How well he knows me… now
Mr Bee and I have been married for nearly 23 years now, so we know a lot about each other. This was not the case when we were first married. It was only after we had been married for some months that we each discovered that the other really rather enjoyed Star Trek. Each of us had carefully concealed our sneaky nerd tendencies from each other until long after the wedding vows were safely said.
Today, I was absolutely delighted to receive, for my birthday, three Star Trek movies on DVD.
Tonight we are going to order in pizza, and watch Star Trek movies, with the little bees. Because it is my birthday, we’re going to order an extra bag of fries.
Should you think that this is a very dull way to celebrate a birthday, I would like to point out that this is my preference, because actually, I’ve reached a very dull number that simply signifies middle age, and in any case later in the week, we’re heading off to Adelaide on holiday. That’s quite enough excitement to be going on with.
Other posts from the past that may have indicated my nerd tendencies:
What I did in my holidays: Kangaroo Island edition
Star the fifth
Nerds? Or geeks?
Celebrating Christmas with fabulous food
Just in time for Christmas, the NZ Listener served up a dose of food guilt and You Must Diet and food is not for fun and LOSE WEIGHT NOW! To be fair to The Listener, the article avoids saying that fat people are unhealthy (if you are sceptical about this claim, check this story about the non-link between fat and health in the New York Times). However, The Listener story does have an underlying theme of making people feel bad about food, and it tacitly claims that losing weight is just a matter of sufficient willpower. This is despite the magazine having previously run stories on the myths of weight loss (see my summary of the story here), and willpower (long story short – it can be done, but only with huge effort, unless there are structural supports around you).
Whatever. And what a way to cast a pall of nagging tut-tut-tut over a celebration.
So in the spirit of simply enjoying good food and good company, I offer you our Christmas Day menu.
We started the day with Bucks Fizz – champagne version for the adults, lemonade version for the children, although those children who wanted to do so were invited to try some of the former.
Bucks Fizz
For breakfast, we had warmed croissants stuffed with our butcher’s secret recipe homecured bacon, and lightly stewed peaches, still warm from the pan, all drizzled with maple syrup.
Bacon, croissants, peaches and maple syrup
I made a superb bacon quiche for lunch. I would show you a picture, but we ate it all before I thought about taking a photo. Likewise with the pre-dinner nibbles, alas. Or perhaps not so alas, because the homemade pate, blue cheese, chippies, and homemade hummus were delicious.
This was the main part of dinner.
Brown paper parcel
It’s a whole leg of lamb, studded with cloves of garlic, then rubbed with lemon juice and olive oil, then placed on a bed of freshly cut oregano, and wrapped in baking paper and brown paper. I cooked it long and slow, for about three hours, and I rested it for half an hour before serving it. It was meltingly tender, and flavoursome. The recipe comes from Ruth Pretty.
I accompanied the lamb with asparagus drizzled with lemon infused olive oil, a medley of green beans, broad beans and peas with melted mint butter, and herby Jersey Benny potatoes (best potatoes ever).
Lamb, potatoes, asparagus, legume medley
Yummy yummy yummy.
And then there was dessert.
Dessert table
From left to right, fresh cherries, a berry medley, marscapone apricot tart, whipped cream, yoghurt, a strawberry pavlova, and lemon semi-freddo. The pavlova was excellent, crisp on the outside, and soft marshmallow without a hint of chewiness in the middle. The lemon semi-freddo was good too, creamy and tart, and not at all icy. I was very pleased with the way it turned out.
Just in case anyone was still hungry, we finished off with Christmas cake. Lurid Christmas cake.
Bright star cake
I hope that you ate some wonderful food over the festive season too. Feel free to share.
On going dancing
Mr Bee and I went out dancing last night. When we got home, we found notes from our daughters.
Some extracts:
I hope you enjoyed your dance, and that you managed to talk to other people at least a bit.
Clearly our daughter understands our curmudgeonly introverted natures all too well. For the record, we *did* talk to other people there. And we even danced.
We are fine (no fights).
A fairly minimal standard of being fine…
I hope you had a good time too (I also hope Mum’s feed aren’t too hurt because of Dad’s footwork.
Also for the record, my feet were just fine, and Mr Bee didn’t tread on them at all.
Lurid
Lurid. I think that “lurid” is the most appropriate adjective to use for the beanie I have crocheted for Miss Ten the elder.
Pink, blue, green, orange, and purple beanie.
(Description: multi coloured beanie, with crocheted flower on the brim, on a dark blue background)
She chose the wool. Her father thinks that the mix of colours might best be described as fairy vomit.
Miss Ten the elder is fond of shrieking colours. Here is the same beanie, on the subtly pink and orange bedspread that she chose for herself.
Multicoloured beanie on pink and orange bedspread
You go for it, girl!
In other craft news, I have a beautiful blue scarf, in garter stitch, made for me by Miss Ten the younger. It is the very first thing she ever knitted, and it is very precious to me.
Blue scarf
(Description: small garter stitch scarf, in blue, with somewhat uneven rows and the occasional hole)
I have also crocheted a beanie for myself, and I have wool to make beanies for my other daughters. Plus I am knitting a square neck cardigan for Ms Thirteen. However, given my somewhat slow rate of knitting, I have suggested to her that she shouldn’t plan on having it in her wardrobe this winter.
For another gorgeous scarf, go take a look at what Megan has been doing: Fifty hours, 1400 rows, 1kg of yarn and a pretty munted wrist.
