Holiday Entertainment

Two years ago, Elias and I saw the movie Elf, and laughed our asses off. At the time, I wondered if I liked it so much because I saw it with Elias. We were such a new couple, and every moment with him was a joy (still is). To be sure, last year, we bought the DVD. We enjoyed it as much as we had the year prior. Last night, we watched it again, and guess what? That movie still kills us.

I hearted the scene in which Buddy (played by Will Farrell) drinks 2 liters of cola and burps for like a whole minute. Then he turns to his brother and says, "Did you hear that?"

Also, I liked the part where Buddy keeps calling the asshole, 3-foot tall children's book writer an elf.

Home for the Holidays

I feel weird being in California for the holidays. I feel like I should be in the Northwest with my mom, aunt, and "little" brothers. I made a choice months ago that I would avoid the holiday rush I go through almost every year in which I travel north and stretch myself thin trying to see all my friends and family in the entire state of Washington. Now that I'm with Elias, also from the NW, the stretching gets even more intense. But this morning I woke up feeling bummed out to miss out on a whole bunch of people.

On the bright side, I get to spend Christmas with my stepmom, older brother, Eli, and Pac'a. I don't have to get super cold or deal with hundreds of miles of air, ferry and car travel.

Another bright moment occured when Anna hipped me to a good essay about Christmas.

Finaly, I've been dealing by getting whipped up into a frenzy. I sent cards and gifts, baked cookies (sugar, ginger, and drop), and made homemade toffee.

Recipe from the McKenna/Green family:

Toffee Candy
This is sooo good and easy.

1/2 lb butter
1 cup sugar
T Tbsp water
1 Tbs white corn syrup
1 and 1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 giant chocolate bar (8 oz) broken into smaller pieces or a bag of chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients except chocolate together and cook over high heat, stirring constantly until mixure is a shade deeper than brown sugar (soft crack stage 270 to 275 deg. F.).

Pour on to a buttered cookie sheet. While the candy is still hot, top with chocolate. Spread the chocolate as it melts. Let cool completely. Later break the candy into pieces.

Enjoy the Holidays!

Christian Backlash Season

Thank God for John Stewart who has given me my one and only laugh at the crusade to desecularize the holidays.

I love this quote from The Daily Show: "... every time you say 'Happy Holidays,' an angel gets AIDS."

P.S. to Spleengrrl: I'm not trying to make fun of Christians, just the angels with AIDS.

Gimme Gimme Gimme

This Xmas, I let people (Ed, Elias, my mom, and Aunt Mary) know exactly what I want. Is that tacky? One of Elias's sisters kept asking what I wanted, and I finally gave in and did one of those lists. I got carried away and put a whole bunch of stuff on it. I don't really expect anyone but Elias's sister to use it. But I secretly hope everyone will use it and buy me every last item.

For my birthday way back when, I put a list up here. It didn't really work. The only things I got were items I purchased myself.

I think of my wish list as the wedding registry I'll never have. I told Eli I don't think we should go the traditional route of asking for presents (when we finally have our special day). I'm fine eating off the plates each of us currently has. Together, we'll have a huge supply of forks, chopsticks, and spoons. Who needs new ones? Eli's just fine with my idea because he thinks we can register on Felicity.com for one big thing that our donors can contribute to in amounts of their choosing. He thinks we'll register for a ginormous plasma television. He's cute.

Oh yeah, I'm not saying we're engaged. I'm just saying we talk about getting presents if we get married. We also talk about how I don't want to wear a white dress.

Until then, there's Xmas and my birthday.

Friends, Food, and TV

Special Ed pointed out that I haven't been posting enough lately. I've been storing stuff up in my head, and now I'm ready to put it out there.

My friend Sacha, who was such a pretty bride last summer, turned me on to Chocolate Guinness Cake. It's from Feast by Nigella Lawson and can be found here. It's pretty easy to make and a good thing to take to holiday parties.

Sacha

My version of the cake

Other lovely friends have their own magic to share with the universe.

The good stuff:

Colleen's lego porn;

Xui and his sports;

H17 and his sports;

Speengrrl's review of ANTM; and a

Noteworthy Dirty Dan piece on music and drinking.

The next best thing to friends is TV of course. Besides America's Next Top Model, I'm loving Veronica Mars. It's the best noir being made these days. I get confused at times by the characters and plot, but at least I don't have to make my own chart. UPN has done it for me. On an embarrassing note, I was, once again, near tears at the happily ever after conclusion to this week's Nanny 911.

Food

Thanks to my good friend Sacha, I have eaten fish and chips for the past four days. On Sunday, she and her husband made fish and chips for Eli and me. They got a deep fryer for getting married and wanted to rub our faces in it I guess. Not to be outdone, and to satisfy my ongoing need for grease, I made my own at home on Monday. Living all on my own here in Southern California, I had left-overs for two days. Thus, FOUR DAYS OF FRIED FOOD!!!

(In the photo, you'll see that I made yam fries and hid them under the russets. The fish is catfish, just like Sacha's. The cole slaw is mayo-free and dressed with a little bit of vinegar and salt and pepper. I'll update with a link to Sacha's recipe for matzo cracker crust for the fish as soon as I can find it.)

Now, I'm ready to move on. All I want to eat for the next 4 days is cheese. Specifically, Humboldt Fog.