Ingredients:
- 2 quarts eggnog
- 1 quart vanilla ice cream
- 1 cup rum
- 1/3 cup brandy
- 4 black cats plus 1 gray tabby cat
- 1 beige Shepherd-Husky dog
- ground cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Pour eggnog, rum, and brandy into extra-large punch bowl. Spoon in ice cream, dog, cats and spices. Stir to combine and watch the holiday chaos ensue.
When reaching for a classic, refreshing beverage, consider the 15-year-anniversary fizz. Take one PMP (Project Management Professional)-certified manager, 15 years of outstanding service to his employer, Merck, a splash of vodka and a wedge of lime. Serve over ice.
Searching for something a bit saucy this season? The food-and-travel-writer toddy could be your drink. Gather excerpts from the Tribune Syndicate newspapers (Chicago Tribune, LA Times, et al), BackHome, Field and Feast, and Ed Hitzel’s Restaurant Magazine, and books such as Be My Guest: Entertaining through World History and Francine Segan’s The Opera Lover’s Cookbook and place in a medium saucepan. Add 6 ounces of brandy, 2 tablespoons of honey, and a few cloves. Simmer on low for 5 minutes. Serve warm. For more festive drinks, log onto klhsfakebeverages.com.
The fourth Christmas in ‘this 205-year-old house’ finds Sean cracking the editor’s whip,
prodding the feline scribe Thomas Kat to pick up his quill and pen the yearly holiday letter. Since elderly Tom has instead opted for an afternoon nap, the other in-house writer must set aside her cocktail book and ponder the past 12 months at 85 Pechins Mill. As the opening recipes indicate, Max and the cats continue to enrich our lives. Sean
celebrated a milestone at Merck this year while I just signed a year contract with the Tribune Syndicate. He continues in his role as information systems manager. In addition to writing I periodically act as a recipe tester.
Another year sees us making a small dent in our unending list of home repairs. Had some chimneys fixed. Ran electric to and painted the barn. Painted the porch. Expanded the garden. After four years of searching for an antique, mechanical doorbell, we found one in New Orleans that fit the bill and, most importantly, installed it at our house. No longer do friends have to invite themselves inside or call us on their cell phones to announce that they’re standing at our front door. Talk about milestones!
Wildlife continues to reign in Collegeville. October brought five wild kittens zipping about our porch. We caught, domesticated, and found homes for the cuddly quintet and now have their mother, an abandoned, domesticated, and recently spayed tabby, as our “porch cat.” In addition to cats Sean and I separately rescued two baby birds. Sadly, newborn birds aren’t as easy to nurture as toddler kittens. Sean also made a marsupial friend, an opossum who likes to hang out with him. Add the multitude of deer, raccoons, squirrels, birds and foxes and we feel as though we live on a nature preserve.
Eager to meet fellow readers, I started a literary fiction/modern classics book club this fall at a local independent store, Wolfgang Books. Alas, beyond Sean, who attends out of spousal obligation, and our friend Amy Gunn, there seem to be few fiction fans in town. Where there are readers is in Philadelphia, home to the bookish “Hip, Young and Well-Read” club on South Street. My nights with HYWR ended, though, once I established the other, more intimate group.
Sean’s interests led him in a culinary, rather than literary, direction. After enjoying the fruits of his father’s labors for several years, Sean apprenticed with Tom Dippold then struck out on his own, making sauerkraut. In the fall he hosted a sauerkraut workshop a/k/a a team building exercise for his Merck colleagues, assigning them such tasks as shredding, stomping and fermenting cabbage. Along with Peabody Wine, look for jars of TKat Kraut at gourmet foods shops in your neighborhoods.
For us, no year is complete without a journey or two. This year our trips focused on revisiting beloved destinations – San Francisco, England, and New Orleans – or visiting friends and family in Annapolis, Rockville, and Patuxent River, MD and St. Mary’s, New Castle, and Pittsburgh, Penn. I took another cooking class, this time with friend Elizabeth Theisen, at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Sean attended a conference and had free lodging, courtesy of Kathy the slumlord (yes, I still have the tiny Manhattan studio apartment), in NYC. Together we spent a relaxing fall weekend in our favorite region, NY’s Hudson Valley. New Year’s Eve will find us in Brussels, Belgium, drinking beer, eating chocolate and researching food/travel pieces. Also in 2007 we will return yet again to New Orleans to volunteer with the rebuilding efforts and will visit friends with the State Department in Jakarta, Indonesia.
While Thomas Kat would no doubt conclude with more pomp and panache, I shall close by wishing everyone peace, hope, happiness and good health in the new year.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year! – Kathy
