Friday Suzette stayed home to supervise the installation of the glass backsplash in the kitchen. She went shopping during the day and I made salads for lunch for us with romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green onion, and Kalamata olives with melted cheese sandwiches on Fano baguette.
On Friday I Suzette picked the meat off the turkey and made a large pot of turkey stock from the carcass of the 24 lb. turkey we baked on Wednesday. I chopped and added celery, onion and carrot to the stock and sliced the breast and thigh pieces into slices for the turkey sandwiches for Christmas Eve.
Friday afternoon, while I rode to Montano and back Suzette made turkey spread with turkey, sweet relish, mayonnaise and ketchup.
Then she went to the store and bought a box of Ritz crackers, while I sliced rounds of green pitted olive and slices of pimientos. When Suzette returned she dabbed turkey spread onto Ritz crackers and we garnished the turkey with slices of green olive filled with pieces of pimiento or cranberry sauce and filled a large white plate with our fabulous 50’s canapés. At 7:30 the glaciers finished installing the backsplash and we carried our plate of canapés the long block to the Bakers for the Neighborhood Christmas Party with a bottle of Alfed Moranti selection French Burgundy white Chardonnay wine.. The bakers have a wonderful large two story house with a large kitchen, dining room and living room. There were groups gathered in eac of the three rooms. I deposited our wine in the punch bowl filled with ice in the kitchen among the dozens of bottles of wine and placed the canapés on the dining room table. Desserts were gathered on a table in the living room. At the Neighborhood parties, each couple or attendee brings a beverage and a dish to share. Art his party the wines and desserts were exceptional: I drank a Santa Margaritha sparkling rose I had not drunk before and our French Chardonnay was rather good also. Doug graciously poured me a glass of Brunello, which is the Baker’s favorite wine. There were lots of Costco wines and hor d'ouvres like packages of shrimp and little quiches, but the dessert table was filled with exceptionally wonderful desserts. The two stars of the desserts went to Sandi Buffet, who brought a large box of beautiful and delicious Buffet’s candies and Ted and Peggy Cronin who brought a raspberry Kringle made by the Danish Bakery in Racine, Wisconsin. I loved both desserts and enjoyed talking to our friends and saying hello to some of our new neighbors. At 10:00 Suzette filled our emptied plate with desserts and we went home and got into the hot tub for a soak, which helped us get sleep after a day of work and bike riding.
On Saturday I squeezed fresh orange juice and we ate Kringle and slices of a lovely olive bread Luke’s friend, Marjorie brought us and a couple of chocolate filled cookies for Breakfast. The Kringle is the traditional 36 layer winebrod I used to buy in Denmark. I loved it warm with tea and juice.
The piece of Kringle is on the left, less its icing, which melted in the microwave
Then I picked the meat off the turkey carcass and tossed the bones, leaving a thick slightly gelatinous stock filled with turkey meat, which we put back into the fridge to clear the kitchen, so Bernardo and his Dad and son could finish the installation of the lighting and switches. I drove to Home Depot to switch a double switch plate for a single and the went to Walgreen’s and bought 192 votive candles for luminarias.
By 12:30 the electrical work was finished, so we heated the PPI Eggplant Parmigiana and pasta and ate our lunch. We then drove to Big Lots and then the Flea Market on San Mateo between Zuni and Central where we found a rolling open cabinet that was perfect for our grains because it fit under the new table top in the kitchen.
Then we drove to Ta Lin and bought dill, Italian Fusilli pasta, mushrooms, and snow peas.
After Ta Lin we drove east on Central to Costco, where Suzette bought, cream, half and half, a salmon filet, a bottle of a chateau bottled Bourg Bordeaux red for $7.99, hot beverage cups, plastic silverware, rice crackers, six 1.5 liter bottles of Concha y Toro merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blend ($7.99 each), three bottles of Gruet Brut for the caviar at $10.89 each and several lovely Italian cheeses and a piece of French Gruyere, plus a few other items like new frying pans.
When we left Costco we stayed in the perimeter road and drove to Home Depot, where Suzette found free Christmas tree boughs and then we drove to Walmart, so Suzette could buy lamp oil.
We were home by 4:30 after a hectic 2 ½ hours of shopping.
After resting a bit Suzette filled the shelves of the new rolling cart with bottles of grains while I chopped celery and two carrots for the turkey soup. Suzette added water and reduced the amount of broth somewhat to get the broth to the right consistency. Then when the soup was hot I added the PPI rice and stirred it in to break up the lumps. By 6:30 we ate a lovely and filling turkey and rice soup with water.
Bon Appetit
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