of the empty wine bins as well as in the corners of the room.  Otherwise there was no other illumination.

After munching on the appetizers the next course was presented.  A smoked trout filet accompanied with fresh horseradish and (if I remember right) cranberries in a glaze all on a bed of lettuce.

It was WONDERFUL.  (This was what was plated in the kitchen in a previous picture.)  Wine was offered all around.  Talking stopped as everyone enjoyed the delicious flavors of the trout topped with a little horseradish.

That reminds me that I have horseradish in the back garden that could be dug up and ground into horseradish.  Add that to the "To Do' list.  Back to the Christmas party.

After finishing that course some were saying they were approaching full.  Silly people!  There was much more food to come.

Bring on the Borscht!

That's right.  Beet soup.  At least that's what most people would think (me too.)  This was indeed Beet Soup with a full flavored vegetable/chicken based broth with julienned beets.  There was also a traditional accompaniment alongside, which by now I have forgotten the name of.  It was kind of like an egg roll with potatoes and cabbage inside.  Very good.

From my chair I could enjoy the soup and the glow of the candles.

After this, some people thought they were full. (Pace yourself folks, there's more food to come.)

Next up was Pork loin, a potato pancake and pierogi.  Not just any pierogi, but cherry and strawberry filled pierogi.  The Pork loin was topped with a mushroom reduction.

The ravioli added an enjoyable sweet taste that went well with the earthy flavors of the pork.  The potato pancake helped to balance out the other flavors.  Interestingly enough, there was no salt or pepper on the table and I never looked for it until the subject was brought up later.

Enjoy!

After that, several people WERE actually full.  But, there's still more to come!

Next came a Refresher course. Fresh raspberries with a side of a lime flavored liqueur.  I don't remember the name of the liqueur but a few poured their drink over the raspberries and enjoyed it that way.

Following this course it was definitely time for a break.  Time to get up and walk around.  Stretch the legs. 

Sing a little bit!

Well, we weren't in good shape to do any singing.  Everyone was pretty stuffed.  So we went back up stairs and listened to someone else sing.  Specifically the Ohio Boys Choir.

The choir was upstairs performing in the church sanctuary.  We were in time for their final set of the evening.  Fr. Mike had good seats for us up front.

They were absolutely delightful.

We sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful music.  The boys were full of confidence and had a great stage presence in front of a crowd.

Here you can see some of the beauty of the church behind the Choir.  The whole interior of the sanctuary is just as breathtaking.

More singing.

The performance wrapped up with some audience participation.  Just what we needed to bring back our appetites!

We headed back downstairs and settled into our seats and were promptly served another course!

Yes, it's true.  More delicious food.  Fr. Mike really knows how to feed his guests.

This course consisted of a braised duck leg, a stuffed carrot and more pierogies, this time filled with potatoes.  Fr. Mike told us all about his adventures with duck confetti and how he prepares it.

Everything was once again delicious and at this point I was definitely full!

We were finally done eating.  At least done eating downstairs in the wine cellar.

We headed upstairs and relaxed in the living room where a nice fire was blazing away in the fireplace.

And of course, more to eat.  Coffee, tea and pastries.

Fr. Mike relayed more of the history of the church as well as the Franciscans.

More relaxing.

We did manage to perform a bit of singing on our part to express our appreciation to Fr. Mike and his helpers.  We sang a special version of Good King Wenceslas that Barb composed for the occasion.  We did pretty good even though Barb (our best singer) was not with us.

To wrap up the evening we exchanged gifts.  I won't bore you with what everybody got except for Mary who was delighted with a snowman trivet as part of her booty and she asked me to take a picture of it.

Here it is. 

Now you are famous Mary.  Posted on the Internet for all to see.

That concludes the telling of this tale except to once again say "Thanks" to Fr. Mike for the wonderful food and hospitality.  I would be remiss if I didn't also say Thank You to Bob and Monica who arranged this return visit to St. Stanislaus and treated us to another memorable Christmas Party.

Merry Christmas to all.