The Christmas Report

We are staying home for Christmas and having a film festival.
 And Eating.
On Christmas Eve we watched The Black Swan, which was severely creepy, but so good.
 

As an antidote, we finished up the night with The Sound of Music which we have seen as many times as it has been aired. Dave can anticipate all the dialogue and recite it just before the actors have a chance to speak.

Despite ending the night getting away from the Nazis, all those anorexic ballerinas made Dave have nightmares. He woke himself up this morning by kicking his foot hard at the bedside wall, bruising his toes. No pas de deux for him today, poor darling.
We didn't exchange gifts as usual, since we pretty much have everything we want or need, and enough is enough.

 But a couple came to the door last night and handed us two bags of oranges and apples, as their Christmas blessing to the neighbors. So nice. And they didn't ask for a house tour, luckily. We added those to our burgeoning fruit basket. Doncha just love the colors? I am reminded of my childhood Christmas stocking which always contained an orange, a piece of chocolate and an avocado. I am not kidding. We loved eating the avocado with just salt and a spoon.

In a previous blog I neglected to include the recipe for pierogis, and so here it is.

 Christmas PIEROGIS!

 I used this recipe, and filled them with mashed potatoes, or  cooked ground pork (with onions and garlic). This recipe is a lotta work, but it makes enough for several meals meaning I don't have to cook much for a couple of days.
The thing about Pierogis is that they are a stickum to your ribs type of dish and one needs to be cognizant of that fact going in. And they should be light and delicate. Mine are more of the lumberjack variety. Big muthas.

After a careful boiling, they are 'sauteed' in butter (you wimp!) or if you walk on the wild side as I have done...bacon drippings*.

Then served with sour cream and applesauce. No one is going to feel unfestive and empty after a meal like that.

*Bacon in the oven...the best possible way to cook it.

I don't like the rigamarole of frying bacon (too messy) or microwaving it, or hauling out the George Forman and grilling it. It's the wash up I don't like. Instead I use a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. The bacon is lined up and baked at 350 for however long it takes to get crispy. When it is finished, I take the bacon off the sheet and toss out the parchment paper, leaving the cookie sheet immaculate, sorta.

Well, it is truly immaculate after the Dawgs have their way.
I remove most of  the drippings and feed them only the essence, which I feel won't clog their arteries too much.
And since the oven is already on, here's a treat that works with almost any meal.

Lemon-Cinnamon Baked Apple Slices
Peel and core one or more apples, slice and line up on baking sheet. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over the apples and sprinkle liberally with sugar and cinnamon. Bake as long as the bacon takes to crisp up. So zingy and sweet.

For dessert I made cheese blintzes using this recipe for the crepes. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/basic-crepes/

For the filling, I combined one 15oz container of ricotta cheese, and 3 oz of softened cream cheese, with two tablespoons confectioner's sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and juice and zest of an orange.
For the topping, Rum Raisin sauce, using 1.5 cups of bourbon (we were out of rum, again), 1/2 cup of raisins, 1/2 cup of sugar, zest and juice of a lemon and 1/2 cup pecans. Top it all with whipped cream and pull the plug. That's enough eating for one day.
Merry Christmas Week!