Happy New Year's Eve:12' 18

 

 
We've reached the end of the 2018 year. 
Looking back on the months gone by,
as the new years starts and an old one ends,
we think what brought us happiness,
and we think of our loved ones and friends.

We celebrate last year's resolutions met, 

and all those we soon will to set.

The table is ready for a New Years eve feast.

 

 We'll  be ringing in the new year, if you please,
with 
a  first course of  salad and goat cheese.

 Then  an entree of  roast beast,
and rice middle east.

Actually it's a lamb chop
(paired with white and red wines, at least)
 and followed by desert,
then champagne to pop.

Tonight we will eat, drink, and be merry,
for tomorrow we diet.

Our party will last until the noisemakers go quiet. 

So let's lift our glasses
in a toast to everyone
to the old year now behind us, 
to the new year, just begun.

Christmas Dinner 12 "19

Bruce used his new Air Fryer to rotisserie a Cornish Game Hen with Sweet Chili Barbecue sauce for our Christmas dinner. CC added Indonesian Fried Rice, and Chinese Snap Peas as the sides, and Triffle for desert.

PI Christmas Selfies:12 '18

  No doubt you have heard the proverbial expression

'the best laid plans of mice and men .., which is used to signify the futility of making plans when the ability to execute them is beyond one's full control.

Once Again....the proverb holds true ...

 

Our plan was to take advantage of a brief break in the rain 

  and  take some selfies on Pawley's Island Beach

capped in our Santa Hats

 for posting  Christmas morning.

The wind was so strong and sand so biting,

 that we couldn't keep our eyes open,  

much less keep the Santa Caps on our heads.

LOL!  

Merry Christmas, everyone

PS  We still had a great time on our favorite beach.

Baby It's cold outside: 12 '18

Oh, My.  We had a very early hard frost last night. (first of the winter season). I was supposed to start on decorating the outside back yards today ( or at least the deck and back porch),  but everything is frozen solid.  Even the birdbath.

If I try to  touch any of my plants right now, I will damage the foliage, not to mention risking frost bite because I don't own any winter clothing. 

So  I focused  my attention today upon lighting up the inside of the Carolina Room (which is indoors but visible from the  outside) with icicles lights and snowflakes.

Neighborhood Holiday Decor Competition II: 12 '18

Neighborhood Holiday Decor Competition

Part II

Our House 

When it comes to decorating competitions,

for CC, it is:

GAME ON.

As soon as Hanukkah (and the freezing weather) was over,

CC began retrieving from storage all the Christmas  ornaments  and lights which she  had brought with us from California.

She stung the retrieved  ornaments and lights from the  existing foliage.

 

 

This gave a elegant but glitzy effect by day,

and a lot of twinkle by  night. 

 Next she added local forest foliage greens  and locally collected, red berries, and local pine cones sprayed silver to the potted plants for a simple, eye-catching display in the daylight,

and  glittering elegance at night.

Neighborhood Holiday Decor Competition 12 18

Time's are a changing.

This year has seen several new people move onto the street. AND, one of the HOA Board member's has her family spending Christmas with here in South Carolina.  The visiting relatives brought with them early Christmas gifts of lighted  yard ornaments.

As soon as the board members lights went up, the newbies began decorating their front and back yards  as well.

There are now 6' snowmen  street side

along with  golfing pink flamingos

  and with life size alligators 

swallowing Santa by the golf course.

Bruce calls it the Christmas decorating competition. That may be true, but I love it. It feels like a fresh breeze has swept through this rather stodgy neighborhood leaving a most welcome bit of whimsy and fun in its place.

Hanukah Holiday Decor 12 '18

 Throughout all of the years we have lived here, most of our neighbors  were away visiting their relatives in other states at Christmas. The few who remained, did little to decorate the exterior of their units other than hanging a wreath on their front door and stringing a few lights around their doorway.

Our front yard has what Bruce calls our Hanukkah Holiday theme.  Other than maybe a blue six-sided star in the upstairs windows, and a menorah in the kitchen window, there isn't any decorations to be seen from the exterior of the house.

Hanukkah Holiday Feasts: 12 '18

 When it comes to eating Hanukkah can pose a seriously bad news /good news dilemma.

• The bad news is that Hanukkah comes but once a year.

• The good news is that it lasts for eight great food-filled days and nites. 

• The bad news is all that great food can really pack on the pounds,

• The good news is that there is a healthy alternative. 

 For many Americans, Jewish food is synonymous with the Ashkenazi dishes served in New York-style Jewish delis across the country. The Eastern European countries of Germany, Poland, and Russia where these dishes originated had cold harsh winters, so meals consisted of high carb grains, root vegetables, and stews. Many ingredients were brined, peppered, or soured to help preserve them. And many of these Ashkenazi dishes call for fruits which also added much-needed calories in the cold climate.  As delicious as they are, eight days and nights of calorie-laden Ashkenazi dishes can really pack on the pounds. 

 

Fortunately, there is a legitimate kosher alternative.  It's called Sephardic cooking.  Sephardic Jews lived in Spain and Portugal until about the 15th Century when the Inquisition pushed them out of those countries.  From the Iberian Peninsula, they migrated to countries like Greece Turkey and Morroco.

Because of the Mediterranean climate, they lived in Sephardic Jews had access to fresh vegetable fish, fruit, and spices.  The Sephardic diet became an extension of the Mediterranean diet with influences from all the countries around that Sea.  In their new homelands, these Jews adapted their dishes to suit the kosher law, while utilizing the local crops to create healthy flavorful food that is still compliant with kosher law.

Fortunately for us, the South Eastern United States,  has a large Sephardic Jewish population, so recipes and ingredients for Sephardic Hanukkah dishes are more readily available.  This has made it a  lot easier for us plan menus that include some of Bruce's Eastern European  Jewish traditions, while countering their caloric intake by pairing them with a low carb recipe from my Sephardic collection.

 So here are a few of the meals we had for the 2018 Hanukkah Holiday.

Sun December 2  

Classic Sephardic Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic,

Honey-garlic-green-beans,

Mashed butternut squash

 Sufganiyot

 (air fried/baked (not deep fried) jelly doughnuts)

-/-

 

December 3

Sous vide beef chuck roast 

With burgundy orange sauce 

Mashed yams

Kale and roasted beet salad( not shown)

with maple balsamic dressing

-/-

December 4
Sephardic  pan-seared grouper
Pumpkin polenta with pepitas and goat cheese

While cod or salmon is  common on the Ashkenazi Hanukkah menus in the Northeast,  it is hard to find either fish fresh in the Southeast, so I fell back on the Sephardic style and pan sear a grouper we picked up fresh off the local shrimp boat. 

-/-

 December 5

Crispy pan-fried panko potato latkes 

While family recipes vary, most people observing Hanukkah will eat some version of the  potato pancakes called latkes at least once during the holiday. It is traditonal to fry the latkes in oil in remembrance of the oil that miraculously burned for eight days. Bruce like to dip his latkes in either sour cream while I like home-made apple sauce with mine.

-/- 

 

 December 6

Baked beef, lamb and eggplant meatballs 

on a bed of 

Roasted fennel with

Roasted red bell pepper sauce

-/-

 December 7

Savory Kugel 

 This is a great example of how the same Kosher dish  can differ widely dependent upon the origins of its cook.
Kugal, at its heart is basically a mac and cheese dish.

An Ashkenazi Kugel almost always has raisins or currants and is somewhat sweet;  a Sephardic Kugal is prepared without fruit and often uses more pungent cheeses and herbs to add flavor and zest. 

I  made ours with mushrooms leeks and feta cheese.

-/-

December 7
Seared-lamb-chops-with-rosemary-and-garlic

Twice baked latkes

Steamed artichoke 

-/-

 

 December 8  

Sous Vide veal chop 

with mashed potatoes 

and tri color salad

 -/-

 December 9

Matzo ball soup 

and  a mixed green salad 

After a week of feasting we needed something light and healthy to relax our digestive tracts.

 -/-

And what you ask, was Bruce's favorite recipe?

Probably the Sufganiyot.

He doesn't get them hot out of the oven very often,

 

 so he scarfed the whole plate down while they were still warm and fresh .

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights:12 '18

Hanukkah is one of the most joyous of Jewish holidays.  The eight-day celebration is known as Hanukkah, or Chanukah commemorates the re-dedication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.  Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts.

First nite / December 2, 2018

The center of our Hanukkah celebration revolves around lighting candles on a nine-branched menorah. On each of the holiday's eight nights, another candle is added to the menorah after sundown. and lit using the ninth candle.

Second nite/ December 3, 2018
The center branch’s candle, known as the helper or the “shamash,” is lit first all eight nights, and its flame is then used to light the other branches. On the first night, one candle is lit; the second night, two candles; and so on.

Third nite / December 4, 2018 

In our home, it is always the lighting of the candles that carry the most meaning and memories for the holiday. 

 

Fourth nite / December 5, 2018 
We use a menorah that was given to Bruce  50 years ago by his family to use for his first Hanukkah away from home after joining the Navy.

Fifth nite / December 6, 2018

 Jewish families typically recite two or three blessings during this ritual.  We read these blessings from a book that Bruce received from his family when they gave him the menorah.

Sixth nite / December 7, 2018 

 Up until Bruce  read all the blessing aloud in Hebrew

then I (CC)  read the translation in English

Seventh nite / December 8, 2018 

This year, Bruce asked me to  the more common Hebrew blessings ( After all I have had 25 years of understudying him to prepare).  Bruce coached me through the harder to pronounce consonance (like the ch), then read the English translations

Eighth nite / December 9, 2018 

And so we have added another treasured memory to our Hanukkah holiday collection.