Another Lego Day

So now that Christmas is over, we spent a nice lazy day playing with lego. Which happened to result in more of our TV console being covered.

We also got more lego for christmas so we started with what looked like a fairly substantial amount.

credit: (from left to right clockwise) Steve, Judi & Nick, Binoy.

So we began to build. After we had used up all the thinnies, we had only added one more covered partition and some facing... argh.

 So, I decided to do some redesigning to try and use up some of the fatties we have. Its hard to get Lego sets (impossible actually) with only thinnies, so a fair amount of our wedding/christmas gifts were fatties. 

I demolished the end wall and rebuilt it as fatties, which left enough thinnies to cover up the front of the console. The last two partitions aren't fully covered at all, and the flat surface of the shelf housing the cable DVR thingy is only covered up to the front of the box.

From the front  it looks pretty good. My picture-taking skills however leave a lot to be desired. Trust me, it looks better in real life!

So now mostly all we have left is to cover the top. I used every single usable piece of lego we had today. All we are left with are the weird bits and these:

Finally.

Christmas dinner, which I forgot to take pictures of while I was doing it so here are the results...

Corn bisque with creme fraiche and roasted red pepper puree

Mustard crusted prime rib done to a perfect rareness!

Christmas Cocktail!

Vodka, cointreau, white cranberry juice, lime juice, simple syrup.

Garnished with frozen cranberries.

Merry Christmas!

This Is What I Am Like

Its a planner. For Christmas dinner.

Hey, before you judge me, let me explain. This meant I could plan the meal backwards.

And allow time for things like pre-heating the oven. Which always mess with my timeline because I always forget about things like that.

Romit, if you're reading, you should totally do this!

Christmas Dinner - Corn Bisque, Step 2

First, wake up from the nap you accidentally took.

Second, pulverize the corn mixture that has now gone cold

Third, Strain it. (This is the part I hate most, I always drop some lumpy stuff accidentally into the strained stuff and then have to dump it all out and strain it again.)

Fourth, put the strained stuff in the fridge till Christmas day.

Christmas Dinner - Corn Bisque, Step 1

We ate a lot of soup in Utah. It was cold, soup was warm. We also ate a lot of things called bisques that were not. In my head, if its lumpy its not a bisque. Then on the last day at a very nice restaurant they had a corn bisque that I almost didn't share with Rick.

So when we were planning our menu for this Christmas lunch, I decided to try and make something like it

And because I have nothing better to do, I decided to make the base in advance. Yay for me being organised!

Ingredients:

One 1lb frozen corn

3/4 cup carrots

1-1/2 cup shallots

dried thyme

chilli powder

chicken stock

Chop up the shallots and the carrots and drain the corn.

Melt some butter in your pot.

Add the shallots and saute a bit.

Add the Carrots and saute. You can also add celery but I hate buying celery because invariably I only use about one or two sticks and the rest disintegrate into a soggy green mess in my fridge drawer. Also, I hate how it tastes except in a bloody mary.

Anyway, when the carrots and shallots look nice and soft, add the corn,

a teaspoon of thyme, and a quarter teaspoon of chilli powder. I would add a little more chilli powder but Rick's family is... spice-averse.

Mix it all up and saute for a few minutes.

Add 4-1/2 cups of chicken stock, bring it to a boil and then turn the heat down and let it simmer for about half an hour.

And that is step 1. Take a break, clear up the counter (So you can mess it up again in step 2),

eat a snack.

Christmas!

This year we added the strings of red beads, and realized that the fishing line we had used the last couple of years was not strong enough...

Of course that was after we got back from the supermarket to discover the tree flat on the ground with about half the glass ornaments crushed to dust under it.

So we switched to 30lb fishing line, which is only a little more noticeable, and made up for the broken ornaments with small Ikea balls.

Happiness Is A Wall Full of Books

-colour co-ordinated!

...Will Eventually Land - Hard.

So we're finally back from Utah, with all bones and limbs intact! The bruises however are another matter altogether...

Things I Learned:

1) People in Utah take their skiing very seriously. There's nothing like having a train of four-year-olds zip by you on a blue slope to make you feel suicidal.

2) The words "Blue Slope" mean totally different things in California and Utah.

3) Good Mormons go to church on Sundays, and Salt Lake City is full of good Mormons, so if you find yourself with a weekend to go skiing, don't go on Saturday.

4) Three Days is as long a time as anyone ever needs to spend in Salt Lake City.

5) There are no brown people in Alta
6) In spite of this, there is a weird Indianness in Utahn food, we were fed chicken curries, vegetable curries, and worst of all, curry soup. 

6) If I try to get the TSA to hand check my undeveloped film, they will interpret that as a confession, and will rub me down (in public) for explosives*

7) If you are Rick however, they will let you get on the plane with a corkscrew and a bagful of unidentified gel. Go figure.


*So I have a question, if I had handled explosives, wouldn't it be worthwhile to at least check my hands instead of wiping down my clothes which surely I would have been smart enough to have changed?

What Goes Up...

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10,500 Feet

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Alta

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Whose Idea Was It

That a chorus of frogs is a soothing sound? After lying in a dark room for half an hour with needles in my head listening to the entire North American frog population, I am beginning to feel quite well disposed towards snakes.