Christmas Eve!

[oyceter]

OMG. My feet are so, so, so tired. Got up at 8 in the morning to come back from SF and forgot to pick up a pie on the way -- not that it really matters, as we are so not short on dessert. Then I took Ren to the vet to get his stitches removed. It was a mad house! Clearly everyone else thought it would be empty on Christmas Eve as well, or everyone's pets just got sick at the same time.

Ren has decided that he hates me forever and sulked in the corner of his cage on the drive home. Well, for rattie values of "sulk," that is, as he immediately trots over to lick my fingers if anything tasty is on them.

I also braved the wilds of Whole Foods around 11. Insanity! Utter insanity! I keep forgetting how crazy the holidays are around here. My dad called in the afternoon -- it's Christmas for them in Taiwan, everyone's at work and nothing's going on.

Then, cooking!

Today's menu consisted of: beef noodle soup Taiwan-style, made by my sister's friend. The beef chunks and tendon were simmered in broth for about five hours, then she briefly boiled some baby bok choy and noodles right before dinner. Me and my sister scrambled about making the tiramisu, by which I mean, my sister took over after I did a poor job of separating one egg and broke another in the bowl. Siiigh. So I went and made latkes instead. I heart my food processor grater thing so much. I am sure it is not as tasty, but it also mean bits of my fingers don't get included in the food, which I think is a good thing. We also had potstickers, salad (mixed greens, pomegranate seeds, oranges, jicama, completely random dressing thrown together by me), and La Brea rosemary olive oil bread.

I just made raspberry sauce for the souffle tomorrow and started on yogurt sauce; I think I will now collapse and indulge in tiramisu.

ETA: Hrm, the tiramisu tastes very odd! We sort of very deviated from the recipe and made it with a layer of butter pound cake and a layer of chocolate pound cake. I think if we had soaked more coffee into them, it would have tasted more "normal." Still, it is insanely good, and I am tempted to make it like this again.

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Oh man, we made the mistake of going to Whole Foods on Christmas Eve a couple years ago and we still recall it with terror. The closest one to us has a tiny underground parking structure and I am seriously surprised we made it out without a scratch.

Yesterday we went to Mitsuwa, which was pretty crazy, maybe the most crowded I've seen it. I need to remember to avoid small stores before the holidays; it's never worth it.

[hysteriachan.livejournal.com]

...your tiramisu sounds wonderful. *_* (I'm less into the coffee aspect, so I may be a bit biased. ^_-)

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Last year, the Whole Foods near me (Cambridge, Mass.) decided that they were going to open at midnight on the 23rd and have a special sale. I went, because it was a sale, and was surprised at how many other people were there. This year, I think they just stayed open from the 23rd through the 24th, with much less fuss, so I was able to finish up my shopping before midnight, which was even better.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Beef tendon.

What goes into Taiwan-style beef noodle soup?

For context, I like Pho, so I'm curious.

[oyceter]

Oh man, that must have been pretty insane! And it's not even as fun as going to the super-crowded traditional markets in Taiwan before New Year; it's crazy there, but I also love the street-fair feel to it. Whole Foods just feels like... normal grocery shopping on crack. The bad crack.

[oyceter]

It ended up really good! I have decided I am a great fan of pound cake tiramisu.

[oyceter]

Oh wow, that must have been insane!

[oyceter]

My sister's friend put in beef chunks (I think shank?), beef tendon, some soy sauce, some tomato, some... uh.. chili pepper sauce, some sauce that sounded like bean something or the other, blanched baby bok choi on the side, and ... probably other stuff I forgot. Sigh. I should ask her so I can make it. It was just so good and homey!

It's definitely darker in taste than pho, if that makes sense, and we use thick wheat-based noodles. The broth is usually a red-brown, with some orange oil specks on top from the chili pepper oil. It tastes a lot like red-broiled stuff in Chinese cooking.