Christmas, Complete

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!! Christmas is OVER.

Though, to be fair, I did quite well this year, with zero meltdowns, panic attacks, or items thrown. Even though the cooking of my dinner was disastrous.

First, the ham, which was easy, but I forgot to put the cloves on it and was kicking myself a little for dropping the ball. Oh, but were I to know what was to come!

I discovered the “fresh” raspberries to garnish the chocolate-raspberry trifle were moldy, I then realized the cool whip for it was also still frozen. So, after some microwaving and finding an extra jar of jam in the cupboard, I improvised the recipe into something that still tasted delicious. Ok, I thought. Problem solved.

I moved on to the asparagus, the easiest recipe I have…you literally cut the ends off some asparagus, cover in Italian dressing, then bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees. No problems there…had it ready to go as soon as that ham came out of the oven.

Coleslaw. This involves using the food processor to slice apples, a major pain in the butt. I added too much mayonnaise and not enough honey, and everyone said it was great but I could have done it better. I have done it better.

And then…the sweet potato casserole.

First, dad calls me and tells me they don’t have cream cheese, so I go to three 7-11’s before finally finding two bars at the Speedway on the corner. Then, there’s no pan. I forgot to buy a pan. So I had to go home and get one, and also collect my sleeping husband and get him over to mother’s to help me cook. When I got back, I realized I needed a mixer, and mom’s broke not two days earlier. We decided we could manage with the food processor, which was already being used to slice apples for both coleslaw and now casserole. Then we tried to open the cans of yams, to no avail, because the can opener broke. So, it took three people half an hour to liberate the potatoes, and then finally I could put everything in the oven.

The biscuits gave me little trouble…just kind of had to wing the recipe, because when I followed it, the dough looked all wrong. They came out pretty good after tweaking, though.

Anyway, I got high praise on the food.

And I had a lovely morning with my parents and sister too, where I got a new tablet from Mom and Dad and then Mark hooked me up with Kindle Unlimited, so I can try to get back to the reading thing this year, my only “resolution.” But that’s New Years talk…today we’re doing Christmas.

Overall, it was pretty good, despite the cooking catastrophes, and I weathered the storm quite nicely. I hope you managed to make it out of Christmas in one piece as well. Now let’s all take a break for a few days until the next major holiday.