[Sca-cooks] Happy Festivus To All, plus Xmas menus for those who do that...

Heleen Greenwald heleen at ptd.net
Sun Dec 23 17:58:00 PST 2007


Master A,
Your menu sounds very wonderful!!  I remember years ago seeing Julia  
Child (on TV) using a Larding needle. You could kill somebody with a  
thing like that!! Well, anyway, being brought up Jewish-Kosher.... I  
had never even imagined such a thing..... I was quite impressed.
Wishing you, your family  and everyone on list a Merry-Merry!
Phillipa
....My furs are not in storage, nor draped across the bed, they're  
hanging from the cage door, waiting to be fed.....





On Dec 23, 2007, at 4:05 PM, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Hullo, the list!
>
> I just realized today is Festivus, a.k.a. The Festivus For the Rest Of
> Us, and while it's a "fictional" holiday, apparently people do
> celebrate it, and it probably has as much clearly documentable
> historical basis as many another traditional holiday established by
> somebody deciding to do Thing X and then deciding to do it again a
> year later, and then again the year after that...
>
> So, while there's some argument as to whether there's a clearly
> defined tradition as to the Festivus menu (it is never really
> discussed, but something looking like meatloaf covered with tomato
> sauce can be seen, and probably roasted potatoes, in the "Seinfeld"
> episode which gives a brief digest of the Festivus tradition -- the
> Estelle Costanza character is apparently famous for the roasted
> potatoes which she makes for special occasions). Of course, the
> "Seinfeld" people didn't invent Festivus, although they probably did
> make it [more] famous.
>
> We, however, will be making burgers tonight while finishing our
> various chores, then doing something more like real holiday food
> tomorrow and Tuesday. A lot of what we'll do will depend on what's
> available tomorrow morning, but very tentatively, we're looking to do
> vaguely Italian vegetables and seafood for Christmas Eve (somewhat
> hampered by major allergies in the house to both lemon and tomatoes),
> and then when the Christmas menu was discussed with my supervisor, I
> was informed that We Are Having Yorkshire Pudding. Which, of course,
> doesn't mean that that's the main course.
>
> So, to that end, we'll check the local Chinese grocer's for whatever
> seafood is good and fresh, and I may even go wild with something with
> tomatoes and/or lemon in it if we can create a large enough variety of
> uncontaminated items. So, at the moment we have salt cod soaking, and
> I've located my stash of lower-salt home-cured cod in the freezer, to
> augment it; this will be poached in milk with a potato and mashed up
> with immoderate quantities of garlic and emulsified with extra-virgin
> olive oil and eaten with toasted baguettes. I'll probably use some
> shavings of the truffle I received as a gift a couple weeks ago for
> the salt cod brandade. I've got some large prawns in the freezer, but
> not sure yet what I'll do with them; it'll depend on what else is at
> the market in the way of bivalves, fresh squid or fin fish. This will
> all be augmented by a tomato-less lasagne quasi-primavera, with
> spinach and cheese, and roasted pepper, mushrooms and kohlrabi (for
> some firmness) in Parmigiano-flavored cream sauce, fillings. Not sure
> yet what else, vegetables and such; I'll rummage in the vegetable bin
> and see what's there ;-). I think the plan is a pear tarte tatin with
> creme fraiche for dessert.
>
> For Tuesday, we took out a Home Equity Loan after discovering our
> apartment has apparently quadrupled in value since we bought it seven
> years ago, took the proceeds and bought a prime four-rib roast. We
> even got a few cents in change. The butcher had barded it, but I think
> I'm going to remove the barding fat and do some real interlarding with
> a larding needle. Then, I'm going to stud it with matchsticks of the
> rest of my truffle... I've always wanted to do that, never had the
> opportunity. Yes, there will be the requisite roasted veg (probably
> "turned" into a shape resembling a diamond cut into the shape of a
> football), taters, carrots, parsnips, turnips, plus Crimini mushrooms,
> "turned" differently). Very late 1930's fancy. Yorkshire pudding will
> be a given, plus either a beef jus or a thickened gravy, depending on
> mood and timing. Also sauteed baby bok choy cooked in a little peanut
> oil in which ginger slices and shallots have been previously browned
> -- usually needs no other seasoning. I believe there are plans for a  
> nocturnal binge of Lindy's cheesecake-baking after dinner tonight, for
> Tuesday's dessert, plus some of the sour cream cookie recipe favored
> by my mother, if I'm not forcibly evicted from the kitchen, that is.
>
> It's actually kind of nice to be evicted, once in a while, as long as
> it's not contingent on Home Equity Loans.
>
> Happy Festivus And Any Other Holiday That May Be Celebrated by Any and
> All,
>
> Adamantius
>
>
>
>
>
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