New Year's Eve in Boston

We have lived in Boston for several years now, but this year was the first time we welcomed the New Year in our hometown. We considered going "out on the town", but decided to keep our outing short, especially when the temperatures got down into single digits (Fahrenheit). In fact 40 mph wind gusts forced the authorities to cancel the traditional midnight fireworks!

We started celebrating New Years on the Boston Common looking at several ice sculptures. I really wanted to see the parade, so we secured a great spot along Charles Street between the Boston Common and the Public Gardens. In fact our spot was so great that there were very few people standing next to us. As it turned out our "great" spot was just a few hundred feet past the point where the parade ended.

The snow sparkled as it fell turning us into snowmen while we walked down the middle of the Commonwealth Avenue on our way to Copley Square. There were more ice sculptures in Copley Square, including my favorite ice sculpture ever--The Dance by Eric Fonteccio and Alfred Georges from Brookline Coal and Ice Company. For me this sculpture really stood because of its design and craftsmanship.

By this time, my toes were sufficiently frozen to end our celebratory walk. So we jumped in the T and headed to Ginza, one of our favorite sushi restaurants, where the house green tea and excellent food revived us. We topped the evening off with a movie and champagne at midnight.

The 44th President of the United States of America

Did you know that Barak Obama is actually only the 43rd president of the United States? That is because President Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms and gets counted twice. How do I know that when yesterday I could not even tell you who Grover Cleveland was? Boston Metro published a special inauguration edition today (which I seem to be unable to find online), and it was full of fun facts about U.S. Presidents.

I leave you with a photo published today in that same Boston Metro special inauguration edition. Photographer Pete Souza took this photo in Moscow in 2005.

Adventures of a Letter

Yesterday, I received a rather interesting little letter in the mail. Before I continue, I have to admit, that for almost two years I used the wrong address when sending postcards and letters to my friend Alice in London. Pure luck led Alice to discover my mistake a few months ago, and she can no longer escape my correspondence.

Now back to the letter... The letter I received was one of the letters I have sent to Alice using the wrong address. The interesting part was that the letter was postmarked October 2007, which means that it took the letter over a year to make the round trip from the US to the UK and back. And its voyage is not over--the letter is going back to the UK.

Thanksgiving Recap--Napoleon

Napoleon is one of my favorite desserts that my grandmother used to make when she was younger. Napoleon, the dessert, refers to layers of puff pastry frosted with pastry cream. When done well, a Napoleon is light, moist and melts in your mouth, and my grandmother’s Napoleons did just that. When I learned that my grandparents were coming to Boston for Thanksgiving, I decided that it was my one-in-a-million chance to learn how to make Napoleon from the master herself.

When my grandparents came over to my apartment, my grandma and I set out to prepare the puff pastry dough. Under Grandma’s close watch I mixed water, eggs and flour, and rolled the butter into the dough folding it into envelopes. In the course of the day I repeated the rolling and folding process one more time. Grandma said that she sometimes rolled and folded the dough two more times, but she thought that the extra effort was unnecessary.

In the evening, after my grandparents left, I made a double portion of the pastry cream from the Boston Cream Pie recipe. Unfortunately, I accidentally overheated the mixture, and the cream cooled into a jingly solid. So the next evening I made another batch of the pastry cream, now using Grandma’s recipe.

Unfortunately I had to bake the puff pastry without Grandma’s supervision, and I might have kept it in the oven for too long. It was well after midnight, when I frosted the baked puff pastry sheets with the newly made pastry cream.

After spending the night out on the counter my Napoleon acquired the proper sweetness and flavor thanks to the pastry cream. Still the pastry was far from melt-in-your-mouth. In fact it was so hard, that breaking a piece off with just a fork was impossible. I tore into my piece with my teeth, while Nick, civilized as he is, used a knife.

White Christmas in Walla Walla

We drove over to Walla Walla on Tuesday only to find it blanked by almost three feet of snow. While it regularly snows in Eastern Washington in winter, people in Walla Walla have not seen this much snow for at least 40 years.

Here are some photos I took while on a walk on Wednesday morning.

Snowed In In Western Washington

I interrupt my coverage of our Thanksgiving holidays to bring you a glimpse of the beginning of our Christmas holiday in the Pacific Northwest.

Some background first. Woodinville, Washington, is a Seattle suburb, located to the east of Lake Washington and just north of the town of Redmond. The average temperature in Woodinville for December is comfortably above freezing--high of 46F, low of 35F. It hardly ever snows here, and when it does, the snow melts away in a blink of an eye. They sand, but do not salt the roads here on principal. Given how little snow usually falls here, there is little snow removal equipment sitting around.

When we arrived here on Thursday, there was already over a foot of snow on the ground. Since Saturday night, at least another 6 inches fell. The temperature yesterday barely edged above the freezing point and went right back down to the low of 27F. And the roads... Well, no one is clearing the local roads. There is just barely enough equipment to clear the highways, and state routes. The buses are running with chains around their rear tires.

As for us, we ventured out with sleds.

Thanksgiving Recap--The Corn Bake Recipe Evolution

My family first tasted the corn bake dish while celebrating Thanksgiving with our family friends, the Polskys. The dish is simple to make, and the result is similar to super moist corn bread.

The Original Corn Bake Recipe
1 egg
½ cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup of sour cream
1 can of cream style corn
1 can of kernel corn drained
1 package of Jiffy corn muffin mix

Mix all the ingredients together (I find it easier to mix in the cans of corn and the muffin mix last). Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch square dish, cover with foil, bake for about an hour at 325F. Then remove the foil, and bake for another 15-30 minutes till doneness at 375F.


The corn bake dish has been a part of every Thanksgiving dinner for almost two decades. However, this year I decided that it was time for a change--I no longer wanted to stock up on Jiffy muffin mix, and I was disappointed to learn that the corn is not vegetarian because Jiffy muffin mix contains lard.

I used this corn bread recipe—the quickest fastest simplest recipe ever for a decent corn bread—as a point of reference. I also studied the ingredients of the Jiff corn muffin mix, which essentially boiled down to flour, corn meal, baking soda, salt and sugar.

After the first attempt, I decreased the amount of corn meal, and switched to using maple syrup instead of sugar or honey. The second attempt was a success, and that is exactly what mom baked for our Thanksgiving dinner.

The New Corn Bake Recipe
1 cup wheat flour
¾ cups corn meal
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg beaten
¼ cup (½ stick) of butter, melted
1 cup plain yogurt (we used low-fat)
3 Tbsp maple syrup (honey can be substituted)
1 can of cream style corn
¼ cup corn (from a can or frozen and thawed; more can be added to taste)

Mix the wet ingredients. Then mix in the dry ingredients. Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch square dish, cover with foil, bake for about an hour at 325F. Then remove the foil, and bake for another 15-30 minutes till doneness at 375F.