up in the air

Ahh, the feeling of well-restedness. I had an amazing time at home – and I’m not just saying that because I know my parents will read my blog J It felt great to totally recharge my batteries in KY with the family, even if my room is no longer “my room” (rather, it’s Guest Room #1, totally remodeled!)

I arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to participate in the full Christmas Eve preparations. Because Dad wanted to make “something different” for Christmas dinner, we worked on a Crown Roast of Pork with a new stuffing recipe – which turned out quite beautifully, although I can’t say it was my favorite holiday protein ever. Next year I think we’ll go back to turkey, but it was fun to try something different. Au gratin potatoes, curried fruit, cranberry jello salad, and garlic green beans completed the meal – with frozen mocha cheesecake for dessert! I have no pictures to show off yet, but once I get them from my parents, I’ll be sure to post them.

Christmas brought me FOUR new cookbooks – I’m totally thrilled!! The new selection includes: Cook with Jamie, by Jamie Oliver (the Naked Chef), Cooking, by James Peterson, Super Natural Cooking, by Heidi Swanson (of 101 Cookbooks – love!), and The Best of the Best, a selection by the editors of Food and Wine of the best recipes from the best cookbooks of the year. We already put the cookbooks to good use earlier this week, making Jamie’s Bacon-Wrapped Halibut, coated with fresh sage and pepper, served with roasted asparagus and a lemon mayonnaise made from scratch.

We also watched a healthy dose of movies over the weekend. In descending order of preference:
- Avatar in 3D: amazing! The 3D is used as a way to enhance the experience, not as a gimmick. The film was absolutely stunning, and I enjoyed the story. Highly recommended.
- Up in the Air: even though this has gotten a lot of awards buzz (with the greatest number of Golden Globes nominations of any film this year), I was a little hesitant about seeing it. It’s about a man whose job is to fly around the country firing people. I was worried about it being depressing, or blah, but I found it surprisingly uplifting. Of course, what’s not to like about George Clooney?
- Sherlock Holmes: Robert Downey Jr. is so devilishly good at being the intelligent good guy. This made me all the more excited for the Iron Man sequel. I also liked Jude Law, and Rachel McAdams was cute as always. This movie was a little too heavy on the weird cult mysticism for me, a fun ride.
- Invictus: How could an Eastwood film starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon possibly make the bottom of the list? Though Freeman makes a more convincing Mandela than Mandela himself, I felt the film was shallow on a personal level and boring from a sports perspective. I didn’t really care about the characters, and couldn’t shake the sense of inevitability that the national rugby team was going to win the World Cup. Where’s the excitement?

In contrast to my experience watching Invictus, reading The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, was an emotional rollercoaster. Totally awesome book – extremely well-written, absorbing, and powerful. I’ve just started The Girl Who Played With Fire (sequel to Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), and it’s quite good, though I’m not sure if I’m going to like where it’s headed. I’m only 70 pages in, though, and my mom and aunt both loved it, so I’m sure it’ll hook me any minute now. I’m bringing Tim’s sister Twilight – much to his chagrin – as a mental vacation, popcorn for the brain, belated Christmas present.

My Christmas present to myself was a writing workshop class at a studio called The Writing Salon – very well-rated in San Francisco. The class is called Daily Round Robin, which is moderated by The Writing Salon’s founder, and takes place mostly online (with only 2 in-person meetings). I’ll be writing something every day in February and March, responding to a daily prompt from the moderator, and emailing out my writings to the other participants in the class (who will be reading my work and responding, and vice-versa). The goal is to get into the habit of writing and stretching your imagination without getting bogged down by revisions or the pressure to finish anything. Basically, it’ll give me a lot of raw material I can return to at a later date (if I want to). I miss having a creative outlet, but have trouble motivating myself to sit down and write. Since I’ve already sunk my money into the class, I think that’ll be motivating enough! Plus, I spend about an hour and a half on the bus everyday, which would be a perfect time to write. The class starts on January 29th – I hope it works out!

I guess I never mentioned that I’m currently writing this on the plane to LA, where I’ll be spending my New Years with Tim. It’s been a pleasantly smooth flight so far, and I’m sitting next to a really nice couple from Louisville who are going on vacation in Las Vegas. Maybe I’ll play some slot machines while I’m at the airport?

It just occurred to me that this will be my last entry of 2009! I feel the need to do some sort of top-ten list. Top Ten Books, or Top Ten Movies, or Top Ten Recipes. I’ll work on that for next time…

Reading: Girl Who Played With Fire, p. 70.
Listening: Manu Chao, inspired by Bria’s Blip.fm playlist J