Party Planning

Sadly, the Hubby and I won't be able to host a Christmas party this year. Fortunately, we're having a New Year's Eve Party instead! (The biggest problem, of course, is that the majority of my serving platters are Christmas themed...)

Here's what I'm considering for my menu:
A few favorites from years past: Rotel Dip (I've taken to calling this Cardiology Dip b/c it's sure to keep your Cardiologist in business!), Cranberry and Blue Cheese Stuffed Endives, Meringues, Fig and Prosciutto Crostini, and Baked Brie.
And a few new ideas: Chicken Salad Bites (serving my favorite recipe on crackers or toast), Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs (time to actually use my egg tray!), Ice Box Cream Cakes, and Crack Dip (a favorite from my friend Jon's mom- it's mainly Cheddar and Red Pepper Jelly)

Of course, there's also the drink menu to consider.
New Year's Eve obviously calls for a Champagne Cocktail. I'm debating between the classic, a bellini, my favorite: the Poinsettia Cocktail, or just Champagne + Vanilla Vodka garnished with a strawberry.  I also think Martha's Champagne Punch looks divine.
I think that we should definitely revisit the Brandied Port (recipe for this and lots of other tasty holiday beverages in this post) and Brandy Milk Punch. But I'm still on the lookout for more drink recipes. The Bittercup sounds like something the hubby would LOVE but I tend to hate Campari.
I'm also going to offer some sparkling lemonade for a non-alchoholic option this year.

So, two questions today:
1) Which champagne drink should I serve?
2) What's your favorite NYE cocktail? I need ideas!

Chowder

The hubby and I are heading down to Boston this evening to meet up with our friends who now live in D.C. One thing I'm really thankful for is that I've been able to keep in touch with my dear friends despite moving so far away.  I'm so excited to see them!

On Challenges

This weekend my flight from New Orleans to Portland got diverted to Boston at 1am. After a day of flying, I was, unsurprisingly, exhausted and miserable, sitting on the plane waiting to go into the airport, bracing myself to haggle with airline employees, wondering if I'd be forced to find and pay for a hotel room at such a late hour, and dreading the early morning flight that was sure to come the next day. It sucked. But, as I've done many times in the past year, I composed myself with this thought "You can handle this. You ran a marathon and that was much harder than this!"
 My marathon helped me drive for three days straight when I moved to Maine. It helped me climb Katahdin. It's been there through numerous travel days spent sprinting through airports desperately trying to make my flights. This accomplishment has given me a wellspring of strength and confidence to draw on whenever things get tough.
My marathon isn't the only challenge I've met that makes me feel this way. Climbing Katahdin and writing a novel (during NANOWRIMO a few years ago) give me similar feelings of strength and accomplishment. And it's not about being really good at something or having fun the entire time.  My marathon time wasn't that fast, Katahdin isn't that high of a peak, and my novel is terrible. Writing my novel was at times tedious and frustrating, Katahdin was exhausting, painful, and sometimes scary, and parts of my marathon were incredibly painful.  The reason that these experiences are important to me is that I chose to do something that I  knew would be really hard and I stuck with it until the end. From that I gained a better awareness of my own capabilities and the confidence that comes with toughing something out.
I've had to endure bad situations in my life in the past (high school, grad school, divorce...) and I am definitely proud of how strong I had to be to get through those times. But I have so many negative emotions tied up with those experiences that it's not a good idea for me to give myself a pep talk that goes "You can do this! This isn't nearly as bad as being bullied in high school!" If I thought about stuff like that when I was already tired and miserable, I'd probably just start crying.
But having ready examples of times when I faced challenges head on and came out smiling makes all the difference. This is one of the many reasons I love to challenge myself. I'm thankful for my lousy flight this weekend because it reminded me of this benefit of choosing to challenge myself. Now I just need to decide what my next challenge will be!

Amazing

Quick, while it's still fall, go buy some apple cider. Now, heat it up and steep your tea in it. I tried Chai Tea first b/c apple cinnamon is classic and I didn't believe Martha that Earl Grey in apple cider was a good idea, but once I tried Earl Grey, there's seriously no going back. The apple + bergamot combination is appealingly complex and almost floral. I'm completely hooked!

P.S. How awesome is this picture?

A Revelation

Tonight I made French Onion Soup for the first time. In the past I've looked at recipes and thought that it really wasn't worth spending half an hour at the stove stirring onions, but I was seriously wrong. Though time consuming, this soup is absolutely worth it! It's rich, savory, comforting, and pretty much fool proof. I combined several recipes to come up with my version of this soup- so I have to give credit to both Smitten Kitchen and Apartment Therapy. My version is as follows. 

First, roast a chicken. I'm actually not kidding at all. I really think that using homemade broth elevated my soup to a whole new level. I make my broth by saving the carcass and skin from a roast chicken, then baking them in a dutch oven full of water with the juice of half a lemon at 200-220F for 12 hours. I think you could also stick the same ingredients in a crock pot on low for the same amount of time. If you don't have your own stock, then use a good organic chicken stock (in all fairness you can also use any combination of chicken, veggie or beef stock and red or white or no wine). Once you procure your stock, here is the rest of the recipe.

2.5 red onions, chopped
1T balsamic vinegar
3 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 t salt
2 cups of white wine
1 quart chicken broth
2 T flour
3 T brandy
1 t pepper
2 bay leaves

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the olive oil, then the chopped onions. Splash on the vinegar and sprinkle with salt. Cook covered on medium for 15 minutes. Stir. Continue cooking, stirring frequently for 30 more minutes. The onions should become dark and jammy.

Add 1 cup of the white wine. The wine should boil off quickly but leave everything with a bit more moisture than before.Sprinkle on the 2 T flour and stir for about 1 minute. Add the additional cup of wine, the broth, the brandy, and the bay leaves and pepper and bring everything to a boil. Boil for 30 to 45 minutes. If the soup looks to thick, add 1/2 cup of water.

When the soup is almost done, toast a slice or two of bread, and top with muenster or mozzarella cheese. Melt the cheese in a toaster oven or under your oven's broiler. Spoon the soup into a bowl and stir in a bit of grated cheese.  Float the bread in the soup and enjoy!

What time consuming recipe do you think is totally worth it?

Cocoa

Looks like it's time to stock up on cocoa!

Why blog about how awesome Maine is when you can rant instead?

Sorry I've been out of the picture for so long, everyone!
I definitely let blogging inertia get the better of me, to the point that I've done so many cool things in Maine that I should blog about, that the backlog is absolutely paralyzing. So I'm just going to ignore all the stuff I should be writing aboutand say in short that Maine is awesome, the food and outdoor opportunities are amazing, and I've been taking full advantage of them. This summer was temperate and beautiful and with the exception of a few gross cold rainy days (like today) this fall has also been gorgeous so far. Whew! Glad to have that out of the way!

Now I'm going to blog about something that has been weighing heavily on my mind. Sweatpants. You see, I don't own any. And on gross, rainy days like today, it's proving to be a problem. I own tons of hooded sweatshirts and fleeces, but aside from a pair of oversized trackpants from New Zealand (courtesy of the husband, who is objecting to the title "Dr. Hubby") and a pair of fleece pants (also slightly too big) I got on super sale at the North Face Outlet in Freeport (how can I pass up anything North Face for $20?)- I have nothing to keep my bottom half warm.

I was looking online for sweatpants and I realized exactly why I don't have sweatpants. They are ridiculous nowdays. The most striking example of this is, of course, the Victoria Secret Pink line of sweatpants. For $42 you can wrap your butt in $2 worth of jersey fleece, decorated with enough hearts to make cupid say "That's a bit much." There's also an $80 dollar option for all you One Percenters who'd like to add $5 worth of sequins to one of your legs.
I thought that this was the height of misplaced vanity until I realized that Abercrombie and Fitch have an entire page devoted to detailing the 6 different fits of women's sweatpants that they offer. I'm sorry, "super skinny" sweatpants aren't sweatpants- they're really ugly leggings that you can't wear with anything b/c they've got a freaking drawstring messing up the line at the waist. And for a mere $40 to $70 (depending on cut), they can be yours. They don't even look warm.

Look, I'm basically giving up by even shopping online for sweatpants. My google search history makes me look fat right now. I don't care how flattering you try to make an inherently unflattering style of pants- I'm still not ever going to wear them in public. And chances are, if I'm in sweatpants I'm also going to be under a blanket and therefore not worried about how my butt looks- I just want it to be warm! I just want plain grey or black pants that don't have any writing on them, don't cost an arm and a leg, have an elastic waist and banded legs, and keep me reasonably warm. I've resigned myself to the fact that they'll make me look like my grandmother. I'm okay with that.

I considered ordering a pair of Cabela's sweatpants. The logo is fairly non-annoying, the brand loyalty would appeal to the husband and at $30 they're comparitively a steal- but I really want some truly hideous old fashioned banded sweatpants. If I'm going to give up, I'm going to do it with flair! (More practically, I'm ruining the hems on all of my pants b/c they're too long- curse my shortness!)

And then it occurred to me that the problem was that I just hadn't sunk low enough to find the perfect pair of sweatpants. So I googled "Walmart" and there they are- exactly what I'm looking for. A 2 pack of boys XL Hanes Sweatpants for $9. I seriously think I'm going to have to make a trip out to South Portland to get them this weekend.

Do you like the fancy pants sweatpants, or are you, like myself, a sweatpants purist?