Topic: What are you eating / What did you eat.

[6pairsofshoes]

We had turkey chili on Xmas eve and a sandwich for Christmas lunch.  The relatives had a huge spread of food and it was a lovely dinner.  Today we are heating up leftovers and grateful that we don't have to cook much after my Xmas eve baking marathon.  3 batches of cookies and some muffins.  I'm thinking of getting a stand mixer as my shoulder complained about manually mixing up all that dough.

Perhaps it's all the food focused activities of the past few days but I feel like taking a mid afternoon nap!

[goldshirt*9]

Eating too much visiting families 

[6pairsofshoes]

Well that's one way of stopping them from visiting again.

Went round to son's family for present distribution:

Glad I didn't have a mouth full of tea when I read that.  And, presumably, these are not food gifts?  You are apparently generous with holiday gifts.

We baked a lot and gave books to the children.  My favorite was The Day the Crayons Quit.  Apparently the red one feels totally exploited and overworked this time of year and he finally just threw in the towel.  I suspect Santa will need to switch outfits soon.  One way to select kids books is to listen to them being read aloud.  Here's a dramatic reading that's worth a listen.

[6pairsofshoes]

Correct, these are non-comestible. The four-year-old just loves two aspects after Christmas: being delivery elf, and unwrapping things. So we wrapped lots, to give her a thrill.

I hope she appreciated your efforts. 

Tea and scones. 

[8ullfrog]

Shortly before christmas my neighbor made me a soup before she left.

Microsoft bing called it "bigos"

It was a broth, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess "pork"
Pork slices that were the size of a deck of cards
potatoes
tomatoes
sour kraut
carroway seeds.

I always whine about not having any idea what to make for dinner, wanting to climb out of a rut, and my neighbor has me beat.

Some of the pork was a bit pinker than I'd like, so I baked it in my convection oven. This made it fall apart. Which was AMAZING.

My mistake was a bright outcome.

I liked that hunter's soup. Mom doesn't eat pork.

[6pairsofshoes]

I've been baking cookies (biscuits).  Today, snickerdoodles and I did mix a batch of Pecan Dainties but I ran out of energy before I could bake the latter.  That's for another day.  The dough usually bakes better when it's cooled for a while anyway.  All of these cookies require rolling into small balls and rolling in sugar before or after baking.  My shoulders aren't what they once were.

[8ullfrog]

I'm out of hamburger buns so I mixed some bbq shredded beef up in a tortilla with some cheese and garlic hot sauce.
It was good.

I'm still not a fan of this fridge, I think I might remove one of the shelves entirely, it has a stupid slide lid.

[6pairsofshoes]

That sounds good and I think it would be better in a tortilla, really.

I made an omelette with sauteed onions, mushrooms and some grated cheddar today.  I put a little dried basil in the eggs.  It wasn't bad.  Now I want a nap.

[6pairsofshoes]

Almond macaroon from a local bakery. This is one reason I'll never leave Earth.  No decent nuts in space.

[8ullfrog]

Tried a few small nacho variations. They sucked. I love nachos but the recipes I tried were all bad.

Thankfully the recipes were all for snack plates and not a full dinner, but wow. I won't even name and shame the site, I think it might have been regurgitated AI nonsense.

[6pairsofshoes]

I love cheese but there's certain melted cheese dishes that I avoid as not being worth the calories.  Nachos, pupusas, fondue -- all fine dishes -- but after a certain age, one has to be more judicious about such indulgences.

Dark chocolate vs nachos?  I'd take the chocolate.  I love good tortilla chips but salsa is as satisfying with many less calories than an equivalent amount of nachos, even with good cheese. 

[6pairsofshoes]

I baked almond muffins last night of 75% almond flour and 25% regular flour.  They turned out well.  The problem is stopping at just one.  We managed but barely.

At least it's an excuse to turn on the oven.  Our heat works well but the utility bills have been exorbitant.  I sure hope spring comes early this year.

[smokester]

I baked almond muffins last night of 75% almond flour and 25% regular flour.  They turned out well.  The problem is stopping at just one.  We managed but barely.

At least it's an excuse to turn on the oven.  Our heat works well but the utility bills have been exorbitant.  I sure hope spring comes early this year.

I came up with the idea at the beginning of the energy crisis, to put a fire brick in the bottom of the oven when we bake and then tong it out onto a stand in the middle of a room to harvest all that stored heat. Haven't got round to bringing home a firebrick from my site yet. probably be summer again by the time I think of it.

[6pairsofshoes]

That firebrick idea is a good one.  My old stove has a series of vents on the side that were intended to heat the house.  The local power company guy disabled it as a fire hazard when he visited for an "energy audit."  There was an entire control knob that was related to this function.  I never knew what it was for.  Glad I never experimented with it.

I just baked scones in the new oven.  Those are breakfast for tomorrow.  The new oven doesn't really heat the house at all.  Electric pilots so no continual fire burning.  I guess that makes it safer and more efficient.