Christmas Dinner

There ended up being nine people over for Christmas. I've cooked for as many as 14 and as few as 8 in Christmas Past, so it wasn't too bad, but still too busy for pictures, alas.

Appetizer:
Broiled fresh pineapple cut into hexagonal rings, topped with fried plantain, roast duck slices, and duck gravy, with an arc of avocado-slice side.

Salad:
Chilled broiled salmon, cubed, with small cubes of chilled cream cheese, diced cucumbers, with garlic dill aioli, served in chilled martini glasses.

Main:
Fillet mignon and lamb kabobs, marinated in beer (among other ingredients), with baby portabellos, grape tomatoes, and pearl onions, with a bourbon flambe.

Dessert:
Vanilla creme brulee (browned with a plumbing blowtorch) with fresh raspberries.

The theme was geometric shapes, mainly the hexagonal pineapple, the cone-shaped martini glasses, the cubed steak and lamb, and the circular brulee.

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Fun evening. I went to my brother's to drop off some plates and silverware he loaned me for Christmas (don't host dinner immediately after a move...) and on the drive over:

* Someone's hubcap was on the Tampa Bay 275 bridge and I ran over it. Luckily, no damage.
* Craftily thinking I was avoiding traffic, I got off an exit too soon and ended up at the airport. Even better, there were signs announcing random auto checkpoints and cops pulling people over for security checks. I didn't get stopped, which is a good thing. I think: "No I'm not actually flying today, I got off at the wrong exit and I need to get back on the highway, and no, these aren't my plates or silverware, officer, they belong to my brother." is a punishable offense under the expanded Patriot Act.
* I got back on the highway without an anal probe, and a car stopped dead in front of me. If I hadn't just got new brakes and tires a couple months ago, I would have hit him for sure. The guy behind me came so close, I couldn't see his headlights when he finally stopped. And the one behind him.... With my cat-like reflexes, I threw a hand over the plates, or they would have been shrapnel.

This is just driving from St Pete to Tampa. We're not talking cross-country here.

We went out for Chinese food, though.

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What Famous Leader Are You?

Heh, I'll take it, and be honored at that.

Off to bed, I have the latest Stephen King Dark Tower book to read. That, and a bit o' whiskey sitting next to it, to sip as I peruse mid-world.