A Gift for Future Me

This week I have been quite the domestic goddess.  Given that we don't know when people's hoarding for the holidays gene is going to kick in, I decided to get started on some holiday food so I wouldn't have to worry about being stuck in the kitchen all day on the day.  

I made the mistake of relying on the grocery store to pick out my very specific cut of roast that had a picture of what it should look like and everything.  Instead, I got what looked like the world's thickest steak which is not a roast in these parts.  I did not have it in me that day to head back to the grocery store so I would try to make something out of this $17 faux pas.  I seared it with some spices and threw it in the crock pot with some garlic, liquid smoke and onions and hoped for the best.

I've always heard searing your roast first gives a 'depth of flavor' even if you're going to slow cook it so I thought I'd do it.  It was quite clear by the way it smelled, this was not going to be our Christmas roast.  It did give a depth of flavor but not the kind I associate with the holidays.  I saved back the broth in case it would be able to be used for Grandma's noodles so I could skim the fat off and check the next day.

If only my own fat disc could be broken off and discarded so easily!

I found some Yukon gold potatoes and made a big batch of mashed potatoes to split between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  In my best infomercial voice-  Thanks to my Food Saver, I never have to worry about doing them the same day.  I can't count how many Thanksgiving days we spent cutting potatoes, boiling them, burning myself (I still have a scar on my stomach where water kicked back from the sink when I was draining them) and then going into the holiday exhausted and resentful especially since I also make homemade stuffing and two desserts!  My family has been eating 2 month old mashed potatoes every holiday for 10 years whether they know it or not thanks to the Food Saver so it's the best investment I've ever made!  But y'all know this already.

In a moment of insanity a few years ago, I bought this food mill so that my family would have silky smooth mashed potatoes without the skins they griped about in years past.  (What can I say, I make 'em with skins...always have.)  It was a big pain in the butt for this type A.  As I started running ours through them the other day, I said "what the hell are you doing?"

I promptly scraped the potatoes out of the contraption and threw it in the trash and whipped them with the mixer as I've done for decades.  I don't make my mashed potatoes that way and good on anyone who has the patience to do it.   I have always made them with the skins.  I used to make the mistake of using russets and would get wrinkled noses.  Then I wizened up and started using Yukon golds and you can barely tell the skins are there.  Matter of fact, they always say something about how "the poor Mr probably spent all morning peeling potatoes."  I don't know if they're being passive aggressive or if they're serious so I'm choosing to take it as I'm getting away with something and we look at each other and laugh.  My motto is if you don't like the way I make them, ask someone else.  I am literally the only grandkid out of five (the youngest being 29) that makes anything to bring much less half the holiday dinner.  (Two years, I actually brought the turkey too!)   Ask me if I have a medium sized burr up my butt over that stat and I'm sorry but having a penis is no excuse to get out of bringing something.  

I digress.

I had fun mixing them up with my add in's so they freeze properly (butter and 1/3 fat cream cheese) and this year I added an ounce of Boursin too.  I spooned them into their bowls and chucked 'em in the freezer.

(To clarify, it's just the Mr and I for the holidays which means PJ's all day yo!)

The next day I threw in a new roast we got at Target that smelled like the holidays as God and Grandma intended and I sniffed out the broth from the previous roast.  Thanks to a suggestion from my bestie, I made veggie beef soup with half of the wrong roast.

I divvied those into two containers and they're in the freezer for when soup and salad sounds better than firing up the oven.  It tasted quite good too.  I food saved the mashed potatoes, and the rest of the "wrong roast" for beef sammies for another lazy night dinner.  The Christmas roast is in the freezer and I'll food save it today with 4 oz of broth so it'll be moist when I reheat it.  

It's nice to have two of the biggest pain dishes for Christmas done.  I need to grab a turkey as soon as I see them this year and not worry about getting the best deal so I can pre-cook and food save it as well.  I'll probably do stuffing the night before and heat it for dinner.  The only other thing we'll need is our brown and serve rolls of our youth and hoping to find out if our local paper will have the Black Friday ads at the newsstand.  One of our traditions since forever was looking through Black Friday ads, even if no one was shopping it.  We'd pass the ads around from person to person and it was just a fun, communal thing we did.  

"Hey, you done with that Target ad?"  

"Yeah, I'll swap you for Michael's and Joann's."  

"Throw that Best Buy my way when you're done, please!"

Last year, no one brought them and we all just kind of stared at each other after dessert until the uncomfortable silence prompted about 6 of us to all get up and leave at the same time.  

(via Tenor.com)

I'm not counting on Barnes and Noble or the grocery having it and I'm certainly not getting a subscription because the print version is wicked expensive now.  But finding a copy with all of the ads would be a nice way to feel a little more normal in an abnormal year.

Have you given your future self any gifts lately?

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