Merry Christmas!

Normally, I write one of those Christmas letters and send them in the mail. This year, like a lot of things in my life, I didn't have time to do it. Honestly, there wasn't much to write about, and I'd just as soon forget the whole thing.

It wasn't all bad though. Here are some of the highlights.

* Mathew (10) is still being homeschooled and working about two years ahead in most things. He played soccer in the spring, and that's his only sport now. He is pretty involved in church activities, including children's chimes and choir. He's also an acolyte. His highlight of the year though was his first communion this fall. He had been looking forward to that for at least two years. He had a great deal of enthusiasm for his church activities. He is also in the last year of Cub Scouts. We'll see if he goes on to Boy Scouts.

* Erik (8) is the family athlete, by Palm standards, anyway. He plays soccer, football and basketball. After being one of the smallest kids on his football team last year, he got taller (if not wider) and played left offensive tackle this year. I think soccer is his best sport, but he has also played that the most. He is one of the best defensive players in his age group. I think he likes basketball the best, but that is also the current sport. He is also taking an interest in watching college and pro sports. Sometimes, he'll get up in the morning and instead of turning on cartoons, he'll turn on the Big Ten Network.

He is also working ahead of grade level at homes going reasonably well. He is at the Bear level of Cub Scouts and joins Mathew in the children's chimes group at church.

* #3 son, Karsten (4) is starting to do some pre-school work at home. He's reached the age where he wants to do everything his big brothers are doing, which includes schoolwork. He knows all the letters and can write most of them. He is now constantly asking us how to spell things. He also started Sunday School this year, which he just loves.

* The last but not least Palm child, Annika, will be 2 in March. She's adorable, of course, though I may not be the most objective observer. She's also wants to do everything the older kids do, but we haven't armed her with a pencil yet. Right now, she's into learning parts of the face, so whenever we hold her, she's poking our eyes, sticking her fingers in our ears, etc, wanting us to tell her what part that is while we also try to stop the bleeding.

She is also trying to talk and has a few words, mostly names for all of us. Mommy and Daddy she has down pretty well, although sometimes it's "mommies" and "daddies." I know I'm big, but I didn't think I was big enough to be plural. Mathew is "Momo," Erik is "Ay-yah" and Karsten, who was the first one to get a name from her, is "da-DEE", where the last syllable is kind of like a squeal.

This is such a cute age.

* The newest thing in my work is that I have been covering games instead of just writing about ratings. That actually started last fall, with Notre Dame football. I didn't cover them as much this year. :)

I also covered a lot of basketball games, including the Missouri Valley, Big East and NCAA Tournaments. All this game coverage is for CSTV.com, which is where I do most of my freelance writing.

* Cheri has been trying to keep the household from falling apart, and despite all our best efforts to thwart that, she succeeds. None of us function without her.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I started writing this before 5 AM, so naturally, Mathew and Erik are already up. We never see them this early the rest of the year.

Random Thoughts

Football season has been chaotic this year and consuming more of my time even than usual. Basketball is also getting underway, so this is the no-sleep time of year for me.

In fact, I'm covering the Chicago Challenge for CSTV.com. Follow the action on the Posting Up blog at CSTV.com.

Enough of the shameless plugs.

Meanwhile, I'm managing yet another fantasy football team right into the toilet. When it comes to fantasy baseball, I'm undefeated. Seven or eight seasons, seven or eight championships. The number is a little fuzzy because I haven't run a team for several years. It interferes too much with my real job.

But when I did play, I had the Midas touch. In fantasy football though, it's the Minus touch. Everybody I draft underperforms, gets hurt, gets arrested, etc. Drew Brees struggles this year? My fault. Travis Henry's drug problems? My fault. Robbie Gould's comedown year? My fault. For the record though, Rex Grossman's problems are his own. I'm not stupid enough to draft him for a fantasy team.

Is it Kyle Orton's turn yet?

Speaking of toilets, it's about time for the annual Thanksgiving plumbing disaster. Actually, a couple of things are bubbling up in that area, but until they actually blow, I'm not going to jinx things by writing about them.

Cubs President John McDonough resigned to take the same job with the Blackhawks, which is like going from the penthouse to the outhouse. McDonough is credited with marketing the Cubs so well that the stadium is full, win or, way too often, lose. Now, he needs to put lipstick on the pig that is the Blackhawks franchise, but there is hope. Now that Bill Wirtz has passed on and his son Rocky has taken over, changes are being made that indicate that the status quo is no longer acceptable. This is one of them, and a desire to put home games on TV is another. Putting a winning team on the ice is the most important thing, of course, but in the meantime, they need to try to rebuild their once-strong fan base.

That's it for now. Happy Thanksgiving to all! For me, I'll be thankful if I can get through the weekend without needing hip waders.

My Thanksgiving tradition

Like many families, mine has traditions that are followed every Thanksgiving, and our traditions are probably very similar to yours. We start out with the ceremonial preparation and consumption of mass quantities of specific foods. After that, we waddle into the family room and watch large, padded men - men who were probably bigger than us before we ate dinner - play football. And we can do that even longer now because there are three NFL games on Thanksgiving instead of two. While we're watching football, we usually have a dessert or six, and then, mercifully, the games end. After that, we stumble upstairs in an effort to go to bed, but usually fall short and pass out on the stairs. The kitchen is covered in a layer of food shrapnel which will require power tools and about a week to clean up. My kids' hair is now orange because they tried to absorb the nutrients from sweet potatoes through the top of their heads instead of through their mouths.

I'm sure your family goes through the same things, but mine has started a new tradition that began a year ago, and that is that we have a piece of the plumbing system fail. Last year, it was a clogged pipe downline from the garbage disposal. That took about three hours to find and fix. This year, it was our brand new dishwasher deciding it was no longer going to drain water out of the tub. I thought we could just leave that to Friday, but my wife informed me that if I didn't fix it, I would get to do all the dishes by hand. Since I didn't want to pass out face-first into a sink full of dish water, I decided to try to fix the dishwasher. That too was successful (the drain hose was kinked because it was too long), so I was able to join the rest of the family in passing out on the stairs.

I can hardly wait for the surprise my plumbing has in store for me next year, but in the meantime, does anyone have a sander I can borrow? I have to clean the kitchen.

Happy Flag Day!

It's Flag Day today, so fly 'em if you got 'em.

Mother's Day Cooking

A couple of days ago, I promised to share recipes if my cooking on Mother's Day did not cause any fatalities. I figure if anyone was going to die, they probably would have already, so these recipes should be OK.

There's nothing ground-breaking or terribly difficult in here, or I couldn't have done it.

Chicken Piccata

2 lbs chicken breast, sliced or pounded thin (scallopine style)
flour to dredge
4 T Olive oil
12 T butter
a few cloves of minced garlic
1/2 c dry white wine
juice of one lemon
1 c chicken broth

heat oil and 4T butter in skillet on high heat
dredge chicken and fry until brown - remove chicken to serving platter
reduce heat to med-high
add remaining butter
saute garlic
add wine and reduce
add lemon juice and chicken broth and reduce some more
spoon sauce over meat
garnish with parsley and/or thinly sliced lemon.

Fettuccine Alfredo

1 lb fettuccine
1 pint heavy cream
1 stick (8T) unsalted butter
a few cloves of minced garlic
1 c parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated

cook pasta in well-salted water
melt butter in saucepan and saute garlic
add cream and heat to boil
stir in cheese
toss sauce with pasta
garnish with more cheese and/or parsley

Not too tough, eh? I also made a ceasar salad, including the dressing with the raw egg, and still, nobody died.

I also tried to make bananas foster, but I had a lot of problems.

The first problem was trying to use an electric skillet, which just didn't heat consistently enough to dissolve the brown sugar in the butter.

Even using a regular skillet, I had problems because there just isn't enough liquid to dissolve the brown sugar until you actually try to foster some bananas.

Then, I had problems setting the alcohol on fire. No, the Fire Department wasn't called. I couldn't get it to ignite. I used more liquor the second time and it lit, but had a very strong rum flavor. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Eventually, I ended up with something edible, but I'm not sure you could call it bananas foster.

At least we didn't end up at the Kwik 'n' Krappy's.

Roast Pork – Sort of

As I mentioned in my profile, one of my interests is cooking. That’s a relatively new interest for me, which was born out of watching the Food Network on TV. In particular, I like Good Eats with Alton Brown and Iron Chef. I used to joke that the only thing I could cook was Spaghettios (recipe: open can; eat with spoon). That may still be true, but after watching professional chefs on the Food Network make things look so easy, I’ve tried some other things and, as you might expect, had some mixed results.

Last night was one of those things. My wife suggested cooking a pork loin roast (bone in) on the grill, which I’ve never done before. In fact, I had never done anything requiring indirect heat. It turned out surprisingly good – so good that I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Ingredients:
Pork loin roast – bone in
Wife or alarm clock
Whiny kids
Potato chips

Prep time: 30 minutes, not counting nap.
Cook time: 2 hours, 18 minutes. Approximately.

1. Take a nap. Have your wife wake you around 3:30 and ask you if you’re going to start the coals. An alarm clock will do if you don't have a wife.
   
2. Start the coals in the grill.
   
3. Kids start to complain that they’re hungry.
   
4. When coals heat up, move them away from the middle of the grill. Put a drip pan with some water in it in the middle of the grill, surrounded by the coals.
   
5. Panic because it looks like you used about half as many coals as you need.
   
6. Add more coals.
   
7. Put the roast on the grill, fat side up.
   
8. After about 45 minutes, check the roast. Doubt to yourself that it’s cooking fast enough, but turn it over anyway.
   
9. Kids complain that they’re hungry again. Give them a few potato chips.
   
10. After another 45 minutes, stick a meat thermometer into the roast. Wonder if the thermometer is working correctly or if the inside is still so cold that the needle doesn’t move.
    
11. Kids complain that they’re still hungry. Tell them to quit whining and set the table (in case the roast ever gets ready).
    
12. Give up on the grill. Put roast in roasting pan and into cold oven set to 400 degrees.
    
13. After about half an hour, take roast out, stick in meat thermometer. Needle should barely move.
    
14. Bedtime is rapidly approaching. Kids complain that they’re still hungry. Send them to their room.
    
15. Give up on the oven. Put roast in microwave for 5 minutes at 70% power.
    
16. Stick thermometer in roast. Needle should move slightly, but still not reach temperature scale. Start doubting again whether the thermometer works correctly.
    
17. Put roast in microwave for 6 more minutes at 70% power.
    
18. Stick thermometer in roast. Needle should start to offer signs of hope, but it’s not done yet.
    
19. Put roast in microwave for 7 more minutes at 70% power.
    
20. Cover with foil and let sit for a few minutes before serving.
    

We didn’t season or marinate the meat, but you certainly could. It actually turned out pretty good. It tasted smoky, like it had been grilled, but the meat was still pretty tender.

Today, for Mother’s Day, I’m cooking for the mothers (my wife, my mom and my mother-in-law), who no doubt are wondering if I’ll screw up again and end up taking them out. That could be a problem, since about the only place we could get into on Mother’s Day without a reservation is the Kwik 'n' Krappy’s (“Burgers on a stick!”). If it turns out good, I may share those recipes here.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers! (From someone who is often called a mother)