Sunday, December 26, 2010

It's MY home

That cashmere pillow for Alex was a huge hit. It was so much fun giving it to her. I think Danielle was kind of jealous.

It didn't occur to me until this weekend but when we lived with Aunt Elaine it didn't feel like our home. I felt like an unwelcome guest in someone else's home. Hosting guests is a huge part of what makes it feel like your own home. We've been out a year and a half and sometimes it still feels like we're getting over having lived with her. I can't even imagine how hard it is and how long it takes to get over having been really homeless. It's like post-dramatic stress or something.

I was upset about not getting to do Thanksgiving, and during finals I asked Laurie and John if they'd come over for a Christmas dinner. Figured they wouldn't be planning to do their own. They agreed to come over for Christmas, even though they are flying out of the country tomorrow. Josh asked if we had to eat ham for Christmas and said that would be too weird, so I told him to figure out something else and I'd make that, and figure out stuff to go with it.

Josh decided he wanted some kind of seafood and steak theme. I knew right away this was the best excuse to make lobster bisque en croute. At that point it seemed like I should just go full-steam ahead and do beef wellington also. Danielle wanted to make popovers, and we made Josh get the fancy butter that has salt in it to go with them. Cesar salad with baby shrimps tossed in to stick with the seafood theme.

I started making a roux before figuring out what to do with it and began to panic. Then I realized it could be for creamed spinach and felt much better. The idea of having wasted food really threw me off for a while and I needed to take a break. So I went out to wander around trying to find a good dessert. Decided on pear cobbler and baked apples.

It was really fucking good, even though one of the wellingtons was a little overdone (it was the last one taken out). It was also pretty funny when Laurie called to ask what she could bring and Josh told her to bring the wine. You know, because we're not old enough.

8 comments:

Lisa @ Lisa Moves said...

Glad it was a good time. Merry Christmas :-)

Anonymous said...

Glad you got to host a dinner for a holiday! Did you get lots of compliments on your cooking? How did this not completely kill your food budget?

Sam said...

I didn't get lots of compliments, but I think my sisters are used to my cooking, and Josh and his family expect a certain level. His parents said all the appropriate things, but it's not like when they met me all I could make was omelets and now I can make four-course dinners so they gush over them. They just say things like, "Dinner was lovely" or whatever.

The only stuff I paid for was the dessert - Josh bought everything else. He may not be too helpful in the kitchen without direction, but he knows how to follow a grocery list.

Anonymous said...

Wow, dinner sounded great!!

This is random, I know, but ... I thought Josh's dad was named Tom? Now it seems to be John ...?

~C~ said...

Sounds like a great Christmas dinner (much better than stale old ham and potatoes, right?)

Alisha said...

SO glad you got to host and enjoy that homey feeling of welcoming people to YOUR place just how you want to. It's wonderful to be able to do that!

Just a note, for personal edification -- it's post-traumatic stress, not post-dramatic stress. Whatever...I'm sure you're suffering from both after Aunt Elaine! ;-)

Sam said...

To the 2:15 Anon: His name is Tom. But they have an old family joke where Josh calls him Johnny, that during h.s. got shortened to John. So we call him both. Sorry it got confusing.

Yankee, Transferred said...

Sounds like a feast! Glad you have YOUR home. You've accomplished a lot in a very short time, Sam.