My Beef and Cheese Holidays

Beef and Cheese
Once again, beef and cheese went hand in hand with Christmastime. Over the winter break, a series of relatives and friends served me many fine meats and cheeses, as well as cookies, cakes and pies.

The day after Christmas, I was fortunate enough to visit Thing 1 and Thing 2, my beloved nephews, in their natural MA habitat. This time around, it was Thing 2's turn to quote the line from Elf about smelling like beef and cheese. "You are not a great man!" declared Thing 2.

The aromatic cheese theme wafted though Thing 1 and Thing 2 speech for days, finding it's way into improvised lyrics for Maroon 5 songs and the nine-year-old Thing 2's nascent attempts at ribaldry.

Even though everyone else had to watch some so-called historic football game broke on the final evening, it was the most savory holiday visit I've had in years.

Dessert
On the morning I was scheduled to leave for the first leg of my family Christmas travels, I baked an angel food cake and found the texture unsatisfactory (not cooled upside down, chocolate not grated finely enough). Pride compelled me to bake another even though it wouldn't be long before Mom, Dad and some aunts would be stopping by to pick me up. With all of the scrambling to bake and pack and clean my apartment in case relatives wanted to look at it, I forgot to put the first draft cake in the fridge and tucked it out of site somewhere else. When I finally returned to my apartment after several days the visiting, I found the cake in the chair beneath my desk. The texture had not improved.