Welcome to 2019

The holidays were a whirlwind of cooking and entertaining guests this year. Typically Jeff and I cook something special for the two of us on Christmas eve. This year we decided to make a Cantonese style roasted braised duck. Neither of us had ever cooked a duck before! It was rather time consuming and was quite tasty. There isn't a lot of meat on duck, so there wasn't much leftover. The braising left us with a really great sauce that we used in a veggie stir fry with tapioca noodles on another night. And then there is the tasty duck fat that we rendered and can use later for roasting veggies and other yummy things.

We typically spend Christmas day with Jeff's family. Everyone brings something but Jeff's sister cooks the main dish at her mother-in-laws house. Unfortunately, her husband was hospitalized after a serious accident and they were unable to make the trip to Ellerbe. At the last minute we shifted our plans and hosted Christmas dinner. I ran out to the store and bought a ham... I had four to pick from. All them huge! There were nine of us for dinner, and I must say, Jeff and I pulled of a pretty good last minute Christmas dinner. Even though everyone took some food home, we ate ham for a week. 

The last of the ham, along with the bone, went into the freezer for a pea soup later this winter. It was then time to think about New Years eve!

Our good friends from Greensboro always come and spend the night. Often we have a few other people stop in. This year I decided to cook Mexican, but didn't want it to be an "Old El Paso" style meal. I settled on making carnitas (easy peasy) and went to my go to site, "Pati's Mexican Table" for some new ideas. I settled on making sopas for the appetizer. They were easy to make and the roasted tomatillo salsita, that went with them, is awesome! I didn't get any photos of the sopas but you can see them, and the reipe, here: https://patijinich.com/recipe/sopes-post/

I had all the fixin's for taco making, as well as beans and rice. Everyone ate well!

As per my usual, I spent New Years day lounging in my pajamas (after washing lots of dishes). I would now love to hibernate until Spring, but that's not going to happen.

I have piggy banks and mugs to make. It's back into the studio today.

Wishing you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year!