Holiday

'Tis the season ...

The holidays are here. Birthday, Christmas, New Year's ... means lots of gatherings with friends and family ... lots of meals ... Holiday Parties too.

So, our company had its own staff luncheon, my staff and I got together on our own and did our own little lunch thing ... aside from all the rest of the dinners with friends and all, this year was a little different. D and I somehow got in the graces with one of the restaurants' owners that we frequent and the both of us got invited to THEIR staff holiday party. We contemplated it for a while, back and forth ... and decided that aside from our being busy, it would be a little weird for customers to join them at the party meant for the staff.

All in all, Christmas was pretty low-key this year. I just ended up relaxing at home and got some much needed rest. Besides finally busting out some of the video games I haven't played in a while.

So ... my latest kitchen-experiment plans have to do with seafood. I wanted to try steaming crab a little differently. Normally, I use water, ginger, scallion and some Chinese rice wine to steam it with. My latest is to use white wine, some chicken stock, lots of garlic, some chopped tomatos, a touch of cream and a bit of butter as the liquid. Sounds really good in theory, but will try and report back later. Maybe I'll try steaming some clams like that and give that a try too.