t a l l a p e

Haven’t posted in a while. I wish I could say that I had a good excuse, but I really don’t.

I’ve spent the past 5 days pretty much eating my way through the holiday.

Saturday night, my mom and sister, Grace’s boyfriend Jeremy, and my godparents and their family came over for dinner. I had other folks bring some stuff, while I focused on cooking the ham. It was a pretty standard city ham, brine cured, unsliced and bone in. I baked it (I’m definitely a baker when it comes to ham), using some combination of recipies. The first couple of hours it was covered at 325, with a liter of Dr. Pepper in the bottom of the pan as a cooking liquid. Then, an hour uncovered. Cut the fat off, put on a coat of spicy brown mustard and brown sugar, and then another half-hour with the oven turned up to 400.

Turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself (I’m a little biased). The last bits are in the fridge, and are just waiting to become part of a soup, which will probably happen tomorrow night.

Sunday night, dinner at mom’s with the fam, and Kathy and Kathleen and the boys. Mom made a tenderloin fillet, cooked very rare, and very tasty.

Christmas morning mom and Grace and I went for a nice hike up the Great Blue Hill, and did presents. I spent most of the afternoon just lying around at home, watching football, seasoning my new cast-iron dutch oven (which is AWESOME), and snacking on leftover ham. It was quite nice.

Then, Tuesday night, I had dinner with a good friend of my family, and a friend of his, at Sorellina, in downtown Boston. Wonderful, wonderful food, a great atmosphere, and we ended up spending over 3 hours sitting at the table, sharing food and wine and conversation. Truly excellent.

I have much more to say, pictures to post, and more, but it’s late and I’m tired so I’m going to end this post here. And I’m going to post again soon so as to avoid having to write so much just to catch up to the present.