A Fifth Stocking Hung By the Chimney with Care

Of all the holidays we celebrate during the year, Christmas is one that offers the most established traditions and behaviors. A comforting sameness. Decorations spanning almost 50 years. A six-foot (fake) pole pine that we bought 20 years ago, and sits year-round on the first landing of our staircase. This year we added small battery operated twinkling lights. Something new. There’s the leaded glass Santa and seven-piece glass Nativity scene we bought 30 years ago from an artist in Pine, Arizona when we were visiting my mother. And the wooden nativity scene that Lauren cut using a scroll saw while practicing to make her gift for Scott (a United States puzzle that holds the quarters for each state) as part of our family Christmas exchange that spanned ten years. And the lighted, waving snowman that (almost always) hangs in the front window to welcome guests. I have no idea where he came from and, personally, I find him annoying and insisted this year that he remain in the decorations box, thus banning him from Christmas. As I write this I’m feeling a little regret over my selfishness. There is the food of the holiday season. The Laird’s cookies. Our former neighbors, Parry and Leone, bake a dozen different cookies each year and share them with friends and neighbors. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without their cookies. And the pull-apart cake from another neighbor. It arrives every year on Christmas Eve morning fresh out of the oven. Perfect for a house full of guests. The list is long and everything on the list holds years of happy memories. A comforting sameness.

Jana and Lauren helping the Best Daddy Ever make apple pie for Christmas

This year we had a small, but significant change in Christmas sameness. We added a fifth stocking to those that hang on the fireplace mantle each year. Lauren knit the oversized stocking that matches the others (except for colors) and gave it to Andy McGee, Jana’s significant other, to welcome him into our family. Andy’s parents joined us for a few days over Christmas (they did not get stockings) and we spent three days celebrating with good food, good wine (including more of that bubbly I discussed in the last blog post), and good conversation. Andy is a welcome, comfortable addition to our family and we look forward to hanging five Christmas stockings again this next year.

 Andy, Jana, and the fifth stocking

Lauren with Frosty

Jana and I shared dozens of calls leading up to the big weekend. Because we had a few additional guests, she and Andy offered to cook our Christmas Eve meal. Wanting it to be perfect, they practiced their menu three times during the few weeks leading up to the holiday. Three times they made and ate Hazelnut Crusted Pan-Fried Fish with a White Wine Sauce. Each time with a different kind of white fish. They came prepared to make a memorable Christmas Eve dinner. In fact, Jana, being kitchen savvy and quite competitive (like her mother), challenged Verne and I to a cook-off. Sounds a bit like a Bobby Flay Throwdown. In this case, Jandy’s Hazelnut Crusted Pan-Fried Fish throwdown against my (famous in our small circle of friends and family) Deconstructed Pot Roast. Doesn’t sound like much? Don’t let the name fool you. I begin with a well-marbled piece of beef (preferably bone-in), brown it and then roast it for several hours in my All-Clad slow cooker. Separately, I prepare the best-ever caramelized onion, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with a ton of butter and crème fraiche. Orange, purple and white carrots (baby, if I can find them) are roasted until fork-tender and slightly blackened around the edges. A thick beef gravy (this is when I enlist Verne’s help) is made from the pan drippings. This simple homespun meal is then artfully presented on an oversized white buffet plate. Each of the three components are placed separately on the plate and joined only by a thick ribbon of gravy and a sprinkling of finely chopped parsley, thus the name Deconstructed Pot Roast. Simple, yet elegant. Comfort food at its finest!

Jana, Andy, and Lauren making Christmas Eve dinner

I tried to warn Jana. After all, she hasn’t eaten meat since she was in high school and she had no real understanding or appreciation of her competition. Combine that with her unfamiliarity with our stove (like that one burner that cooks too hot) and the large frying pan she grabbed (the one that cooks too hot), and the Jana was destined for something unexpected. Something less than the perfection she’d reached in her own kitchen. I don’t want to say “failure”, because Jandy’s meal was certainly not a failure. It was very good.  And, the smoky scene in our kitchen as the oil heated and the fish blackened and the smoke detectors blared may have been hard on the senses, but it was at least very entertaining. But, this was a competition that was started by Jana and Andy. It was only fair that at the end of the day (Christmas day, that is) both meals be judged on their merits and a winner selected. Being the only impartial people present for both meals, Andy’s parents were given the job of choosing a winner. Life’s full of tough choices, idn’t? (If you don't remember, that's Ursula's line from The Little Mermaid, but seems very appropriate here.) Talk about being put on the spot…one team was going to be very disappointed. Would it be their only child and the love of his life? Or Jana’s parents (and their hosts)? Well, they are good people and set aside their personal biases and made a fair and equitable decision. The pot roast won! I’ve got to say, Jana makes me proud. She was disappointed, but took the loss in stride and by morning she was talking of her meal plans for the 2017 Christmas Cook-Off. You can knock her down, but not for long!

There were other memorable Good Eats over the weekend. Like Pine Grove Pizza on the night the three kids arrived. We picked up Lauren at the airport and got back to Amador County about the same time as Jana and Andy arrived in town. We had reservations at the Union, a table for five in the back room next to the fire place. A perfect start to our weekend. Driving through Pine Grove Jana noticed Pine Grove Pizza was open and all bets were off! Typically, it’s closed for the holiday when she’s home at Christmas and she can’t get her Pine Grove Pizza fix. We’d just made it in the nick of time as they were closing for two weeks that very night.

Christmas Eve Eve held a big surprise. We had Maria and Ruben join us for Verne’s famous spaghetti and meatballs. Our young friend Ted Burns couldn’t come for dinner as he had committed to making dinner for his family, but joined us for dessert that evening. His gift to us was a Buche de Noel cake that he made that day. Actually, he made one for us (his adopted family) and another for his parents and grandparents who live in Pine Grove. After hours of work, one turned out picture perfect (below) and the other was a flop. Sweet Ted brought the perfect cake to us. It was incredible and as delicious as it was beautiful. The mushrooms, made of egg whites, sugar, and cocoa powder, were so realistic I was afraid to eat them. But when I finally did eat one, OMG! They melted in my mouth. Ted is an amazing baker in his non-working hours and has recently been selling at local farmers’ markets in Redlands, where he lives. Chocolate croissants are his biggest seller. If they’re as good as they look, they are definitely worth an 8-hour drive to Redlands! Something we plan to do this year.

Ted's Buche de Noel 

Lauren spent another week with us before she returned to Portland on New Year’s day. During the year she had sent me a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Maria Kondo. The New York Time’s bestseller has become so popular that the process of decluttering and organizing is now simply referred to as Konmari. Lauren read the book (and its sequel) and took it to heart. She completely Konmari’d her home this past year and was after me to begin the process…a much greater challenge than what she had, I assure you. I read the book, but never seemed to find the time to take the first step. I guess all I needed was a little push, which is what I got over the holiday. Lauren and I spent a long day together cleaning, decluttering and organizing the master bedroom. I wouldn’t say that Verne and I are hoarders (maybe collectors), but we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. As Verne says, it comes in one bag at a time. Well, I’m here to tell you that I’m now a believer in the Konmari method and plan (with Lauren’s help) to declutter our life. Buy the book. Read it!

Our sweet daughter doesn’t come for a visit without a plan to help her daddy. This time of year the help usually involves splitting firewood. They’ve been working on a couple of old cedars on a neighbor’s property that have been down for quite some time now. Unfortunately, down includes the fact that they are down the hill and must be split by hand and then carried up to the road piece by piece. It’s hard work. A back-breaking job. (I’m told…I haven’t helped! My contribution is to burn the wood.) After they’d spent several hours splitting, they took a hike down Ponderosa Annex in search of an old soap stone quarry Parry Laird had told Verne about. Verne had tried to find the quarry on a couple of occasions without success. This was going to be his last attempt before asking Parry to come out and help him find it. Success! They found the quarry about a quarter mile from home and scavenged a couple of large pieces of soapstone. They plan to etch the Moser name into the stones and use them as..what? I’m not sure. But when I find out I’ll be sure to share it with you.  Until then, I hope you all have a healthy and Happy New Year!

Verne and Lauren with their soap stone finds