h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi, B17!
Just as well about the peppers, Lil...they look odd as everything begins to take on the murky blue-black of the beans.
If there's going to be a southwestern gingerbread house I have a string of red and green chilli pepper lights.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

*Hangs a collection of hand blown and decorated glass ornaments on the tree. They are a set of characters from the Nutcracker Suite, which WM has a love/hate relationship with this time of year.*

*Next she places boxes and boxes and boxes of homemade holiday cookies under the tree. Each box has a tag addressed to all of the regular, and even the occasional visitors to the Atelier. There are also a half dozen untagged boxes for any new visitors, so no one goes home empty handed.*

Eggnog: My favorite recipe is from The Joy of Cooking, but I gave up making it about 12 years ago. I was afraid I'd inflict food poisoning on everyone from the raw eggs. I now serve Wawa brand pasteurized eggnog. Very good quality and just as much cholesterol as the homemade version.

I was going to wrap presents in RL while my kids were at school today. Then, I woke up to 4 inches of snow and no school! There ought to be a law that the last day school before holiday break must take place.

I suspect I won't have much time to spend here over the next couple of days. I'll try to stop by when I can.

If NPR plays
The Nutcracker Suite again
today, I will scream.

Happy Holidays, Witty! And humbug to all the overplayed fare.

Alright, Lil - salonistas it is. (even typing atelierists is a pain!)

Well, I'm glad some people are caretaking the site while the lights are out and the streets are empty with just a few scraps of paper tossed down them by the icy wind and it's all echoey and still.

Much though I'd like to be with you, I rely on the work connection, so I'll say bye bye until 3rd January, and I wish you all the compliments of the season.

Spiny.

Have a wonderful holiday, SPINY!

Thanks ox, bye bye.

Have a good holiday SPINY, and see you again after the 3rd.

Looks like Chloe will have lots of time to paint. So few salonistas next week. And I wasn't here when most off them stopped by during the last 24 hrs so I could wish them a happy Christmas...

*Comes up the stairs, pushing a hover-dolly containing several presents. He pushes them under the tree, and instructs the dolly to go back downstairs*

I found something fun in the bio-department downstairs.

*Pulls a small clear bottle out of his pocket, showing what appears to be several lightning bugs, each glowing a different color (red, green, yellow, blue,...all of your usual Christmas lights). They also all appear to be quietly humming various Christmas melodies*

I call 'em Hum Bugs. Groan at the bad pun if you will, but the name's appropriate. Oh, and look at this...

*He unscrews the jar, and the humbugs all fly out and begin hovering around the tree in a clockwise pattern, twinkling on and off, with the humming not loud enough to disturb anyone who may be trying to peacefully relax*

And here's the great thing: they don't need to be fed! They patiently wait for needles to fall from the tree, and they nibble those! Do you mind if I put 'em on the tree?

*Discreetly notices Chloe quietly hang something up in one of the back corners of the tree*

I love it! But Affi, promise you won't go into advertising. No way do I want to have to drive through a cloud of these things forming a logo and singing at me.

Affi, will you be around during the holiday days? I think Matina is wondering how many to do turkey dinner for. She said she's going to do the turkey in the french manner, this year, basted in a bottle of white wine, with garlic and apple slices.

*A truck pulls up at the salon. Delivers a carton of freshly-picked NZ Braeburn apples. The best. The very best*

*A truck pulls up at the salon. Delivers a carton of freshly-picked NZ Braeburn apples. The best. The very best*

Mmmmmm. We'll set some of these aside for the turkey, shall we?

Matina, can you set a case of Highfield Marlborough Riesling 1998 aside please. (To accompany the turkey)

Beautiful to look at and smell, this lightly golden wine, with its sumptuous fragrance laced with all manner of tropical fruits from cherimoyas to pineapple, is the perfect Christmas wine. Dry enough to keep your academic cousins happy, yet with sweet fruit to calm Uncle Terry's resistance to wine, it is delightful and delicious, permeated by a tasty intensity and very laid-back attitude, and it will tango with ham, or waltz with turkey, whatever your inclination, Germans think that Riesling is the aristocrat of wine grapes - on the basis of this divine experience, they are right.

Lil, have you congratulated Chris on his nupitals?

Those green things are cherries, odra ;-P

I will be around, as much as ever, next week. Christ be damned

Events yesterday sparked this holiday haiku:

Christmas lights start fire!
Dry palm outside Toys-R-Us.
Fireman shakes his head.

Then it's going to be a hardcore Christmas -- probably half a dozen definite seated round the table. With occasional visitors floating through.

You don't stuff the bird with this recipe. It cooks faster, though. And I'll serve mashed potatoes with chopped bacon and fried bread bits mixed in, cornbread muffins and haricots verts (green beans). Matina watched pretty closely when Odra made mince pie, and I believe she intends to make one herself. And apple crumble with some of the apples Looney brought in. With Haagen-Dasz caramel ice cream.

IRL I'm making a roast pork with sauerkraut and mash tomorrw, with a view to living off it for the next few days while I play Mcgee's Alice.

What will you be doing over the hols, Looney? Your brother is there with you, isn't he? Sporky, you'll be at home?

simulpost, ox! Good morning!

That's terrific (bad for Toys R Us, though) -- I am definitely going to publish a digest of this thread, listing the things that went under the tree, on the tree, and best of all, the haiku. Maybe I could get Shazz to publish the haiku!

Morning, Lil! From an eye witness, only the palm went whoosh! I doubt if it stopped the shoppers for long. Your recipes sound luscious! Those mashed potatoes...Yum. I should have added a side of sauerkraut for myself at our pork fest! I'm going to make the traditional flan for desert. Oh, I forgot to mention a relish made with finely chopped sweet onion, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh oregano or thyme is excellent over black beans.