So Christmas dinner was pretty mellow but I struggled with the timing - I got the water boiling too quickly! I had the red sauce (kinda/sorta like a Neapolitan Ragù) slow cooking since the day before with some brisket and Italian sausage getting nice and broken down. Plus I had a request for the Broccoli Pesto sauce we just discovered a few weeks ago. And of course, the pasta for Christmas day dinner (at lunchtime) was gnocchi, a good potato gnocchi available locally that doesn’t use any wheat flour, so gluten free!
I accidentally bought the smaller package of basil so it wasn’t as basilly as last time, but it still worked. And instead of 2 cloves or garlic I used 4.5-5ish because more garlic is always better, right? The adults loved it but it was too “spicy” for my daughter.
Oh of course we opened presents earlier. The kids loved their stuff, my wife loved her stuff (most of it was pretty humorous - a replacement dishwasher control panel, a personally Kitsugi-repaired piece of porcelain (her big present is coming in March, nothing I can do about the timing). I got a lot of accessories for my new rack, so I wasted no time in adding them.
Mainly a new set of J-hooks and a bunch of weight holders to free up my old weight holder to make more room. You can also spot a new medal holder which I desperately needed to the right of my Chicago Marathon poster. Which reminds me:
Yes, I broke away in the afternoon for a workout. The astute reader will note that I neglected to get in any workouts on Wednesday or Friday, my preferred/planned days.
Wednesday I had an all-day project of cleaning the couch (including removing the cushion covers to launder them) which took a lot out of me. Those cushion covers are a TIGHT fit. My daughter offered to help so I gave her the easiest one (really!) and she struggled with it a LOT. And the subsequent vacuuming to clean up all the liberated down/feathers. Also a lot.
Thursday, last minute cleaning (including overhauling the foyer) and decluttering, then the arrival of my father in law and that lady he married.
Friday, grocery shopping super early to beat any crowds, and cooking the rest of the day up to Christmas Eve dinner, including up to 3 versions of several dishes: with/without dairy (for my wife), with/without herbs (for my son).
Starting from the upper lefthand corner: bacon wrapped dates with a romescu sauce, prosciutto wrapped asparagus with (and without) shaved parmesan, sous vide filet mignon, roasted brussel sprouts with pomegranate molasses and fig balsamic vinegar (naturally with bacon and some shaved shallots), grilled shrimp, a bowl of pasta for the kids, smashed crispy garlic potatoes (3 versions plated separately and off-camera), and grilled salmon. We had the cocktail shrimp as an appetizer, and we totally forgot to put the smoked salmon on the table.
Increased the weight and did 5 sets each of squats and bench press. 5 sets of a single chin up. 4 sets of 8 reps of dumbbell curls. Then a better preview of “chest day”: 1 set each of 8 reps of incline press, dumbbell fly, decline press. 3 sets of 1 dip (with the new dip bar attachments, including the two singles I did earlier in the day because these are HARD if you haven’t done them in a while), and a set of 5 pushups (because I still haven’t done them in ages).
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