River Cruising Water Cooler

[sharkster77]

The plot of Holiday Inn was an inn that was only open on holidays--the plot goes from one Christmas to the next.  Has a controversial scene containing blackface that isn't shown normally on TV.

 

In White Christmas plot mostly takes place during one Christmas season, with a WWII prologue.

[notamermaid]

Thank you for all the comments on "White Christmas". So what is the video I found on youtube with Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra taken from? They toast each other and then have dinner. Then the choir sings "Happy Holidays, Happy Holidays". I like that one, so heart-warming.

 

notamermaid

 

[Daisi]

I think that was a TV special.  I googled the video to find out, and it comes up as "Happy Holidays".  Searching that, I come up with The Frank Sinatra Show" Happy Holidays with Bing and Frank.

 

Sorry, but my parents didn't really listen to either of them so I can't help much with them.  I do remember David Bowie singing Little Drummer Boy with Bing though.. 🙂

[notamermaid]

Ooah, yes, Little Drummer Boy! So Christmassy. I can already feel it going round in my head. Not too worry, it can stay there for the rest of the evening.

 

notamermaid

 

[dogs4fun]

@notamermaid - as requested, here are some photos of Christmas Markets.

The first is Budapest & 2nd, of course, the delicious Chimney Cakes (yum!!).

The last is Trier.

 

 

[Coral]

6 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

@notamermaid - as requested, here are some photos of Christmas Markets.

The first is Budapest & 2nd, of course, the delicious Chimney Cakes (yum!!).

The last is Trier.

 

 

Don't we all wish we were there now (and the Markets were open)......

[notamermaid]

Lovely photos! I realized earlier today that if this was a normal year I would probably have come back from England yesterday. Not easy to digest that. But my food parcel with the Christmas pudding and cake has finally arrived. Makes it easier to bear. Stollen from test two nearly gone, need to make sure I get another one for test number three in this week.

 

Will post some photos from my previous England trips, I love the lights in my beloved Kent.

 

notamermaid

 

[jpalbny]

So we got a Stollen delivered yesterday, an unexpected gift from our TA. Had a big slice this morning for breakfast. Delicious! It was made by a company in Washington State, Dresden Stollen Bakers. A nice treat.

 

Yesterday we had a late dinner that was way too big, so we made a light dinner tonight. My best approximation of Pil-Pil shrimp, the classic tapas dish. Lots of garlic and olive oil, some hot peppers that we bought in Zanzibar a few years ago, and plump juicy shrimp cooked just long enough to turn orange. It was finished with a generous pour of Sherry - that's what you can see bubbling furiously in the pan. Yum!

 

 

Not pictured - the crunchy toasted baguette used to soak up all of the sauce.

 

If we can't travel, at least we can have some foods that remind us of why we travel. Must whet our appetites one way or another!

 

Lots of Christmas cooking going on today. We baked honey cakes, and I started making the Christmas Eve borsch (no t at the end in the Ukrainian version). Christmas Eve pierogi filling ingredients are secured but we won't start that until the 24th. And the goose continues to thaw in the fridge.

 

Going to make a sweet poppy seed bread later. If I don't gain 20 pounds this week it will be my own Christmas miracle! 

Edited December 20, 2020 by jpalbny

[dogs4fun]

That shrimp looks yummy!

[dogs4fun]

35 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Christmas Eve pierogi filling ingredients are secured but we won't start that until the 24th. 

Sweet or savory? Our Russian friends made homemade vareniki during one of our visits - he said it is the same as pierogi. His was savory. Looked like preparation was labor intensive.

[Roz]

I've never had a sweet pierog filling.  The ones I'm familiar with are cheese, mashed potatoes, cheese AND mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut.  

[Roz]

A grammar lesson, from someone who's had 5 semesters of Russian. 😎 

 

A common mistake Westerners make is to call a single blin a blini.  Blini is plural.  There are no such things as blinis.  

 

Блин - single 

Блины - plural

 

Polish is also a Slavic language and follows some of the same grammar rules.  There are no such things as pierogis.

 

pierog - single

pierogi - plural

 

When learning Russian, the good news is there are a lot of grammar rules.  The bad news is there are a lot of grammar rules. 🤣

[dogs4fun]

2 minutes ago, Roz said:

I've never had a sweet pierog filling.  The ones I'm familiar with are cheese, mashed potatoes, cheese AND mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut.  

I’ve never tried sweet either but the blueberry pierogi looks quite tasty.

I have had the sweet Stolle pies in St. Pete - not the same as vareniki/pierogi though.

Just wondering if the pierogi jpalbny serves at Christmas is a dessert.

Have you made pierogi Roz?

[Roz]

Just now, dogs4fun said:

Have you made pierogi Roz?

 

Not by myself.  It was always a family assembly line project.  We used a recipe given to us by a family friend who's Polish.  We would make a lot of them and then freeze them.  It's as much trouble to make a few as it is to make 100.

[jpalbny]

We make both savory and sweet. The traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve pierogi are savory, served for dinner. The sweet ones are for dessert, so yes we do make them too, dogs4fun.

 

The savory ones that we make are three different varieties. Farmer cheese with mashed potato and dill,  or sauerkraut, or sweet cabbage. This year we will just do the first two and forego the sweet cabbage. It's more work...you have to start with a head of cabbage, and cook it down most of the day without burning it. Every savory filling has some butter and onions mixed in.

 

Savory ones are served with onion sauce - scads of onions, sauteed in butter until soft. The ratio can vary depending on how much statin you have on hand. Sometimes we eat them with sour cream too, if there is a hospital nearby with angioplasty capability. 

 

Sweet ones can be made with pretty much any fruit. Our favorite are cherries or blueberries though we have made them with raspberries and/or blackberries, on occasion. They get served with butter, sugar, and sour cream. 

 

We have our system down after decades of experimentation. I roll the dough in a pasta press which works amazingly well. We can make enough for the two of us pretty quickly. Making the filling is comparatively much more work than actually making the pierogi.

 

There is a special kind of pierogi called "Ushka" (russified: Vushka). They are made with reconstituted dried mushrooms and shaped like a tortellini. They are served in the borsch. The leftover liquid from rehydrating the mushrooms gets strained and added to the borsch.

 

OK, enough food talk. Time to make tomorrow's lunch while Chris makes some buttercream rum frosting for the honey cakes.

[dogs4fun]

2 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

It's as much trouble to make a few as it is to make 100.

Makes sense - kinda like making Cornish pasties. The dough is a real pain - might as well make a bunch. 🙂

[Roz]

I feel the same way about lasagna.  May as well make 2 or 3 pans and freeze them.  Another assembly line dish. 

[Roz]

7 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Savory ones are served with onion sauce - scads of onions, sauteed in butter until soft. The ratio can vary depending on how much statin you have on hand. Sometimes we eat them with sour cream too, if there is a hospital nearby with angioplasty capability. 

 

You're cracking me up, but I know first hand what you're talking about.  There's no lack of butter. 

[Coral]

27 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

Not by myself.  It was always a family assembly line project.  We used a recipe given to us by a family friend who's Polish.  We would make a lot of them and then freeze them.  It's as much trouble to make a few as it is to make 100.

I always associate pierogis with living in Pennsylvania for 6 months. I could do the sweet but was not a fan of the savory ones.

 

We have a Lithuanian bakery about an hour from here that makes tortes and sells them through out the US. They are sort of expensive and a treat.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Coral

[Roz]

3 minutes ago, Coral said:

I always associate pierogis with living in Pennsylvania for 6 months. I could do the sweet but was not a fan of the savory ones.

 

We have a Lithuanian bakery about an hour from here that makes tortes and sells them through out the US. They are sort of expensive and a treat.

 

I grew up in "the Burgh".  One of my best friends is Lithuanian and originally from Wilkes-Barre.  There used to be all kinds of German and Eastern European bakeries.  Not too many left.  

[Roz]

While I've been reading and posting here, I've been listening to Cajun Christmas music.  My favorite song so far is Zydeco Christmas by C.J. Chenier & The Red Hot Louisiana Band.  Check them out on YouTube. 

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

I grew up in "the Burgh".  One of my best friends is Lithuanian and originally from Wilkes-Barre.  There used to be all kinds of German and Eastern European bakeries.  Not too many left.  

That is a cool area. I probably switched subjects with out a good transition. When I lived in PA for a short time, that was the first time I had ever heard of pierogis. I lived in Bucks County but drove all over PA for my job.

 

I live in Nebraska now and this Lithuanian bakery is in Omaha.

[Roz]

1 minute ago, Coral said:

I live in Nebraska now and this Lithuanian bakery is in Omaha.

 

Now I'm hungry for runza.  Isn't that popular in Nebraska?

[Roz]

Talk about no transition.  I went from Eastern European food and baked goods to Cajun Christmas music!

[Coral]

7 minutes ago, Roz said:

 

Now I'm hungry for runza.  Isn't that popular in Nebraska?

Yep! Those Germans from Russia..... I eat their hamburgers. Don't do cabbage well.

 

We probably have more Runza restaurants than McDonalds here.

Edited December 21, 2020 by Coral