A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...: January 2nd, Already?

Where did New Year's Eve and New Year's Day go? Oh yeah. I was at work! Which wasn't too bad, by the way. We had a full staff that night and threw together an impromptu party. Of course we didn't think the night before to actually PLAN a party but I got up early that afternoon and made spinach dip and pulled some chips and salsa out of the pantry. Then when we got to work Steve found a couple of leftover 2 liter sodas and ordered pizza. The best part was having time to eat and relax for a few minutes around midnight. Yay!

So now we're up to Jan 2nd and guess what? I haven't already blown my diet yet this year. That's sort of a record for me but it didn't haven't much to do with self-control. Since I slept all day yesterday I didn't have time to stuff my face! (There's always today since I don't work tonight.)

Back to the photo above. That is a little cherry pastry that I've been making for Gene for Christmas or New Year's mornings for several years. Out of all the holiday baking, it's one of the easiest and one of my favorites. Plus I love watching Gene pick up the plate and fork and tuck into it even though he doesn't eat the whole thing at one time. It just tickles me the way he does it and how much he enjoys home-made sweets for breakfast with a cup of coffee.

The story behind this one is that Gene told me several years ago that when he was little his mom made some kind of cherry pastry for Christmas morning. Well you know how I am. I love traditions like that so I tried to recreate it for him. But it's a bit of a head scratcher when the only information you get is "it was cherry and sort of braided". Okay. The first year I made home-made pastry and pie filling and he told me it was good but that it wasn't the same. The second year I made something like a loaded down stollen and he told me it was good but it wasn't the same. The next year I got smart and started trying to think about his (late) mom and howshe might have cooked. By the time I met her she rarely cooked at all and even from what I could gather from the family she never was very thrilled to be in the kitchen so I assumed that whatever it was she made, it probably wasn't a long drawn out made-from-scratch process so I started thinking along the cool whip/canned pastry generation lines. That year's version was Pillsbury crescent rolls rolled out and braided over canned cherry pie filling. He said it was good but not the same.

Screw it. I was done with the whole "recreate a memory" task.

I guess by that time our tradition was to make some kind of cherry thing that was different from last year's. This year I still made it but I did it how I thought it would taste good but not be a hassle. I used Pepperidge Farm pre-made puff pastry laid out flat on a baking sheet. Down the middle I spread cream cheese sweetened with a couple tablespoons of honey, and then poured canned pie filling over the top of that. Then I cut the strips on the sides and braided the whole thing. To finish it off, I brushed egg wash all over the top and sprinkled it with sugar. There was some leftover pastry so I cut out candy canes with a cookie cutter, brushed on egg wash, and sprinkled those with sugar.

What was his response? The best so far but not the same. Next year I'm not going to ask the question. I'm just going to make it again THIS way because it was my favorite of all of them so far and was SO EASY. The cream cheese cuts the sweet of the pie filling and it goes together nicely. We put the leftovers out on the dessert table and there wasn't a bite left at the end of the evening. Apparently it works well as a dessert too.

One last thing about New Year's. I, of course, have a LONG list of resolutions but since they're identical to last year I'm not going to upload the whole list: lose weight/exercise more, go to church more/be a better person, write more/submit more/sell more, finish my novel!, yada yada yada. This year I'm printing out the list and taping it to the shelf above my computer so it stares at me all year. I think I'll have more time this year to conentrate on writing since I'm working overnight 12-hour shifts instead of evening 8-hour shifts but we'll see if I've learned to use my time wisely, eh?

Oh, and one more little thing. You know my jokester brother? The story I didn't tell you was that he called our sister at 3am on Christmas morning to ask her to "roll over and tell me what time it is". Stillb eing asleep, she did as she was told and he replied, "Thank you. Merry Christmas!" That woke her up.

This year she called him on New Year's morning at 2am, after a couple of glasses of champagne, and reportedly yelled "Happy New Year! So there!" I don't think it made quite the same impact since Kenneth was already up and at work at the time but I heard it made her feel better. I think he's still the joke master, though. Don't you?

Happy 2008!