I’m pretty sure the last time we ate at one of the restaurants we were served coffee whitener, but it was half and half today. I’m still unclear what coffee whitener is.

The title of this post is an ode to a former co-worker who talked about a Waffle House in his neck of the woods that always had it’s U unlit.

I know this will pass because I occasionally go through these periods of little sleep. Of course, it would likely help if it weren’t in the 70s with humidity so high our towels don’t quite dry in the mid-December time period. I think my body and my brain are confused. Climate change is real. Trust science.

We are having a small gathering tonight, only five of us. We’ll be running the air filter and perhaps crack the door to the porch. Four of us have been boosted and I’m not sure about the fifth. It’s been a lot this year for all of us. So it is nice to head into the end of this year by hanging out together.

For the actual day, I made a mix tape of songs from 1996. The better-half gave me flowers and chocolate–two things that are pretty spot on. I gave him a 3-D card. These photos are, as usual, lacking.

We started our celebration with fancy cocktails. Well, the glasses were fancy. Amaro and club soda for me and a Manhattan for the better-half.

We haven’t made this dish since 2002-ish, but it has lived large for us for all of these years. It is steamed halibut with herbs over roasted potatoes with a mushroom sauce. It does not look like much, but it tastes so good. The mushroom sauce really needed more than the stick blender and I’m sure that’s exactly what we said a decade ago. Maybe next time we’ll remember to do that to make the sauce more like a sauce.

We had a family Zoom mid-morning and then my parents went home. We watched Wonder Woman 1984. We were less than impressed and a little disappointed. The first movie was so good. This one got lost midway through. Kind of like 2020.

We were at my parents for Christmas dinner and it was a very pleasant evening. We did some reminiscing and talked about current events. Even though my dad is in some stage of dementia, he held his own during the conversation. I have to tell you that as awful as 2020 has been, it has been nice to hang out with my parents all year. Whatever insanity my father had been carrying around for over decade is gone and now he is happy to spend time with us.

I took off a couple of days before Christmas and all of this week. It’s nice to not have to sit in our guest bedroom all day staring at a computer screen. This may be my last post of the year since I’ve been so bad about updating the site. In a complete departure from the rest of the end-of-year posts, I don’t have a list of concerts/shows or even a favorite. There was one show this year and our neighborhood hosted a Porchella in October. If you don’t click the link, it was a live music walk. The weather was amazing that day, the music was wonderful and the joy was real.

Merry Christmas and happy 2021. It’s going to be better.

The weather was beautiful and we ended up opening several windows and ran our Blue air purifier. Safety protocols were on our minds and we are uncertain what Christmas will hold. We were able to Zoom with my sisters and their families.

So the holiday was different, but it was also OK. The better-half and I found a new stuffing recipe and learned how to make a lemon meringue pie. My father got to feel useful by disposing of some concrete we busted up as part of our deck redo and my mother got to relax on a major holiday.

I’ll continue to update this post as I clean up the photos on my phone. I’m not food stylist so keep that in mind.

Apple cider muffin/donut

Mayonaise Chocolate Cake

Lasagna with our own spinach

Breakfast Ramen with cheese and egg

Tofu with chili crisp and roasted green beans

So many pizzas

Dutch Baby with smoked salmon

Yellow squash risotto

Inside-Out Lamb Persillade

Ribollita

Kielbasa, lentils and rice

Got to the appointment early and ate my lunch in the car. In the parking deck. It is August in Virginia. That’s how come I’m at the hottest lunch spot.

I crack myself up.

Peach ice cream!

This is the first time in 4 or 5 years that we’ve made ice cream and I think this is going to be our thing this summer. Because, holy cats.

This isn’t exactly January news, but we learned how easy it is to make Shephard’s pie and I swear that dish needs to be on the regular menu around here. So easy and so delicious. It’s great after being frozen too. So, not only good for a couple of dinners, but also a couple of lunches. For the win.

We also made what my family calls Chicken Divan the other night without some of the items called for in the recipe and it still turned out great. I’m pretty sure everyone agrees that casseroles are the solution to days of frigid temperatures. We’re going to make a pizza quiche tonight for dinner and I can hardly wait.

In other news, there’s a new person starting on my team tomorrow and I’m a wee bit excited about it. No lie, on the day she was offered the position, we saw each other at a not-exactly-mainstream show at The National. Through the grapevine, I learned that this sighting of me at the show made her get off the fence and accept our offer. It pays to be weird sometimes.

Teaser for the other post in January. We’re taking a long weekend in the next couple of weeks. There will at least be some photos posted. Some may question why we are going in the dead of winter and my answer is Because.

My work friend is back at work finally after being out for 14 months and it was really good to see him today. I don’t think he’ll actually do any work this week with all the heart-felt best wishes to him. He’s the entire company’s good luck charm and we’re all so glad to have him back.

The better-half and I canned tomatoes yesterday. We decided to just skin the tomatoes and can them. No seasoning, no cooking, just tomatoes in jars. It was still tiring work. I don’t know how women put up enough food to feed their families back in the day. We do it for the gratification of eating fresh vegetables in the middle of winter, but thinking about row upon row of canned produce in cellars of bygone days is mind blowing. We didn’t even grow these tomatoes.