Tuesday morning: Yes, it's a vay-kay-shun . . .

1. There are no new friends to welcome to the Liamverse. I am sad about that. But I love all ya'all who are here, and I do not tell you that enough.

2. It's 9 degrees in the North Country, and the winds are going to top 40 mph today.

3. I am sitting here in a towel and a Sitka, Alaska, state championship baseball hoodie, in my own front room. Yay! I took today and tomorrow off, so I get a vacation --after being off four days for Christmas. I worked yesterday, but took a couple of vacation days to link up with New Year's Weekend. There will be much house-cleaning, many errands, and a good deal of cooking.

4. The cooking will include Bacalhau. The salt cod is soaking right now. It's a casserole made in a Dutch Oven with the fish, potatoes, onions and lots of Olive oil. This one differs from my sainted Portuguese grandmother's, because it does not include tomatoes, which alethea_eastrid does not like. I am going to use the blue potatoes from Sheldon Farms, and will like includle local leeks and scallions, too.

5. I will more onion-like objects, because the other project is bytchearse's Stout Beef and Cheese Soup, which consists of beef, Guinness (or another stout. I like Guiness), garlic, onions and cheddar cheese. I will post the recipe in a few minutes. This involves roast a beef (I have a good roast), eating some of it, then shredding the rest into the soup. Also, it conveniently calls for three cans of stout, and the stout comes in four packs. ;)

6. Purple Pawn, my favorite gaming blog, has a list of the top 10 stories involving Eurogames from 2009.

7. Some LolCats need to be propagated:

Here's bytchearse's recipe for "A Stout, Cheese and Bee

A Stout, Cheese and Beef Soup

This one’s from my friend Jaji, who is a professional cook, and therefore finds a recipe that requires a hunk of cooked roast beef to be an ordinary thing.

Ingredients
3 to 4 pounds of roasted beef (i.e. leftovers!), cut into chunks
2 to 4  whole cloves garlic
1.5 pounds.  cheddar cheese cubes
Three pressurized cans Guinness or other stout (Murphy's, Beamish, etc), room temperature but unopened. (You get to drink the fourth).
Two small yellow onions, diced (optional)
Salt and pepper

Steps
1. Put cooked beef chunks and garlic into pot, adding just enough water to almost cover
2. Bring to boil, and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add more water a little at a time to keep from running dry.
3. Remove meat from water and let cool, then pull apart if possible or cut into very small pieces. Discard any visible fat.
4. Return meat to broth in pot and slowly add stout, foam and all. If adding onions, do so with this step.
5. Bring to a boil, then set on lowest heat or place in crock pot on medium high setting.
6. Add cheese cubes and stir to mix in.
7. If simmering on stovetop, simmer for about one hour, stirring frequently.
8. If using crock pot, after the initial stir, let alone for one or two hours then stir before serving
9. Add salt and pepper to taste before serving.

NOTE: Even if you skim the broth ahead of time, the cheese will cause a layer of fat to form on top. Skim or not, your choice. This will get VERY hot, so eat carefully. My tongue is still a little sensitive from trying this soup yesterday!

The best present of the holiday season . . .

I will let theresat be the one to tell you herself.