It's a lesson in humans using machines to show their feelings

[sovay]

Christmas in my family has come in two parts for the last couple of years, Christmas Day when we hold an open house for eggnog and make a roast for Christmas dinner and Boxing Day when my brother and his family join us for waffles. Both this year went very well, I think. We had friends and family and small children and a firetruck, the plastic kind, enthusiastically zoomed around in the house in company of a garbage truck and an ambulance by Fox. My niece brought her stuffed Olaf and tried plum pudding for the first time. We watched the 1951 Scrooge with Alastair Sim. spatch and I had vague plans to see Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1975) at the Brattle, but we came home and collapsed instead.

My mother and I did not succeed in cooking all of the lost Christmas recipes of Gourmet, although in one case we were thwarted mostly by not having a second refrigerator in which to store a marinating roast, but we did make the potato and leek gratin, the citrusy haricots verts, and the candied kumquats, which I can recommend even without the extra roll in sugar at the end; they taste like tiny soft marmalade bombs. The orange-ginger pickled baby carrots were a mysterious disaster that came out smelling like turpentine—which we're pretty sure removing the chiles from the recipe shouldn't have done—and were binned without delay. The pudding mold of my childhood gave up its tarnished and suet-polished ghost at the end of last year, so this year's plum pudding was dome-shaped instead of bundt-ish, but it caught on brandy-blue fire just the same.

Having come into the holiday direct from a hell-cold and a performance, I feel somewhat trampled now that it's over, but also in possession of many books, including Gemma Files' Drawn Up from Deep Places (2018), Cyril Hare's An English Murder (1951), Robin Robertson's The Long Take: A Noir Narrative (2018), and a titanic omnibus of Daniel Fuchs' Brooklyn novels—Summer in Williamsburg (1934), Homage to Blenholt (1936), and Low Company (1937). Rob got me an annotated edition of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (1939) and all three Lowriders graphic novels by Cathy Camper and Raúl the Third. I got him a biography of Alfred Jarry and a book about the real murder cases behind the play/musical Chicago. Also we got socks, but that's actually great. My feet get cold.

According to Locus' listing of New & Notable Books, I am a celebrated poet and story writer. I hope "celebrated" in this case means "drowning in royalties come February," but I'm pleased with the notice regardless.

Did I mention I'll be in D.C. this weekend? For about twenty-four hours. On Friday, I am traveling once again at aaagh o'clock in the morning in order to meet selkie for Arena Stage's Indecent. 'Tis really the season of ignoring my internal clock for the sake of art.

Maybe tomorrow I'll just stay in bed and read.

Comments

[selkie]

I feel if we had better rail in this country, you could have taken the blergh-o'clock train instead of the aaagh-o'clock train, but I am squeakily excited to have you as a theatre buddy all the same. (And Spouse is relieved.)

Of course you are a celebrated poet and story writer. May you ALSO drown in royalties come February. I will remind you your first edition sold the fuck out, modifier apropos in this instance, and some of us had to content ourselves with the second edition, which I should in fact find on the bookshelf so you can inscribe it. Preferably while you completely ignore the clutter shudder that is our apartment. (N did vacuum the main room so whatever you sleep on, you will not be sleeping on hockey tape and cat hair.)

[sovay]

I feel if we had better rail in this country, you could have taken the blergh-o'clock train instead of the aaagh-o'clock train, but I am squeakily excited to have you as a theatre buddy all the same. (And Spouse is relieved.)

I am truly, madly, deeply looking forward.

I will remind you your first edition sold the fuck out, modifier apropos in this instance, and some of us had to content ourselves with the second edition, which I should in fact find on the bookshelf so you can inscribe it.

Yes, totally! Also I meant to ask if you had a spare copy of your book which I could purchase and bring back for my mother, who liked my copy so much that she wants one of her own.

(N did vacuum the main room so whatever you sleep on, you will not be sleeping on hockey tape and cat hair.)

My sinuses thank you, my lungs thank you, my throat thanks you, and I thank you.

I have not managed to stay literally in bed, but I am otherwise doing jack with my day and so far it's splendid.

[selkie]

I can't remember the last -- no, I can recall the last live theatre I saw. It was Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry, among others, in Twelfth Night in 2013 on Broadway, because apparently I don't overcome the social anxiety except for tiny itty bitty raked houses.

I AM EXCITED AND I DON'T GET OUT ENOUGH AND I... HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE DID WITH OUR THEN-THREE-YEAR-OLD.

I have a book for your mother, and/but that's so weird. I mean this in the best possible way while also side-eyeing the bends of the universe.

[movingfinger]

DM is visiting me; we made the roast, and we slow-roasted it at 250 with the hot finish for a crust (excellent results, will do that henceforth), the porcini popovers (will be our standard henceforth, they're mysteriously delicious), the beans, and the potato-leek gratin, which we ate again last night with sable, for dinner. Essentially it is in the baked chowder class of dishes I love (add ansjovis and get Jansson's Temptation!). I would love to do it with some flaked smoked haddock as a casserole.

On the carrots, I suspect the vinegar; ginger and vinegar can combine for a turpentine effect. Not using the chilis removed a savoriness/warmth that the pickle needs to balance the acridity of the vinegar (and orange oil, which can have overtones of cleaning product). Adding some whole cumin, allspice berries, juniper, or cracked cardamom pods should give the under-note that a good pickle needs.

It sounds like we'd better pick up some kumquats though! Yummmmm.

[sovay]

the porcini popovers (will be our standard henceforth, they're mysteriously delicious)

That's good to know. I'd still like to try them; I have the mushrooms.

Essentially it is in the baked chowder class of dishes I love (add ansjovis and get Jansson's Temptation!). I would love to do it with some flaked smoked haddock as a casserole.

I can't cook with fish if I want to feed my father, but on my own time I am almost always in favor of adding ocean to any dish.

It sounds like we'd better pick up some kumquats though! Yummmmm.

The recipe is ridiculously simple and extremely delicious. You can flour them in extra sugar if you want at the end, but we thought it might make them tooth-aching and they are plenty sweet as is.

[roane]

Congrats on the Locus mention, may we both rake in all the royalties in 2019. :D

[selkie]

I wonder how many selkies Sonya knows; all of them?

Hello!

[roane]

Hi! If you were/are selkie on LJ, you are the reason I am roane, because selkie was already taken! :D

[selkie]

No! I want to find that person on the Wider Internets! I was strange_selkie on LJ and flomped hard on 'selkie' as soon as DW opened shop for that VERY REASON!

Edit: but if one could be taken seriously in the Business Adulty World as 'Selkie,' I would actually change my name to that and reliably answer to it. My real English name is a thing.

[sovay]

Congrats on the Locus mention, may we both rake in all the royalties in 2019.

Thank you, and likewise! A good benediction.

[cmcmck]

Bed & read sound like my sorta combination! :o)

[sovay]

Bed & read sound like my sorta combination!

It's working out so far! I'm actually on the couch, but it's close.

[jesse_the_k]

by not having a second refrigerator in which to store a marinating roast

Doesn't living in winter near the ocean provide you with the chance to store things on top of the entryway or on the fire escape?

Hooray for an excellent dinner.

[sovay]

Doesn't living in winter near the ocean provide you with the chance to store things on top of the entryway or on the fire escape?

It does not in my parents' house. They have a summer kitchen, but my mother was hesitant to leave a roast unobserved overnight, especially following an exciting episode of condensation last week in the warm snap.

(Up until this summer there was a refrigerator in the summer kitchen, which was perfect, but it was a refrigerator from at least the early 1970's and it finally just died.)

Hooray for an excellent dinner.

Thank you!

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the Locus listing! I'm glad you got such an impressive holiday book haul.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the Locus listing! I'm glad you got such an impressive holiday book haul.

Thank you! I am happily working my way through it.

[coraline]

the leek gratin is SO GOOD.
now i want to try the porcini popovers.

[sovay]

the leek gratin is SO GOOD.

And it made leftovers forever, which was great.

now i want to try the porcini popovers.

Same. We were seriously considering them on the day, but ran out of energy, which under the circumstances I think was fine.

[gilana]

We made the kumquats for part of our New Year's feast and they were fabulous! Thanks for the pointer.

[sovay]

We made the kumquats for part of our New Year's feast and they were fabulous! Thanks for the pointer.

You're welcome! I was left wondering if it's this easy to candy everything, and if so, why am I not doing it more often?

[gilana]

I've been wanting to do candied orange peel for a while, but when I looked at recipes for that it seemed a lot more complicated and time-consuming. But there must be other things that it's this easy to candy. What have you done with the syrup? I'm thinking at least simple syrup to use in iced tea, but there must be other good uses.