i love to have fresh flowers for christmas. who am i kidding--i just love having fresh flowers, period. anyway--for christmas this year i chose some lovely red and while alstromeria and bright red gerbera daisies for the kitchen and some green ireland bells to put in a tall red vase in the living room. of course, i forgot to photograph everything, but as you can see--the kitchen flowers are fabulous. i recently learned that alstromeria is actually the same thing as a peruvian lily. who knew? i also googled "alstromeria" just out of curiosity, and lo and behold--the fist link was to my beloved flaurella's flickr photos of HER alstromeria. how cool is that???
and speaking of flaurella, she asked in her comments on the last post that i post my recipe for black and mahogany rice. i have to admit, there's not much recipe to it--i just use really good rice from lundberg family farms. they have this great blend of black and mahogany field rice that i buy--it's excellent, cooks up easily, and has a strong nuttly flavor. it's perfectly good just steamed with water, but for company, i make it with chicken broth and throw in a few sprigs of thyme while it's cooking. when it's done, i toss it with crimini mushrooms sauteed in good olive oil and a little white wine. it's YUM. when preparing this rice, be careful not to overcook it--it can get mushy if kept on the heat too long.
the dinner on friday came off well--i even managed to get the flowers arranged and the table linens ironed before everyone arrived. and i think all the guests had a good time. it was good to meet spend some time with the hippie's boss and his wife, and harry and jenn are always a pleasure. our friend eric is always a joy to feed--as a bachelor, he is always blown away by home cooking and eats himself senseless--it's a GREAT compliment and definitely makes me feel like all that work is worth it. gabriella was in rare form and spent all night dancing, singing at the top of her lungs, or acting like a kitty. she also made the hippie show her every picture in the dungeons & dragons monster manual and name all the monsters. she's no sissy--she has always loved her monsters.
in other news, i managed to knit a christmas present and a half this weekend--i am cookin' with gas! :)
1 comment:
I'm so flattered that you like my FLICKR photos!
Lovely pix of the bouquet in your kitchen and you know that alstroemeria is my favorite. I have some budded right now but they will freeze back before they bloom so I'll wait until spring for more home-grown ones. I do always have at least one vase of them in the house in some color or other all year long. They remind me of orchids crossed with lilies, the colors are great and they last up to two weeks if you change the water every other day.
Am going to look for Lundberg rice products. I bet Ward's Market has Lundberg if Publix does not. Can't wait to try it "company style."
And, one more thing... I didn't realize Diana G. had the latest Outlander out. The Fiery Cross sorta bogged down and wasn't as enjoyable to me as all the others in the series but I am eager to read this one. Please post your review when completed.
http://flaurella.blogspot.com/
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