It’s that time of year again when I use the holidays as an excuse for writing a short column and then going on an extended vacation. For all of those cheering, I know who you are.
Like everyone else, my wife and I are getting prepared to welcome family and friends to our home and enjoy different kinds of feasts to celebrate the holidays. If you have been a regular reader, you will already know that my wife is a wonderfully talented cook. She is also a planner. She will sit down days before our planned visits and start making notes and doing research on the dishes that she plans to serve to our guests. Good thing she didn’t research me before we got married. We would never have walked down the aisle. The first thing she would have learned is that my sell by date has long passed.
For this year’s celebrations, she decided to take a shot at making Beef Wellington for our guests. She also does not do anything in a “small” way. She was preparing to make enough Beef Wellington to feed a small army, like England’s. An appropriate dish named after one of their great military leaders. First was the shopping. She headed to the store and came back with bags full of the supplies necessary to complete her task. The milk and cereal I need to survive on each morning was not part of her list. If they were not needed for her extravagant feast, in her mind, they were not needed. Damn, I had to go to the store myself and get my own supplies. Chocolate syrup and ice cream are a necessity, right?
As I said, my wife is the master of preparing. She just doesn’t come up with a plan, she also starts cooking several days in advance to get everything completed ahead of time. If you walked into our kitchen while she was doing her magic, you would think that a bag of flour had exploded. Everything is covered in a thin layer of white dust and my dear and beautiful wife looks like a ghost. I thought she had decided to get an early start on haunting me.
While it may have looked like a disaster, in fact it was a masterpiece in the making. By the time she was finished, she had created enough Beef Wellington for at least four dinners and they were heading towards the freezer in the garage. It also gave us a week to get the house cleaned before our first guests arrived. Imagine trying to clean that mess as our guests were sitting in the living room, enjoying a drink while anticipating dinner, and wondering about the giant white clouds coming from the kitchen. If they were old enough, they were ducking and covering. Cold war reference, look it up.
Now that we have already hosted two of these dinner parties, I am here to announce our Beef Wellington was an amazing success. Besides being beautiful and smart she is a wizard in the kitchen. I am concerned though that I may be allergic to her cooking. After each of her meals I tend to swell up. Is there a pill for that?
I want to wish everyone a very happy, blessed holiday season for whatever you are celebrating. I will be back after the first of the year to share what I did on my Christmas Vacation. Hey, you guys who were cheering earlier and are now booing, make up your mind.
Happiest of holidays to all. See you in January.
©2023 BBRiley.net
bbriley.net 