So there we go. We’ve all spent weeks collecting presents and honing our social skills to survive the getting together of large quantities of human beings only for it all to be over in a mere two and a half days. That’s Christmas for you.
But, as always, it’s two and a half days that are quite rewarding. Spending time with people you like and/or are related to seldom leaves you in a bad mood, especially if it involves trees adorned with shiny stuff, little sweet things commonly referred to as cookies (biscuits for the Brits among you), obscene amounts of poultry, tiny little nativity scenes you can practice your camera’s macro-mode on and of course brief bursts of thunderstorms on Christmas day.
For graphical representations of above ramblings, click the picture on top. For a brief glimpse of what the rain accompanying a thunderstorm looks and sounds like, watch the gripping feature presentation below. Enjoy.
The more loyal of my readers will know that I’ve had yet another blog for a while now. Called “Death by Martini“, it celebrates the greatness that is food and drink.
My latest entry, written mere minutes before this one, is sporting scrumptious pictures of the traditional goose served up on or around St. Martin’s day. Click here to see it with yer own eyes.
While it’s not at all unusual for me to spend a day thinking about food, it’s rather rare that I spend all day actually preparing food. Until Saturday. Two friends and I had decided to cook a meal so succulent, we’d talk about it for years to come. And that’s exactly what we did!
For starters, we made Broccoli Risotto, of course with freshly made chicken stock and some real jus!
Main course was rump steak with spinach beet and cherry-mustard-sauce. Again, on real jus!
See that little bit of jus on top? Yes, that’s the one. We reduced that fucker until there was barely anything left to reduce. Took us the whole afternoon, but was totally worth it!
Dessert were strawberry tartelettes with vanilla-lime-sorbet. Hard to make, but we pulled it off. Because we’re quite probably some of the best cooks I know!
Here’s the whole set, including various steps of preparations and dazzling close-up shots of strawberry tartelettes!
On another note, I’m happy to announce that I’ve won two tickets for a preview of Religulous, here in Vienna’s fair Gartenbau cinema (thanks to the good people over at Supernature). And no, this is not a call for the second ticket, it’s already spoken for. But in case you’re there too, why not say hello.
And here’s to Christmas. At least when it comes to the header of this very blog, where I’ve once again put to use my insane Gimp skills to create what you might call a very superior Christmas header image.
Apart from changes to the design, bloggers like me also receive early Christmas presents. One of them was a package in the shape of tube, containing three cans of a drink. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
A few weeks back, I, like a few other people, was addressed by a representative of a PR-company in Switzerland, offering me a drink with the luring name “Walrossalkohol”. Which, and even if your German is rudimentary you might have guessed that, can be translated into the English language as “Walrus alcohol”. Anyway, me being both extremely adventurous (especially if adventure is sent directly into my flat) and quite partial to the various ways of imbibing alcohol, decided to graciously accept the offer. Oh, how I was looking forward to this strange new drink, imagining nights of debauchery similar to what the poets of the 19th century experienced with the aid of la Fée Verte.
Well, a couple of weeks later I received a mysterious tube:
Anxiously I ripped open the wondrous package, only to find what inside? Utter disappointment! For all it contained were three cans of a drink similar to what you might know as Red Bull, void of anything even slightly resembling hard, hallucinations-inducing alcohol. Burying my dreams of a poetic shindig, I opened a can, took a sip and lo and behold, it contained a drink very similar in taste and effect to above mentioned Red Bull.
This marks the end of my recount. Goes to show that early Christmas presents aren’t always as wonderful as you might expect them to be. But thanks anyway.
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