Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas from Mars!

2013 was a warm & bright holiday here. We had a festive display of homemade decorations, and gifts sent from far away family members, guarded by a fierce hound:

We had a lovely arrangement of holiday cards, also guarded by said hound (when she wasn't distracted by these new toys from Mama & Papa O'Brien):

Or this new toy from my coworkers in London:

Even Sergeant Pickles got into the act, decorating the Mars Animal Control office:

On Christmas Day, our festivities began at 9am, with Brian bringing over his famous Christmas cherry rugelach:

And his famous Christmas strata (basically a casserole of eggs, cheese, bread, & spinach) & bacon:

It was horrible, as usual:

Over breakfast, we started the day's movie marathon. This year, we chose a Christmas classic:

After the first movie was over, we got to work in the kitchen making dinner. I made my infamous Atomic Ginger Beer, & put it in these heavy duty (& gorgeous) growlers Mama O'Brien gave me for my birthday:

As always, Pickles was on hand to help keep the floor clear of any particles of food that might fall:

The Christmas cioppino (San Francisco's own fish stew) turned out excellent, as always:

As did the Christmas Burnt Ricotta Pie, with Brian's expertly crafted pastry:

And perfect scorched-earth look (yes, this is what it's supposed to look like):

And then the next day, we took Pickles out to the ocean, for some fresh air & romping:

All in all, a wonderful & relaxing couple of days!

(Belatedly) Thanksgiving

Guest post by Chef Adrienne:

Sharing the joy of our feast - for which we were very thankful - somehow got away from us in the last few weeks. So much holiday joy to be had, so little time. 

Very satisfying grid of cornbread I made for the pecan cornbread stuffing.

Cranberry pear dressing. Pears are a nice cut against the super sour of the cranberries.

Bread and butter: my breakfast and lunch. I was reminded of my Mammy (Pop's mom) taking a similar meal (without the tea) on days when she was over the stove cooking for a bunch of folks for a long time.

"You've got a little something on your face. Right there....No right...a little lower."

Susie whips up sweet potato pecan drop biscuits. These were delicious. 

OKAY people! Turchetta. You do all the work of butchering up front (and the sticking the carcass in the freezer for stock making) and you end up with an awesome roll of turkey stuffing deliciousness. This is the turkey marinating in herbs and spices for 24 hours.

This is the skin I removed from the turkey in one piece. 

This is all the meat put back on top of the turkey skin. You don't think it's going to fit, but then again, of course it all fits.

Smashed the stuffing on top. This was like a continent of turkey meat and cornbread. I placed a horse in the picture for scale.

After you rolled it all back up (not freakin easy!) it looked like some anaconda devoured Thanksgiving and curled up in a corner to digest. 

Tie that baby up and place it over the wings and necks in a pan with rosemary, celery and onion. 

All wrapped up in cheesecloth and roasted for a couple hours. The gravy from those pan drippings was amazing. 

Terrible light, but you get the idea. Lovely when you cut into it. 

Friday we had our traditional mashed potato croquettes with over-easy eggs.  Later that weekend I made leftover pot pie. Here's the layered pie: chopped up turkey roll, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes. 

It was amazing.

The day & all the days of leftovers were indeed amazingly satisfying. Thank you to Adrienne for all her hard work, and thank you to Susie & Paul for sharing the holiday & their incredible cooking with us!

MOUSE: vanquished!

Soooo. Pickles has been on mouse hunting duty for the last several days. She found it in the kitchen and stood like this for five whole minutes:

and then there was this hot pursuit:

But no dice. So Christine went out and got a tippy-toppy trap or something like that (neither of us really wanted to carry a mouse snapped in half to the trash can) and....one hour to victory! Christine headed out to release the mouse to the wilds of Bernal Hill (note awesome trap in her hand). Pickles seriously wanted to help:

Hopefully, there was just the one mouse. We can only hope...

Mouse House

There is a mouse hiding under the couch right now.

How on earth are we going to get him out of there? And how is it that Pickles -- recently promoted to Sergeant in the Rodent Roundup -- can't smell him? She's risking demotion, this one.

Guest Blogger Surprise for Todos Santos!

Hi, it's AJ here. SOME people are always telling me that I, too, have access to the House from Mars blog page if I would ever like to post something myself. I'm doing it! No stopping me now! Really I wanted you to see how yummy the chicken soup looks with slices of roast pumpkin in it. An excellent pairing.

Also, I wanted to share our Dia de los Muertos/Todos Santos altar with you. We took some time last night here on Mars to sit around the altar and share some nice thoughts about loved ones who have passed. For me, those memories and those touchstones on the altar are a bit like bringing them into the room with us.

And I made this beautiful pan de muerto. It was very exciting. And it is delicious.