Had a nice little breakfast of herring and onions in wine sauce with some cottage cheese and a bowl of blueberries and a triple espresso latte, and I got the pork and sauerkraut for dinner sitting in a beer marinating and the beans simmering, and am ready to just veg in front of the tv all day.
What are you all up to? I love days like these when I have NOTHING on the agenda.
mrmoshpotato
Twilight Zone marathon at the moment while waiting to get snowed in.
Starboard Tack
Finishing watching the Thin Man movies I recorded last night and shoveling snow.
jeffreyw
PsiFighter37
Did some food shopping, otherwise quiet morning. Wife and daughter are both napping; I got a nap in earlier…staying up until midnight is a nonstarter these days. Gray and rainy here in Manhattan, so I anticipate the afternoon will be more staying inside.
Suzanne
Just did yoga class and took my vitamins and now about to have a kale salad.
Yes, I hate the adult I have become.
Chief Oshkosh
Enjoying the sun and catching up on some work-work (just the interesting stuff). Plan to go help a friend with an outdoor project later today, setting up an outdoor heater and a fire pit so that the unvaxxed members of his family (¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) can visit with him outdoors.
debbie
I’m hoping a dinner of steamed cabbage, smoked sausage, and potatoes brings me a bit of luck.
William D
just turned on the slow-cooker filled with a beef roast with carrots, onions, bean with bacon soup, and of course black-eyed peas…kind of a new years day tradition.
our kitchen sink and dishwasher are temporarily off line, so I will probably visit my mother-in-law today with some boxes of dirty dishes to wash — hopefully not a new years day tradition
in response to your previous post, I would like to add my gratitude to you for starting and sustaining this blog and for Watergirl, Anne, and all the other front pagers for making this an essential part of my daily routine and keeping my sanity. Wishing everyone a 2022 that builds on the good stuff of last year and purges the bad stuff.
HeleninEire
I too have nothing to do until Monday at 8am. So I am doing nothing. Certainly nothing productive. Just sat down at my favorite brunch spot. Eggs Benedict and a 1/2 carafe of white wine. I’ll most likely continue binging The Marvelous Mrs. Mazel when I get home. I’m at the end of season 2 and while I LOVED it at first it’s sorta getting grating. But I will continue on if only because some scenes (I think in the next season) were filmed here in my neighborhood. It’ll be fun to see that.
Happy New Year!
Ruckus
Getting ready to go out for my daily 2 mile briskish walk. Sun is out, it’s 58 degrees, shorts weather.
Later!
Frankensteinbeck
The brother I get along with best is in town, so I’ll probably see him this evening. I edited Wild Children yesterday to clean up the bad writing habits from it being my first book. I need to send that in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I didn’t grow up with any NYD foods for good luck traction. I understand in the south it’s black-eyed peas, ham and greens? Is cabbage and/or beans (or any old legumes?) traceable to any geographic area? Eastern Europe?
Another Scott
I spent some time this morning looking at Archive.org and Google’s image search, trying to find a better version of the Balloon Man and Balloon. And had some success! I passed them on to WaterGirl.
I hope Mister Papercut is still around to take credit!
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
Squirrels are chasing each other up and down a tree outside.
Ken
My friends and family would ban me from visiting until three days after all fermentation had ceased.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: Balloon Man?
SFBayAreaGal
Been watching the WHOville Marathon, and rewatching the extended version of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
It’s a beautiful cool, sunny day here. More rain coming next week.
Starboard Tack
@Starboard Tack: If I get ambitious and hungry enough later, I’ll sous vide and reverse sear a Denver Cut I have in the freezer with pan fried broccoli and boiled new potatoes.
James E Powell
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
My Bohemian grandmother insisted on pork roast, sauerkraut w/caraway seeds (that’s right, Omnes), and dumplings.
dsc
75 right now here in middle tennessee, up here on the Cumberland. Supposed to be snowing tomorrow night. Won’t stick as the ground is way too warm. I’m a bit worried about my apple trees as it was in the 50 and 60s for the past two weeks.
Just back from walking the pack of 7, from a snoodle up to rottie-pyranees mix (thank the stars she got the rottie coat). Eating leftover tamales and watching M:Rev.
John, if you have not yet watched Tig Nataro’s One Mississippi. A gentled trip though the madness and confusion of living in the South.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Thanks!
Such a happy, catchy tune (as long as one doesn’t listen to the lyrics too closely).
Cheers,
Scott.
geg6
Just getting ready to put the pork and sauerkraut, onions and apples into the oven for a low and slow cook. Mashed potatoes with sour cream and chives and carrots roasted in honey, butter and olive oil for the sides. This was traditional NYD food in my family.
ETA: Forget to mention the kielbasa cooked in the sauerkraut along with the pork!
Starboard Tack
@dsc: Homemade tamales?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@James E Powell: Heh. You reminded me of my last big pre-Covid trip. Vienna>> Budapest>> Prague…. I don’t think I saw a green vegetable for ten days
JoyceH
@HeleninEire: I watched the first two seasons of Mrs M. but at the end of season 2 she made the EXACT same mistake she made in season 1, which made me too exasperated to continue.
AJ
Elder Scrolls online!
Was on sale for 6 bucks and so far I like it enough to spend the customary $15 for quality of life and convenience perks for a month.
Incredibly helpful, generous community and you can be in multiple guilds which makes so much sense now that I’m doing it – ofc no one guild will do all the things that players may want.
Happy New Year everyone, ty for helping me stay sane. Ish.
MagdaInBlack
To me, herring has the taste and texture of pickled furballs. Please have my share ?
Eta: There’s kid out playing in the snow already.
realbtl
I’m watching Help! which I saw in 1965 when I was (gulp) 16. Interesting watching after being exposed to the Pythons, the Monkees, batman etc. Richard Lester directing, quite fun.
RaflW
Took my 14 y.o. niece snowboarding yesterday for a few hours. We had a simple but tasty dinner last night and the BF managed to encourage me to stay up until 12:01 a.m. for a New Year smooch.
Today it’s gloomy, windy and cold. We’re watching the ice blow around on the lake, and looking forward to home cooked salmon dinner tonight.
TKH
Another dark and rainy day in Honolulu. We could use the rain, but really does it have to be every day all day?
Tonight’s dinner party is moving to my friends’ house from mine. Their dogs got freaked out by the Beirut/Mogadishu sound scape last night. My place is too small to accommodate those beasts.
Fennel, radicchio and endive salad, vegetable tagine and poached pears with creme anglaise is on the menu.
Thanks to JC for founding this oasis on the tubes, to WG for keeping it running from the machine room and the other FPers for their wit and dedication.
CaseyL
I have perfected Doing Nothing so well that I only have today and tomorrow to finish assembling a planter box and transplanting a bunch of winter-dormant strawberries, and also splitting up Mama Amaryllis from Baby Amaryllis. Then if I get that done, there’s also re-arranging my glass studio to improve the work area, including setting up a light box purchased last week.
That’s a lot of work for someone who’s very, very good at Doing Nothing!
germy
HinTN
@Starboard Tack: Yes, to the first, although the writing deteriorates with each successive edition. No, to the second. It’s 74F here and I’m ensconced in the hammock digesting the traditional black eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
New Year, fresh sheets. Carpets vacuumed. Floor mopping (in full tactical gear!) imminent.
Excitement?
dnfree
I’m making this vegetarian hoppin’ John recipe from Parade magazine some years back. It’s quick to fix and tasty. To make it even simpler I use frozen brown rice, which costs about $1 at the grocery store and cooks in four minutes. Happy New Year!
https://parade.com/31619/katielee/katie-lees-hoppin-john/
Anyway
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I didn’t grow up with any NYD foods either but it appears that black-eyed peas and collards are southern US tradition, pork with sauerkraut Easter European and lentils Italian.
My personal tradition is champs…
ian
Remember that you have to eat the blueberry from the stem side up. If you eat the blueberry from the other way, the blueberry will explode in your face and possibly cause hemorrhoids.
zhena gogolia
@realbtl: When it came out I sat in the theater and watched it straight through twice. My love for John knew no bounds.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: Odd, I don’t recall ever indicating that I have an issue with caraway seeds in sauerkraut. I am not a fan of rinsing it until the flavor is gone, but that is about as far as I go in being dogmatic on the subject.
HinTN
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That was … interesting, both sonically and visually. Thanks
HinTN
@dsc: Flowering trees are becoming very confused. I hope this plunge straightens them out without injury.
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Getting ready to watch Duke and then the Warriors and putting a marinated pork shoulder into the oven for a long slow bake.
Thanks to Cole and the front pagers – I don’t post much but learn so much here.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like to tell the story of the “salad” I got in Munich. “Wurstsalat” turned out to be a huge pile of sliced wurst with a little bit of cabbage stirred in.
MisterForkbeard
If you’d like some combination of schadenfreude and despair, look at this collection of Q/Trump folks talking about their favorite moments in 2021. They’re almost all delusional and it’s a weird combination of entertaining and just sad to read: https://www.reddit.com/r/Qult_Headquarters/comments/rtkc3o/and_then_they_all_clapped/
I’m taking the kids over to their grandparents today for pizza and to hang out with a cousin they never get to see. Everyone’s vaxxed + boosted and it’s going to be a good time and a great way to start the year.
Suzanne
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: YESSSSS. Same thing happened to me in Munich. I ordered a salad and they brought a bowl of sausage with a few leaves in it. I think mine were spinach. I ate nothing but vegetables for about a week when I got home.
PST
@James E Powell: It’s been some time since I had sauerkraut with caraway seed, but I picked up a nice big jar of a Polish brand last week and I’m looking forward to having some today with pork of some kind. I’ve been eating a lot of kraut lately since going on a full keto diet. It can be tough to get enough roughage when you abandon carbohydrates.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Well so far (checks time) 15 hours into 2022 I’m keeping at least one resolution.
I’ve had this weird lack of focus in lockdown, I seem unable to read a book. I’ve taken months on some books, and I go days without reading anything that’s not on a computer screen.
So I resolved to read more, and I’ve spent most of the last 24 hours immersed in a Dean Koontz re-read. Nice to remember what that feels like.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Suzanne: Well, I asked in my very basic German, “Is this a green salad with wurst?” I knew the answer was no, but that’s all I understood of the answer. So I ordered it anyway.
raven
Black-eye peas, collards and game hens
eta I use smoked turkey necks instead of swine.
randy khan
Slept a little bit later than usual, watched some Rose Parade, watched some football, probably will catch a bit of the Rose Bowl (as per family tradition, particularly with tOSU in the game), otherwise mostly boring domestic stuff like laundry, ironing, and cleaning the cooktop (which hasn’t been done since, oh, the Before Times, so it’s going to be a multi-stage process).
eclare
I am also perfecting the art of doing nothing. Watching Hacks, Jean Smart is perfect in the role. Highly recommend. HBO Max.
Sure Lurkalot
Easy dinner tonight…shrimp wrapped in prosciutto, maybe some pasta, salad. The much needed snow in Colorado has stopped but it’s in the single digits so too cold to be out for wimpy ass me. Should get above freezing tomorrow.
JoyceH
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: For some reason, the past month or so I’ve been binge rereading Agatha Christie. Not sure what that’s all about. I have some intriguing looking new books I could read, but instead going back to these books I’ve read multiple times over the past fifty years.
raven
@eclare: That’s Laraine Newman’s daughter Hannah Einbinder too.
Starboard Tack
@HinTN: That’s true. None of the sequels have the snap of the original, even though the first three plots were from Hammet.
LiminalOwl
@James E Powell: Of course sauerkraut requires caraway seeds. Did someone question that? Mmmmmmm
Miss Bianca
Had pumpkin pudding for lunch today, with homemade whipped cream. Because when you’re a grown-up no one can tell you not to have dessert for lunch.
Other than that, not a lot of plans. Off upstairs to light the upstairs wood stove, and get started after that on two of my resolutions – more exercise and more fiddle playing. Got a nice little slab of tuna thawing in the fridge, wondering whether to cook it lightly or sushi-style it. Ah, decisions, decisions…
JMG
One of my many sisters-in-law (Alice was oldest of 11 children) sent us a lobster pie as a Christmas present. We took it out of the freezer for tonight’s dinner. Changing the channel from football game to football game is taxing the energy I have today to the utmost. Champagne at midnight SOUNDS like a good idea, but it wasn’t.
eclare
@raven: Interesting, thanks! Everyone is good, and the writing is first rate.
eclare
@raven: Also excellent disposal of Michigan yesterday.
narya
I’ve finally turned the oven off: 3 whole wheat sourdough baguettes, a loaf of rye, and nearly two dozen pretzel rolls came out of it. One baguette has been demolished, with three different cheeses, some summer sausage, a perfectly ripe pear, black-eyed peas with some ham (the ham is my grandmother’s tradition; I’ve adopted the black-eyed peas as one as well), apple/cranberry chutney, venison cherry sticks, and cookies. Friend is watching All the Games. I intend to do a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the day–maybe join the BJ zoom later!
eclare
@narya: Your post makes me tired just reading it!
Cowgirl in the Sandi
Boo Duke game cancelled. Damn this virus!
mrmoshpotato
@eclare: I would argue Michigan disposed of themselves.
debbie
@germy:
Heh. By 9:30, I’d blown my resolution and come up with a whole new one.
mrmoshpotato
@narya:
Wow. When do you start baking this morning?
raven
@mrmoshpotato: Shit, give it up. They were totally outclassed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I drove to work this morning so that I could store my camera there and get shots of the B-2 as it made it’s turn to fly over Colorado Blvd in Pasadena(didn’t get any pics, we were busy). As I got there, I noticed the Manager on Duty at the front door that had pallets of concrete blocks up against the door. He asked me to move my car to face the door and turn my headlights on. He said he was going into the store and if he came out with his apron on, we could enter the store, if he came out without his apron on, call the Glendale Police.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA: What does that mean?
eclare
@?BillinGlendaleCA: What!
MagdaInBlack
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Does this mean he got there and found the doors open? I assume he was going in to see if anyone was in there.
mrmoshpotato
@raven: Read what I wrote again. Not only did the Dawgs beat the hell out of them, Michigan didn’t show up to play.
Mj_Oregon
Making pasta a fagioli aka pasta fazool if you’re from NY/NJ/PA for dinner shortly after watching the Rose Parade this morning. Disappointed that the Mummers Parade in Philly was postponed until tomorrow but it wouldn’t be fun to march in the rain so I’ll try to remember it’s on tomorrow. Here’s the recipe I use for my pasta fazool
narya
@mrmoshpotato: I had made the baguettes over the past two days; they just needed to warm up and proof a bit more. I made a soaker and starter for the rye bread yesterday, so that just needed to be mixed and then raise twice. The pretzel rolls were more of a chore, but not too bad. One of the side effects of having worked at the bakery for two years–even though that was now nearly 15 years ago (!!)–is that I know how to “stack” the tasks so that I’m not doing much standing around. Start to finish, it probably took me 3-4 hours today? At most?
cmorenc
@TKH:
I was sympathetic that you are enduring a “dark and rainy day” on NYD until I got to “in Honalulu”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@narya:
this reminds me of when I looked up a recipe for pretzel rolls a couple of years ago, and quickly realized it was beyond by capacity
mrmoshpotato
@Mj_Oregon: Good ol’ Chef John!
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: @James E Powell:
What would sauerkraut be without caraway seeds?
mrmoshpotato
@narya: Excellent. And I sure the house smells awesome. ???
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia:
@eclare:
@MagdaInBlack: It meant that if he saw evidence that someone either was in the store, or had been in the store. Normally the store has staff there 24/7, this was one of the days it didn’t.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
Caraway seed-less sauerkraut.
And now I want some bigos. Mmmmmmm bigos.
opiejeanne
@jeffreyw: I’m letting the filling for potstickers get to know each other for a while in the fridge, as well as the mixture for the eggnog ice cream.
They don’t actually go together in a meal, but we had the ingredients for both just sitting there in the fridge.
Betty Cracker
Good God, man!
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And what happened?
narya
@mrmoshpotato: Mmmm, yes! Tomorrow’s big decision will be whether to use one of the baguettes or some of the pretzel rolls for the venison cheesesteaks. I think it’ll be a baguette . . . with caramelized onions and some perfectly ripe camembert cheese.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They’re not all that difficult, just a pain because of the boiling step. I made a huge batch today, because I had so much sourdough starter I needed to use up–but, because they ARE fiddly, it’s actually worthwhile to make a huge batch and then freeze them.
I will also note that last night’s meal was cioppino–made with cod, spot prawns, and crab, as well as turkey “base” (pan drippings, onions, wine, spices) from the 2020 turkey, the last of the turkey stock, and a half a jar of tomatillo salsa from the farm share. The salsa gave it just enough kick, and I used up THREE things. The freezer is still jam-packed, however, and now I have pretzel rolls to add to it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’m spending the day measuring the runout on the new bellhousing/transmission for our Mustang so I can align it with the engine. Gotta keep that input bearing alive! The new kitten has made peace with the Big Cat and they’ve even played a bit. His Uncle Morty is still holding out a bit because he’s family. I think. My wife is knitting and dreading the return to the retail world tomorrow, where she has to deal with Ugly Americans all day long.
Back to lying on my back under the car, turning my crank. :)
dnfree
@realbtl: When “She was Just Seventeen” came out, I was…just seventeen.
zhena gogolia
I tried to join the Zoom but they didn’t let me in.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: He came out with his apron on.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I do not have the ability to search your past comments, but you objected strongly to the inclusion when this very same subject came up some years ago.
Kevin M
Watched City beat Arsenal 2-1 this morning (recorded, no way I was waking up at 6:30 am Central to watch it live). Very entertaining game.
Making various treats/snacks for one last hurrah of the holiday season and watching my hometown Blues hopefully beat the Wild in the Winter Classic in Minnesota.
Hope everyone is doing well. This holiday season is the closest we’ve been to COVID and even being vaccinated and boosted it’s a little unnerving.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: On New Year’s Day? I was probably either too hungover or not hungover enough.