The HEAT was On!

What a weekend! 

It started with my son and our sitter nearly burning down the house,
but ended on a sweet note, literally...

I guess these days, most fireplaces are the ventless kind... 

Our woodburning kind is not,
a detail lost apparently on my son and our sitter... 

Those crazy things called flues do a great job of sending the smoke out of the dwelling,
but they need to be opened... 

Yeah.... 

First of all, Jack has been threatened with bodily harm
for even contemplating fire without us present,
but he convinced our poor sitter in his highly pursuasive and devilish way
to create some ambiance via the hearth... 

While I was fifteen minutes into my painting and pinot grigio at Bottle and Bottega,
a unique place to escape with friends, drink and be creative,
I received the panicked call that smoke was billowing out of the house
and that the fire alarm could be heard in Gurnee... 

After I instructed my son on flue operation
and explained how to turn off the alarm,
the nice firefighter from Tower Ladder 21 assured me that all was fine,
that this kind of thing happens ALL the time
and that I needn't come home... 

Which was good news because I didn't want to come home.... 

The wine was cold and my work of art just begun... 

Bad mommy, you scold? 

No, Tom was speeding home
so why have two of us on hand to admonish the crap out of Jack
and send the sitter home early? 

Let's just say that all parties were extremely sorry
and have most likely learned a memorable lesson...

I hope... 

It's still smoky in the house and I seem to have this unexplainable urge
to camp and roast marshmallows,
but it is what it is....

Friday was better... 

HEAT hosted its first employee Christmas party at the factory... 

45 guys and their significant others cleaned up,
looked festive, enjoyed tasty food and cold bevvies
to excellent tunes spun by DJ Mike Tolva...
 

I decorated the factory on a dime
and assembled some giveaways for the crowd... 

It was a fun night dancing, laughing and posing by a bad a$$ SWAT truck.... 

Saturday we were invited to dinner at a friends
and enjoyed excellent company and amazing food... 

Good eats, great friends and the holidays are what it's all about....

And today Mom helped me make truffles for the teachers... 

This year I did not make too many home made gifts as I ran out of time... 

So, this year, it was just the truffles and some cookies... 

Hope they like 'em because I seized up two batches of chocolate
before I finally got it right... 

How hard can it be to melt chocolate? 

Apparently  I am not the master of this technique... 

I ordered the boxed and monogrammed ribbon ahead of time
and bought waxed tissue paper from The Container Store... 

Tuck in a giftcard from Starbucks and I'm done!

Hope you had a fun and productive weekend...
 

Christmas is less than a week away!

Keeping Up With the Stewarts.....

Do you feel the pressure? 

The pressure to be perfect during the holidays?

It's amusing to read the magazines that tout,

"35 Ways to Beat That Holiday Stress" on page 71,
 all the while including editorial pages of glorious all white themed holiday trimmed homes
in Madison, Wisconsin or  Fairfield, Connecticut... 

The editors lay out pages and pages of amazing Christmas cookies,
prepared lovingly in their test kitchens, crafts,
"You Can Make at Home, in a Jiffy!" 
and festive holiday outfits, plucked right out of Bergdorf's...
  

I know, I know, those pages are meant to inspire our holiday spirits,
provide us with great ideas to make our holidays sparkle... 

Sometimes, though, they rather bombard me with messages to get it all right this year...

MORE cookies! 

MORE parties! 

BETTER holiday cocktails! 

Craftier HOMEMADE crafts! 

HOTTER party shoes with a more SPECTACULAR dress! 

Yikes.....

Forget Calgon...take me to Chinatown! 

One year in my distant past, I spent an unlikely Thanksgiving in San Francisco's Chinatown
with my boyfriend at the time and his parents... 

It was a bustling part of the city and we ate a fantastic Chinese dinner... 

Looking out the window, Chinatown's residents
paid no mind to the American holiday... 

They weren't angst-ridden over their heritage turkeys,
their pecan cornbread stuffings... 

It was just a regular day...

So refreshing...  

While I love the fun and festivities the holidays bring,
I need to force myself to savor the little kid stuff
and to forget about all the crazy trimmings... 

The kids just anticipate Christmas... 

They do love the Advent bags I made
and they wonder each morning where Fred the Christmas Elf is hiding... 

BTW, remembering to move him around each night is a bit of a chore
until I see Kate searching for him every morning.... 

The kids enjoy the holiday TV movies
and hope for snow daily.... 

So what if my friend just made every cookie in this month's Bon Appetit? 

Who cares if we weren't invited to any Christmas parties this year? 

I don't have to stress about Spanx and mani/pedis, now do I? 

And, really, most Christmas crafts look far better on the pages of Better Homes and Gardens
than in reality.... 

In the word of The Grinch,

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” 

So, after this week of mailing out packages to family out of town
and the throwing of our first ever employee Christmas party,
I will sit on the couch, a kid on each hip
and savor our time together, playing games, watching "Elf", going ice skating or whatever..... 

Martha may have a perfect Christmas, but I'll bet my imperfect Christmas is more joyful..... 

And, I hope yours will be too!   

Today was a lemony kind of day... 
I made two lemon recipes you might like to try...
One was even from Bon Appetit!

COCONUT-LEMON LOAF courtesy of www.familyfun.go

Moist, delicious and versatile, this bread can be served for breakfast with yogurt, fruit, or applesauce on the side. And it's enough like cake that it makes a tempting dessert, especially when topped with the optional Coconut-Lemon Glaze. Makes 10 servings. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup milk

• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) sweetened flaked coconut
• Coconut-Lemon Glaze (optional)

Instructions

1. Line a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with waxed or parchment paper (or grease and flour it), then set it aside. Heat the oven to 350º.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter, oil, lemon zest, lemon extract, vanilla extract, and milk.
   
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and the buttermilk until evenly blended. Set the bowl aside.
   
4. In a medium-size bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. With a wooden spoon, stir about a third of the flour mixture into the sugar mixture, then alternately add half of the remaining egg mixture and half of the flour mixture, stirring after each addition just enough to blend. Stir in the coconut.
   
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spoon. Bake on the center oven rack until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes.
   
6. Remove the pan from the oven and put it on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes, then remove the loaf and place it on the rack to finish cooling. When the loaf is completely cooled, in about two hours, apply the Coconut-Lemon Glaze, if using. Makes 10 servings.
   
   
   
   

LEMONY SLICE AND BAKES courtesy of Bon Appetit Magazine

Ingredients

Cookies

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large egg yolks

Icing

• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice
• Food coloring (optional)
• Sanding sugar (optional)

Cookies

• Whisk flour and salt in a medium bowl. Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large bowl, occasionally scraping down sides, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks; beat just to blend. Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture and beat, occasionally scraping down sides, just to blend. Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 10"-long log about 1 3/4" in diameter. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 1 hour. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.
• Arrange racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Unwrap 1 dough log. Using a sharp, lightly floured knife, cut log into 1/4"-thick rounds. Transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1" apart.
• Bake until cookies are firm and golden brown around edges, 16–18 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute, then transfer to wire racks and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough log, using cooled baking sheets and new parchment paper.

Icing

• Whisk sugar and 2 Tbsp. juice in a small bowl, adding more juice by 1/2-teaspoonfuls if too thick. Add coloring, if desired. Spread or drizzle icing over cookies. Decorate as desired. Let stand until icing sets, about 10 minutes.
  DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.

Vanilla Duck Fat...

Do you ever feel like you are starring in your own "I Love Lucy" episode? 

I did.....

last week  ... 

It was one of those holiday evenings...

The air was crisp...

I was feeling festive as I took the L
to meet T$ at the Merchandise Mart station... 

We had free tickets to attend the One of a Kind Show
inside the Merchandise Mart... 

My BFF was working a booth for an artist friend of hers
and scored us tickets... 

Oh, man...I saw so many beautiful things....

jewelry,

apparel,

sculpture,

ornaments,

little girls dresses almost as cute as Mac and Fitz... 

Our friend's booth of jewelry (Anne Chikahisa Studio)
was lovely and busy... 

We sipped a glass of seven dollar wine in a plastic cup
and tore at an overpriced baguette
while strolling the carpeted aisles....

It felt so good to be out, in the Loop,
among the employed and citified... 

Don't get me wrong...I love working at HEAT,
but sometimes, I'd trade my amiable, scruffy welders
for business casual and a lunch at The Corner Bakery... 

After the show, we cabbed over to the Williams Sonoma store
in the 900 North Building on Michigan Avenue... 

There was a holiday event there, hosted by our good friend's law firm... 

It's always fun to peruse the catalog pages of the Williams Sonoma,
but to wander through the store,
even if it's crowded with a bunch of lawyers, is still heavenly... 

There were gorgeous pans, cookbooks galore, special salts, decorating pearls,
even jars of ready made Coq Au Vin...

In the baking corner, there was a set up of all kinds of vanilla,
paste form, large, small, you name it... 

I decided to splurge on some good vanilla,
since holiday cookie baking time is here... 

I picked up a small bottle
and turned it over to view the price,
not knowing the cap was off.... 

Two thirds of the vanilla elixir splashed onto my hands,

the display,

the floor.... 

I was horrified...

My face became hot
and it was not the champagne... 

The lovely Williams Sonoma employee graciously assured me
that all was well.... 

I slunk off, trying to rub the brown stain
from my right hand.... 

I reeked of vanilla... 

Tom kept introducing me to people
and I didn't want to shake my sticky paw with these kind folks...

I felt like the idiot brother
they were forced to bring along...

So, as I avoided shaking further unsuspecting hands,  I slipped away and
came across the mother of all foodie ingredients: duck fat...  

You see all the hip, overly tattooed chefs
on those food shows frying everything
from french fries to caperberries in the stuff... 

So, I bought a jar to find out what the fuss was all about... 

When I make something with the duck fat, I'll let ya know... 

If you read my previous post, you'll know that Saturday
was full of ups and downs, as well... 

We sailed into Sunday, a little quieter and with less action... 

Mom came over and made cookies with the kids
and I put together a good old fashioned Sunday dinner...

And Lucy was nowhere in sight...

Mustard Roasted Beef Tenderloin courtesy of Martha Stewart Living

---

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin, trimmed and tied
• 2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 8 ounces shallots (3 large), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup homemade beef or chicken stock, or canned
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons grainy mustard
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Coat beef on all sides with the salt and pepper. Place a skillet with an ovenproof handle over medium-high heat, and add olive oil. When very hot, add meat; sear on all sides until browned. Transfer the pan to oven for 10 minutes. Add shallots to pan; return to oven for 15 to 20 minutes more, or until a meat thermometer registers 135 degrees for medium rare. Remove beef from pan; let rest on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes.
2. Place the pan with the shallots over medium-high heat, and deglaze by adding balsamic vinegar, stirring up any browned bits from the bottom with a wooden spoon. Add the stock, and simmer until slightly reduced, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low, and stir in mustards and butter. Keep sauce warm until serving. Cut beef into 1/2-inch-thick slices; top with the sauce, and serve.

Shingled Roasted Potatoes courtesy of Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients

• 6 Russet potatoes
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Instructions

1. Preheat over to 425.
2. Peel one long side of each potato. Thinly slice each crosswise, cutting only three-quarters of the way through, keeping bottoms (unpeeled portions) intact.
3. Brush slice portion of potatoes with olive oil. Season with coarse salt.
4. Bake on a baking sheet in the lower third of the oven until tender and slightly golden, about 1 hour 5 minutes
   
   

The Santa Train...

Do you ever have those times where, as hard as you try,
it just ain't gonna go your way? 

Let's just say I got close to losing my Mom Card today... 

Good Housekeeping might yank away my Seal of Approval.... 

The morning started well enough... 

We trucked to the factory to procure a company Christmas tree... 

I drove the company van, aka "Bag of Bolts"
to the Home Depot to snag a $29.99 tree, stand
and some lights... 

Back at HEAT, Kate even broke away from her stream of vintage
Pink Panther videos on my computer to help me hang ornaments... 

Not sure how I feel about this Vegas-ish looking tree... 

Some of the sparkly things might have to go... 

The plan for the rest of the day was to board the CTA's Santa Train,
Ride it to the Loop,
Meet Tom,
Have a cheap meal,
Gaze at the windows of Macy's State Street
and maybe even take in a little
of the Christkindle Market in Daley Plaza....

Yeah...

That didn't happen... 

When we returned home from the factory
we had about an hour before heading
to the El train station.... 

Note to self: 
No matter how tired and exhausted you are,
DO NOT take a nap... 

I was out like a light and woke with a start
the exact moment the beautiful lighted train
sailed through the Southport stop.... 

Beat the train, I thought,
as any crazed parent frantically seeking
a way of avoiding child wrath would do... 

We sped to the Wellington station,
two stops farther down the line... 

Ran into the station
and asked the CTA agent if we had missed it... 

Yep... 

I confessed to her that I napped too late
and she looked at me
like I kept my kids in cages and fed them rat droppings...

Mother of the Year.... 

Kate sobbed big, fat hot tears down her rosy little cheeks
as Jack tried to comfort
her heartbroken soul...

Evil, selfish mother!  

My mind raced for back up....

The Muppet Movie?

Nope...we are broke this week.... 

Ice Skating? 

Nope....It is 55 degrees outside...

Crap..

We headed home and it came to me....

The Zoo Lights at Lincoln Park Zoo! 

My suggestion brought a faint smile after a tiny sob... 

Maybe Cindy Lou Who would be pacified after all... 

While I was making a sumptuous meal of pasta with jar sauce
and frozen fried shrimp....

Only the best from the pantry for my brood.... 

I did add raw carrots to round out the food pyramid...

An even better scheme crossed my weary brain.... 

We would attempt to catch the Santa Train
on its homebound journey
and THEN do a double header at the Zoo Lights.... 

Talk about major backpeddling.... 

So I let Jack in on the plan to trick Kate into thinking
we were heading to the zoo via train,
when in fact she would be surprised and dazzled
by the Santa Train sailing down the tracks,
headed JUST for her! 

Jack is as good at keeping a secret
as I am at doing a back flip,
so he was sorely tested... 

Surprisingly, with a wink or two from my end,
he was able to keep the ruse going.... 

Now, the earlier Santa Train was RIGHT on time,
as it whizzed past us,
creating sorrow and misery... 

The Northbound Santa Train, however,
as Mr. Murphy would have it,
was a full FIFTEEN minutes late.... 

I thought all the kids, waiting on the platform
were going to unite and declare mutiny... 

The stationmaster got on the intercom to lamely
apologize for Santa's tardy arrival....

Being that Jack and I were conducting a secret surprise,
Jack clamped his mitted hands over Kate's annoyed ears
and did the "LA LA LA" song so she wouldn't be the wiser..... 

FINALLY, the awaited train arrived,
in all its glory, Santa and all...

As we boarded, I could hear Peggy Lee sing
"Is That All There Is",
as Kate wailed that THIS?! was all that constituted the Santa Train.....

A free candy cane and a decorated train?! 

She settled down as we began to extol the finer points
of the decorated train car
and then we ran outside at the Addison stop
to wave at Santa... 

Next stop was Irving Park...

We jumped off and quickly boarded the next southbound train
back home..... 

When Tom got home,
he vainly hoped that the Zoo Lights excursion on the agenda
could be cancelled....

Oh noooo! 

Such deprivation of these poor kids! 

We sighed, donned outerwear
and headed to Lincoln Park for some Zoo Light revelry.... 

It started to rain just as we walked up to the Rainbow Arbor.... 

Did my kids comment once on the splendor of the colored lights? 

Of the forests of glorious electric wonder? 

No.....

One whined for a ride on the carousel
and the other begged for hot chocolate.... 

Tom's dreams were realized when he discovered
that the hot chocolate bar also sold wine.... 

He witnessed parents, with strollers in tow,
dancing with delight that Miller beer was being served... 

As the rain pounded harder,
we dashed for the car...

Kids were asleep within minutes...

Was it a success? 

Maybe. 

Did I salvage the day and maintain my Seal of Approval....
 
The jury is still out....