Preparations for the annual holiday feast have begun at Chez Dog. Herself’s gift, a Canon Vixia HF M41 camcorder, is charging on the kitchen table (she aced a video-production class this fall) as she assembles a raspberry cobbler.
Next up is a cornbread-stuffing recipe we’ve never tried before — the cornbread itself is already done, and top-notch it is, too — followed by an appetizer of toasted baguettes topped with a rich spread of prosciutto, butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano and pine nuts (also a newcomer); mashed spuds; sauteéd spinach with mushrooms; giblet gravy, cranberry relish; and last but not least, roast turkey.
I usually do something offbeat for Christmas, like a Northern New Mexican feast or a chicken cacciatore, but this year I decided we needed the comfort food. The leftovers are the best part of a traditional turkey dinner — turkey sandwiches, turkey enchiladas, turkey soup, and whatnot. You cook like a mad bastard for one day and reheat leftovers for three days. What’s not to like?
Meanwhile, the traditional Humiliation of the Animals has been accomplished. The furry swine failed to get me a MacBook Air or an iPhone 4, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let that pass without retribution. You can order that stuff online, f’chrissakes. No messy human interaction or trips to the mall required:
“Hello, how may I help you?
“Meow.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Meow!”
“Come again?”
“Meeeowwwwwwrrrr. ... Oh, fuck it, Buddy, you try.”
“Woof?”
Mad Blog Media 
We will be having homemade polenta pasticciata con salsa di funghi. Its too icy to ride much so I get to stand in front of the stove madly stirring the corn grits into polenta so we can make the casserole. Not sure what else is on the menu yet, but it will be washed down with plenty of Chardonnay and some bubbly.
Merry Christmas, all.
Here in Sicilia it was: antipasto – classic bruschetta al pomodoro (with the quality of tomatoes and basil here this goes to a new level) primo – cannelloni made with fresh sheep ricotta and sauce made from the tiny tomatoes of Pachino (again, with high-quality ingredients like these, no frills needed) secondo – tiny pork chops marinated in rosemary, sage, garlic and olive oil (chops from a special SlowFood protected black swine) fresh asparagus and roasted potatoes. Donnafugata’s “Tancredi” was a holiday splurge for us to wash it all down with…..and a homemade pistacchio cake with fresh whipped cream finished things off, along with the rest of the spumante from last night.
Buon appetito to those of you yet to sit down to your holiday dinner!
Sounds really good, Larry. We had great food in Italy when we were there and rarely skip on ingredients here. Of course, being vegetarians, we skipped the secundo. Lunch was usually bought a several local shops (bread, cheeses, vegetables) and dinner hunted down at a decent restaurant. We never made it south of Rome, though. Means we gotta go back…
It’s hard to eat badly in Italy, you really have to try or just be very unlucky/lazy. Of course in very touristy places your chances of bad food go up quite a bit – the only two truly bad meals I’ve ever eaten in Italy were many, many years ago near Lake Garda and another in Portofino. As you know, vegetarian eating is pretty simple, we’ve even been able to pretty well satisfy a vegan or two over the years! Interestingly enough the anti-gluten thing is big here now, just about any place can come up with gluten-free pasta, etc. for those who need/want it.
Gents, no riding today, just cooking and eating and playing with technology.
We should’ve gotten an earlier start on the grub, but you know how that goes. My sis and bro’-in-law arrived at 1 p.m. and Herself and I were still in take-no-prisoners mode in the kitchen. The food didn’t hit the table until 2-ish, but nobody seemed to mind.
I was the last man standing, putting the finishing touches on the spinach and spuds and doing the usual half-assed job of carving the bird. Hannibal Lecter I am not.
Despite my incompetence in the kitchen a good time was had by all. We solved all the world’s problems, recounted the many failures and few successes in popular culture, and in general passed a pleasant afternoon without a visitation from the secret police (though they were probably watching through the cameras attached to our collection of iToys).
Hope you had as fine a holiday as we did. Tomorrow, it’s back in the VeloBarrel for the UCI World Cup cyclo-cross at Zolder. Give ‘er a watch if you have the day off (or an understanding boss).
Glad you had a good time OG. We did get out on the bikes for a short ride but were very happy we did 3 hours on Saturday as the weather’s taken a downturn. So today just might find me trying to get that ‘cross race via the ‘net as it’s gray, windy and rainy here in Siracusa this morning…. not a day for going out on a bike for sure. Heck, I might not even go out for a fresh loaf of bread today! The guys at the Drago bread-works will be wondering what happened to “Il Americano”, but I’ll explain tomorrow.
Good race! Thanks for the tip. Had to feel sorry for Stybar, after working so hard for most of the race and leading to the line, it looked like he just didn’t have (or couldn’t shift into) a big enough get to hold off Pauwels. I noticed that none of the top guys were using those foo-foo, top-mount brake levers (like we used to tear off our Schwinn Varsitys back-in-the-day) that were all the rage not too long ago….another fad gone?
Hey, Larry … yep, Stybar got hosed, and so did Nys, overcooking that final corner. Doubt he would’ve won, but he might have been a step higher on the podium.
None of the big boys have used the top-mounted levers for some time now. Katie Compton was still using them last season, and she may have used them early in this season, but she’s finally given them up too.
Me, I still like ’em — I have top-mounts on all my ‘cross bikes and both touring bikes — but I spend a lot of time riding sketchy single-track and like the upright position they give me going into dodgy bits. They also seem to give a bit more braking power.
But they’re also just one more thing to dick around with. There’s a lot to be said for simplicity.
Reminds me of the old Cinelli “Spinaci” and the imitations. Back when those were on a lot of the pro’s bikes, they were “must haves” for those with titanium bikes, along with Dura Ace groupsets and Flite saddles. I thought $70 for something to hold your helmet (that seemed to be the most popular use for ’em) was kind of silly.
The funny part was, after so much defensiveness when I poked fun at ’em….the things vanished from these bikes almost overnight – once banned by the UCI. Seemed they were way more style than function – must be a whole lot of ’em collecting dust in garages all over the USA.
I’ve had a cold place in my heart for top mounted brake levers ever since I launched myself over a VW Bug back in grad school. I was on the tops when the guy turned in front of me and from the tops, couldn’t steer tightly enough to avoid the suddenly turning car and didn’t have the presence of mind to try to change hand positions on the fly and put the bike into a better example of what I now teach as an instant turn.
Not sure being on the hoods would have helped (being an inexperienced bicyclist was my main problem), but that might have given me better steering control. Oh, well. The lawsuit settlement gave me the money for my new CX-500, and a new fork and front wheel on the bicycle, so not all was lost. Except a few brain cells and some binocular vision tracking coordination.
We had a few guys try to use the Spinaci bars back in the daze we worked following LeTour…but they tried to do it in a large pack setting off from the hotel. I still laugh when I remember getting the call to come out and rescue the victims of a huge pileup (back-in-the-day these groups were BIG) just a few kms down the road. One of those classic crashes like you see triathletes do nowadays on the video clips. I for one was glad when the UCI did away with those things!
Can’t wait to see your crew in party hats for Nee Year’s Eve! Very cooperative and gracious they are!
Your Christmas meal sounds wonderful. My brother-in-law made us pizza for Christmas Eve. It was delicious but it did ruin my desire to sample every single type of cookie, pastry and fudge offered for dessert – something I like to do every Christmas. I traveled home on Christmas day and didn’t cook.