The Sandwich Life

Coughing, Pernil, Hoppin John and Kevin Gordon: The New Year Awaits

I've been rather quiet because I've pretty much been spending all my time lying on the couch, reading and coughing. Had to cancel all my weekend plans. I seem to be getting better albeit slowly. I'm still coughing up a storm but not as congested....I'm thinking that's progress. I'm planning a quiet NYE but then New Year's Day will be lovely....come on out and celebrate the year with us and Kevin Gordon. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! Oh, and please note, if you haven't paid yet, just bring cash....$20 per person. I usually prefer PayPal but the holiday complicates things so just cash this time please! I'm going to order posters soon so let me know if you want one (if you haven't already). I made a test run of Hoppin John and it was pretty good. Of course that could be a bad thing....sometimes then it never turns out as well. I'll give it a try though. Feel free to bring some New Year's foods....we could use some greens to go with the Hoppin John I'm thinking..... Mostly though, just bring yourself!

I had a couple of people request the pernil recipe I made for our Christmas party and am just now getting around to posting it. I'm not the hugest Mark Bittman fan but he's good for recipes like this that are basically impossible to ruin! It is a long and slow dish....and make sure you use pork shoulder---pork loin would get dried out. Either Boston butt or a picnic roast will work and they're relatively inexpensive cuts of meat which is why I end up using them for big gatherings. They're cheap, they're easy and are done ahead of time so there's no last minute fussing. Three requirements in my book!

Pernil
Puerto Rican Roast Pork

from the Minimalist by Mark Bittman/New York Times

Time: At least 3 hours

1 pork shoulder, 4 to 7 pounds (or use fresh ham)

4 or more cloves garlic, peeled

1 large onion, quartered

2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or 1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ancho or other mild chili powder (I didn't have this so used aleppo pepper and a bit of smoked paprika if I recall correctly)

1 tablespoon salt (I like to salt the meat about a day ahead of time...I think it helps season it throughout. If you do that cut this amount of salt back by half or more)

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil as needed

1 tablespoon wine or cider vinegar

Lime wedges for serving.

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Score meat's skin with a sharp knife, making a cross-hatch pattern. Pulse garlic, onion, oregano, cumin, chili, salt and pepper together in a food processor, adding oil in a drizzle and scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is pasty. (Alternatively, mash ingredients in a mortar and pestle.) Blend in the vinegar.

2. Rub this mixture well into pork, getting it into every nook and cranny. Put pork in a roasting pan and film bottom with water. Roast pork for several hours (a 4-pound shoulder may be done in 3 hours), turning every hour or so and adding more water as necessary, until meat is very tender. Finish roasting with the skin side up until crisp, raising heat at end of cooking if necessary. (ours was 7 lbs and we cooked it 5 hours..just depends how falling apart you want it)

3. Let meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes before cutting it up; meat should be so tender that cutting it into uniform slices is almost impossible; rather, whack it up into chunks. Serve with lime.

We had two six pound roasts which we did at the same time....I think we left them in about six hours. They're cooked much earlier but you want to leave them in until they are almost falling apart. We did a 7 lb one separately and it took about 5 hours I believe. If you were at the party you know we served it with yellow rice (just rice with some annatto seed oil) and Val's wonderful black beans. I had some lime wedges too....squeezed a few over it before putting it out. It is NOT a lean piece of meat so it's not really good room temperature....that's why I left it in the crock pot at low.

  

 

Waiting for the New Year and Kevin Gordon

Chicken stock is bubbling on the stove. Ernie and Owen are at Gamestop so Owen can attempt to sell enough old games to purchase a new game. Leo is cackling upstairs with some online friends. It's beginning to get dark but the sky is clear. Old Christmas music is playing in the other room.

I've still got this damned chest cold thing going on. We were supposed to be at a party tonight but cancelled because I fear I will tucked into bed well before party time. I MUST get better.....Kevin Gordon and New Year's is coming. I will persevere...and the smell of the chicken stock must surely have some healing powers.

I can't wait to have Kevin here. He's a lovely guy with a serious heartfelt voice, a fighting guitar, and the smile of the little boy he must have been. I'm crazy about him...and his music is powerful and cleansing....the perfect thing for the New Year.

Oh, and please note: for this show only please do not Paypal...please bring CASH. $20 per person (all goes to Kevin), $3 for a poster. Thanks!!

Watch BOTH of these now.....ok?

 

 

Kevin will be solo at our house this time but I imagine he'll still have people on their feet. Can't wait.

The Capture

Christmas morning.

We had agreed on 5:45 as the earliest allowable wake up time.

We ended up with 5:15

Here's Owen in shock as he realized that we had weakened and bought him a ridiculously expensive Christmas gift,

and Leo as he opened a hardcore history of the  Union Pacific,

Owen, as he complained about the brightness of the flash,

Opening stockings, without the flash,

A little Christmas madeira in honor of my father, who always served Christmas morning madeira in his antique wineglasses,

My new Christmas tree for the mantel from Millie Gerard!

the aftermath,

View from the couch, with a fire in the fireplace as dawn arrives,

Best tourtiere I've made in a long time....making the filling of onion, ground pork and beef, chopped onion and lots of cinnamon and cloves....

And now the 12 days of Christmas begin....

That silver bell above was my mother's favorite ornament when she was growing up. I think it said Merry Christmas on it, or something like that. When she was living in Boston, before she was married, my grandmother and my uncle (who was a good bit younger than my mother) decided to send it to her. My grandmother decided to wash it....and all the decoration came off. Great hysteria ensued but eventually my grandmother covered it with silver glitter and sent it off. My mother was kinda like me, in that she liked to watch the kids put on ornaments rather than put them on herself, but that ornament she always put on the tree herself.

There's more to write about Christmas day (a good glazed ham, great scalloped potatoes, more coughing, a neti pot, naps on the couch, fire in the fireplace all day, and the boys even brought in firewood with nary a complaint) but those pictures pretty much capture it all.

Merry Christmas with love.

Coughs and Christmas and Friends

I can't believe I didn't write a post yesterday.....but I'm still coughing so much at night that I spent much of yesterday curled up with my coughdrops and kleenex, basking in that post Fats and Kristi Rose Christmas glow. Saturday night was indeed a glorious night however and I am still feeling the glow today. After five holiday house concerts Fats and Kristi Rose really ARE Christmas for us now. I couldn't possibly love those two more---they are very, very dear to us. We are so fortunate to have them as beloved friends. Thanks to ALL that shared this night with us. Send me all your pictures....crappy cell phone  pictures included! I always battle with myself....do I just glory in the moment or do I try to take pictures and video? I went for glorying in the moment but now I wish I had more pictures!!!

Last night as I was somehow making the kitchen smoky from roasting a big old chicken at 500 degrees, Ernie called me into the living room. Standing there was our friend Linda, holding a beautiful basket of treats. She said they had hoped to make the Christmas party but the weather had kept them away. She and Becky read my blog and had read about my love of the Betty Crocker Cooky Book and longing for the Christmas Bells. LOOK what they sent me!!

The BELLS that I said looked impossible to me! Aren't they gorgeous? And IN a beautiful dish, AND a tin of pizelles (YES) AND a wonderful Santa cookie cutter and recipe and picture of her Mom in a Santa hat, this is the first year she hasn't made the Santa cookies but she looks darn jaunty in her Santa hat. I tell you, after she left and I read the card and letter from them and looked at the cookies, I just cried. I can't even explain it....but I just cried. I was so touched....truly heart touched. Somehow so many things were wound up in that perfect gift, my mom, the hours spent turning the pages of that Cooky Book as a child, missing my Mom but feeling loved by friends, the care and kindness of it all. I can't properly articulate it but I just cried. Happy tears as I assured the boys....happy tears.

Thank you Linda and Becky...with all my heart.

Thank you Fats and Kristi Rose....with all my heart.

Thank you to all that came, all the glorious food and drink, all the hugs and all the laughter, all the beautiful, beautiful music, the sound of Kristi Rose's voice, the beautiful tone of Fats' fiddle. Thank you all so very, very much for making it Christmas in our home and in our hearts.

And now if Owen (and Leo in a quieter way) can only hold himself together til Christmas morning....he alternates between joy and utter angst that it is so far away......

Merry Christmas all. Merry Christmas!

all the Christmas party dates....

 

someone forgot their keys....does this look familiar?

 

The next day Ernie said "there's an EMI box in the bathroom" and I thought 'no wonder that looked so familiar." A little bit of Record Service used to transport a hot dish. Thanks Phil!

Getting Ready.....Slow but Hopefully Steady....

Yep, this is what our house looked last night. Hopefully it will look better by the time people get here. There's always hope.

Candlelight is generally forgiving though, so there's always that. I'm hoping the rain stays as rain and doesn't ice up for people. The pernil is in the oven and smells delightful if nothing else. I'll make yellow rice later and Val is bringing black beans. Cookies are made, and we just took a break to watch Rod Picott, Wild Ponies and Amy Speace singing their December songs on Stage it. I sent Ernie off to the store to get me cough drops and mucinex as the cold I thought I was zipping through has decided to stay and torment me. Sleep has been impossible the last two nights. As soon as I put my head on the pillow it's cough.....doze....cough....blow nose....doze....cough....twist and turn....cough....etc. I should be exhausted and/or tipsy tonight so hopefully it will be better!

Do watch this....  Oh, oh, oh....and you can get their ep as a download so you can listen to it in time for this year's Christmas!

 

Random Notes from the Christmas Sandwich Life

1. Someone left the toilet seat up so I sat in cold wetness first thing this morning. However the boys are being so cheerful that I'm not yelling at anybody. Right now they are arguing over who has more international friends online.

2. It's very interesting listening to Owen talk to people online when he's playing games. Over the sounds of our Christmas music his voice sails into the living room, "If a guy loves a guy, or a girl loves a girl, there is nothing wrong with that. You should just be happy for them and so you shouldn't use that word like it's a bad thing." Lord that boy just keeps fighting that battle.....I couldn't love him more. I'm proud of my sweet peas. They are certainly their own men, my sweet good-hearted boys. I'm glad they don't always take the easy path but I know they sometimes pay the price for that....as we all do.

3. Today? Lunch with my husband and then home to clean and bake cookies (probably mostly bake cookies). Tomorrow we get up and start roasting pork and swishing dust around. Can't wait. There's still lots of room so don't hesitate to join us. The Christmas party is special and we would love to have new friends mixed in with the old. Personally, I'm a great coward about going to parties but I encourage you to not be like me....and join us!!! You don't even have to let us know ahead of time....just come and introduce yourself!

4. The very day I posted about the Betty Crocker Cooky Book, we went into the infusion suite at the Cancer Center and lo and behold a cookie right from its pages!

5. In further Cooky Book anecdotes, last night I walked over to  my cookbook shelf and grabbed the cook book to check a recipe temperature. Ernie looked at me and said, "Oh, do we have two copies of that book?" I looked at him puzzled and then realized I was holding a copy and there was also a copy on the peninsula (our version of a kitchen island). Just the other day I had told my sister Debbie that I though I had my mother-in-law's copy, that I didn't know what had happend to Mom's. I was certainly wrong....just shows how garbled family history and such can get. Ernie immediately said that his mother's copy was probably better than ours. I checked the one I was holding and it said 1963, third edition. He checked his and it said fourth edition. "SEE? Ours is older than yours" he chortled. Then I paged through the copy I had and found recipes in my grandmother's handwwriting so I was able to yell, "No, THIS is ours....ours is older!" Then he complained, "oh, you always win" "No, I don't" "Yes, you do" "No, I don't" "Yes, you do" and so on. These are the scintillating conversations that go on in our little world.

6. I think our trees are particularly beautiful this year, but then again, I think that every year. Here are some of my favorite ornaments, including our rare Bohemia ornament.

Christmas Time's A Coming!

It's been a busy week and I've been down with a cold. I have been sick TOO much this fall. I'm hoping to rally in the New Year. I'm tired of this!

Monday afternoon we met with the new oncologist and felt pretty good about it. I'd seen him a long time ago with my mother and then again with my sister and remembered him as being very kind and just seeming very sharp. We talked about taking Ernie off his monthly infusion. We'll see because his psa results came back after the appointment as being slightly up. That did not make me happy but it is still very low so....we'll see. He also sent him to have a bone scan and put him on calcium. We got back in January and will take it from there. Overall I felt good about him so there's that!

Saturday is the Christmas party!!!! It is creeping up on us. When we first started having house concerts I would make elaborate to do lists for the week of the party....with numerous tasks for each day. That seems to have worn off....now we kind of shrug and say, "Well, we've got the day of the party to pick up....."

 Don't forget to pay up....links at the top right of this page!

  

Merry Christmast from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book

When I was a kid I could sit and look at the Betty Crocker Cookie Book for hours. I would choose my favorite cookie from each page and would imagine what they would taste like. Every Christmas I would comb through the Christmas section aching to have somebody make those bell shaped cookies. Now I look at that and think 'no freaking way would those every come out like that' but it all seemed possible then.

I pulled it out to look at it over the weekend and it all came back to me. I remembered that my favorite Christmas cookie, Cranberry Drops, is from that cookbook. I won't make those till close to the weekend as they're best freshly made.

I don't know why I'm in Christmas cookie mode this year. We did more Cynthia baking over the weekend, in which I peruse recipes, gather ingredients and then tell Ernie what to do. It's really quite delightful. Yesterday as we made Char's Extremely Neurotic Crescent Cookies, Mel's Cappucino Thins, Judi's Shortbread Cookies and Mae's Rum Balls. They're not all baked yet but the dough is made. We listened to Otis Gibb's Christmas podcast as we did it along with assorted Christmas music...

Click below for Otis Gibbs' Christmas podcast featuring Ray Wylie Hubbard, Gretchen Peters, Jon Dee Graham, Kim Richey, Chuck Mead and Phil Kaufman sharing their favorite Christmas memories. Otis tells a few Christmas stories of his own and plays a recording he made ten years earlier of him driving two drunk friends home from the bar on Christmas Eve. 

 

And then a random Christmas song that I love....

 

Random Notes from the Sandwich Life

1. Bottle Rockets. Rock and fucking roll. I love those boys. Brian Henneman has one of those voices that can grab at your heart. They sounded great. Of course I like them BEST in my living room but this was absolutely wonderful despite my ears feeling like cottage cheese afterward.

2. Otis Gibbs....it was the first time we'd seen him and just as I thought we might, we loved him. Hopefully we'll have him for a house concert some time next year.

3. No wine at the Highdive. I asked for a chardonnay and the bartender said she'd have to check. She went off and I sighed to Ernie about chardonnay just not being cool these days. Then she came back and said they had NO wine. "NO wine?" Nope. I asked if wine were just incredibly unhip and she said no, they'd just had a lot of parties. I was flummoxed. I looked up, I looked down, I looked at Ernie. They told me not to rush. I finally asked for Jameson's on the rocks. Tasted good but gave me a headache. All for the want of a cheap chardonnay. Sigh.

4. I have no desire to go out of the house today. Well, maybe into the yard to admire a snow creation of Owen's but other than that...no. By all rights we should do some Christmas shopping but the thought of North Prospect horrifies me right now. Yesterday we slipped and slid our way to the farmers' market and then I headed into work about 10:30 and worked til 5:00. Ernie picked me up, we had a drink at Fries and Peanuts and then headed to the Highdive...Jameson's...Otis Gibbs....Bottle Rockets....assorted hugs and hellos....nasty good gyros and fries from a drive-thru since I hadn't eaten since breakfast and then sleep. Do NOT want to leave the house today!

5. I spend too much on Christmas presents for the guys. It's not MY fault....blame my parents....they always spent too much on me! See how I can rationalize? Because....they are such very, very good boys. Such good, sweet hearts those boys have.

6. I think it was my friend Angie Patton that told me about this hairbrush....the wetbrush, that's supposed to help with detangling wet hair. As you may know, this household has, ahem, a great amount of hair and getting it brushed out is sometimes a massive event that needs coordinated battle plans, shifting front lines....war is hell in other words.... I mentioned the brush to Leo and every so often he would say, "hey, weren't you going to get me that brush?" So I finally added it to an Amazon order of various Christmas presents and lo and behold, it really helps. Who'd a thunk it? You still have to work through some snarls but it really does seem better than the brushes we had....which looked pretty similar. So thank you as always to the lovely Angie!

Don't look too closely at the above picture....I tried to retouch the spots that showed that the sink needs to be cleaned....

7. Ernie and Owen frolicing yesterday. They even boldly ventured into the field. Nobody shot at them so we think nobody noticed.

8. It's going to be a busy week this week. I work two evening and we need to do the shopping we're not doing today and then the Christmas party is SATURDAY! Don't forget to pay up and let me know if you want a poster ($3 extra). The links for making a reservation and info are up at the top right of this page. I can't wait!!!

 

Spice Cookies on a Snowy Evening

We made up this cookie dough last weekend (and by 'we' I mean Ernie) and it's been sitting in the refrigerator since. Last night I had to work and got home in the midst of the snow coming down, but Ernie had baked some of these cookies and I convinced him to put a fire in the fireplace. A delightful evening and I LOVE these cookies. They are VERY spicy...using a whole two tablespoons of cloves and molasses. You have to like spices but if you do, you will love these.

Lauren's Spice Cookies
Gourmet  | February 1990
by Lauren J. Diamond: Mt. Vernon, New York

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup dark molasses

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 tablespoons ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground mace

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together the oil, the molasses, 1 cup of the sugar, and the eggs until the mixture is smooth. In a bowl stir together the flour, the baking soda, the cinnamon, the ginger, the cloves, and the mace and add the mixture to the molasses mixture. Beat the mixture until it is combined well and chill the dough, covered, overnight. Form the dough into 1 1/2-inch balls and roll the balls in the remaining 1/4 cup sugar to coat them well. Bake the balls 3 inches apart on buttered baking sheets in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the tops crack. Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool.

Note: We didn't have mace, used about 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg....would have used a whole teaspoon but got tired of grating it. Also, we did let these sit in the refrigerator for much of the week...don't know how that affects the texture. We ended up with a soft chewy cookie with a crunchy exterior. I imagine they would be delightful with coffee....pretty great with coffeemilk!