A whirlwind of a week getting ready for Christmas, going to Everland (Korea' s version of Disneyworld....sort of....), getting a much needed haircut, getting to open a couple of packages early and putting out cookies for Santa. Merry Christmas to all of you!!
Day number 15, chocolate and candy covered marshmallows, inspired by http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/.
Another star for our ever-growing garland.
A star for the top of the tree. (Of course in Korea, it is very hard to find a star that is actually made for the top of a tree. O. found and liked this very large hanging star. Thank goodness it was foam or else the mild leaning may have turned into a tree falling all the way down.)
O. is really into counting these days, and calendar days are no exception. He has been asking since Halloween when Christmas will be here, so we decided to help him out with a countdown of sorts once December started. Inspired by the stars that I saw here, http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2009/12/advent-garland.html, I started crocheting. Every morning, we hide a star along with a piece of paper that has an activity or little gift attached.
So far, we've roasted marshmallows...
made and decorated gingerbread men...
and had candy cane hot chocolate.
It's turning out to be a sweet season! Up next are pics of the tree, our ever-growing garland of stars, the gingerbread house that was built, decorated, and eaten and other holiday happenings.
Hope you all are having a great December too! Be back soon...off to make a lasagna for the holiday office party tonight!
Our 8+ kg turkey (over 17 pounds)...beautiful, brined, and ready for carving. We used Alton Brown's roasting method and it was wonderful - cooked in about 3 1/2 hours and all of it wonderfully moist.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html
The purchase of a thermometer was a very smart addition as well - we would have never believed it would have been completely cooked that quickly otherwise.
O. overseeing the carving.
Some of us haven't had turkey in three years, so it was a pretty big deal. Everyone had to oversee the carving at this point. So much good food...mashed potatoes, freshly made cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mushroom cornbread stuffing and apple-sausage-chestnut-cornbread stuffing, squash casserole, homemade rolls, baked corn, and of course the turkey and gravy. Mmmmmm....let's do Thanksgiving again.
Hey, pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen. It's S.'s dream. Just kidding.
Introducing Koreans not only to turkey, but to the fine American tradition of leftovers. Is it wrong that I asked everyone to bring their own tupperware?
Homemade peanut butter cups. Look at the boy's face. We were lucky to have any to pass out after dinner.
Dessert included the fore mentioned homemade peanut butter cups (I've already bookmarked the recipe to try later at O.'s request), zucchini bread, cranberry pistachio and chocolate chip almond biscotti, pecan pie, sweet potato pie and apple pie.
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.
The countdown to Christmas has begun here...I'll post pics of how we are helping O. count down. This morning involved roasting marshmallows on the stove before S. went to work. Nothing like counting down with sugar first thing in the morning!
