Christmas good eats

Instead of going out of town, or spending insane amounts of money on gifts, we decided to eat and drink like kings on christmas. We took a trip to our local Fresh Market and spent about $100 on all kinds of food. Lots of seafood and side dishes. Here are a couple pictures of breakfast and lunch.

For breakfast, lobster cake eggs benedict:

For lunch, salmon with pasta salad, bread and cheese:

I can’t remember what we had for dinner. After all the champagne, wine, egg nog, gluewein, and one st. bernardus beer, we were ready for bed. What a great day. On a side note, she got me an awesome toaster oven

Christmas cookies

This year we started a new tradition. Make a whole ton of cookies and give them to everyone we know. While all the ingredients and everything was kind of expensive, it comes down to pretty cheap per person. And really, its about giving not recieving on xmas. These are the kind of cookies we made:  Ginger snaps, peanut butter balls, russian tea cakes, hopscotches, candy canes, thumbprints, and cinnamon roll cookies.

Nice salad

This salad was actually a lot bigger in real life. Lets try and remember what was in it, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions, bacos, croutons, hard-boiled eggs, broccoli, 2 kinds of veg chicken, 2 0r 3 cheeses, and ranch dressing. Maybe something else too? The picture is kind of fuzzy because I couldn’t wait to eat it.

Next time: I was inspired by a previous post of my top records of 2008, so i’ve been thinking of some really great records that have been around for years but had never heard before this time 2007. I will post as soon as I can get them together

Pigs in a blanket

I took these guys to the christmas party at my work last night, and I think they were gone in about 5 minutes. Really easy to make, I should have made twice as much. Croissant dough wrapped around veggie dogs and colby-jack cheese. mmmm

Top 10 releases of 2008

I have compiled a list of my favorite ten albums/releases of 2008 in order to participate in The Hype Machines music blog zeitgeist. Check it out here http://hypem.com/zeitgeist/2008/

While I was trying to come up with my favorites, I kept coming across stuff I thought was new but actually from 07 or 06. It seems I am about a year behind on discovering new albums. But I’ve come up with ten pretty strong ones and here they are:

1. Paul Westerberg- 49:00   Released as a 1 45 minute track you could download for only $1. It was quickly removed from the internet due to copyrights of some of the songs covered. I got it i think the day after it came out from amazon.com and I love it.

2. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- Rapid Response ep   Another release made available only for download, i think i found it on their website. It was made as a benefit purchase, the proceeds went to charity.

3. Matt Pond PA- The Free ep   Unlike the first two, this ep is available free for anyone to download off their website.

4. Tom Gabel- Heart Burns    These songs were originally performed acoustic and he had the oppurtunity to rework them all and put out a really good first solo release on Sire.

5. Hot Water Music- Till the Wheels Fall Off    A compilation of b-sides, covers, and rare songs released on No Idea.

6. Young Livers- The New Drop Era   Friends of mine released this album early in the year on No Idea.

7. Wolf Parade- At Mount Zoomer   I got this from the library and I think its as good as their previous album. Released on Sub pop.

8. Triumph of Lethargy Skinned alive to death- Old Jail   I don’t actually own this one but from what I’ve heard from it, I really like it. This band keeps getting better over time. From luckyhorse industries.

9. No Age- Nouns   I don’t own this one yet either, but upon listening to them I can easily say this will be one of the best albums of this year. Not sure what label this is on.

Finally,

10. The Replacements- Let it be (re-issue)   While this should be number one on my list, I couldn’t do that since it is a re-issue. The album first came out in 1984 on Twin/Tone but I had to include this on my list because it is my favorite album by my favorite band ever.

Vegtable noodle soup

Sorry for the lack of updates, my cameras battery died. What we made here is a homemade soup with sweet potatoes, squash, broccoli, onions, cabbage, carrots, fresh noodles, and more i can’t remember everything, collard greens. topped with parmesan.

Followed by this mornings almost perfect breakfast sandwich. Egg and cheese bagel.