Apparently Christmas Happened!

Wow. Funny thing about January: it flies by. We got back from break and we have both just been swamped with work. I'm sorry for the super-delayed update. So, now that we're halfway through January... who wants to talk about Christmas dinner? Anyone? No one? Too bad, it's all I've got.

When I go home for holidays, I often take photos of friends and family, only to get back and remember that people don't like me posting photos of them on the internet. This year, I made sure to take some pictures of the food and decor, too, so I'd have something to blog about.

When my mom and I arrived in Kitchener/Waterloo, I saw what I feared might be the only snow I was going to experience all break long. So I asked my mom to take a picture of me outside.

As you can see, it's so warm out I didn't even need a jacket. So naturally, you can understand my concern that this would be my only snow of the season. Shortly after this photo was taken, we jumped in the car and drove to Toronto, where we did our Christmas Eve celebration with my extended family.

i 

 

My mom asked me to help with the apple pies, which we brought with us. I can easily say this was the best pie crust I've ever made. I don't even know what I did differently, it was just serendipitous. I'll try to recreate it so I can take photos for you guys, but I can't make any promises!

My uncle's dog is named Angel, so my cousins decided she should have an appropriate costume for the party. 

I tried to get a picture of dinner before the crowd got to it, but i was a bit too late. My aunt's turkey gravy was phenomenal: it was dark, rich and heavily seasoned. I sent her an email to ask what the secret is, she said white wine and fresh thyme. I'm officially adding it to my list of things to try!

I tend to geek out about the fact that we have a mixed family (I think I'm the only one who does), and I was in charge of bringing napkins, so I decided to have some fun with it. 

It was a really hectic, fun party. One of my groups of cousins is a set of triplets, and they're 4 years old this year. Things are always busy, busy when they're around!

We actually had two more parties on Christmas weekend that I want to tell you about; the party on Christmas morning is an annual tradition with my extended-extended family and there are some inventive snacks and desserts there that I want to show you! So that'll be next time. Take care. 

Baking, as Always!

My mom had her baking marathon, so I had mine!

I sent cookie tins filled with goodies to several of my friends this year. Here are the action shots:

I did a recipe called "Gary's Favorite Cookies." It's a family recipe, they're oatmeal/walnut/chocolate chip. My mom thinks I make them wrong, because hers spread out super thin, and mine are like tiny cookie clumps.

I also did blonde brownies, which turned particularly golden this time around.

And I made a banana loaf for my brother, who can't eat anything overly sweet. So I thought this would be a nice middle-ground.

I started doing my own baking projects at Christmas-time a couple of years ago. My mom has criticized my holiday baking. She feels that cookies for the holidays have to be fancy. She says, holiday cookies require an extra step, like rolling, cutting, icing... something special. She says that blonde brownies and Gary's Favorite Cookies are every-day recipes, and are therefore inappropriate for the holidays.

Do you guys agree? Is there a two-tiered system for cookies? Should we only cook "fancy" foods on the holidays? Or is my mother being adorably snooty? ^_^
Answer in the comments section!

Thanksgiving

This is, in large part, a food blog. And when I'm too busy to cook, I have nothing to post! But that doesn't mean I'm not eating awesome food. Here's a glimpse of my Thanksgiving weekend:

I flew home to be with my family.

My mom insisted that she get to taste my pie crust, so I helped with the apple pie.

Turkey, of course.

Lovely table settings

And never a shortage of dessert.

I took a lot more photos of family, but I don't think people want me posting pictures of their kids on the internet. Plus I know you guys are really here for the food, anyway. ^_^

My mom bakes about a billion different kinds of cookies for Christmas every year. It has become a tradition for Max and I to assist with the sugar cookies. We now use Thanksgiving weekend as our cookie marathon weekend:

It was a family visit whirlwind, and then I was off! Back to San Antonio...

Where a very special guy helped me prepare for the next big holiday:

<3

Home Slice Pizza

After our hike in the dry riverbed, we were STARVING. We went to South Congress Avenue in Austin and decided to finally, finally try Home Slice Pizza.

Every time we go to Austin, Home Slice Pizza has at LEAST an hour wait. This time, we decided it was worth it. We put our names in, then sat on their back patio and had a drink. 45 minutes later, we had our table.

 

Those are some hungry people.

Appetizers!

For our appetizers, we had their garlic knots, which come with house-made tomato sauce for dipping, and a walnut, pear, and gorgonzola salad with a very subtle vinaigrette; I'm forgetting what it had in it. Sorry guys. 

Then there was the pizza. We got a margherita pizza, which was phenomenal. They DID NOT skimp on the garlic. This pizza was drenched in garlic. The basil and tomatoes were fresh and bright, the cheese was melted to perfection.

I haven't had pizza this good in a very long time.

Brandon got a calzone. It had spinach and ricotta cheese inside, and more marinara sauce for dipping. Normally, ricotta is an expensive cheese and restaurants use it sparingly. This calzone was stuffed to capacity with perfectly melted ricotta.

They clearly made their dough in-house. It was fresh, warm, doughy... And the marinara sauce was clearly just roma tomatoes blended to oblivion, with a lovely blend of herbs thrown in. Again, fresh, bright flavor.

The crowd at Home Slice is definitely very hipster. People hang out on the back patio drinking beer and playing ping-pong. Most of the staff are covered in tattoos. But a lot of these hipsters are parents now, so there were a lot of kids there. We noticed that at tables that had children, the waiter brought some pizza dough for the child to play with. I felt it was somewhat of a waste of food, but every child there was thrilled (and well-behaved), so I suppose it was worth it.

If you're ever in Austin, just know that Home Slice is worth the wait.

Adventures with Melissa!

Brandon's parents left, but now we have Brandon's sister! She is crashing on our couch, and we are having a great many adventures.

Over the weekend, we went to Austin and did some hiking. First hiking trail was short, and the only major focal point was a tiny cave, surrounded by a rock wall to keep people from falling in. So naturally, we hopped the wall to check out the cave.

Siblings on the rock wall.

It was less of a cave and more of a tiny hole in the ground.

Up-close pictures made it look more cave-like.

Oh yeah, I was there too!

It was so hot out. So, for our second hike we decided on a trail that supposedly lead to a lovely little swimming hole under a tiny waterfall. We soon found out that "the dry season" means just that. 

This is the riverbed. We are standing in it.

So we walked along the riverbed for a while!

...Until we came to the famed waterfall and swimming hole.

We sat in the shade for a bit,

Melissa saw her first Texas lizard!

And then, naturally, we decided to climb the waterfall.

And chill out on the rocks.

After regaining my energy, I got in on the action too!

Upstream, Brandon found a plaque in what would be the middle of the river.

The rock formations were really pretty. Everything was very smooth.

We climbed around for a bit,

Cooled off,

And hung out. 

 After a while, we had our fill, and went back to Austin for a bite to eat...

TO BE CONTINUED!