Monthly Archives: December 2005

Not a Kodak moment

I am going through the pictures I took yesterday and they are all completely and utterly terrible. I am the world’s worst photographer. Every single shot is blurry or oddly composed. There is not a single salvagable shot. Grrrrrrr!

My problem I think is two fold. 1. I don’t use a flash and so the shutter is slow and either I move or my subjects move, thus the blur. 2. There is a delayed reaction when taking pictures with my Nikon CoolPix 4200. I click the button and it takes at least a second or so before the picture is captured. By that time, the moment is gone.

My friend Erin takes the most beautful pictures. I think it’s because she has an artistic eye. I love going through her photo albums because every single picture looks like a postcard. I WISH I had that ability. Maybe I should take a photography class. i dunno.

OH! And looking at the pictures of me, I realized I must get my hair cut. As much as I love LOVE LOVE long hair, it just doesn’t suit my long face. Gotta call Aprille.

Christmas Time

The Washington Crossing reenactment was great despite the downpour. Lisa and I have been going there on Christmas day for so many years. So long that I actually remember when Grace Kelly’s brother, Jack, served as Washington! That must have been the early 80’s. John came with us this time and took tons of interesting photographs. We caught up with some friends of Lisa’s and the one said, “Why is your friend taking pictures of people’s feet?”
“Yeah, does he have some sort of fetish?”
“He is an ARTIST!” I exclaimed indignantly.

The rain stopped once we got in the car to go home. Lisa and I changed out of our wet clothes and went to our parent’s house. We perfectly timed our arrival with our parent’s departure to the neighbor’s Christmas party. This meant we could all go together. It was nice seeing all our old friends. I even got to hold a baby! Do not fear, my biological clock did not start ticking. Although I think I heard my mother’s grandmother clock ticking. Loudly. Our neighbor’s mother cornered me and said, “I HATE you!”
“Why?” I asked, completely shocked.
“Because you have long legs and I always wanted to have long legs!”
“Oh, uh, thank you, I think.”

We left before they served dinner since we had our own dinner to prepare. We didn’t do anything really ethnic for Christmas dinner. We had a flank steak that was rolled with spinach and peppers, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and date bread for dessert. It was lovely. Lisa and I came home in a bit of a rush so Lisa could catch Grey’s Anatomy. I watched a couple episodes of La Femme Nikita from my new season 3 box set. Now I am ready for bed. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Mushroom Soup

1/2 c. dried mushrooms
1 lb. fresh mushrooms
2 qt. water
1 c. sauerkraut juice
4 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour (heaping)
1 small onion

Break dried mushrooms into small pieces. Soak the dried mushrroms for 3 hours in water. Cook them in their “soaking” water until tender. Add cut up and cleaned fresh mushrooms and cook for 10 minutes after boiling point. Add sauerkraut juice. Saute finely cut onion and butter until golden brown. Add flour and continue stirring over low heat until paste-like mixture is golden brown. Add paste mixture to mushroom pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir contantly until paste mixture is well blended and allow to boil 5 minutes.

Smelts

For a family of 4, you will need a pound and a half of smelts. The smaller the smelt, the better. Smelts can be bought at your local grocery or fish store.

Prepare smelts by cutting off tail and fins. Sometimes when you buy them, the head is removed and they are already gutted. If not, you will need to do this yourself.

Take 1 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper and roll smelts so they are completely coated. Let them sit 10 or 15 minutes so the flour has a chance to stick. Fry them for about 5 minutes in hot vegetable oil. You could also use olive oil. Blot them with paper towels.

Before you eat them, you need to remove the backbone. It should come out pretty easily.

Aglio e Olio

1 lb Angel Hair Pasta
2 tins of flat filet anchovies
1/4 cup olive oil or more depending on taste
6 cloves garlic, finely diced
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare Angel Hair Pasta according to package. In a small frying pan, sautee garlic in olive oil. Watch closely so it doesn’t burn, this is very important. The heat should be low. When the garlic is tender, empty anchovies into pan, oil and all, and heat. Use a fork or spoon to mash the anchovies. Add more olive oil as needed.

Once Angel Hair Pasta is drained, place back in pot. Pour anchovies, olive oil and garlic mixture over the pasta. Mix thoroughly. Serve in a big bowl.

Eve Report

Lisa and I drove home in the late afternoon. I helped mom prepare dinner. She had most of it done, there wasn’t much left for me to do. We ate our usual Christmas Eve dinner: mushroom soup, peirogis, aglio e olio, and smelts. My mom baked something new for us, minced meat pie. She had just taken it out of the oven and I had the distinct impression it would taste better once it had a chance to sit a day and cool. At 7:30 we took off for church. After Mirovanije, my father gave the priest a Christmas present. It was a DVD of the movie Absolute Warhola. My father and I saw it at the Ritz Theater in Philly a few years ago. It is a documentary about the village where Andy Warhol’s parents were born. (It’s not far from where my family is from!) My dad thought Myron would enjoy it since it captures our roots pretty well. After church we opened the presents. We have never opened presents on Christmas Eve before but it seemed like the best thing to do since today Lisa and I are going to Washington Crossing to watch the reenactment of Washington cross the Delaware. After that we are going to our neighbor’s house for appetizers. By the time we are home, it will be evening.

Here’s my list of loot:
Supergirl fleece pajama bottoms
A leather purse from Stone Mountain
Conair double-sidded lighted mirror
Conair Pouring Rain Shower Head
Heat pad
Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Squares
Tiger-striped shirt
6 pairs of socks
Two sticks of Chapstick
TJMaxx Gift Card
A small compact and a tub of hair gel
Smartparts Personal Digital Keychain Photo Album
Second and Third Seasons of WONDER WOMAN!
Third Season of LA FEMME NIKITA
Flannel Sheets
Box of Maker’s Mark Chocolates

It was ten times more than I ever expected. So nice!

The Funny Fruit Bread

My mother has made this bread a few times and it always comes out delicious. It’s very easy to make. She found the recipe in a cookbook entitled, Creative Cookery, Compiled by the Jewish Women’s League of Pottstown, PA. The date of the cookbook is 1976.

1/2 lb. prunes (pitted)
3/4 c. boiling water
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. melted shortening

Soak prunes for 1 hour in water to cover them. Cut them up. Add water and baking soda. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add sugar, egg, flour, salt and melted shortening. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes in a greased loaf pan.

This recipe is by Merle Perch

Note: My mom has also used dates and figs with this recipe. We found the fig version the tastiest.

Christmas EVE

The Lemon Poppy Seed Bread was soooooooooo good. I am glad I made it. Not only was it tasty in the evening with tea, it was fab in the morning with coffee. I must finish getting ready so I can take the breads to Joe & Judy and Violet. I hope they are home. Then it is off to our home for Christmas Eve dinner and evening mass.

Coming down the chimney down

The Kwanzaa pageant was lovely! The kids are so cute. Watching Lisa, I could tell she loves each and every child. I couldn’t tell them apart but she knew all their names and which ones were related. The kids kept running up to her to show off their snowflake hats that they had made. It was just the cutest thing. And then I saw the snot coming out of their noses and I started to worry about getting sick.

Later Lisa and I went shopping and I bought the coolest shirt. It looks like a shirt from the 80’s, the one where the sleeves are almost attached to the waist. It’s rather transparent so I am going to have to figure out what to wear underneath it.

I am in the process of baking cranberry bread for Joe and Judy. Once it’s out, I will mix up banana bread for Violet. If I am still feeling motivated, I will bake lemon poppy seed bread for us. John is coming over and it would be nice to offer him something other than pickles and triscuits.