Full Me Belly

As Top Chef has been taking a holiday break, I've decided to blab about my foodings over the past few weeks.

My sister-in-law and my nieces are Jewish and as such we had Chewbaca dinner. Brisket that was so moist and delish that no knives were required, potato latkes, deep fried potato pancakes. Deep fried anything is fabulous in my book, plus, my brother added sweet potato to the mix. And noodle kugal. BLECH! It's egg noodles w/ sour cream and cinnamon. One of these things is not the like the other. SexyBeast had a "no thank you" helping. Our consensus is noodles should never be sweet.

Christmas Eve is always a big deal at my brother's house. We always get drunk before dinner on his killer champagne punch. It's sweet and crisp. And it knocks you on yr ass before you know it. Usually my brother has a theme or goes w/ an ethnic idea. But this year was free style. I made my fave, 50 kinds of awesome warm chicken and artichoke dip. *drool drool* The main course included turduckhen, turkey rolled into duck into chicken. It was moist and delish. And asparagus spears slathered with cream cheese rolled into either prosciutto or bacon. I went with bacon, the candy of all meats. And my personal fave, this au gratin/scalloped potato dealie. Oh potato, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. And to my joy Funfetti and red velvet cake cupcakes for dessert. So vastly different from each other but oh so delectable.

Christmas Day started off with a bang. Gigantic breakfast at SexyBeast's mom's house. She made spinach and sausage breakfast casserole. And knowing my hatred of mushrooms, she placed them on half the casserole. Bacon, of course, fresh fruit (in which I inhaled a ton of blackberries) and home made babka, a sweet doughy Polish bread.

Then we waddled over to SexyBeast's uncle's home. SexyBeast tanked up on King Crab legs before linner and he could barely scarf down his ham. And fortunately for me, they were also serving prime rib asI despise ham. And about 1000 other dishes and I barely remember. I think I had 5 different kinds of potatoes. And pie and cookies.

Then quite bloated we went to my parents' place. We sat out of dinner but I forced down a almond paste pine nut cookie and molten chocolate pudding.

And just when I thought I would never eat like a pig again. We had Christmas Part II: This Time it's Personal. My other bro came up from Boston w/ his family and we headed on up to the family cabin in the Adirondacks. More potatoes. And my mom went all out w/ a timpano, literally translated from Italian it's a "drum"of dough full of ziti, ground beef, TONS of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and BLECHY hard boiled eggs. I ate around the eggs. And my awesome brother Pablo grilled German sausages he bought from Karl's, one of the few real butchers left in the Boston area. I love me some Knockwurst! And served with potatoes and bacon : )

Needless to say I've been getting up at 6 am for the past week to run/walk.