Cellar Scribblings

[Jeff Wrangler]

I like to get my revenge by living well, to quote another aphorism.

And you can never be too rich or too thin. Well, too rich anyway. ...

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

It's New Year's Eve!   I got a bit of a jump on the list today, because it was slow at work, and my coworker told me she'd cover the last hour at the office, and I went home at 2:00 instead of 3:00.  That hour has helped, and all 4 of the stromboli are done and cooling.  All I need to do now is heat the sauce, and then slice up the stromboli.



Of course, then I need to get ready, but I'm not doing that until the food is prepped and ready to go.  Since I'm wearing a white shirt, I want to make sure it stays clean for as long as possible.  Cooking tomato sauce could be counter-productive to keeping the shirt white.

LOL

[CellarDweller]

MORE stromboli??!!!?? 

When you do something well, you get asked to repeat it often.  LOL

However, I don't have any upcoming parties in the near future, so I think I have a break from prepping it now.

You can never have too much!

Chuck, the thought of your stromboli crossed my mind when I was deciding what to take to a Christmas Eve gathering. It would have been good. But unfortunately I was shopping and cooking the same day plus had other errands and had to be there at 6. So I opted for something I knew would be easy: slider-size sandwiches with deli roast beef, arugula, cheese, and garlic and red-pepper aioli. Very quick to assemble and they were well-received.

The other thing was, do you serve the stromboli hot? If so, do you keep it hot on your way to the event or do you heat it up when you get there?

I'm never sure I'll have access to an oven at those gatherings, so I usually try to think of something that can be served cold.

When I make the stromboli, it's served room temperature.  I try to bake it as late as I can, and then slice it when it's cooled, and plate it.  The sauce I put in a microwaveable container, and I heat the sauce in the hosts' microwave and put it by the sliced stromboli.

If I want to bring something that is 'hot', I make something that can be made in a crock pot, and bring the pot to the party so it can be plugged in.

Like Revenge? 

Yes, as the saying goes. But applying the concept of revenge to food -- and unwillingly conjuring the possibilities -- is gross.

I like to get my revenge by living well, to quote another aphorism.

And the two of you just gave me a Brokie memory with this.

It was at the Colorado BBQ, and a group of us were sitting in that main cabin, just relaxing and talking.  Two of the guys (Jari & Marc) were ping-ponging little digs at each other for fun, and we were listening and laughing.  One of the members (Michael) was sitting across the room, but could hear the conversation.

Suddenly, Marc makes a comment about Jari's age, and this happens.

(Marc) *comment about Jari's age*

(Jari) *sits in silence*

(Marc)  "No witty reply?"

(Jari)  "I'm plotting revenge."

(Jackie)  "Now remember, Jari, revenge is a dish best served cold."

At that I tried to jump in, as I had heard that expression before, but never understood what it meant.  Before I could ask......

(Michael) *yelling from across the room*  "So is gazpacho!"

I was wrecked.  I burst out laughing, and could not control myself.  I tried to calm down, and the conversation continued, but my shoulders kept shaking.  It had become like seeing something funny at church.  You can't laugh, and it makes it funnier.   One of the others in the group saw me and said "He's still going."   At that point I thought "They're going to think I'm drunk." and as if on cue, Jackie turns to me and asks "Chuck, how much have you had to drink?" and I started all over again, so I got up and went outside into the cool night air, until I calmed down, and then returned to my seat.

[serious crayons]

And you can never be too rich or too thin. Well, too rich anyway. ...

I can never be too rich, but I can name plenty of people who are too rich and should be taxed at a much higher rate.

I think I'd be pretty happy with, oh, let's say $20 million. That seems like plenty; if my investments rose by 5% a year, I'd have a million dollars a year to live on. And that's really all I'd need. I'm sure I'd have some left over at the end of the year.

The trouble is there are lots and lots of people with more digits than that in their bank accounts, and I honestly don't understand why they feel the need to keep amassing more. Many will say they use their riches to help others, but as long as they're picking their own charities that's not very democratic. Maybe Bill and Melinda fund worthy causes in Africa, but there's no guarantee they would. And what do the Koch Brothers spend theirs on?

If they gave money in the form of taxes rather than tax-deductible projects, voters could decide whether they'd rather support the Gates' projects or the Kochs'.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends.

Happy New Year to you all!  I hope 2020 brings us all health and happiness.

It's Saturday (01/04) and I opted to get my groceries last night instead of today, so that I could stay in the apartment all day long.  By doing that, I spent today getting a number of things done.

I put the new sheets I bought on the bed.
I put together my new shower caddy.
I took the Christmas lights and flag out of my windows.
The Christmas tree is down, and all the ornaments are packed away.

Because I received a few deliveries this week, I had large, rectangular boxes, and I used them to store my ornaments and other decorations in.  By doing that, I ended up with three empty bankers boxes.  I was able to use them to reorganize my utility closet, putting stuff in the boxes and putting them under the shelf on the floor of the closet, or on the top shelf of the closet, and gave myself more space.



It's nice to have the apartment back to the way it was, and looking neat.

I even managed to keep the windows open for a bit, and let the fresh air in.  It's getting colder now, so I'll have to close the windows soon.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Well, weren't you just the busy little Brokie? 

[serious crayons]

The Christmas tree is down, and all the ornaments are packed away.

I'm keeping mine up for another week. I get it kind of late (usually one to two weeks before Christmas) then can't bear to get rid of it.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm keeping mine up for another week. I get it kind of late (usually one to two weeks before Christmas) then can't bear to get rid of it.

I know people who still follow the custom of not putting their tree up until Christmas Eve.

(Like the Ricardos and the Mertzes in the I Love Lucy Christmas special.  )

I don't know when they take down their tree.

[serious crayons]

I know people who still follow the custom of not putting their tree up until Christmas Eve.

Are they hip Philadelphians or people from your hometown who still follow some of the ways of the Old Country?

My ex-mother-in-law grew up in the Greek Orthodox church, where they celebrate Christmas 12 days after everyone else. She did that throughout her youth, though later became Lutheran like (almost) everybody else in Minnesota. Anyway, the great thing about it is they could buy their tree, ornaments and all other Christmas things after the holiday at a discount price.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Are they hip Philadelphians or people from your hometown who still follow some of the ways of the Old Country?

Neither, really. My Anglophile (and Episcopalian) undergraduate adviser and his family put up their tree on Christmas Eve and took it down on Epiphany. Our (Episcopal) rector has no decorations (except an Advent wreath) in the church until Christmas Eve, whereas in my home Lutheran church (probably for practical reasons), the church is decorated for Christmas by the last Sunday in Advent.

I recently learned that two very close friends, a couple, both of whom were raised in Roman Catholic homes but neither of whom is a "practicing Catholic," put up their tree on Christmas Eve. I don't know when they take it down.