Traditions, Souffle, and Soup

There are a few family traditions that without them, it's just not Christmas.

There's the big, bright pink ornament on the tree that says "Baby's First Christmas 1980" that marks the year I was born, that usually hangs somewhere near a foot long pencil that my mom has been hanging on the tree since she was a little girl. Those two are staples from the Christmas trees of my youth that now hang on my own tree.

Over at Dad's house, there's Betsy's collection of ornaments that she buys one of every year, noting something significant about the year on the bottom in gold paint marker, and the hand beaded ornaments from her grandmother. This year there was an addition of the Christmas ball from Betsy's dad's dad, making it over 100 years old. Such a simple ornament, a bright cobalt blue, solid glass ball, about 4" in diameter.

Not surprisingly, a lot of my Christmas traditions are food.

Grandpa Spong's pizelles are one of them. After he passed away, I asked Gram if I could borrow the pizelle maker so I could continue the tradition. I didn't know where the recipe was, but I'd find one, and make it as close as I could to his.

To my excitement, when I opened up the pizelle maker that year, there was his very simple, and not very well defined recipe. I teared up at his handwriting, and broke out into laughter as I read the ingredient list and came to "anise". You could always tell were Grandpa was in the pizelle making progress based on the amount of anise you tasted when you bit into them. He would make pizelles for weeks before Christmas, always trying to refine the flavor of the anise. There were some that you just couldn't bite into because the anise smell hit your nose long before it even reached your lips. There were some that were burned beyond recognition. There were some that were dusted with powdered sugar.

And then it would happen. About a week before Christmas, he would make the perfect batch. But then, because he wouldn't write down any of the measurements, we'd be back to square one.


We also have the carrot souffle. Dad scored the recipe for this from Chasen's Restaurant in LA probably 15 years ago. Chasen's has long since closed, but the souffle recipe comes out twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have the recipe somewhere, I could make it any time I wanted, but no. I wait. It's Dad's thing. We have souffle two times a year, and we savor it. There have been separate batches made, just so we have left over souffle. We like the souffle. We LOVE the souffle.

Last year, we introduced my niece Emma to the souffle, just two days shy of her first birthday. She loved it. She had it everywhere, on the tray of her high tray, on her, in her hair, in her eyebrows. She was IN to the souffle.

We lost power on Sunday, and one of the first things I thought about was how there was leftover Christmas souffle in the fridge. How it was going to waste. How it would be sacrificed. I damn near wept. I went to the fridge, and with hands on the doors, contemplated opening it up and rescuing the souffle, but then thought of everything else that wouldn't fare well if I did.

(The power came back on. The souffle is fine.)


Lastly, there is the garlic mushroom soup. It's not any garlic mushroom soup. It's Sweetie's garlic mushroom soup. The soup.

There is always a traditional Polish Christmas on Christmas Eve on Mom's side of the family. Pierogi, sauerkraut, kasha (barley), various types of herring (ew gross), bread and kielbasa that comes from Hamtramck, amongst a myriad of other things. Traditionally, this meal is called wigilia, and is supposed to be meatless. We cheat with the kielbasa.

But the centerpiece of this meal is always the garlic mushroom soup. You can smell it cooking in all it's mushroomy garlicky goodness. Some people are reminded of Christmas by the smell of pine trees. Me? I'm reminded of Christmas by the smell of soup.

It's a simple recipe really. Water, garlic, mushrooms. Boil. Add some flour to sour cream. Add broth to sour cream. Add broth/sour cream mix to broth (we don't want it curdling!), add salt and pepper, let simmer till it thickens. Serve over mashed potatoes.

The mashed potatoes are key.

Dad made it at his house on Christmas Eve, and we had our own little Polish feast there. Pierogi, kielbasa, and the soup. It didn't take long before that familiar smell filled the kitchen.

Even though it was a different branch of the family, and Sweetie wasn't there to share it, it was still the soup. It was awesome to share the tradition that I have been a part of my entire life with Betsy and Charles (her dad), and to have Dad so excited to make the soup.

This year has seen a lot of changes, but it's good to know that some things stay the same.

Like the soup.

What we already know...

My dad sent me this today...

For those of us associated with the auto industry this is something we
know in our hearts. If you have friends that are not involved with
the automotive market then please send this on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7YBjjLKLd0

Elephants

This sums up how my week is going so far.

We're standing here and one of our guys says, "Hey! Look! There's something going on over at the GM plant across the street. There's cops everywhere!"

We all rush to the windows, and sure enough, there's cop cars and a line of people? walking up the road. We surmise that GM had announced some layoffs this morning for early ’09 and Orion’s one of the effected plants, so they must be picketing.

We stand for a bit more...and look...and I'm like, "Um guys. Those aren't people. Those are elephants."

"What? Are you smoking something?"

I replied, "Um yeah. They're elephants."

We look...sure enough. They're elephants.

The circus is at the Palace, which is very near to my office. Apparently, elephants have to come in on train, not by semi, and the nearest train depot is the GM plant...so they must have dropped the elephants at the plant and are walking them to the Palace.

You want to bring all productivity to a screeching halt in an office? Walk some elephants up the road.

Owies Update...Part Two

It's been 2 months and 4 days since the conveyor tried to eat my left hand, so it's time for an update.

I just went back and read the last Owies Update, and it seemed so hopeful then!

However...

I have at least three more weeks of being wrapped up like a mummy and putting the silver sulfazine on it. (This will bring the total number of weeks to 11…) Now that the wound has closed itself (I know gross…) I will be taking a trip to the hand surgeon on 11/3 to make sure that there is no scar tissue getting in the way of my tendons, muscles, and such that would impact the movement of the wrist joint, being that the deepest part of the wound is directly over the wrist joint. The hand surgeon I'm going to see is from the same group of surgeons who did my hand surgeries when I was in high school. The surgeon that did those doesn't handle workman's comp situations, but his other associates do.

Also, it appears that I've picked up an allergic reaction to SOMETHING, probably fabric softener or a perfumed soap, which has irritated the heck out of it, but nothing that a little prescription strength Benadryl can't handle.

As we all know, I'm leaving for my cruise on Saturday, which means that this ace bandage is going to result in a WONDERFUL tan line. Heehehe. Megan has suggested bringing the bedazzler to sparkle it up a bit.

My doc has also compromised with me, and is allowing me to go snorkeling in Cozumel, as long as I agree to take an antibiotic, because I quote, "Lord knows what you'll pick up in the ocean in Mexico."

Outside of that, it's doing okay. I'm annoyed with it more than anything, and would like to take my collection of ace bandages cut them up, throw them on the ground, light them ablaze, and then stomp them out. There will be photos when this happens.

It's the Little Things...

20 little things that make me smile...

1. Giggling with Joe in the salsa aisle in Meijer.
2. The morning headbutt I get from one or both of the furfaces.
3. A crisp fall day, but not so crisp that you can still drive with the windows open.
4. Watching Melissa's little Austin grab for a french fry off of her tray at Culver's.
   
5. Knowing that the shot I was trying for actually came out the way I wanted it to.
6. An unexpected road trip.
7. Making plans for the cruise with My Bliver Cousin.
8. A clear night sitting out on the patio, with a good glass of wine, and some Frank and Dean.
9. My little red tomato.
10. Sleeping in.
11. Snuggling with Joe.
12. Good Italian food at Gino's.
13. Napping.
14. Some peace and quiet, where I do nothing but relax.
15. A good bubble bath.
16. The way freshly shaved legs feel up against clean sheets.
17. Knowing I can order something off of a particular website, and when it arrives to my door, it will fit.
18. Sand between my toes.
19. Making dinner for the family.
20. A good round of chair dancing.
    

Owies Update

Wow...three blog posts in one day! I need to work 70 hours a week more often, maybe I'll post more then! Or not.

Anyhoo.

This week, I was given the all clear to take the bandage off and stop wrapping up my hand like a mummy! I have to continue keeping it clean, and have begun putting Vitamin E on it to minimize scarring, which the doctors say there should be very little of. I only have to put a band-aid on it when I'm going to be in a situation that is particularly dirty, other than that, they want me to keep it open as much as possible.

Pardon the somewhat grossness of the following links!

This was the injury about an hour after it happened.

This was the injury yesterday.

So, needless to say, we've come a long way in just over 2 weeks.


The good news is, that as a result of this little mishap, there will be much more guarding put around the conveyor itself to prevent someone else from getting hurt, which makes things a bit easier for me to deal with. I guess you could say that I was taking the tryout and debug of the system to a bit of an extreme.

:)

One Little Red Tomato

It's here! It's finally here!

My first red tomato!

I had one last week that was an orange-ish color, but it was all cracked down the back side of it, so when I knocked it off the vine I wasn't all that concerned. (Unlike when I knocked the first ever tomato off the vine while I was moving it...this was before I put them in the planters...it was quite the traumatic event!)

The recent rains have caused my tomato plants to grow exponentially, and my one has about 9 little green tomatoes on it. With my luck, they'll all turn red at once, and I'll have more tomatoes than I know what to do with!