Holiday food and books roundup

Christmas was spent at home. My parents and brother came up for Christmas dinner, which was a feast: prime rib, ham, Peking duck, scalloped potatoes (with Gouda, garlic, and thyme), brussels sprouts, turkey roll-ups (this was the closest thing my mother could find for vegetables at Costco), and shrimp cocktail. For dessert, there was Buttermilk Pecan Pie, fruit tart, baklava, and lots of ice cream. I made the prime rib, potatoes, brussels sprouts, and pie. Not nearly as exhausting as Thanksgiving, but very yummy.

For Galina's birthday, we had broiled salmon with potatoes, and lemon squares. New Year's was a quieter affair. Igor, Galina, and I just toasted in the New Year with Champagne, then went to bed. I guess this really demonstrates the effect of two boys in the house! We had duck on New Year's Day. I steamed it again before roasting, and it came out better than last year. Need to cut back on the cooking time for the legs, however, so that's it's not too dry.

I'm still working on Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet and Micheal Ruhlman's Elements of Cooking, but finished Mary Poppins. Nikita is on a major Thomas kick. Whenever he can, he tries to get me to read the same four stories from Thomas' Big Storybook: "Thomas Gets Tricked", "Trouble for Thomas", "James in a Mess", and "Deisel's Devious Deed".