[Sca-cooks] Christmas dinner...

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I'm still catching up on the list, as i was gone for a week visiting 
my daughter in Philadelphia. I left NoCal last Monday, arriving 
Monday night, and came back this past Sunday. So far, i'm up to 
Friday's messages.

I brought along a book i had purchased from Devra/Poison Pen Press at 
the Known World Costume Symposium - Silk Road Vegetarian Cooking. I 
was hoping my daughter and i would get to cook some dishes from it, 
but we never got to use it. Wednesday, Christmas Eve, the food stores 
all closed early and we didn't get there in time.

My daughter, her boyfriend, and i saw "The Lord of the Rings: Return 
of the King". It was terrible - not the movie, but the experience. 
The audience was small - but it seems as if they all had bad manners 
or bad attitudes. Some people were mocking out loud the various 
"Celtic" accents of the Hobbits. Others were hooting and cheering 
during the many scenes of battle - they didn't really care who was 
fighting whom, it seemed that they just came to watch some heavy butt 
kickin'. Toward the end of the film various people began laughing in 
unsuitable places, and some complained out loud during the "coda". 
I'm almost sorry i saw the movie in Philly.

We went to the last show, which started around 7:30, and what with 
the seemingly endless extended versions of TV advertisements and 
various trailers, it was around 11:30 when we got out, and we hadn't 
eaten dinner. Try finding a place to eat close to midnight on 
Christmas eve. We eventually found a bar that was open that served 
standard East Coast pizza slices (not, in my opinion, very good). We 
each had a slice of that flat thin stuff. That was our Christmas Eve 
dinner.

Since we had no food in the house, on Christmas day, my daughter and 
i followed what is apparently a tradition for many non-Christians - 
that is, we had Chinese food delivered. It, too, was rather mediocre. 
I do, however, have sympathy for folks who were working that day.

We also saw the show at the Philadelphia Art Museum on the couturier 
designs of Elsa Schiaparelli. Nothing to do with Medieval or 
Renaissance clothing, although apparently some of her clothing was 
"inspired" by the Italian Renaissance.

While in Philly, I ended up buying a bunch of yarn (and got half of a 
scarf knit) and some knitting patterns - on the way home my suitcase 
got searched, as i expected, because of the big black "shadow" caused 
by that very large cookbook and all the knitting books.

This is still my favorite e-list and i send you all a rather belated 
Winter Solstice holiday greetings and best wishes for a Happy New 
Year.

Anahita