BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

…That secular holiday involving a dude with a white beard, wearing a red suit, and violating all manner of FAA protocols with a sled and some baked reindeer. I say they are baked because as I understand it their ability to fly has something to do with the “magical grass” they eat. (wink wink, nudge nudge.)

Anyway, since this is the official beginning of the “holiday season,” or at least it was when I was a kid, nowadays it starts sometime around mid-July… but, enough of that… Since this is the official start I figured perhaps I would kick it off with a quick bit of nostalgia:

There you have it… The Jolly Old Elf with my younger sister on his lap, and me being perplexed by all of this mess, Christmas 1966. I can’t be certain, but I suspect the Polaroid was taken at the old Famous-Barr Department Store at Northwest Plaza in Saint Ann, Missouri, because that is where my mother worked at the time.

Merry Merry. Time for some Bourboned up Nog…

More to come…

Murv

What is it with Pumpkin Pie recipes? Do any of you know?

I’ve been cooking ever since I could drag a chair up to the stove, and while I’m not Iron Chef material, I know my way around a kitchen – residential and commercial. And, due to my background with a skillet, I usually end up doing quit a bit of cooking around the holidays.

When Turkey Day rolls around, I do get a slight bit of a rest every other year, as the family gathers locally and the cooking is divided up between a few of us. The other years I do the whole spread myself… But, no matter which year, odd or even, there is always the ubiquitous Pumpkin Pie.

I happen to love Pumpkin Pie. EK and the O-spring, not so much. No biggie, that just leaves more for me… Not that my lard a$$ needs it, but what the hell… It’s the holidays and if you can’t enjoy yourself, why even bother, right?

But, here is the big mystery – for as long as I have been clanging pots and pans in a kitchen, I have yet to discover a recipe for pumpkin pie that creates anything less than two pies. And, if you try to halve it, the damn thing doesn’t set up properly.

I’d assume it’s a conspiracy on behalf of Libby’s and all of the other canned pumpkin folks out there, but this even happens with fresh pumpkin…

So, there you go… Just one of those odd things I end up thinking about this time of year… Scary, eh?

More to come…

Murv