Christmas pics

Rose is excited to find out that she received a free trip to the groomers. Not.

Pat is all smiles, because Santa gave her two Tab Benoit CD's!

Mr. Bojangles, showing off his new bone.

Why is Claire smiling? The book is about food.

Ooooh! A box of Lotus tasty waffles and cookies from Belgium!

Claire is eager to go back to college, so she can use her new Pulse pen.

Pat is all smiles when I surprised her with the watch she requested.

I am sporting a new Robert Graham shirt and reading a new north woods canoeing adventure book. Life is good.

Christmas eatings

For Christmas Eve, Pat and Claire prepared the traditional Christian feast of seven fishes (sans six). Mussels maketh the Friedrichsens.

For Christmas morning breakfast, Claire created homemade biscuits and gravy. The biscuits were magnificently fluffy and buttery. The Italian sausage and mushroom gravy was life changing.

One of my presents from Claire was her world famous Gooey Rolls, known for their thick, dripping carmel magnificence.

Pat and Claire raised the bar for a traditional Christmas dinner. The menu included braised Patchwork pork chops in apples, onions and ginger; double cranberry chutney; garlic mashed potatoes; chestnut, sage and apple dressing; green bean casserole; and a bottle of White Alice chardonnay.

I gained eight pounds. It was a delicious Christmas.

Biscotti

It's biscotti time! These are almond orange. For the health food fanatic, there are a couple hundred new quadruple chocolate biscotti cookies in our kitchen. Come and get 'em!

Walkin'

Claire and I visited our Christmas tree dude today. He was like, you show up this late in the Christmas tree season and you are lucky to have a choice of Charlie Brown trees. 72 acres of tree ranch and we had a choice of three trees. We picked Mr. Lopsided Brown Dwarf. Then instead of going home, we drove on to Little Dixie Lake and went walkin', walkin' in a winter wonderland. It was grey and snowy and wet and cold and awesome...a good walk. Note the snow flakes in these iPhone shots.

Macaroons

Macaroons in the morning, macaroons in the evening, macaroons at supper time. Claire finished finals, moved home and commandeered our kitchen. Five flavors of macaroons today: chocolate, egg nog, mint, orange and raspberry. With any luck, she won't take a baking break for a couple weeks.

Solstice celebration

May you use this winter solstice and holiday season to reflect and be thankful for your family, friends and many blessings, and prayerful for cultural acceptance, global peace and environmental care.

Here are some highlights of our 2009.

• Kenny and T.J. brought youthful exuberance from Korea.
• We checked 25 years of matrimonial bliss off our todo list.
• Goldie Hawn gave me a hug!
• Pat fulfilled her lifelong quest to eat Gnu sausage.
• We survived a 17-day, 3800 kilometer, 8 European country vacation.
• Claire moved home.
• Claire moved out.
• Suki molted big time.
• Pat and I explored the Golden Horn.
• Mizuho visited farmland.

Wishing you and your family a fabulous second decade this 21st century!

Thanksgiving dinner 4

Our fourth and final Thanksgiving dinner was held at my folks' home in Alton, IA, on Friday night. The menu sported pizzas and broasted chicken from Pizza Ranch, with pumpkin pie, the renowned "Grandma Bars" and soda pop choices. Below, Grandpa Fritz ponders a post-dinner nap.

Kelly, little brother Brent, Christian, Hannah and her dog Chocolate pose for the paparazzi. Present but not pictured: brothers Kim, nephews Kyle and Ryan, Ryan's significant other Alicia, niece Anna, Grandma Wanda, Pat, Claire, Mizuho and yours truly. I would show you more family pictures, but then I would have had to taken some.

At the beginning of Thanksgiving week, I weighed 178 pounds. My exit weight was just over 196. Now that's what I call a memorable holiday!

Thanksgiving dinner 3

For our official Thanksgiving meal, we dined with 1300 other people at the 85th annual St. Boniface Parish Thanksgiving Dinner in Elgin, NE, Pat's home town. Pat has participated in this community event since she was an infant. The menu included turkey, sausage, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry salad, a cabbage and carrot salad, rolls and your choice of pie. And there were hundreds of pie choices. I chose them all ;-)

En route to Elgin, we stopped in Lincoln to give Mizuho a private tour of the Nebraska state capitol. So far, Mizuho has visited two state capitols. We can change that. Everyone should visit every state capitol.

Claire and Mizuho enjoyed the sausage and sauerkraut. A secret sausage recipe is used exclusively for this event. 600 pounds of sausage was prepared for the event, and it was mighty fine, indeed. I bought five pounds of frozen sausage to bring home, but I accidentally left it in Pat's brother Joe and sister-in-law Pam's freezer. Merry Christmas Joe and Pam.

The community feast is held in the Pope John XXIII Central Catholic's gymnasium. In the foreground is Pat's sister Joan, nephew Jon and brother Jim. You can also see Pat peaking over Claire's head. A couple hours after Thanksgiving Dinner, we returned for evening lunch with 465 other people, and for the ceremonious announcements of the 128 raffle winners. Jon won $50 in Elgin bucks. The rest of us got skunked, but we donated to a good cause. In Elgin, the word lunch means a light meal or snack. In fact, it is not uncommon to eat breakfast, morning lunch, dinner, afternoon lunch, supper and evening lunch all in the same day. If you are looking to carb-up, I recommend lunching in Elgin.

Pat and her niece Justine (Jim' daughter and Jon's sister). Relatively speaking, I think they look related.

Claire and Mizuho helped Jim combine corn on Friday. I think Mizuho found Midwest farm life to be quite different than living in her hometown Osaka, Japan.

Pat with her parents and siblings: (L to R) Shirley, Joan, Pat, Jim, Joe and Jim, Sr., aka Bud. Not pictured: little sister Lora.

National Museum of the American Indian

Meetings at Blackboard went so well yesterday that I got the opportunity to squeeze in a couple hours at the National Museum of the American Indian. This amazing building houses much more than an interactive history of American Indians. The stories of tribal challenges to preserve culture and heritage through oppression, competition and the melting pot of society are riveting and equally heart wrenching. May we learn the most from our biggest mistakes.

Thanksgiving dinner 2

Our guest of honor was Wonki Lee. Claire volunteers at the Mizzou Asian Center. Wonki is a university exchange student from Korea, and Claire's conversation partner. He has a delightful sense of humor and a misunderstood and under appreciated passion for both kimchi and green bean casserole.

Claire and Pat spent the entire day planning, shopping for and cooking Thanksgiving dinner number 2. The menu:

• Roasted chicken
• Leek and mushroom stuffing
• Cardamom and pecan sweet mashed potatoes
• Chicken and mushroom gravy
• Green bean casserole
• Cranberry and ginger chutney
• Pumpkin pie
• Apple cider
• Green tea

It was a fabulous gourmet traditional feast. Oooh, I am stuffed again.

Thanksgiving dinner 1

Pat, Claire and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving dinner of the season at Sycamore this evening. We decided to open the feast season with a core family unit dinner. The menu?

• Sweetbreads
• Barbeque Pork Belly
• Beet Salad
• Warm Autumn Salad
• Spinach and Bacon Salad
• Crumb Encrusted Walleye
• Duck three ways is what I counted
• Beef Tenderloin Filet
• Mash Potatoes and Pork Gravy
• Potato Frittata kind of thing sans custard
• Caramelized Pears
• Bread Pudding
• Icebox Cake
• Flourless Chocolate Cake
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
• Chardonnay Girasole
• Shiraz
• Coffee

Oooh, I'm stuffed.

Austin

I spent the last four days at a K-12 online learning conference in Austin, Texas. But mostly I ate barbeque. Below is a Stubbs Bar-B- Que Major, which is your choice of three meats and two sides. I gorged on pork ribs, beef brisket, smoked sausage, spud salad and pinto beans. I enjoyed this meal with Donna, Chris, Cheryl and Mike from IDLA, Jay from MIVHS, and Liz from VHS. We dined in the midst of a rock and roll fundraising event. The meal, conversation and ambiance were awesome.

This is the dessert served during the roundtable discussion luncheon. I'm gonna call it an apple pie round with blue berry buttons.

This is a picture of Marilyn and Rex, the master minds of Laurel Springs School, ordering a feast in Iron Works BBQ. Actually, I did not eat dinner with them. I interrupted their meal. I ate with Brian and Annie from Wimba, and happened into Marilyn and Rex. It was a fun surprise. I hope your wing heals soon, Rex. Brian and Annie, thanks for introducing me to the world's best brisket.

Istanbul 8--Gulhane Park

At the end of August and beginning of September, Pat and I spent eight days in Istanbul. Previously called Byzantium, Augusta Antonina, New Rome, Constantinople, The City, Stamboul, Islambol, Asitane and many other names, Istanbul has almost continuously been one of the world's largest and greatest cities for over 2600 years, and it is the only metropolis in two continents. Founded on the Golden Horn and divided by the Bosphorous Strait, Istanbul served as the capital for the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, Latin Empire and Ottoman Empire. The city is a rich mixture of Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Christians. Today, Istanbul boasts almost 3000 mosques and over 300 Catholic churches. Istanbul is among the most friendly and welcoming places on Earth, while also being one of the most densely populated, commerce-bustling cities. If Istanbul is not on your must visit or must return to list, then stop reading this and go revise your list.

Below is a statue of a famous sitar player, situated in the heart of Gulhane Park, which is just down the hill from Topkapi Palace in the Old City.

Gulhane Park is a remarkably peaceful juxtaposition to the frenetic tourism and local trade just outside the park's walls.

Istanbul 7--Archaeological Museum

The Archaeological Museum, situated on the outer grounds of Topkapi Palace, was built in the 1800's to house and display the spoils of the Ottoman Empire's pilfering and plundering throughout the greater Mediterranean region. The treasures include Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Islamic tomb stones, sarcophagi, statues and sculptures. Many of the heads of sculptures were whopped off when the Turkish nationalists took control in 1922.

Guess what infamous ruler's grave site was marked with this statue, and you just might win a free trip to Istanbul.

Istanbul 6--the streets

With a city population over 12 million, metropolis population over 17 million, 3 million cars, trams, busses, hand carts, and tiny roads that are thousands of years old, the streets are packed with people all day every day. The entrance below will take you into a large indoor bazaar that connects with the spice market.

People, people, people.

Thousands of men make their living by pushing and pulling hand carts loaded with commercial goods on narrow streets where they compete with cars, busses and pedestrians for space.

No right turn. I wonder why.

This sign post is located in the heart of the Old City, near Suleymaniye Mosque. I don't know why I took the picture, and I have no clue why I am including it here, but there you go.