An Annual Tradition

Last year I had the flu the week leading into Christmas. It was rotten. This year I don't have the flu (hurray flu shot!), but I did catch the cold that's been roaming around my office. All the herbal remedies and cold meds I've been taking haven't licked it yet, but it has given me a nice opportunity to slow down and enjoy the season. Albeit with a red and runny nose. I keep over-booking myself- and when I'm sick I just back out of everything (as politely as possible). And suddenly I'm faced with free time.

Free time to be festive. The gifts are wrapped on one of my chairs (being Jewish and treeless, a chair works). The ones headed off to the midwest have already been mailed. The new bright blue LED lights are strung up on the balcony, with these nifty white circles hanging beneath them. My house is Chanuka-festive, and I even found the candles that fit in my newest menorah before I go to light them.

Free time to watch TV. Last night I finally caught the first episode of True Blood, which I adored. And I am showing serious devotion to the significant other by not watching a bunch more tonight while I'm home alone. Instead, I'm watching the Muppet Christmas special. I'll never really grow up.

Free time to cook more- last night I was treated to a delicious Hungarian paprika-laced chicken soup. Spicy and perfect for my head cold. Monday I cooked The Pioneer Woman's stellar Pasta alla Vodka. Some people thought it had a bit too much vodka. I thought it was abso-fallutin-tastic. It made a great lunch the last few days, too. And tonight I tried a new recipe for vegetable stew with herb dumplings. I'm not sure it came out so much as stew as a very soupy veggie mixture, but I was extremely pleased with the dumplings for my first time ever making them. It was a pretty easy recipe, and very tasty!

Free time to knit. I've been working on my cashmere stole quite a bit. I'm halfway through the fifth repeat, of eight repeats total. Not bad! It's still luscious to work with the cashmere; I feel almost guilty it's so sinfully soft. I also cast on for a quick little gift, a new pair of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts for a deserving friend. She picked out some really lovely colors and gave me a chance to re-remember the tubular cast-on. Which I enjoyed much more this time. In addition to the mitts and my never-ending lace stole, I've started working on a baby blanket again. Two of my colleagues from work are having babies in the spring, and I'm excited to have a real reason to play with sweet and cuddly baby yarns.

The only sad part of these few days of chilling at home after work, is that my camera has disappeared again. How am I supposed to document my works in progress without it? I'm sure it's in some purse somewhere around here. You'd think it would be easy to find everything in an efficiency apartment, but not so.

Sunday night

Until recently, my Sunday nights have had a surprising consistency. It's my day to cook. Really cook. Cook the kinds of things I just don't have time or energy to make mid-week... the long-simmering things, the big luscious stews, the soups and desserts and things. The last few weeks I've had other plans- but I haven't minded. I'm a lot like my mom about that- as long as I'm fed, I'm probably going to be happy. So long as it isn't treif, at least.

This whole weekend has been a very selfish weekend, however. A time to regroup, a time to focus in and frankly just putter around the apartment for once. I'm feeling much better as a result, as is evidenced by my making it to the gym and getting in a run before my gym buddy even got there! That may have been because I misread the clock and got there an hour early, but it definitely counts. After I got back I puttered some more, watched some bad tv on my DVR, and did laundry. And I started cooking!

I found a new beef stew recipe to try by checking out my copy of Fix and Forget It- Lightly, a pretty decent slow cooker book. I mainly chose the recipe because I had all the ingredients except two. My neighbor kindly gave me the worcestershire sauce and onion I needed, and it turned out rather delicious! I thought about getting buffalo meat at the market, and this probably would have been good with that... but beef worked just as well.



In addition to stew, I made a Tarte Tatin for the first time in ages. It wouldn't flip over, but it is still delicious. So my low-key weekend continues with apple tart a la française, a glass of cabernet, and Red Sox up by 1. I'm also back to working on my cashmere stole, now that it's cold enough that I wish I had it finished already. Perfection.

Last week I went to a book sale at my work- lots of interesting items were to be had, in addition to a lot of cheap books. This was my literary haul:


Notice the spinning book? And the gorgeous Quilts of Provence book is not only a subject I care a great deal about, having lived in Aix-en-Provence... but it is also a signed copy.


I also purchased some gifts, and the best salt and pepper shakers ever. Smiling sheep!