merry making

Christmas 2020, there it went.

I hope everyone reading had a nice Christmas if celebrated and a nice Friday if not.  We actually had our family celebration yesterday - the day after - and it was all good.

I worked on Christmas day, so spent it with my coworkers and the old folks.  It was a good day, everything went very smoothly, like a Christmas miracle.  I was in the kitchen prepping the tiramisu when two of our burly cooks hefted a couple of huge hams from the oven.  As they beamed at the beautiful and aromatic fruits of their labors, I couldn't help but think, "those look like two little charred pigs", which in a way, they were.  

To the cooks' credit, they were beautiful hams, but my on-again-off-again inner vegetarian had a bit of a "farm to table" moment at first sight of them.  When I buy ham in the store, it's not nearly as critter looking.  Anyway, the Christmas meal was a success with the senior citizen masses.  

About a week ago, Meego let me know that close friends he'd hung out with had tested positive for COVID.  This was just after he and his roommates came off of two weeks of self-quarantining after one of the roommates and roommate's girlfriend tested positive.  

Like a responsible college kid in a pandemic, Meego wanted to have a COVID test before we had our family get together.  We scrambled a bit to find a testing site and get him an appointment.  I honestly didn't think he'd have results before the weekend, but he got his negative result on Thursday giving us the all clear.

We had a fun day-after-Christmas Christmas with the brood.  They are a difficult bunch to get gifts for, each being single with no dependents and decent incomes - well, except for Meego the college kid who will always welcome cash.  But we managed a bit of seasonal materialism to go with the flow.

Now, onward to the new year.  Resolutions?  Yeah, riiiiiiiight...

the cheese stands alone

Yesterday, I was headed home after a few errands and noticed the sign at the church near the high school:

Particularly, the "GRILLED CHEESE BEGINS SEPT 5" .

Several years ago, this church started offering grilled cheese sandwiches on Thursdays during the high school lunch periods.  It started out as something for the few kids who needed a break from the high school scene but maybe didn't have money or a car for a decent off-campus lunch.  A woman at the church thought it might be a nice bit of outreach since the church was so close to the school, so she volunteered to make a few grilled cheese sandwiches once a week.

Word spread and now EVERY kid and staff member know of the deliciousness.  Each of our kids has partook during the high school years and each has described the yum of church grilled cheese.  It's to the point now where the church coordinates teams of volunteers to make and serve during designated lunch periods.  There is still no charge for the food - they also offer cookies and such, I'm told - but kids often donate what they can.  It's open to juniors and seniors because underclassmen aren't allowed to leave campus for lunch, but c'mon, we've all been high school underclassmen who've "ditched" at lunch.

There's no proselytizing on grilled cheese Thursdays.  Sure, kids can ask questions about the church and programs, but it's really just about outreach.  I think that's a nice thing.

With school being back in session, no doubt some students were wondering, "Where's the cheese?"
Well, there ya go.  Nice of them to post it on their sign.

In related news, as part of my vegetarian adventures, I made an attempt to create some veggie quesadillas as yummy as the ones I had at Fuzzy's a few weeks ago.

I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but they needed more veggies.  They're not quite up to Fuzzy standards, but next time!

Now, to find a good wine pairing...

veggie tales

Happy first day of September.  I don't know about anyone else, but I get a little optimistic for no particular reason at the start of a new month.  Maybe it's because I dwell too much on the bad things of the past month?

Plenty of good things happened in August, the dark spot being Tiffany's abrupt and confusing death.  I've mentioned that she inspired me to become vegetarian, but I'd gotten lazy, then returned with renewed gusto when she passed.

Now lemme just say, I'm not trying to be all zealot and preaching readers to convert. Not at all!  Eat what makes you happy.  My blogging about it helps keep me on the path to learning and becoming a better cook.

On that note, I think I've mastered tofu.

I really like tofu dishes in restaurants, but whenever I've prepared tofu dishes at home, the tofu's been, in a word, Ew.

I made myself learn to make restaurant-like tofu, and now it's, Yum!  Here's what I made for lunch a little while ago:

I call it "Tofu and Veggie Stir Fry with Rice, Beans, and Some Kinda Sauce I Threw Together".  On a side note, I made that name up on the fly just now.

In other new-month news, the prompt list for this year's Inktober has just been released.  *rubbing hands together rapidly*.  As I recall, I managed to complete 22 of the 31 drawings last year.  For me, it's a cheap, self-indulgent challenge and a fun way to connect online with other weirdos art hobbyists.  

So I have one month to ponder some ink fun for next month, just in time for crisper temperatures and pumpkin spice everything.  

What are you learning and/or looking forward to this month?