Leftovers

 

I haven’t exactly been the best at staying on top of some of my posting in the recent months, so we’re going to call this portion of the blog the “holiday leftovers” – which in no way diminishes their importance btw!  We all know that leftovers are buh-mazing.

Thanksgiving Visit with Jan:

Back during Thanksgiving I had my annual Jan Reynolds Ingersoll visit!!!  In fact, she even came to church to hear me sing that Sunday morning because I had a solo! (Read about the experience on her blog here).  And, if you know anything about a visit to see Jan then you know to expect a couple of things:

Blurry photo of the two of us / An action shot with some kind of weapon / Me, posing with a giant stuffed animal

     

And lest we forget – an appearance from our good friends Feral and Domesticated Cougar (this time in holiday attire!):

 

I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR!!!

 

Christmas Eve Shrimp Dinner with Will:

Before the two Christmas Eve services at my church I again had the pleasure of joining Will and his family for their annual shrimp dinner. I even got to catch up with my favorite misunderstood Christmas curmudgeons!  (This year I was doubly lucky because I also got to see them all again on my drive home from Crockett back to Houston after Christmas!)

 

 

 

Sid Becomes the Pied Piper Once Again:

When Hannah was visiting recently after Christmas, her dad, my uncle Sid, came over to the city for the day to help dress shop for Hannah’s junior voice recital in February.  In the car to dinner I showed him my clarinet I had taken from Crockett and he couldn’t wait to play it when we got back to my apartment later!  (Too bad the ol’ gem needs a bit of work to it).  At any rate… it was the first time he’d picked one up in years!

Proof for the grandparents!

 

Sugar and Spice… :

No good leftover meal is complete without a second (or third) helping of those holiday pies, cookies, cakes, random sugar packets you have lying around the house just begging to be finished before they spoil.  And by spoil I mean someone else eats them. Regular blog readers will know of my undying love for anything Speculoos, and this Christmas totes delivered!!  Mallory’s dad had traveled recently to the Netherlands and was kind enough to bring me back, in addition to the yearly Maersk butter cookies, a jar of the ONLY FOUND IN EUROPE crunchy spread! Not to leave Mallory high and dry on the Speculoos front—here she is with her giant cookie!

 

 

Mom managed to join the fray and somehow found me a whole CASE of the German equivalent of Speculoos.  What the WHAAAAAT!!!

And now… FOOD COMA!

 

Artist: No Doubt / Album: Everything in Time

Milkshake

 

Today is National S’mores Day and the perfect day for me to do a bit of retro-blogging.  A while back in March when my friend Lembit came to visit for the Houston premiere of his oratorio And Then I Remembered we tried out a recipe for s’mores milkshakes that I learned from another friend of mine, Zach. 

Step 1:  Broil marshmellows in oven until toasted

Step 2: Blend together with your ice cream of choice, preferably vanilla or chocolate (or both) but definitely BLUE BELL, and Nutella

 

 

Step 2.5: Add Speculoos spread if available. 

Some of you may remember my birthday post from this year as well as a bit of a security snafu when flying back into the country how much I love the Speculoos cookie spread.  WELL, folks… I’m giving you a bit of an exclusive here because you Texans can buy the stuff at Central Market!!!!!!!  Now, to be fair it is delicious in the same way that American Nutella is delicious.  And by that I mean the European versions are made with slightly different ingredients and tend to be more buh-mazing, but the stateside versions are still very very good.  Point of order… they also sell just the plane cookies as well but do not have the “cruncy” version :(

(Instead of Speculoos spread make sure and look for Biscoff spread)

 

3. Pour and enjoy!!!!

 

Artist: Kelis/ Album: Tasty