Christmas Surprise

Like many other couples, Ken and I have to split holiday time between our parents' houses -- not easy when one set lives in Pennsylvania and the other set lives in New Hampshire. We decided to have this year with my folks, next year with Ken's folks and the following year at our house. We left last Saturday morning for six days.

My folks live right next to a ski resort about an hour SW of Pittsburgh. We spent many winters up there when my brother and I were growing up. Lots of skiing and lots of friends. And now my folks live there permanently and are retired so they have all the time in the world to enjoy it. Needless to say, they love it there.

Saturday
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and my dad came to pick us up from the airport. Andrew was delayed about 2.5 hours but, seeing as he was coming from Denver, we were just happy that he could make it. My mom had a party waiting for us when we arrived. 27 people. 5 sets of my parents' friends and all their kids who we knew growing up and are now adults. Weird that they always tried to keep us away from the beer, now they're actually having a party for us to drink it.


Sunday
Christmas Eve. My dad called earlier that week to tell us that there was no snow so we shouldn't bring our skis (shocker that he said that, for anyone who knows him). In light of these events, I did not get out of my pajamas until 4 pm. It was a good day. I took a shower and then helped mom prep our family tradition for Christmas Eve dinner -- seafood fondue and twice baked potatoes. Seafood fondue is a whole platter of raw seafood (scallops, shrimp, lobster, tuna) that we cook in a fondue pot using chicken broth. Pretty fun. She also made a plate of sauteed mussels in a garlic white wine sauce and also some clams cooked the same way. Yum.

Monday
Christmas! A lazy but wonderful day. Ken and I got each other snowshoes as did my parents for each other. There were also all sorts of other wonderful gifts exchanged (including my beloved 6 quart all clad saute pan that was procurred by my folks at the All Clad Seconds sale. So excited). My other best was the book that Ken got me all about making, curing and smoking my own foods. I spent Christmas night making a seafood terrine -- very fun. I thinly sliced scallops and used them to wrap some tuna which enveloped a puree of lobster and shrimp mixed with an egg white to hold it all together when cooked. I poached it in some shrimp stock that I made two nights before. (Sidenote: I am now making pancetta from the book -- a week of salt curing followed by 2-3 weeks of drying by hanging in the basement.)

My brother, Andrew


We stayed up late and watched movies and relaxed. I went to bed around 1 that night. Ken came to bed about an hour later. Not 10 minutes after he came to bed, there was a knock on our bedroom door. He opened it to find his parents standing there. They had coordinated with my folks and flew down from NH to suprise us for Christmas. Mission accomplished. Ken was very very excited. We all chatted for a bit and then went to bed. It was 3 AM by then.



Tuesday

We all slept in and then lounged around the house. Around 2, we decided to go see Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" since it is about 15 minutes from my folks' place. Very cool to see. When we got back, I made a seafood stromboli to take with us to another family's party. The stromboli was a hit. (Used frozen bread dough for the stromboli dough (thanks Dave!) and then mixed the raw seafood with some cream cheese, mozzarella and hot sauce. It was devoured. )


Wednesday
We lounged around most of the morning and early afternoon. Ken's folks said they'd like to take us all out for dinner that night and we made our way down to the Black Dog Pub. Sadly, they were closed so we drove another 15 minutes to Laurel Mountain Inn. We had a great dinner, but the highlight was when we were leaving and a black stray kitten rubbed up against Ann and Randy. We pet her for a bit and my mom picked her up to hold her. (Note: my mom has been wanting a cat for a while. In an equal but opposite direction, that's how much my dad didn't want a cat.) A waitress walked by and said that the kitten was a stray, declawed, very sweet, but that the family couldn't keep her. My mom put the cat down since my dad said no and we all walked to the car. The kitten followed. That was when my mom pulled my dad to the side and must have whispered sweet nothings wrapped in bacon and gold because my dad said the cat could come home with us... "on a trial basis". By the night's end, my dad was holding Laurel in his arms. (Sidenote: Laurel went to the vet and is in great health. She knows how to use the litter box and likes to follow people around the house. My dad says the first thing he hears when he comes in the door is her little bell running towards him. Yes, they are keeping her.)


Thursday
Ken's folks left early in the morning. Sad, but what a great trip. Andrew was leaving that afternoon, so we packed up and went into Pittsburgh since there was the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art that we wanted to see. We got to see all sorts of stained glass and other pieces. They were gorgeous. Dropped Andrew off at the airport, checked in at our hotel (we weren't leaving until the next morning), and then went to the Strip District in Pittsburgh. Got lunch at Primanti Brothers and then walked around. I wish that place existed in Portland.... went to an Italian market with all sorts of killer meats and cheeses behind counters, plus tons of olives, oils, vinegars and even Kristen's beloved lupini/lupine beans.

Hey Lisa,

When we were in Philly I got these amazing marinated lupine beans from the deli counter of a grocer in “Little Italy”. I recently found canned lupine beans at 17th St Market but I can’t find any recipes for a marinade. Ever had anything like that?

K

The next place we stopped was a spice store (I picked up some juniper berries for my pancetta) followed by the best meat and fish store I've ever seen. I love you Wholey's. Note: this is where I had to be dragged out of the store by my loving family. This is also where I saw that they had home-cured bacon for prices cheaper than what I paid per pound for raw pork bellies. Sad.

We went up the Duquesne Incline and went to dinner overlooking Pittsburgh. We had an amazing time. Here's an old picture that shows what it looks like from the bottom (we had dinner at the top of the skyrise on the right):


And looking from the top towards downtown Pittsburgh:


Friday
We had an early flight, a free airport shuttle and few lines through security. We also found out that we got upgraded to first class (for free) for both legs of our trip. I guess Ken's flying all the time for work does have some perks. I enjoyed my two bloody marys and read my book We landed at 11 AM on Friday (awesome) which is the perfect time to arrive after a long trip... still have the whole day AND your weekend. Kinley and Hughes were very happy to see us. Thanks to Adam and Alyson/FanEric for watching them while we were gone.