Nutcracker and the McRib

Gentle Friends, our Christmas week started with our annual attendance at last night's performance by the San Francisco Ballet of  "The Nutcracker."  We have been going to see performances of  The Nutcracker for quite a few years, it never gets old and is always the beautiful event we've really come to love. Here are some snaps I stole off the internet...

... pictures during the performance are Verboten!!  so I verbote...  but I found a YouTube of a bit of the SF performance, I hope you'll enjoy!!

The Dance of the Flowers is so lovely...

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After the performance, I was feeling a bit peckish AND had found out earlier from doing a search online with the McRib Locator which McDonald's in SF had the McRib, so we headed further downtown to the only McDonald's that the McRib had been sited at... way down on 6th and Market Street.... it is a terrible neighbourhood, and we couldn't find parking so headed home.  I'm certainly not dodging bullets and crack dealers, even for a McRib!!!  The 6th Street Micky D's was the only place on the McRib locator that said they had them, so I was disappointed.  

We ended up just driving over to the McD's close to our home in Noe Valley and low and behold a true Christmas miracle... the MickyD's on Bayshore had them AND  has a drive-thru, so no parking issues...

I got myself two, one for last night and one for breakfast this morning, I'm crazy, yes, it's scary unidentified pressed meat., yes, and covered with overly sweet BBQ sauce, yes..... but when I can get me a McRib this ole guy is gonna get himself a McRiB!!!  Rico will not eat one, so he got a Quarter Pounder...

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That's about it for today sports fans.  I have quite a bit of prep work to do for Christmas Dinner tomorrow, we have 10pm Mass tonight so the day is booked up.  Have a super Christmas Eve!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

A Little Nutty

Gentle Friends, we headed out into the cold last night for a little culture... the ballet to be precise.  I missed it last as I was in ICU recovering from surgery and we gave away our tickets... but a year has passed, I'm quite a bit better and so off we went... to see the Nutcracker...here's a little taste of what we saw.  This is from the ad that the Ballet runs on our local stations...

... they do a really spectacular job... and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience!

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Christmas is fast approaching and now that I'm off until the 2nd of January I'm going to fit in some serious stitching time!!  That's about it for today sports fans have a super weekend!!   Stay Safe!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!

edgar

Some Christms Snaps...

Gentle Friends, since I've been off the grid so to speak for the last two weeks I thought I'd fill in some of our Holiday with a few snaperoos.....

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Let's start off the Friday before Christmas...  we headed downtown to see The Nutcracker...

... I had gotten our tickets months ago, and since it was the 75th Anniversary year I knew they would be selling out the prime nights fast!!

Our SF City Hall was all aglow for the season...

... the Ballet shares the space in the Opera House...

...with its lovely ceiling and the lobby all decorated...

... there was a shop with all sorts of fun stuff ... 

... I made sure we had better seats than last year...

... this is the trailer they released so you can get a taste of how really lovely this performance was...

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Then starting on Sunday I began my tamales adventure.  I've already posted a snap of the carnitas/pork cooking.... then on Monday, I made the chili sauce...

... you have to clean the dried chilies... pop the stems off and clean out the seeds and veins


....and then cook them down a bit...  then you take them and grind them for a while in the processor...


....  you take the processed chilies and strain out any bits that didn't pulverize so that...


... you end up with a smooth delicious chili sauce to add to your cooked meat.
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So, Monday evening I took the dried corn husks and pour some hot water over them to sit in overnight...they have to be weighed down so they stay covered with the water... you can see two pounds of sausage I turned into Pinwheels for Christmas morning and some bacon I turned into some hors-d'oeuvre before Christmas Dinner...


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Then Tuesday morning I started in making the masa... I whipped my lard for about 15 minutes to get it nice and fluffy


... then added the tamale flour, pork stock I had saved, some of the chili sauce and then just let this beat scraping down the bowl every now and then for about 20+ minutes.... when I thought it had gotten to the right consistency I did the test...




... the test was to take a little bit and drop into cold water to see if it floated, and first time out I hit it and my little blob floated!!


... then it was on to making the tamales.  I made a 100 or so and it took a little more than an hour to do.  I also steamed them Christmas eve to have one less thing to do Christmas Day. Tamales reheat well!!


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I made a key Lime Pound Cake for the Baby Jesus' Birthday cake this year.


... we ended up doing a buffet type of dinner for everyone that came over... Rico made Spanish Rice, beans and some guacamole and chips. We also had a green salad to round things out.  It was a very different Christmas Dinner than I've ever had or made, but we all enjoyed it and it was a real learning experience!!



....... and here's the cake all cut up after dinner we served with really delicious pink champagne a friend brought over.  It's from Korbel and is only available at the winery, it was a superb ending to our tasty meal!!
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That's about it for today sports fans thanks for stopping by do stop again!!

Good Thoughts! Good Words! Good Deeds!
edgar