Christmas Eve at the Bungalow: All I had planned to serve was wild rice soup, out of a beautiful tureen (which I'm still looking for). Just soup for dinner? Yes! This soup is so delicious & rich, with the wild rice, ham, almonds, carrots, sherry, and great dollops of cream. There are always other goodies to nibble--banana bread, veggies, cookies, sausage & cheese. I mean, how much food does one family really need to consume?
Wild Rice Soup. It was going to be my new Minnesota Christmas Eve tradition here at the Bungalow.
My mom called yesterday. "What should I bring for Christmas dinner?" she asked.
"You don't really need to bring anything," I told her. "We're having wild rice soup."
Pause. "How about if I bring some Swedish Meatballs."
"Okay, okay, you can bring the meatballs." A little protein can't hurt, even though, they too are in cream sauce and this immediately throws the meal off balance in my scheme of things.
"And gravy" she added. "Can you make the potatoes?"
Now how did potatoes suddenly get on the menu! We don't need no stinkin' potatoes! But apparently she did. I said "only if YOU mash them". This was not very gracious of me, but there's nothing like someone else trying to plan your menu, is there? I didn't say it was to be a potluck. Then it would have been different. And nobody on my husband's side of the family likes those bland Swedish meatballs.
I can't get too worked up about this I suppose. There are any number of other things during the holidays that crop up for which I should save my ire.
I'm just trying to simplify things, always trying to pare it down, always trying to get back to my spartan little life. This is what I probably struggle agains most--this giant WHOOSH of everything, all the time, innundating the bungalow--and always, always it ends up in the kitchen! I don't want a kitchen. I want a laboratory sometimes--white tiled, pristine, sanitary. A place to work.
10:52:41 AM 
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