Tuesday, January 2, 2024

The 9th day

 

"On the 9th day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me,
Nine ladies dancing..."

Not in this tidy house. Christmas is pretty much put away for another year. Well, other than some outdoor lights, which we leave up for cheerfulness through dark January.

It takes all morning to carefully pack up the decorations (I only broke one) then haul the bins up in the attic, and the rest of the day to clean the house, all the while contemplating the insanity of bringing a big, messy pine tree inside your home. 

Every year, while vacuuming up piles of needles, I think how this would be an excellent  time to buy a nice artificial tree on sale, like the sane people have. But who can face that?

Being as yesterday was a holiday, we had another fatty meat dinner.

That's a beef brisket, a tough cut of meat that should be cheap but isn't. I never cook brisket, unless you count corned beef. It went in the oven at 8 am, 200 degrees low and slow, and smelled good all day. It was melty tender by 3. 

Because brisket has so much fat and connective tissue, it shrinks down tremendously, but still enough left over to make barbecue sandwiches. Anyway, I'd probably leave this cut to the pit masters and their smokers. It's too much grease indoors.

Onward we go into 2024. After the extended holiday, life returns to normal routines. The gym for me this morning, stir-fried chicken and vegetables tonight, back to Cafe work tomorrow. Rain in the forecast.

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