Christmas, in list form

[luzula]

Today I ate, among other things:

- meatballs made from elk
- chopped kale cooked with cream
- omelet with mushroom stew
- chopped carrots, parsnips and rutabagas (aka swedes, ha!) baked in the oven with ginger and honey and butter
- homemade cheese
- dark sourdough bread with dried fruit mixed in
- porridge cooked from rice and milk, with cinnamon on top
- homemade toffee
- chopped raisins and almonds soaked in whiskey and mixed with marzipan, and then rolled into balls and dipped in dark chocolate

All of this is traditional Christmas food in my family. Oof, I am full. I got the following presents (yes, in Sweden we give presents on the 24th):

- various Polish soup mixes (mostly żurek = sour rye soup, and barszcz = red beet soup) from my sister. I fell in love with these soups when I was in Poland a couple of years ago, and my sister lives in a town with lots of Polish immigrants (and Polish food stores).
- a gift of money to a charity of my choice, from my dad.
- Garner's Modern American Usage from my mom. secretlybronte recced this book a while ago, so I put it on my wish list. I hope it'll be useful in my writing, and it's also compulsively readable.
- a small wooden box from my best friend, for putting samples of mosses and lichens in. Heh, she knows me well.

Mostly, though, I'm happy to be with my family and friends.

Happy holidays, everyone! &hearts (And tomorrow, DSSS and Yuuuuuletide! \o/)

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Those traditional foods sound delicious!

Is the kale cooked in the cream? (I have an abiding interest in kale, since I eat it at least twice a week.)

The last item on your list sounds intoxicating: what are they called? Are they Swedish? Polish? simply divine?

Will you have real candles on your tree? In any case, enjoy!

[luzula]

You fry some chopped onions, and then add chopped kale (actually, I mostly use the pre-chopped frozen packages) and boil it with bouillon until all the water is boiled out. Then it's fried in a little bit of butter, and you add some cream and a pinch of sugar. That's basically it. Mmmm, I love kale.

The last item is something my boyfriend and I made up once, when we had a bottle of whiskey and were trying to think of something to do with it. It turned out really well, and we've been making every year since for Christmas.

And we don't have a tree this year, partly because of laziness, but mostly because my parents have a puppy who would quickly demolish it.

I hope your holidays are good!