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Christmas Day
There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas; there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.
-- Robert Lynd
Saturday, December 25, 1999
One year ago: Christmas Day
Two years ago: Yuletide
Jack called this morning from Yakima. I was having a nice quiet day at home, but he was concerned that I wasn't at my sister's house. It just didn't seem right to him! (But I'd been over there last night.) So I told my sister that if we ever end up spending Christmas here in some future year, we'll probably be coming over during the day on Christmas, too. She's fine with this, of course.
The only thing I wanted to accomplish during the day was to cook my contribution to the open house potluck I'd be going to later. I had thought ahead and bought the ingredients yesterday for chilaquiles, or, as I call it, Mexican lasagne.
If you want the original recipe, it's from The Vegetarian Epicure, book one. But since she wants to to fry your own tortilla chips as a base, I've simplified and adapted. Make a tomatoey sauce (some combination of crushed tomatoes, salsa, tomatillos, green taco sauce that has tomatillos in it). Grate some cheese, or buy it already grated. Layer sauce, tortilla chips (unsalted ones are good but not necessary), cheese, then repeat the layers until you run out of one of these three, or fill the pan. Mix some plain yogurt and milk, and pour it over the dish (poke some holes in the tortilla chip layers to allow the milk to penetrate). Bake for twenty five minutes covered, then another twenty minutes uncovered. This works great for cutting yourself a slice and nuking later. You could add meat, or sliced bell peppers, or whatever.
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My brother called me in the morning to wish me a Merry Christmas, then later in the day he called to ask to borrow some money. I decided to loan it to him, since this is the first time of asking, so I walked over to his place. He was waiting on the bench in front of his building, so he might have been out of tobacco! He needs to pay the money back for there to be any possibility of a repetition. What fate is it that brought someone, a cause of me moving across the country, to live a few blocks from me? He seemed in good spirits at least.
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The party was fun! My food got eaten, which is always a concern for me at a potluck. The music was grand. My brother-in-law, our host, and another man are all in an irish band together, so we had group singing, recitations, and solos.
I got caught up with my movie buddy A----. He told me that he and some other film festival friends had been down in LA in the fall, for the AFI film festival there! This was the first time he'd been to any other festival than SIFF. They had a hotel a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard where the theaters were, and the festival provided a hospitality suite for full-series pass holders, with food! It really sounded great.
I stayed for about five hours, until nine. Then a coughing fit came over me, after almost no coughing all day! So I decided to call it a night.
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