Breakfast: reheated shrimp dumplings from the Whole Foods dipped in soy sauce, leftover spaghetti with tomatoes and hazelnuts.
Lunch: Beef fried rice from the restaurant, after work (2:45 pm). My daughter took a lot of bites.
Shopping, with daughter: (Target) Pineapple juice, raisins, lactose-free milk, mouthwash, $11. (Giant) Coconut cream (because we couldn't find it at Target), $2.
Dinner: Eaten very late, 9:15 pm. But, fortunately, it is New Year's Eve and we are all staying up late. I made this incredibly wonderful dijon beef stew from Deb Perelman. 3/4 c. of mustard, really? But it was so creamy and rich and full of complex flavor, from the mustards, the brandy (I used brandy instead of cognac) and red wine, the browned beef, the sweated onion and shallots, the big chunks of sauteed mushroom... absolutely everyone should make it. It made my husband very happy (a simple man, he was especially excited about its being served atop egg noodles); he went back for seconds. All that we needed on the side was a little salad (romaine, fresh basil and mint, with some pieces of orange on top and a lime-honey dressing). The stew takes a while to cook, but it is not difficult or expensive.
Lunch: Beef fried rice from the restaurant, after work (2:45 pm). My daughter took a lot of bites.
Shopping, with daughter: (Target) Pineapple juice, raisins, lactose-free milk, mouthwash, $11. (Giant) Coconut cream (because we couldn't find it at Target), $2.
Dinner: Eaten very late, 9:15 pm. But, fortunately, it is New Year's Eve and we are all staying up late. I made this incredibly wonderful dijon beef stew from Deb Perelman. 3/4 c. of mustard, really? But it was so creamy and rich and full of complex flavor, from the mustards, the brandy (I used brandy instead of cognac) and red wine, the browned beef, the sweated onion and shallots, the big chunks of sauteed mushroom... absolutely everyone should make it. It made my husband very happy (a simple man, he was especially excited about its being served atop egg noodles); he went back for seconds. All that we needed on the side was a little salad (romaine, fresh basil and mint, with some pieces of orange on top and a lime-honey dressing). The stew takes a while to cook, but it is not difficult or expensive.
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For dessert, I made this pecan pie, which I have made before and bookmarked because, while the crust is extremely fussy, it is really fucking delicious and will make you cry out in pleasant surprise, especially if you don't think you like pecan pie, which I didn't. Please consider that perhaps you don't like pecan pie because you don't like midwestern cornstarch glop, but that you might enjoy pecans that are toasted to full flavor and then baked into a filling with a lot of butter and egg and brown sugar. Especially if those pecans are served in an extremely fussy crust that has a ton of butter and involves chilling, freezing, and prebaking with a bunch of dried beans on top to weight it down, and requires approximately 2.5 hours of prep before you can even put the filling in and bake it. It's a pain in the ass. And it is the best pie ever.
This was our December pie-of-the-month, by request, just barely squeezed in on time.
Snacks: 5 cups of coffee, 3 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half and occasionally whipping cream. There was an extra cup of coffee in the evening to help us stay up until midnight, resulting in my having weird, vivid dreams all night once I did go to sleep. One glass of eggnog with rum. Two pina coladas with rum (my daughter, due to a whim I had one time when she was 7, considers the making of pina coladas to be a sacrosanct New Year's Eve tradition. Hers did not have rum, of course. My husband hates pina coladas but he does not mind our drinking them).
This was our December pie-of-the-month, by request, just barely squeezed in on time.
Snacks: 5 cups of coffee, 3 regular, 2 decaf, with half and half and occasionally whipping cream. There was an extra cup of coffee in the evening to help us stay up until midnight, resulting in my having weird, vivid dreams all night once I did go to sleep. One glass of eggnog with rum. Two pina coladas with rum (my daughter, due to a whim I had one time when she was 7, considers the making of pina coladas to be a sacrosanct New Year's Eve tradition. Hers did not have rum, of course. My husband hates pina coladas but he does not mind our drinking them).