But going back to where I left off, christmas has come and gone. Zachary and I hosted our first christmas this year. Complete with live a tree, turkey and gravy, presents an
d stockings too, and a whole lot of family in our little brooklyn apartment. Christmas vacation started off with the arrival of my family; my dad, brother and sister. We went on a light tour of the city, which we lasted a grand total of 1 stop for a 'photo op' to turn into a 'drink op'. We quickly ditched the tour and found our selves focused on an entirely different holiday entirely; Halloween! We went to Jeckyl and Hyde's for dinner- a themed restaurant filled with decapitated heads, wearwolf specimens and an over all creepy vibe that my little brother thoroughly enjoyed (obviously). After a fun first day in the city (and a very early plane ride from ohio), the day ended with Daddy and Sam falling dead asleep on the train.The next day was christmas eve and started with a trip to The Met. Colleen of course was in her element rushing around the decked halls chirping tid bits of information. Sam followed in her foot steps when we entered the mythological statue section of the museum. I knew that Sam was interested in Mythology and had a few books on the topic, but I did not know that he was so informed and able to recall the names and stories of each mythological figure trapped in marble on display. I was rather impressed. After a quick stop in times square (for a needed trip to toys r us, which lasted all of 3 minutes before we were over whelmed by the last minute shoppers) we headed back to Brooklyn.
Sam was enjoying our Xbox, but mostly using large alien vehicles to run over colleen's character. Needless to say, Sam is now a Halo professional. Zach made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner- seared flank steak with a red wine shallot reduction, roasted potatoes and green beans with mushrooms and onions. It was excellent. We opened up our regular one christmas eve present and all donned our new pajamas. We watched the Polar Express while enjoying some Hot Chocolate when the song called for it and went to bed excited for the morning.
Christmas was wonderful! We opened all of our presents in the morning and zach made his families christmas eggs. We went to the movies in the afternoon (tron- terrible movie) and hurried home so I could start the turkey!
It was a small bird- only 12 lbs but it turned out perfect. I was terrified that I would over cook it, or that it would be dry. I thawed it with love, brined it with a little salt and rubbed and caressed the turkey with butter before putting it into the oven. A few hours later th
e little red button/thermometer had not yet popped, but I was getting nervous... it should have been done by then! I was so worried about my bird i sat on the floor of my kitchen (with my beverage of course) and watched through the window of my oven, waiting for the button to pop! And soon enough, it did! It looked good, it was golden brown and the veggies were nice and soft, but I was still terrified that it was going to be dry and I was going to ruin christmas. But I
was wrong! Some how, on my first try, I made the most amazing, glorious turkey the world has ever seen. Even my father, a turkey snob, was impressed and commented on its greatness. We served the turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. For my first attempt at a turkey I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome!The next day we ventured into the city for pizza and went to Sam's dream store - Evolution. A store completely devoted to all things gross. Sam got a allosaurus finger and fell in love with it. We trekked back to brooklyn in what was becoming the crazy new york snow storm. We got snowed in and what was supposed to be a peter luger's steak dinner turned into us ordering chinese delivery and having a die hard marathon with all 5 of us (and sam's dino finger) snuggling on the couch.
The snow storm ended up pu
shing dad and sam's travel plans back a day, but a few head aches and a 4am gypsy cab ride later they found themselves on a plane back to Ohio. Colleen stayed the rest of the week through new years, on which we both got dolled up in red. Overall and A+ holiday.I went on a creative adventure on one of the walls in our apartment with
the help of Ikea's super cheap frames and Kodak's online print center. The large fraame into the city after work and we took a shuttle from Port Authority over to Jersey to go to some giant ass japanese market. me in the middle has pictures from kenyon, and the ones around the outside are pictures of zach and my families and friends from home. There are also a few of us when we were little (zach and his brothers were adorable little blond babies!)Changing topics to Zach and I's most adventurous cooking extravaganza yet. For christmas, Zach got me a 'make your own sushi at home' kit from Barnes and Noble and I got him a nice dark blue porcelain sushi set complete with little soy sauce plates and chop sticks! On a rainy friday afternoon he cIt was ridiculous, we went fr
om being in a large parking lot right across the hudson to feeling as if we were in the middle of tokyo- yikes. We bought a variety of ingredients and took a few minutes to walk up the 'home isle' of this asian market to snicker at all of the strange asian items. We then ventured back to brookyn (a trip that took us over ninety minutes) to begin our sushi making spectacular!
It began with us preparing the rice, a rather difficult feat! "use this much water, don't stir it, fold it, don't open the lid, listen for boiling bubbles ,spend 45 minutes making the damn rice, add this special seasoning, spend $12 on a bottle you will use 2 drops of, etc etc etc..." When it was finally done we had the rice, the fish, the seaweed, the tobiko, the spicy mayonaise, the yummy eel sauce, the avocado, the cucumber (for zach, I hate the stuff), and our super special saran wrapped bamboo sushi roller things. Home made sushi: attempt 1 was a go.
We started with simple rolls- a califor
nia for myself and a tuna avocado for zach, that were mildly successful. We were both using too much rice to start and zach was having trouble rolling it up. We then tried things a bit more complicated, experimenting with the tobiko and the mayo. We tried to use different types of fish and less rice. We made right side in rolls and inside out rolls. I made one with the avocado on the outside of the roll (not recommended for amateurs) but it wasn't nearly as pretty as i wanted.About an hour and a half after we began cooking the rice we had a giant platter full of sushi- far too much for the two of us! We sat down on our fantastic red couch and dove in! It was our first try- we expected it to be edible, but not so great. But we were wrong! It was actually pretty good! The first few rolls that we made were way too ricey, but the ones that we made towards the end were delicious! It was an extremely fun and delicious at home date and I think that anyone who likes going out for sushi should definitely try to do it at home!
School is going very well. Some of the students are becoming harder to deal with considering the whole 'i'm a scared little freshmen and I will do what you tell me to' thing is wearing off. Some of the boys are getting tougher and the attitude on some of the girls is alarming at times. But overall I am so thankful to be at such a wonderful school. When I talk to my MfA friends and they tell me their woes from the schools that they teach at, I sympathetically nod along while I'm thanking god that I was so lucky to be hired at my school. Pi Day is coming up next month, I'm trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate... I have a few ideas- it's going to be exciting!!!
Also, we have a little friend staying with us for a few weeks! Charlie is making his Brooklyn debut!
