I am watching Paula Deen doing a “Fried Christmas” meal right now.
Seriously. Fried Christmas.
Oh Paula. If I was her husband I’d be sneaking spinach salads every day. She’s pretty much trying to kill everyone she loves. This meal includes a full-on fried ham, loaded mashed-potatoes, fried asparagus with cream sauce, and red velvet bread pudding.
Holy Lord.
This in-between-holidays period is kind of a dead time for cooking for me. John has been/will be out of town for two weeks in December, and when he’s gone, I stick to easy meals like opening up a can of soup. In fact, I’m probably keeping Amy’s black bean chili on the shelves. I love that stuff.
I guess I’m just resting my culinary muscles for the big things, the pies, the casseroles, etc. Oh and for those of you wondering, the chocolate hazelnut pie for Thanksgiving was a huge hit. Will be my new pie for sure. Anyway, yeah. Just resting the culinary muscles. Gotta be well-rested if I’m going to attempt to another pie this month. Two pies in the span of two months. Wow. Makes my stirring arm hurt just thinking about it.
It’s not that I even have that much cooking to do for the holidays, because mostly the older generations in my family still own those duties. I think it’s just the idea of the holidays that exhaust me. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, but the decorating, the list-making, the cooking, the dressing up, the parties, the mad dash to the mall, it’s all just sort of exhausting. It’s like every meal, every night and weekend, are scheduled down to the last minute. And for a girl who hates making plans in advance, it can really put a cramp in my down-time.
So tonight, because I can, I guess you’ll find my curled up on the couch, watching Paula Deen fry a ham, and eating a cup of black bean chili. This is what the holidays are all about people.