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Five Good Things: Random Friday Edition

001. Tom made me sit down and watch TV with him on Wednesday night, even though the sink was completely full of dirty dishes and the counters needed some serious help. “You know how they do that thing with heroin addicts where they lock them in a room and don’t let them have any heroin?” he asked. “Well, we’re going to try that with you and cleaning.”  And you know what? It worked. I even fell asleep on the couch.

002. Turning off all the lights except for the tree and cozying up in my slippers, even if I’m more likely to be eating Honey Nut Cheerios out of the box and hollering at Iron Chef (“OYSTER ICE CREAM. Are you watching this? He’s making OYSTER ICE CREAM.”) than demurely sipping some peppermint hot cocoa and listening to Burl Ives.

003. True story: We tried this new place for beers last night and the bartender was rude and condescending and horrible, so before we left we tilted the whole bowl of complementary matches into my purse. Mature? Maybe not. Satisfying? I mean, YES. Plus we needed matches!

004. My Amazon order came yesterday, full of Christmasy excitement and happiness. Nothing says Holiday Time like a giant box full of nifty gifties on the stoop.

005. This weekend: gift-wrapping, cookie-baking, Netflix-watching, contacts-getting, coffee-drinking, apartment-tidying, plus Abbey’s Hannukah party and a trip to the Christmas Pops on Monday night.  I am so happy.

Bonus! This song is so nerdy, and I love it so much. I’ve been rocking out to it on Pandora Christmas all week.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5pCDKX1b4g]

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my first-world problems, let me show you them

THREE MORE GIANT BUTTERNUT SQUASH.

Plus twenty more pounds of potatoes and onions and a bunch of red things that appear to be giant radishes. 

I’m showing you these cookies because I cannot bear to show you all my roots. 

I’m going to make muffins. And Sierra says you can make pasta the same way you would make risotto, and because she has never steered me wrong I believe her. Other than that I am at a loss.

Help please.

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You know what?

Let’s say the first four people to comment, instead. Ash, I like you too darn much to leave you out.

That’s it for this round of Pay it Forward: pretty ladies, send me your addresses, please, and I’ll get some goodies to you asap.

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Awesome Girls, and Paying It Forward

Do you guys know Micaela? I found her blog a few months back and I think she is just so glam. She’s always impeccably styled and posts pictures of Brigitte Bardot on her blog and is a member of the Benevolent Postcard Society, which like…come on. You know you wish you were a member of the Benevolent Postcard Society, too. 

Micaela has been lovely and amazing enough to invite me to be a part of the Pay It Forward challenge. Nifty right? The way it works is this: the first three people to comment on this post will get a most excellent present in the mail at some point in the near future (I think the original rules say you’ve got a year to deliver, but I’m going to aim for January)–so long as you promise to post the challenge on your blog and send three presents of your own out there into the world.

You know. Pay it forward. Random acts of kindness. You saw the movie. I saw it on senior retreat in high school and it had all the curses edited out and then we had to tell each other we were sorry for being such wretches all the time, Mean Girls-style.

ANYWAY, so far as I can tell, the presents could be anything at all: a box full of amazing novels from the used book store, a giant jar of honey from the farmer’s market, or a cozy scarf you knit yourself if you are so inclined. COOL RIGHT? 

Right. 

So let’s play!

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hey! that’s as tall as me!

Have you guys seen that commercial? With the lady and the extra tinfoil? Whatever. It just makes me laugh, is all. 

Anyway. One thing about December is all I want to do is cook and bake. My oven is cranked up constantly. My range is always lit. It’s kind of satisfying, that feeling of hunkering down and feeding my family (biological and surrogate both), of spending some time on dinners that are maybe a little bit more special than usual.

Lately: super-easy, super-festive butternut squash risotto (thank you Bethany!), a rather amazing pumpkin sauce (maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, and a giant white pumpkin that has been sitting on my mantle since Columbus Day) drizzled over ice cream and homemade gingersnaps, salty sweet potato fries, a parmesan spinach artichoke dip, and scallops wrapped in bacon. Holiday food, for sure. 

Question: I have a giant pot roast and I want to make it in my crockpot. Can somebody tell me how?

Tonight we’re parking ourselves in front of the Christmas tree with the 5th season of Lost, parmesan-garlic BLTs (featuring Ina’s roasted tomatoes, oh man I am excited) and the last quarter of a chocolate tart I made last night for tree-trimming. While  not a bona fide winner (it was just TOO MUCH, plus I used cheap chocolate and you could tell. I feel like Marissa probably would have seen that one coming), it is a mother effing chocolate tart and I’m not about to let it go to waste. 

Tomorrow: a giveaway of sorts! My very first. Amazing, yes? I kind of think so. Come by and have a look, in any case.

Right now: my boyfriend’s home. I gotta go.

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Derailed.

Got sent home from work on Friday with something that was not quite but sure resembled Swine. Seventy-two hours, an entire bottle of TheraFlu, and many long naps later, I’m feeling way less like a pale, sweaty wretch–but I’d be lying if I said whatever nastiness got in there hadn’t slowed me down a little bit. In the long run, it was probably a good thing: I tend to get kind of rushed and shrill this time of year. Nice to slow down, watch copious amounts of Food Network, and let Tom bring me juice and trashy magazines. 

I missed the first snow of the season entirely (“Real snow?” I wailed, when Tom got home from work on Saturday frozen and soaking wet), but I did manage to tend to some holiday business, including card-making, tree-finding (!!), and getting the last of the root vegetables into various bellies (more on that later)–just in time for our next CSA pickup on Tuesday. 

This week: Monday Funday tree trimming, a couple of overdue catchup lunches and dinners, finally finishing the Butler, sage and walnut quickbreads, and a long-belated birthday cake for A. Plus a nap. Or two. Or three.

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wishes, listed.

Did I talk about this last year? I feel like I must have, I love it so. Oh well. Worth talking about again.

I have these three amazing, far-flung lady friends from college. We used to be neighbors and now we are not. We used to see each other a LARGE AMOUNT and now we see each other a little amount. You know how it is. A lot of things are different, but one thing that has NOT changed is our holiday wish list game.

You guys, this is such a bitchin’ tradition that I would really like to be able to take credit for making it up, but I actually read it online someplace while I was killing time before class my junior (senior?) year. It’s one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, and the way it works is this:

01. Find friends to play. I think it works rather nicely with four people, but I also think it would work rather nicely with four hundred. Depends how popular you are, I reckon.

02. The week after Thanksgiving, everybody writes down ten things they would really, really like this holiday season. Now, to be clear, the point is not to ask for a Cartier a KitchenAid or a BMW. No, the things on this list should be little–and close to free(ish), for the most part.  I want dinner recipes.  Jennie wants the new Oprah. Sierra wants Jennie and Marissa to start watching Lost, and I want Sierra to start a blog of her own. Marissa wants a manicure and the chance to wear a party dress. We all want mix cds. The point here is small and doable and awesome.

03. Swap lists.

04. Grant wishes.

05. Be happy.

Best game ever, right? I thought so.

Here’s hoping you get everything on your list this year, including a happy, happy, happy weekend.

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for december.

sierra and jennie, michigan 08

merry christmas, charlie brown

tree trimming party with fancy cocktails and baby frittatas

sarah mclaughlin’s river and james taylor’s auld lang syne

peppermint mochas in red starbucks cups

holiday pops and dinner with tom

home alone 2, love actually, you’ve got mail

christmas cards into the mail

cookie cutting, pie rolling, and a most excellent christmas cake

game night with tom’s family

showing some donation love to rosie’s place

trying to figure out the church thing

chicken with dumplings and slow cooker pulled pork

stockings, stuffed. family, cuddled.

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