Domesticity: Nativity Set

My very favorite Christmas decoration is my nativity set.  I got it as a Christmas gift one year (I think 2008 but I'm not sure), and I absolutely love it.  It's made of hand-carved olive wood from Israel, and I think it is perfection as far as nativity displays go.

The whole set 

Closeup of the Holy Family.

What I think is neat about this set is that it came direct from Israel, wrapped in newspapers in (gasp!) Hebrew.  I probably should wrap the pieces in moving paper or something without the newsprint on them, but I felt compelled to save this paper to remind me of the origin of this beautiful set that I treasure so much.

One of my favorite things about this set is the deliberate obscurity of the figures.  There are no facial details, and few things to give you a pre-conceived notion of what Mary, Joseph, the Magi, the Shepherd (I only got one with this set), and the Christ Child looked like.  I like that specifically because it allows room for imagination and speculation.  Because we can never know what they looked like, except in our hearts.

Food and Domesticity: menu planning

When hubby and I first got together, we operated on the "so what do you want for dinner tonight?" form of menu-planning.  Grocery shopping had a small list but we also bought many things off that list that just "sounded good."  It was the beginning of an economic downfall.

Before we could get good and broke, I got sick of flying by the seat of my pants and wondering what I'd be cooking the next day, so I enacted the menu-planning system my mother had.  That is, she planned out all the dinners (including leftover usage) for a week or so, and used that to dictate her grocery list.  You know what?  It works.  It saved us a bundle at first, but now it is old hat.  I can only imagine what we would spend if we had no list, especially with Wegman's nearby.

So what are some of my favorite menu planning tricks?  Well, first fill in whenever you have a meeting at night and make those the days you prepare easy/fast meals.  I stick to fish or leftovers almost every Wednesday as I have a meeting every Wednesday night at 5:30 to 7, and it's 45 minutes away, so I am NOT going to eat at 8:00 or later at night!  After that, start thinking of things that sound tasty to you.  Fill those in on the nights you know you will have time to cook.  Finally, save weekends for the big projects of cooking that yield many leftovers, like stews, lasagnas, big cauldrons of long-simmering soups, fancy things that require tons of dicing and chopping, etc.  And if you still have space left, do my time-honored tradition of filling it in with fish as a protien and salad as a vegetable.  It's fast, easy, and doesn't take too much time.  I can't say it's delicious as I generally dislike fish, but it's good for you, so we eat it anyway.

What's in my oven tonight?  A giant amount of boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned only with seasoned salt.  I swear these things are the most useful culinary article in my arsenal yet.  Tonight we will each have a baked chicken breast with barbecue sauce (an old standard).  Next time some form of chicken is on the menu, 4 of them will be made into chicken tortellini soup.  On another "chicken" night, the rest will be simmered into butter chicken curry.  (This is the best butter chicken sauce I've ever had besides at a real live Indian restaurant.  It's also my go-to recipe when I want something fancy-tasting that takes little to no time and tastes homemade.)  See?  Chicken breasts are magic.  I could continue about other gajillions of things I'd make with them, but I'll leave it at three for now.

What are your most utilitarian foods?

Getting Started

It's my 31st birthday today.  I've been told that I need to have a blog because I love to write and people I know on facebook have told me I have a little bit of that stuff called wit.  I hope to.

Topics I hope to include on this blog:
- Food.  I love food.  I hope to include recipes, restaurant reviews for the few times we (husband and I) go out to eat, dealing with my fussy palate (it's embarrassing how many "hate" foods I have), and learning how to control portion sizes when I just want to eat it all.
- Dogs.  As the proud owner of both a Vizsla and a Rhodesian Ridgeback, I consider them my first children and treat them well.  They get their minimum of 3 miles walk per day and are a constant presence in my life.  I love telling stories about them and taking their pictures and showing off about just how great they are.
- Mental Illness.  I have been battling some form of depression for over 10 years.  My official diagnosis two years ago was "chronic major depression in partial remission," but after moving away from that psychiatrist and having a new therapist, suspicions of a mood disorder are arising.  My psychiatrist appointment for evaluations and medication control is in two days, and most likely I'll be posting about my experiences trying to stay mentally healthy and functional in a world that always expects my A-game when most of the time I just want to stay in bed and sleep.
- Domesticity.  Of course I will deviate from time to time and talk about my herb garden, life living in the country, why we reupholstered the couch after the Ridgeback chewed it entirely apart, and other random topics that I can't categorize beyond this.

Enough planning.  Let's go!