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Merry Christmas with a side of potatoes

We are looking forward to an incredible Christmas.  We get to be in our home with no expectations to meet, or places to rush off to, or people to entertain unless it happens to work out.  It means showers aren’t mission critical first thing in the morning, PJs are optional day-wear (but still never outer-wear) homemade cookies and milk constitute lunch and laughter comes a little bit easier. It’s every parent’s dream – minus the sleeping in… and in three hour increments.

Aside from lazy mornings in PJs and long walks exploring Vancouver’s best spots for toddlers (Granville Island for boats and musicians, Main Street for parks and coffee shops, Kitsilano for people watching and toy shopping) this holiday has brought with it some awesome food with little to no hassle.

In my last post I wrote about the sweet treats and cookies that we froze some of so that they could be pulled out throughout the holidays… I did the same thing with easy foods.  Each year at Christmas my job is potatoes, other jobs come and go but I always get to make the potatoes.   I’m so thankful my mom still hosts this amazing meal and I still learn from her each year.  I know I need to make as much as possible before my husband is home for the holidays from work and Matty, our son, is home from daycare.  I made two variations of potatoes this year a few days early- and made a double batch of each – separating the seconds into two smaller dishes to be frozen and pulled out at some point during the rest of the holidays to be served for our little family with leftover turkey or ham or roast beef.

My sister and her fabulous clan will host our family on Christmas Eve and we’ll all enjoy our traditional lasagna and Cesar salad (and pizza for the kids just in case).  I get to make the lasagna. This one I made a few days in advance, and tripled.  Making extra for spaghetti for my family the night I cooked it, and storing away a spare lasagna for the 29th or 30th when I know I’ll just want to pull something out and pop it in the oven – getting to worry far more about dinosaurs and train tunnels that day then making something good and knowing my family would still love the outcome.

All these make ahead fabulous dishes mean I may even have more time when the stars and naps align to peruse Martha’s new Entertaining book, and a couple of new favorites “Classy” and “Very Classy” by Derek Blasberg

I’m sure you have fabulous potato recipes and I’d love to hear about them – below is one we all love – tastes amazing and it doesn’t take too long to make compared to a lot of scalloped potatoes I’ve tried:

prep time: 10-15 min    total time: approx 1 hr

ingredients: russet potatoes, 1/2 cup cream, grated cheddar, asiago and Parmesan cheese (1 1/2 cups total), white onion, 1/2 cup of butter, olive oil, 1/4 cup milk, flour, salt and pepper

• thinly slice the potatoes and the white onion (about 4-5 potatoes to each onion)
• saute the white onion with a chunk of butter and a dash of olive oil for 4-5 min
• to make it extra easy add the cream directly and rest of the butter to that pot on med-low heat and add milk according to how many potatoes you have (ie 6 potatoes 1/4 cup more if you cook more potatoes)
• add flour to thicken 1-2 TBSP at a time (should take 3-5 mins to thicken)
• add 1/2 your grated cheese as you pull it off the heat and stir
• dot bottom of a pan with butter, add a layer of potatoes slightly overlapping, s&p, and then enough of the sauce to cover
• repeat with potato, s&p and sauce layers until you have 3 layers and finally top with the rest of your grated cheese
• pop in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes.
• Can freeze for up to a month easily

Now THAT’s Entertaining…

Sometimes I feel like I’m in a scene from About a Boy – my time is now divided into units and I repeat each unit a certain number of times a day. For the past five months, typically I wake, hang out with our son during breakfast, see my husband and him out the door, feed our baby girls, clean the house while they sleep, feed them again, go for a walk and buy the day’s grocery(ies) and a coffee, play with and feed them again, do laundry and dinner while they take a long nap set the table as they’re waking up and (you guessed it) feed them again just as my husband arrives home with our son for dinner, playtime, bath time, milk and storytime and then I feed the girls as he gets tucked in, we play with the girls together for a couple of hours and they head off to bed  leaving Cam and I thirty precious minutes of conversation and catch up time before I become comatose.

So why aren’t I going crazy?  Why do I still love this so much?  I think its because I feel oddly proud of myself for getting cool meals on the table each night, for having empty laundry baskets and a clean house and babies that giggle and even though I still have thighs that jiggle and black circles under my eyes I feel like the fact that I can produce for our family makes me an accomplished person.  I thrive on planning meals that will be more than just ho-hum dinners, planning get-togethers that will engage us, our friends and our kids at the same time, planning events with details that will leave our guests with a special memory or a unique takeaway.

Don’t get me wrong – about once a week I ask myself when I’m gonna get off this ride.  I miss dinners after 8pm and lingering over wine with friends or my husband for hours. I miss showers that last longer than three minutes and shirts that are not tattooed with unidentified white substances. I miss not having to explain everything I do from going to the bathroom to making tea to our two-year old. But ultimately I love this.  I love that Charlotte sits quietly and raises her eyebrows when I look her way and her whole face smiles when I wink at her now.  I love that Kate can be screaming, tears streaming down her red face and it will end in a rainbow of a huge toothless smile just like that when I pick her up.  I love “lelo” (lego) with Matty and that he always wants to hold his sisters hands and for “kake kake and sharlot” to smile for him.  I love love love my husband who can make me laugh at our crazy life all the while holding one baby and playing trains with our son.  I love treating them to a not-always clean but always entertaining and creative house with good food and a balance of fun and values. The fact that we can still actually have people over with three children under two is a treat in itself. Does that make me a throw back Mrs Clever? I don’t think so.  I think there is a new brand of woman out there that can do it all, almost.  I think loving home-life is not weak, it’s in fact pretty cool. Because we can re-brand those units of time so that the ordinary regiment of life is inspired and extraordinary.

This little story is about our life – the five of us.  Its about how the finer things don’t have to be forgotten when you have a busy household of children and working parents – and how we can still entertain, cook, delight, be polite and enjoy the friends and family that endure us.  It’s a mix of our stories, great finds, and how we ensure that etiquette and our own brand of fine living still exist alongside our crazy little clan of Cam (husband) Matty (just turned two-year old son) and Charlotte and Kate (twins 5 month old daughters) … now THAT’s entertaining.