zutroy.net

I’m not really one for following the current blogging trends but my wife has inspired me. And I found this tag on the Barkermeister’s site and thought it looked fun. So here goes.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags
Wrapping paper. Gift bags are for sissies

2. Real tree or artificial?
Is this really a question? Real. Duh. Just like everything else where real vs. fake is an issue.

3. When do you put up the tree?
We cut it down usually the day after Thanksgiving and it goes up right away.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Usually right around new years.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Hold the eggnog, Wassail please.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Criss Cross Crash Hotwheels track.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
My parents

8. Easiest person to buy for?
Me, Then my wife

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
We did, I don’t know where it has gotten off to. I’ll have to make a new one I think.

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards?
e-mail Christmas cards are the scourge of the Earth.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
A stinky cigarette scarred stuffed animal that had been rescued from a dumpster. No really. It was from my aunt who didn’t even play cards. Bless her heart.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
It’s a Wonderful Life. I have a ban on Santa Clause movies in my house. I don’t hate Santa, just all the movies I have ever seen of him.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
No regular time. But I always leave some things for the last minute.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
No. Not that I can remember.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Pumpkin Cheesecake. Hands down.

16. Favorite Christmas tradition?
Getting our Christmas Tree

17. Favorite Christmas song?
O Holy Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home?
Home

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?
Not if I don’t have to.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
One Christmas Eve, The rest in the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Commercialization of something sacred.

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
My wifes turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, spiral cut honey ham, funeral potatoes, fresh rolls, deviled eggs, crackers and crab cheese balls, mixed nuts, stuffed mushrooms, Dominican cabbage salad, spit roasted pig (when I can get it), interesting salads I have never tried before, pumpkin Cheesecake, black forest cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake, pumpkin pie, my mom’s wassail, Martinelli’s

24. What do you want for Christmas this year?
a shotgun, dress shoes, bullets, a night stand (already got it), a cooking torch, a golf hat

25. How many days left until Christmas?
3

So Grant, Jon, Yanilza, and Joel. You are hereby tagged.

Crust:
1 cup margarine or butter, cut in small pieces
3 cups flour
1 cup ice water3 egg whites
4 1/2 white vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

Cheesecake:
1 8 ounce package softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Optional:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 cup chocolate chips (or suitable dipping chocolate)
1/3 cup fruit topping (Ice cream topping works well)

In a small bowl, cut margarine into flour with a fork until mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine water, egg white, vinegar, and salt in a small bowl; mix well. Add liquid mixture to flour mixture. Mix lightly with a fork until mixture forms a ball. Refrigerate for at least ½ hour before rolling out dough.

While dough is cooling beat cream cheese well in a medium mixing bowl. Add sugar a little at a time; add eggs; add vanilla combine thoroughly.

When dough has cooled, roll out dough and cut into pieces about 2 or 3 inches square.

Spoon a small amount of cheese cake mixture into each dough square. If desired, add a small amount of fruit topping into each square. Fold dough so that it makes a triangle and press edges together with a fork. Place on a non-stick cookie sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until the edges start turning a golden brown.

Optional:
Dip finished cookies in chocolate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

So the other day my wife says to me “Hey, we should make some stuffed chicken for dinner.” But then we didn’t make it, we had something like nachos. But the seed had been planted.

I just couldn’t get the thought of a really good stuffed chicken out of my mind. So Saturday, I made sure all the ingredients got into the grocery basket. And then Sunday we whipped up a fairly simple recipe loosely based on the recipe from our Christmas 2006 Costco cookbook.

Little cubes of mozzarella cheese, finely grated Romano, oregano, basil, roasted red peppers, green onions, mushrooms, and chopped garlic all stuffed in some average sized chicken breasts and roasted for about half an hour. Then we accidentally put fettuccini in the pan instead of linguini. That almost ruined everything. At least it wasn’t plain old spaghetti. We had to hurry and add some red peppers and quartered mushrooms to the stewed tomato sauce that had been sautéing on the stove to rescue the pasta. Then we made up some fresh garlic butter for our toasted french cheese bread.

Then Yanilza wanted me to also whip up my secret creamy piña colada recipe at the last second. (Which is actually the perfect time to do it. As long as you plan for it.) I almost didn’t have time.

Not once did I think I was going overboard. And not until I had finished my plate and sat pondering the fiesta of flavor still dancing across my taste buds did it even cross my mind that this might be a little out of the ordinary for some people.

I didn’t have to get after the kids. There were none of those sitcom threats; “You’re not leaving this table until you have eaten at least 4 more bites!” All I heard was “I’m full, that’s all I can eat, can I save this until later?”

And I started to ponder what we routinely eat for dinner, or breakfast, or even snacks. Maybe I’m ruining my kids. I hope they don’t become like those people who have to have the freshest seafood or the most expensive garnish and don’t appreciate what they are eating.

But then I thought about the steak in the fridge. It probably needed to age for 2 or 3 more days before I can make my chipotle steak with sautéed mushrooms and onions with asparagus and white rice. Or maybe I should serve it with the oven roasted red potatoes and sprinkle it all with green onions.

Hmmm, I should make some cheesecake to get my mind off the main courses.

So I started this thing in 2001. I know there have been people blogging longer than me but I have never met one. Most of my friends have started blogs and a few of them still keep them up. One fell victim to the last word, several to facebook, some have just been lost in the deep dark corners of cyberspace where virtually no one will ever find them. Lately though there seems to be a surge of new bloggers. My wife has even started blogging.

I find that the biggest challenge with having a blog that is primarily about nothing is coming up with new things to blog about. Even this post isn’t original. I’ve blogged it a couple times before. However I wouldn’t want to have one of those blogs where you stay on a given theme. I think I would get tired of finding new ways to spin the same topic over and over. K, now I realize that it’s not just spinning one topic over and over and over but you see what I mean. Right? You see it? Hmmm maybe not.

Anyhow, lately I have had sooo many things to blog about that I have had trouble deciding which thing to blog. So I’ll do a small summary of what’s been going on; small claims court and idiots that are the scourge of America, my style of defensive driving that helps in avoiding (or almost avoiding) being rear ended, gas prices, finding validation to my economic theories that I have been preaching for a couple years, do’s and don’ts of running your own business during the beginning of a depression, making the 2nd amendment mean something, Thanksgiving and Cheesecake, Cheesecake, anniversary, did I mention Cheesecake?, Christmas shopping on a $0 budget (which is turning out better than most Christmas seasons), virtualizing an office, joys of raising children, the list goes on but I am tired of blogging for the day.