More of the never-ending holiday!

I hope everyone is having a nice “intra-holiday weekend!” 🙂

My sister’s plane arrived safely and almost on time yesterday. The weather eased back from initial forecasts, fortunately, and the expected freezing rain was not in evidence–when I left for my dad’s house shortly after 1:00 p.m., I only had to brush a dusting of light snow off my car.

We had a low-key day, although I spent a good part of it cooking. I’m not sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever cooked a beef roast before, and this was my first try at Yorkshire pudding. The food was an hour later than I aimed for, but a spectacular success. My dad only likes beef incredibly well-done, and the rest of us like it extremely rare, which is one reason that beef roast has not appeared on the home table very often. My solution to this was to cut a fourth of the roast off and cook it first, in a separate pan. I cooked it to be well-done; then, to keep it warm, I put it in and out of the oven with the rest of the roast a few times. That poor piece of meat looked just pitiful by the time dinner was ready–you’d have said it was the most-overcooked piece of expensive beef on the planet.

And my dad loved it. He went absolutely nuts over it! Well, whatever makes him happy, that was the whole point! I certainly didn’t stint on quality, that was a fine piece of beef. The rest of the roast was very rare indeed, and it was ambrosial, as far as the rest of us were concerned. The Yorkshire pudding was also a success, puffing up and doing exactly what it was supposed to do. There’s not much to it, though, when it’s all done, it’s pretty insubstantial! We also confirmed that dad’s smoke alarms work when I pre-heated the pan of drippings as directed and they smoked up the kitchen (oops).

The rest of the meal was a huge salad, a very modest amount of mashed potatoes and gravy. We didn’t plan any dessert, but I had brought sugar cookies, peppermint bark, and some of the leftover Open House petits-fours from the freezer. I drank way too much wine and got totally snookered. 🙁

We opened presents after dinner–and we still have a couple of gifts that got misplaced or need to be picked up (I’d ordered something for Jill and totally forgot about it! According to the tracking number, it’s at the post office now. They closed early on Thursday and I haven’t gotten my mail since the 23rd). Of course, my big gift is the new computer system, and that will be delivered in a couple of weeks. But I also got DVDs of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Body Heat and All About Eve, an extra-long bread knife I asked for, a four-quart sauce pan I asked for, and my AAA membership renewed for 2010. Apparently I’m getting another DVD which got hidden too well–dad moved a lot of things around for the Open House and you know what happens when you do that!

My sister and I stayed up late watching Body Heat and all the extras on the DVD. It put dad to sleep, though! I didn’t get home until past midnight.

Today Jill and I are planning to get together at the mall and go to a movie she wants to see, I’m waiting for her to call. I’ve gotten cycling done early and otherwise I’m having a quiet day. Jill is here until Wednesday, and after that, I need to get myself back into my regimens and routines. It’s been an unusually extended holiday period with dad’s Open House and everything. But not bad! 2009 is wrapping up like the year as a whole: pretty darned good!

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