Tragic Sandwich

Tag: crepes

  • Food, Glorious Food

    Cookbooks [235/366]

    This week’s Monday Listicles topic is “10 Things Food.” Now, I almost never make anything I pin on Pinterest, and the time I tried, things did not go well.

    But that’s okay, because I’ve got plenty to say about food. So here are my 10 favorite food memories:

    1) Christmas shortbread cookies–my mother wasn’t a fan of sugar cookies, so every year we would make shortbread cookies, cut them out with Christmas-themed cookie cutters, and decorate them with red and green sprinkles.

    2) Lemon bars–I loved my mother’s so much that one year I had them for my birthday instead of cake.

    3) Orange bread rolls–These became my specialty at Thanksgiving. They’re like cinnamon rolls with orange filling and glaze instead of cinnamon, and were always a big hit. They are delicious and a total PITA to make. Therefore, I do not make them any more.

    4) Le Ciel–One year we went to Vienna and Budapest for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we had a phenomenal five- or six-course meal at the ANA hotel. I have no idea what we ate. I just remember that everything was amazing and the service was just about perfect.

    5) Lemon cod filets–My favorite but defunct Chinese restaurant made this for me, and I cannot find a substitute.

    6) Frosting–One summer when we were about 10, a friend and I decided to make cupcakes. That was fine, but we couldn’t get the frosting to come out right. I was sure that what you added to thicken it was flour. I was wrong.

    7) Spaghetti sauce–my mom made hers nearly from scratch; she used canned tomato in various forms. I’ve got some on the stove as I type this.

    8) Tacos–We only had them if my dad had recently come back from a business trip to Texas, because the Maryland supermarkets didn’t carry tortillas. That’s right, I grew up in the dark ages.

    9) The Carnivore–if you’ve been to a Brazilian steakhouse, you’d recognize the method of serving at this restaurant outside of Nairobi. Slabs of meat are carried around on spear-like skewers and carved onto your plate. Only instead of unusual cuts of beef, here you’re eating African game.

    10) Crepes–My mother-in-law makes excellent crepe-style pancakes. I would swear the oil in the pan is burning, but the crepes come out perfectly each time. Which just goes to show that I don’t know how to make them.

    Photo by timsackton, via Flickr.

  • Have a Holly, Jolly, Blurry Christmas

    I’ll probably post again before the weekend, but as we’re midway through our various celebrations, this seems as good a time as any to hurl holiday cheer into the Internet void.

    This past weekend, my side of the family came to town for a visit. We went to Baguette’s day care holiday performance (I am conflicted about the existence of such an event, relieved that once again she was not traumatized, and won over by how cute toddlers are), bought a tiny, tiny tree, and cooked a lot of food. Sunday was our Christmukkah celebration (even though Hanukkah didn’t start until last night), which started off with breakfast (apple bread, scrambled eggs, bacon, turkey sausage) and quickly moved on to opening gifts. After that it was time to make dinner:

    • Roast prime rib
    • Yorkshire pudding
    • Maple-glazed carrots
    • Betty Crocker Potatoes Au Gratin

    That last was a nod to my recovery from surgery; while I have a recipe for potatoes au gratin that I love, it is somewhat labor intensive. So I asked for suggestions, and the boxed solution was brought up as an alternative. Let’s just say I wouldn’t do that again.

    This weekend we’ll have a Pirate Christmas gift exchange with some sort-of-local cousins, and we’ll spend part of Christmas Day with Mr. Sandwich’s side of the family. We’re still figuring out which part, though, so we’re not sure if we can count on eating crepes or tri-tip.

    One of the things we struggle with each year is the deluge of gifts. We are by no means minimalists (which you probably guessed by seeing the random assortment of crap in the background of the blurry photo), but we are finding that our holiday gift-giving style is a bit on the lean side.

    I came from a family of bounteous Christmases. It took me far too long to figure out that when people asked what I got, I shouldn’t name every gift, because no one else was getting that many. There were reasons for why my parents (particularly my mother) went overboard, and I understand them. But as time passes, that is less and less my style.

    Mr. Sandwich’s family gives fewer gifts per person, and I’m finding that to be more comfortable. Sometimes the pile of gifts under the tree can feel like an impending avalanche. And I want Baguette to be aware of what she gets, not just have a vague memory that there was a lot of stuff. At the same time, I know that my family just wants to give gifts, and I’m certainly not going to tell them that their generosity isn’t welcome–because it comes from a really good place, and that’s more important than some arbitrary limit on gifts that makes me feel in control of the day.

    But I do really like this idea, from Frugal Mama–stockings filled with messages rather than gag gifts!

    Oh, and this rings true, from The BadAssMama Chronicles.

  • Waffling

    Yesterday was Baguette’s first morning in day care. It was a success, and I wasn’t really worried, but there was a bit of separation anxiety. Mine, naturally.

    Fortunately, I had scheduled brunch with a friend. We decided to try out CiCi’s Cafe, reputed to have excellent breakfasts.

    The menu is enormous; it reminded me of the menu at the Country Pancake House, one of my favorite breakfast spots when I lived in New Jersey. My friend ordered Strawberry Valentino Crepes, and I ordered The Jumbo Jet–waffle, eggs, and ham.

    In the end, the crepes and the eggs were good. The ham was a bit dry, and the waffle was, well, disappointingly bland. I would go back, but I’d try some of the ingredient-packed pancakes–maybe the Say Trick or Treat, or the Aloha Pineapple. I think I’d have trouble choosing between those two.