Well, I did more cooking -- hurrah, or whatever. I thought you might like to see my attempt to make fruitcake. If you look closely you can see my grandmother's flour sifter, full; that green pot has all my wet ingredients, and the nuts are in that baking dish. Look behind the sifter, there's my dad's mallet. I needed it for the cloves and allspice berries. Cooking is fun. ^_^

Anyway, Here is the mass of wet ingredients. And here is the finished product, which I de-panned just ten minutes ago, and sprinkled with a second dose of brandy. Dad apparently intends to try some tonight, but beyond that we'll see how far I can age it. It may make a good New Year's dish, if I actually see anyone for New Year's -- usually I'm just at home, watching television with my parents.

I thought I should let you people know that Good Eats has taken my break in its warm, medium-rare grip. Seriously, I'm re-watching episodes for fun. Tomorrow I'm off to Morehead -- primarily, it seems, because my mother wants to keep us in stock of the lactose-free milk I require, which no one in this town thinks they should sell. However, while there, I'll be trying to cobble together the necessary bits for fruitcake, as well as an imitation steak au poivre (that is, we won't be buying tenderloin cuts, but peppercorn? Sure.) Of course, I can't have normal heavy cream -- has anyone bothered to pull the lactose from that product yet? If not I may have to fake the pan sauce with flour. It worked well enough with the pepper steak. Hm.

Yes, I'm crazy. Also, you may be interested that we don't have any aprons around, so Christmas day I ended up wandering around in an old white smock my parents brought me from their work. I'll end up in it again, I suppose, as I mean to start the pre-ferment for my bread tomorrow night.

Whee, Christmas day. Ever since my grandmothers died, Christmas day has involved my parents cooking -- now, normally my dad doesn't cook. I'm not really sure why, he can, and seems to enjoy it, but there you are. Anyway, on holidays such as this he roasts the turkey, which you can see here, featuring my dad's hands as he pokes and prods to make sure it's done. He made me carve it this year. : p I got to use one of the knives Mom bought me yesterday (a six-knife set, it's fairly nice), so all right, I guess. Mom made sides, such as peas, mashed potatoes, so on. I made these honey-roasted sweet potatoes. This is the first year I've ever made anything, as this is the first year where I actually knew how to cook. Here is my plate, with all the things piled on. My dad also made the dressing, which is really good. The plate is one of a set it turns out we have (I've never seen them before); they were my great-aunt's, and come from France. Neat.

EXTRA-SPECIAL HOLIDAY IMAGES:

View through my window on the twenty-first (the solstice).

My dad decided to take a picture as I rocked out with my metaphorical penis exposed, so enjoy.

Tired. Well, this has been a busy day. I actually went shopping with my Mom, because I needed ingredients for the several things I mean to make over the break here. I actually made supper tonight -- green pepper steak, one of my favorite things to get when I eat out. It turned out really well, and both my parents even liked it. I meant to get a picture (yes, I'm a nerd) but I forgot. So, later, maybe. I also mean to try and bake some bread, make fruitcake, and these honey-roasted sweet potatoes I saw a few days ago. I have everything I need except the myriad fruits and nuts for the fruitcake -- I'll have to go to Morehead for those.

My parents let me "open" my gifts (that is, take them out of the plastic bags, they didn't bother to wrap them this year) earlier. I have a sueded shirt that I'm a little uneasy about, but we'll see -- a set of bartending tools, including metal mixer, double jigger, waiter's corksrew, Also they got me the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie (with the music CD), Beowulf and Grendel, which I've heard weird, bad things about, but I'll definitely try it no worries, as well as Yoshi's Island DS, Super Princess Peach, and Guitar Hero II.

Yeah, Guitar Hero II. Woo!

That's pretty much my day. I need to try to write something, as well as read more of Herzog (bleh). I did my reading of The Lord of the Rings -- today Bilbo gives Frodo his mithril armor and Sting. Tomorrow the Ring goes south.