I have been eating with my family a lot recently, and they have been feeding me well. Last Thursday I had dinner with my parents- meat loaf, tater tots, and brussel sprouts. I love brussel sprouts. They’re so good! On Saturday, I ate with J and Barbara May. J had just made a huge vat of sauce. Tonight I went back over to the parents’ house, and we had steak and twice-baked potatoes. Yum! I adore twice-baked potatoes. Also, in a search of my website, I don’t think I’ve actually written down the recipe for them. Mini baked potatoes, yes. But not the full-sized ones (not that it’s all that different). Huzzah! I’ll have a recipe this week even if I don’t make anything new!

I bought some Yamamotoyama tea today. I remember Lydia brewing me up some and it being very good. I hope this is the same stuff. Genmai-cha brown rice tea.

I’ve been talking with my parents about Christmas Eve happenings. Although Hannukah doesn’t officially start until the 26th (ETA: I’m wrong, the first night is Christmas night), we’re going to combine it with our Christmas Eve traditions. In our household, we make hors d’oeuvres- lots of them. Dad is bringing the Hannukah spirit into things by planning to make fried foods- carciofi alla judea and calamari fritti. Oil = Hannukah. Maybe we’ll make latkes, too. I saw a recipe for honey-drizzled chocolate cheese fritters that I’m interested in. The accompanying article said they’d be good for Hannukah (because of the oil) or Rosh Hashanah (because of the honey).

My parents went to Boulevard in San Francisco with some friends a week and a half ago. Read my mom’s review here. Boulevard also has a new cookbook out; it sounded pretty intriguing at least from an aesthetic standpoint.

Also, while you’re over at her blog, check out the personal attacks and wanking done by a few of her commenters (Devereaux and the mouse). Fun stuff. Jeez. Glad I don’t get crap like that. Of course, is anyone going to disagree that vehemently with me about cookware or foodstuffs? Probably not. I did try with my post on foie gras a while ago, but no one took that bait.

I need to make something new! I was thinking about making a zabaglione with strawberries for dessert tonight, but then Mom said I didn’t have to bring anything. And then I remembered that I had already basically written that recipe in the tiramisu recipe. I still brought cookies, though.

Also, I have started playing the oboe a little bit again. I didn’t suck all that badly, which was amazing (only lasted half an hour before my lip gave out, though). But what was really amazing was that my reeds still worked. I mean, damn. Those things are three years old.