The Last Post Of The Year

This is the last post of the year.

Earlier today
- I worked from 9 to 4, straight through my lunchbreak, didn't notice the time
- I bought 2 bags of chips, 1 bag of Doritos, 1 bottle of Sprite and 4 Mars bars at the store
- I hurried home through the cold cold afternoon (-27)
- we had supper (soup, very good)
- I set everything up for some movie watching

Right now
- I am writing this post
- I have music playing in the background

Soon
- I will turn off the music
- we will eat the chips, watch movies and drink pop (and fake beer)
- we will not go to the fireworks, because the temperature is supposed to go down to -37 tonight, I'm sure we can see everything fine from our window

The last post of the year is now at its end.
Happy new year.

Soup & Bread

Here is a picture of the soup I cooked today.
(Note the bread I boke.)

Late Gift

Today a package arrived, containing more presents! Yay!
So my list must be updated:

1 cool-looking 5-subjects-notebook
0.5 3 cookie cutters: 1 tree, 1 clover leaf, 1 skull and bones (That's right, it makes skull and bones shaped cookies. Cool. I really like pirates. The idea of a pirate cookie-festival sounds awesome to me.)

The notebook really looks nice and beautiful and pure. Is it really for writing in it? I'm afraid to write in it. It's so untouched. My writing can only... maculate it, can't it?

Thank you very very much, dear late gift-sender!

The Forever-Turkey-Eternity

So we had turkey. It was awesome, delicious, great. With potatoes and vegetables cooked alongside. That was on saturday. A 3-person meal.

Then came sunday, and we had more from the same turkey, my wife and I.

On monday we had turkey, again.

On tuesday we had meat from the same turkey, accompanied by pasta and/or fried eggs and bread.

Today for lunch we had turkey sandwiches.

Today for supper we will have a turkey-based soup.

Tomorrow we'll have more turkey sandwiches and the same soup again.

On friday we'll very likely still have turkey-sandwich-meat and leftover soup, so we'll eat that.

Conclusion:

One 4.5 kg turkey is good for 2 persons for at least 5 days, perhaps even a week.
It's the forever-turkey-eternity.


Oh, and following some hearsay about a great idea some bearded guy out east had about what to do with leftover broth, I froze some of it into ice cubes. Broth cubes! How aeseome is that? Nice broth portions always ready for whatever use necessary. Now I got three racks of them. Probably also good for summertime, great ice-cream substitute.

9 to 5

5.30, to be precise. I have a job now. A regular daytime-weekday-9-5.30 Job. Guess I have to change my little profile text on the right.
I work at the local store, wearing the local-store-uniform (a vest), with a name-tag (with my name on it) pinned to it (chest, right side), carrying a security card with me at all times (using it to check in and out whenever I come and go), having memorized my security-password, typing numbers into the in-store-computer-system (gaining access to it using my security card and password), moving merchandise around, sticking tags to merchandise, filing files, making sure files match merchandise, making sure merchandise matches files and pinning anti-theft devices on (or through) merchandise.
The receiving end of the delivery boy business. Isn't that something.
Now my favourite spare time activity, rotating cleaning day (this week: monday. next week: tuesday. etc) I cannot do anymore. Cleaning day has to sidestep to a fixed weekend-timeslot. Not sunday. The Lord sayeth Fuck off on sundays and Thy be lazy on sundays. So it'll be saturday.
*sigh*
What I hated when I was young I am becoming now: My parent's house's cleaning schedule.
I must have missed a turn somewhere.

Turkey

Right now I am cooking a turkey. The first turkey in my life. 10 minutes to go and it will be ready. Looking golden and brown already. I can smell it. And I didn't take a nap while cooking it, but I could have, because Mr. Turkey was fine cooking all by himself for more than 2 hours.
I'm cooking it to the music of Chopin's Nocturnos. I believe deep piano tunes should make it even more delicious.

What I Got For Christmas

1 black baking pan for poundcake
1 black baking pan for a different type of cake
1 blue sweater
1 dark-colored tuque that has my name on it
1 bottle of shower gel "Diesel: Only the Brave"
1 pair of warm woolen socks
2 packs of German Chocolate
1 wooden recipe box wit some recipes and lots of blank cards in it
1 box of Ferrero Rocher
1 box of assorted Kinder chocolate
1 pair of binoculars
1 National Adubon Society Field Guide to Trees (Eastern Region North America)
1 ancient looking grinding-pot with holes in the bottom and a crank handle
6 Novels:
How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely
The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter
Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
and...
0.5 pepper grinder
0.5 Slap Chop (as seen on TV)
0.5 cuddly stuffed reindeer holding a blanket in its arms
0.5 package of new sheets
and...
1 huge amount of various Christmas chocolate, sweets and cookies
1 toothbrush

AND

1 (early november present:) computer

Wow.
Considering after getting the computer I didn't really wish for anything else I got a surprising amount of presents this year. Conclusion: There must be people out there who like me a lot.
Thank you, people out there! Thank you very much!
Merry Christmas.

Seasoning the Dutch Oven in 22 Easy Steps

1. Wash it with soap and dry well. (done)
2. Take a fuckload of aluminium foil and create a catch-all to put into the lowest possible position in your oven. (done)
3. Put it there. (done)
4. Turn on oven to preheat to 350. (done)
5. Completely grease your cast iron pot with Crisco or similar stuff, rub it into every nook and cranny, don't forget the lid. (done)
6. Place pot and lid upside down into preheated oven. (done)
7. Keep it there for an hour. (done)
8. Suffer the smoke. (suffering)
9. Open windows. (impossible, frozen shut)
10. Open backdoor. (done)
11. Beware of dogs coming inside. (bewaring)
12. Freeze your ass off. (freezing)
13. Hope time will pass by faster. (hoping)
14. Experience constant fear the smoke alarm will go off. (experiencing)
15. Turn off oven. (in 30 minutes)
16. Allow pot to cool. (will do)
17. Hope the catch-all caught it all. (hoping)
18. Wipe off Crisco remains with paper towel. (not yet)
19. Get rid of catch-all and caught Crisco. (later)
20. Shut the fucking backdoor. (does the pope shit in the woods?)
21. Enjoy seasoned pot. (sure)
22. Wonder why it takes so long for the smoke to clear out, open backdoor again. (hope not)

So many presents!

Where did they all come from? I don't know, but they're here. And who lives here?
We live here.
Conclusion:
They are all for us!
Merry Christmas!

The Smoking Mole...

and his fabulous friend!
But first:
The legend himself.

Brato presents:
The
one
and
only!

The
great
awesome
and
unbelievably
wonderful,

the
world-
famous
and
intergalactically
respected

yet
unfortunately
chain-
smoking

Smoking Mole!
(He just arrived from Europe.)
And he is actually smoking, it's hard to see. The smoke smells like fir tree! (Burning fir tree.)

And he brought his friend.
Brato presents:
From a country that once was but today is no more,
He who was born in a factory owned by the people:
Trusty christmas-companion for more than a quarter century!

The
mighty
Nutcracker!And because both of them are always hungry, I promptly made a whole new bunch of gingerbread cookies. Well, almost. I changed the recipe. I replaced the ginger and cinnamon with a different spice mixture (made of cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and other spices).
For my European friends.
I hope the cookies taste good. So, as the smoking mole would put it:
En-fucking-joy!

Christmas Tree