Books, Read and Released

Although all of my recent Christmas-themed posts may make it seem like I haven't been reading anything lately, I actually have. Here's the brief recap:

Just before Christmas I finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I've heard of so many people who love this book, and although I did like it a lot, I'm not entirely sure what all of the fuss is about. I thought it was extremely well written, and it kept me interested throughout the many generations covered in this sweeping book, but that can be said about other family sagas I've read. As I neared the end of the book, I kept waiting for some big revelation that would put the whole preceding book into a new perspective. There is one surprise twist, but it didn't seem like enough to me. A good, interesting, and entertaining book, but not earth-shattering.

I also quickly read through a free advance galley copy that I got for an upcoming YA book called The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. It was a sweet, teenage romantic-drama, but again, nothing earth shattering. I think that will be the first book that I "release" as part of this BookCrossing program that I just found out about.

BookCrossing is a free program that's meant to encourage the sharing of books. It works like this: you read a book, register it online and get a tracking number, then release it into the wild wherever you want. Whoever finds it next can go onto the BookCrossing website and, by looking up the tracking number, can see where the book's been. It seems like the program was designed to promote the spread of literacy and the recycling of books, but I think it just sounds like fun. Who knows if anyone will actually continue the chain with the books they find, but at least this will prompt me to weed through my shelves and part with some of my books.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Before celebrating with our extended clan of relatives on Christmas Day, my family traditionally celebrates Christmas Eve ourselves by going to mass, having dinner at home, and opening some presents. Since I've started to like to cook in recent years, I've taken over the task of making the dinner. I usually try to do something that's a little bit elegant to make it a special occasion. This year's meal came out especially delicious, if I do say so myself.

For the salad, I added pomegranate seeds and gorgonzola cheese to some greens. For the main course, I made butternut squash tortelloni (a Giada recipe).

It was pretty labor-intensive. It took me a good 45 minutes just to wrestle with peeling and chopping the squash. I used wonton wrappers for the pasta, and filling and shaping them was a bit of a slow process too. It was worth it, though, and came out really good in the end.

For dessert I made panna cotta (another Giada recipe- she really does not disappoint). This is one of my favorites. It takes only a few simple ingredients to make, but seems like a really fancy dessert and has the most wonderful, delicate flavor of cream and honey. I need to find more excuses to make this throughout the year.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

In honor of my last post before Christmas, I thought I'd give a quick tour of my family's tree. I'm sure that every family thinks their tree is the best, but I really do think ours might be a strong contender for the title, largely because we have such an eclectic mix of ornaments.

These first two are some of our antique ornaments that were passed down from my dad's grandmother. I think they're about 75 years old. The second one is Cinderella's coach and has always been considered the most special ornament on our tree.


Speaking of Cinderella, these are a set of Cinderella ornaments, including the prince, the fairy godmother, and the glass slipper.

This vintage, kitschy ornament is like a little dioramas. We have several of these and each one shows a different scene of the nativity or the wise men.


This is a vintage Snoopy:

And, as a way of remembering our real-life Snoopy, a picture ornament of our beagle Jasper.

This grouping shows my baby ornaments, a pear ornament that my mom glittered a couple of years ago, and, near the back, a glass ornament that we made with real Bermuda sand that we brought back from a cruise that my entire family went on back in 2000.


Here are some of the homemade ornaments I made through the years, plus some college ornaments and another little beagle.


And finally, every year we cut down our tree from a tree farm and several years ago, we found a perfectly formed empty bird's nest in the tree. My dad varnished it to preserve it and now, nestled in one of the inner branches, it's the perfect spot for this bird ornament.

And that's really only a fraction of our ornaments. I could show so many more, but I'll save something for next year...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Owl I Want for Christmas

Oh, I just can't resist a good pun! Especially one that's related to a cute Christmas craft project. This one was based on a pattern to make paper owls that my friend Lara had tucked into my birthday package. Those owls come out like this:

They inspired me to try to making some of my own, with a holiday spin. I traced the pattern onto some metallic Martha Stewart craft paper, then assembled the owls and added some glitter to the ears, beaks, and feet.

I think they're cute and could make good ornaments or package decorations.

Holiday Baking

I enjoy cooking and baking all year round, but there's just something extra-special about holiday baking that puts me in the mood to go a little overboard. This year I made a combination of new recipes and old favorites. Some will come to my aunt's house on Christmas Day and some will be munched on throughout the night on Christmas Eve. Of course, I've already had quite a few samples over the past few days.

First, I made chocolate chip cherry cookies, one of may favorites among the Christmas cookie recipes that have been in my family's repertoire for years and years.


Next, I whipped up a fudge wreath:


And then, in an encore from Thanksgiving, I made another one of Paula Deen's pumpkin ooey-gooey butter cakes.


Finally, I tried out a new recipe from a cookbook I got through work, Chocolate Chocolate by Lisa Yockelson.

I have to admit that although this book is beautiful to look at, I haven't actually made that many recipes from it. This year, I decided to try making a layered chocolate bar from the book, which I'm officially christening "Chocolate Macaroon bars", because of all of the coconut that they're topped with.

The recipe couldn't be easier to make. You press 'Nilla wafer crumbs and butter into a pan to make a crust, then top with layers of white and dark chocolate chips and coconut. Pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over the whole thing, bake, and voila!- the Chocolate Macaroon bars are ready. They came out deliciously chocolaty and sweet. Definitely a recipe I'll make again.