Xmas 2018

I made Guiness and beef stew and bob made Irish soda bread to go with it.

next morning we made Shakshuka for breakfast and bob also made a French batard loaf to go with it.

for dinner we ground up a 50/50 mix of chicken thigh and breast but there wasn't anything available that had skin and fat on it

still have forgotten to get good photos of the nuggs but I tried a batter also this time (too thin for onion rings which is why the few test rings here look so bad). Bob made a copy of Mc'Donald's signature sauce that was pretty good. We still need to have a few more sauce ideas.

we got matching Christmas elf hooded onsie pajamas for the whole family. The are super warm cuz they are made out of microfleece and a lot of the time too warm.

after opening presents this is what xmas morning looks like in 2018

bob got me this salt set. The Welsh smoked salt is a big standout. I also got windproof running pants that are super warm, taster glasses, portable battery, wacom pen, Aaron Weisenfeld art book, pepper mill, wireless vertical mouse, and probably more. Jen got a parmesan cheese grinder, books including my year of rest and relaxation, and a lot of wine. Bob got a present from us that is waiting here to give him on 1/21/19, a chef's knife, and I can't remember what else. We gave mom vintage stamps with Newfoundland dogs on them from various countries like Canada, Guinea, Morocco, Sudan and more. Dad got a lot of coding stuff for arduino and rasperby pi.

Dad smoked this roast and it was amazing.

also challenged ourselves to use parsnips so we made gratin de parnais and wished afterward that it was just potatoes and not half parsnips. It was good though and the star anise made a unique flavor

The annual bouche de noel never even got eaten because there was so much food going on.

Guiness battered onion rings, this time with thicker onion ring specific batter

French dip au jus made with bob's homemade bread and Guiness battered onion rings. Delish

the next morning mashed potato donuts.

He could just eat us all

Good dugs.

So in conclusion there are some tweaks that could make Xmas more enjoyable. We definitely cooked too much which ended up taking over most of the days and our cheer and attention. Dad being post surgery prevented board games etc from happening. There was no snow for winter fun. It's always so hard to stay hydrated. We did make a pretty decent effort to bring the cheer this year like I said we would, we just spent too much time cooking.