My Christmas Gifts
Yesterday, Mr Chiots and I finally celebrated our Christmas. What did I find under the tree?
First off, Mr Chiots and I bought each other snowshoes. Technically they weren’t Christmas presents, but around this time of year just about everything gets labeled as a gift. They’re nothing fancy, just the cheapest ones offered by L.L.Bean. We took them out for a test hike yesterday and LOVED them. No doubt we’ll get more than our money’s worth with these.
I also received a few cookbooks: The River Cottage Cookbook and River Cottage Every Day
Lucky me, I even found a Clarington Forge long handled shrubbery spade and potato fork under my tree. I would have never purchased the potato fork for myself, it’s rather pricey, but I’ll take it as a gift. Clarington Forge tools are well made, this potato fork is a beastly tool, heavy and very well made, it will certainly last me the rest of my life and probably long outlive me.
Mr Chiots and I are very practical gift givers, generally we buy useful stuff for each other. He lucked out with a nice Filson wool shirt, a wool sweater, new suspenders and a few books as well.
What did you find under your tree this year?
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Friday Favorite: SNOW
It’s been a long time coming, but winter seems to have finally arrived. Fitting I guess, since it was officially winter just a week ago. We had a good snowfall yesterday, about 6-8 inches or so. Mr Chiots, my dad and I all went out hiking for a few hours in the morning to enjoy it. We really do enjoy the snow.
Now perhaps we’ll finally be able to get those snowshoes out and break them in. The garden really needs this blanket of snow, it’s a valuable source of insulation and protection for the plants. It’s just in time, the weather is going to start dipping down into the single digits this weekend.
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Unopened Gifts
Under our Christmas tree there are still many unopened gifts, in fact most of our gifts to each other are still there. We were planning on opening them up on Sunday evening, but then my parents drove straight through and arrived right as we finished recording Cultivate Simple.
So we decided to wait until this Friday or Saturday. We’ll make some eggnog, put on Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas and sit down to open them up. I can’t wait for Mr Chiots to open the gifts I got for him.
Have you already opened all your Christmas gifts or are there still a few left?
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We Have a Winner
This afternoon I chose a winner for the Lilla Rose Flexi-Clip. Congrats to Lisa from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary who said:
I want to thank Beth for doing this giveaway! I also wanted to mention that there’s a sale today at Lilla Rose today, free shipping and 10% off. Head on over to Beth’s page if you’re interested in taking advantage.
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A Smashing Success
After mentioning in my post about the big dinner we had planned, many of you asked for photos. Of course I took photos all throughout the day. The beauty of a meal like this one, is that it doesn’t take a lot of work, it’s a lot of waiting around. I was lucky enough to score a beautiful 10.5lb standing rib roast from a local farm last week.
This isn’t my first time cooking a standing rib roast, we’ve enjoyed them New Year’s a few times in the past. This year I decided to give Alton Brown’s dry aging a try. Basically you wrap the roast in a towel and put it in the fridge for a few days to dry a little. I’ll give it two thumbs up, so did everyone else. The dry aging is supposed to help the meat cook more evenly, providing a medium rare roast throughout instead of one that is cooked on the ends and rare in the middle.
The beauty of a standing rib toast, is that it bakes in the oven for a few hours while you prepare the rest of the meal. The Christmas dinner menu from The Williams-Sonoma Entertaining was my guide for the meal because all of the sides are made on the stovetop. There were mashed potatoes with celery root, caramelized carrots, oyster stew, sautéed mushrooms, marsala au jus, fresh horseradish sauce and a very impressive Yorkshire Pudding!
Dinner’s like this are great because they’re a good excuse to get out the nice glasses and silverware. It reminds me of the joy of setting up tea for the dolls as a kid.
The meal was perfectly rounded out by a maple bourbon pecan pie, which was AMAZING. I used my Grandma Graham’s Pie Crust Recipe. The bourbon in this recipe really helps cut the sweetness of the pie. I’ve always found pecan pies to be way too sweet, but this one was just right!
Mr Chiot’s even roasted decaf coffee beans and fired up the coffee maker to make cappuccinos for us to enjoy with the pie. Along with the maple bourbon whipped cream and the pie, it was the perfect ending for a wonderful meal.
We were happy that my parents and our neighbor (who brought some wine) came up to enjoy it with us. Oh yeah, the recommendation that you need one pound of standing rib roast for every person is a bit overkill, looks like we’ll be eating on this for the next week (not that I’m complaining).
What did you enjoy for Christmas dinner?
