The week of Christmas we got a few packages from my parents. One had a couple presents in it, and one was a box of books we left at their house. Thank you so much for sending that! The last was a surprise. Cake pops and chocolate covered pretzels! And a stocking with a bunch of candy in it!
My mom made the cake pops and dipped the pretzels, how cute! And yummy.
Fortunately for us both restaurants (actually, all three) that we work at were closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Tom had Saturday through tomorrow off (five whole days!) and I have to go back to work today. Basically, we have had a lot of time to figure how to keep ourselves entertained at the apartment. I keep saying being broke is boring, but I'm enjoying all this time I get to spend at home with Tom.
Christmas Eve wasn't very eventful. It was a beautiful day that started with grocery shopping. Yes, we went shopping on the 24th. That is when we had the money and time to do it. Fred Meyer was a mad house. But we got our staples we needed for Christmas dinner and headed home. Since it was such a nice day we walked Roxy to the dog park before the sun went down. We have a huge dog park about ten blocks away that is wonderful. It is covered in this sandy dirt that doesn't get muddy, and there are always dogs there, no matter what the weather is like.
Then we... sat around. Ha. Christmas Eve dinner consisted of pancakes with honey and/or homemade orange marmalade, sausage, and scrambled eggs. Breakfast for dinner! It was delicious. And I didn't get any pictures :( Except this one of the orange marmalade.
I didn't use it on my pancakes, I've never been a huge orange marmalade fan, and the honey on my pancakes was perfect. But it was delicious, Tom!
Thankfully it was an early night, because we got up at 7 am Christmas morning to Skype with my family! We all opened presents together, it was the perfect way to start the day. My family opened a few presents and then someone said I should open one. We had a few presents under the tree from our parents so I was going to grab one of those. But before I could Tom ran outside and then walked back in with a bike! At first I thought Tom got it for me, but he told me to thank everyone on the computer scene! My parents got me a bike!
My dad collaborated with Tom to buy one from Craigslist, Tom sneaked around to buy it and go pick it up, I had no idea. Thanks, Mom and Dad :) And Tom, for being sneaky.
My Mom also got me some beautiful pearl earrings! And we opened these "Redneck Wine Glasses" from my parents on Christmas Eve so we could use them...
How funny is that! I love them.
Tom's Mom sent us a few presents as well. All Christmas related! A cute blanket, a beer glass and butter knife, Christmas socks, and a headband/ear warmer thing for me that is perfect now that I need to stay warm on my bike! It was so fun having those presents to unwrap. And then Tom brought in a couple more. He got me a gift! I couldn't get him anything, I would have had to use his money, so I figured he wouldn't get me anything either. Momofuku Milk Bar!
He knew I had my eye on this amazing cookbook, and he went behind my back to order one for me. I have such an amazing boyfriend. Now I just need to get a KitchenAid , a Vita Prep, and an ice cream maker... Really, I can make do with what I have now and put the ice cream maker on my wish list. I can't wait to start baking!
Tom also got me a helmet for my bike. He doesn't want me to crack my skull, how sweet :)
I told Tom he is going to get random Christmas presents over the course of this year to thank him for how much he has provided for me over the past few months. I love giving gifts, it should be fun!
After presents we started prepping for our breakfast. Tom had already decided on individual quiches and we cooked some sausage patties to go with them. I took several pictures, I love the series of Tom making the crust.
We caramelized some onions and sweat down leeks and cauliflower for the filling.
The finished product was delicious, if you can't tell. Tom made that breakfast sausage from scratch as well. We bought plain ground pork and he added fresh sage, chili flake, garlic, and salt. So good.
I feel like all we did Christmas day was cook and eat. There was showering in between. And I road my bike around the complex with Roxy chasing me a few times. But that is about it. It was great. Once we started cooking for dinner I asked Tom to take some pictures. I always take them, and I want him to get comfortable with photographing his food. Plus, there are never any pictures of me. These are the results.
The menu for Christmas dinner was roasted duck, leek bread pudding, braised red kuri squash, potato gratin and gravy. The duck was AMAZING. I love this first shot of the leeks cooking in butter because it smelled so amazing. I love leeks.
Tom took the first two pictures. I love the one of his work space. You get a little glimpse at how much of a perfectionist he is. One of the many qualities that will make him an amazing chef of his own kitchen one day.
I got the bread pudding recipe from SmittenKitchen, who got it from Thomas Keller in Ad Hoc at Home. Unfortunately I had to substitute medium cheddar cheese that we had on hand for the nice cheese that is recommended. And we don't have any whole nutmeg. But it was still delicious! Tom just threw together the other dishes. He doesn't need recipes for most things, and it usually turns out great. Oh, I forgot to mention he made gravy as well. It was a lot so we froze it and we'll get it out later for biscuits and gravy.
And that was Christmas dinner! We ate ourselves silly and then watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Well, we both fell asleep before finishing it. But it was nice.
Cooking with Tom is a lot of fun. He pushes me to be better without treating me like a line cook. He has found a good balance of treating me like a girlfriend and student in the kitchen. I've learned so much from him, I'm glad he has the patience to walk me through everything.
Our first Christmas together was everything I hoped it would be. I missed my family and the traditions we've practiced for years, but Tom and I made new traditions together. Maybe next year we can see our families and have our own special Christmas again as well. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with your families!
Here are a couple pictures I took while I was making the Christmas cards last week. I made a few for parents and grandparents since we couldn't send gifts. Or real cards, haha. But I had fun with the glitter!
One last picture, we need one of Roxy, of course.
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