December 22, 2008

You Need More Than Christmas Cookies

Not a lot of time for reading yet. I'm The Mom. That means I spent the weekend doing Christmas shopping. It's not that we're even buying a lot this year, but it takes time to navigate traffic on the streets and in the stores. Both Saturday and Sunday I came home simply exhausted and desiring a nap.

I'm back out on the streets today to pick up the major gifts I could not buy because I had one of the little elves by my side the whole weekend. And then to the grocery store. Ugh. The grocery store. Not just for holiday food, either. We are out of bread, eggs, milk, coffee, fruit, vegetables--just about everything--and have been for a few days. That has nothing to do with Christmas and everything to do with being The Mom who is overextended in life.

Oy, but the holiday food! What am I making for dinner?
I'd like to make something nice, but I'd like to not spend a lot of time doing it. That's my feeling toward most dinners, thus we eat a lot of soups and stews--we usually get two dinners for the effort of one. "Merry Christmas, dear family. May I present the special Christmas stew?" Uhm. Maybe not. As for the traditional meat on sale at all the markets, I like ham sandwiches, but I don't like my house to smell like pork. So actually buying any form pork requires cooking is out, out, out.

My fav market has all kinds of veggies on sale. How about a nice Christmas ratatouille? A little work intensive with all the chopping, but I have some elves who would love to help with that!

Oh! What about a Christmas meatloaf? My family likes meatloaf, but...maybe not.

Or fish! No, not lutefisk. (Thankfully, that was never a family tradition. Let the other Lutherans eat that.) Tuna steaks. Marinated with some simple soy and wasabi. It's green and red! My kids will eat wasabi, but not rare tuna. Weirdos. They do love my talapia, though. We might be on to something. Simple, but good.

I wish I had some connections to a mom who makes tamales. Christmas tamales. Yum.

What about Christmas fajitas? That would be very festive with all the reds and greens, right?

Enough procrastinating. I'll just have to stand in front of the meat case until something pops out at me like I usually do. Or, maybe that's not a good idea. That tactic often results in spaghetti without meat sauce or eggs for dinner. Something tells me that's just not going to fly.

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