Dubai 2016

My pal in Dubai sent me this... just amazing. Mendon has nothing like this.

Ella Fitzgerald Sings "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"

Dinner

Appetizer 

 Country Terrine w/ apples and apple cider

Starter

 Old Fashion Shrimp Cocktail

 Salad w/ cranberries and walnuts

Beef Braciole & Aglio Et Olio

24 - 7

BAMA IS CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND

( again )

Made me a tiny bit sad for just a minute to have to contemplate real college football... NEXT YEAR !

Daily Koda

 Someone was feeling all romantic, planning a New Years Eve wedding in far upstate New York . Draping the bridal party in , what looks like white marabou , could be some kind of fur or faux fur stoles. You know they were planning on snow....

Which we were supposed to get last night, but woke up to most all of it gone with bright and sunny skies.  We did enjoy the brief show.

So, bye bye Miss Pastrami on Rye

CARNEGIE DELI CLOSES

Neil loved LOVED this place... it was just too much meat for me, but sad that it is gone for sure

Dinner

 Had some friends round for a late holiday get together. Gold and white replacing the red and green.

•  Pork Loin stuffed with an apple thyme stuffing
• Mashed Potatoes
• Brussels Sprouts with bacon and whole grain mustard
• Carrots in apple cider

 Not at all sure where this came from, just felt like it would be something fun to do. Was not really that hard at all, and I think not bad for a first time.

A very nice evening .

FOOTBALL !

Everyone knows that the better bowls are played on New Years Eve Eve....

UGA - 31

TCU - 23

UGA came out a little stiff and lackluster, very.  So much so that REM basest Mike Mills was tweeting FIRE THE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR. The Dawgs did come back in the second half - Nick Chubb especially had a great half.

Was fun to be back in the fold for a bit this morning. 

Movie Thursday

The darling of the critical sets.. and big numbers on rotten tomatoes... but I never really bought into it. It has some very pretty moments, and the two of them are most easy on the eyes ( although not that great of on screen chemistry ) .. I guess that is why so many people seem to be ga ga for la la.

It left me sort of .. meh. Did not help that I watched a lot of SINING IN THE RAIN the night before. Two musicals about life in the movies. Go see it , if like us, you see all the nominated films .. or you are in love with Emma Stone or Ryan Gosling. Can't really think of any other reason to see this one.

JACKIE and LION on the soon to see list .

Daily Koda

Woke up this morning to a surprise dusting, really most all the snow and ice not piled up by plows was gone - as was this by mid morning. But at least we got a quick walk in it before it went away. Supposedly a goodly amount tomorrow night . 

SEC Shorts - Washington fan already booking hotel in Tampa

dinner

Smothered Pork Chops

Rice and Gravy

Smoky Collard Greens

Carrots 

w/ orange

RIP Debbie Reynolds

She is 19 years old, and totally holding her own with two of Hollywoods best, much older and experienced dancers. Proof, I guess, that you can indeed die of heartache. Such a great talent, we will not see her likes again.

NYT OBIT

Daily Koda

Weird ice fog / drizzle stuck around last night, making this morning a sort of frosty fairy land, but still most all of the ice and snow are gone. " Dreaming of a green and brown New Year ...".

John Williams conducts Princess Leia's Theme (Star Wars)

This is just weird

Almost 50 degrees in almost Canada the day after Christmas at two o'clock in the morning. Rained most of the day, everything has gone from the lovely crisp white of late fall to the muddy green and brown of the start of winter. 

Dinner

Christmas Roast, day two 

( St Stephen's and his turtle doves ) 

Daily ( Pavlovian ) Koda

Neil got one of those video doorbells for Christmas, and while installing it he rang the door bell 30 times? and each time... even with the door open and Neil standing right there.. Koda runs to the door and barks. Good dog!

RIP GEORGE MICHAEL

Irish Rovers - Good King Wenceslas

A BRIEF BUT LOVELY VISIT

Mark and Bob came up from Atlanta to visit the family that they both have here in New York and squeezed us in for a nice lunch date. Was really great to see them both. Made me very happy.

File Away for Next Year

Saw this on some friend of a friend of a friend on Facebook, thought it was all the cute. Tomatoes would sort of suck mid winter... but maybe some of those nice little Israeli ones...

CHRISTMAS DAY

Woke up Christmas Morning - we opened presents, then I made a nice breakfast...

Easy Peasy day - because I set the table the day before!

10 of us that turned into 11 at the last min, but no worries... I didn't go with any of the pre planned table settings, didn't have 10 of any salad plate. So a little mix and match red and green. You can't tell from these photos, but the table runner is just large glitter paper, so it was really sparkly.

festive

Koda and Smithwicks had a nice romp while we had hors d'oeuvres

I made a banana pudding that morning, meaning to do it the day before, but just ran out of time. So it was a little bit banana sourish ... luckily there was still a spot of ice outside to plop it down in for a couple of hours, setting it up perfectly.

Fried Turkey and a GIANT standing rib roast

David cuts the meat.

• Big Salad
• THE MEAT
• Baked Potatoes with loads of toppings
• Roasted Sprouts and Cauliflower ( that I over roasted upon reheating )

post meal snuggles

the pudding

post game

and chatting.

Christmas Eve / First Night of Hanukkah

 The reason it is better for me to blog daily rather than trying to catch up, ever two days later. This was a lot for two days. Seems like we did something Christmas Eve day... but now can't remember what. No matter, it was lovely. On to the food :

LATKES!

a little blue and white with the Christmas

Not the seven or nine good Italians have on Christmas Eve 

but a THREE SEAFOOD pasta - Shrimp, Scallops and Swordfish.

On to St. John's for service.

A good crowd for the second service - the back was full. 

All sorts of music and musicians

Then home to have a beer or two, play some Big Band Christmas songs and wrap presents , a very nice Christmas Eve.

The BIG decision for Christmas .......