"christmas party" news and stories

I always have the best plans around the holidays when it comes to food. I always have some mathmatical formula where I'm going to consume the least amount of calories possible. If I don't have any cookies, I can drink more. If I don't have any of my sister's brownies, I can have a third helping of stuffing.

It never works out though. I go back for seconds at my sister's house (ham, lasagna, chicken breasts, green bean casserole, various desserts), then have a turkey sandwich and stuffing later that night at home. I go to my other sister's Xmas Eve party and find myself eating pasta salad and grazing on tortilla chips, cheese, and trifle all night (and six beers - "light," but still). Then, on Xmas Day, another meal, this one consisting of turkey, oatmeal and sausage stuffing, yams with marshmallow topping, a bottle of wine, Oreo Cookie cake and cheesecake.

What did you have to eat the past few days?

For some reason I'm reminded of that episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, where Mr. Carlson unleashes a bunch of turkeys for a Thanksgiving Day promotion and discovers that turkeys can't fly.

This isn't about them flying, but it is turkeys in the airport. Deep-fried turkeys, to be exact. Seems many people at Dulles International Airport weren't too happy when they found out that someone had served a deep fried turkey at a holiday party at the airport last week. In a letter to management, a spokesman for the air traffic controller's union said he couldn't believe someone would deep fry a turkey (always a tricky thing to do even in the safest of circumstances) in an area where it is "surrounded by carpet, linoleum, an airport, aircraft, a control tower, thousands if not millions of gallons of jet fuel and thousands of passengers and employees."

A fire marshal on the scene made them turn the cooker off, but the FAA says they did nothing wrong.

I have a confession to make (let it out Bob, confession is good for the soul). Two, actually. Not only have I never made my own eggnog for Christmas, I usually just buy the store bought stuff. Yeah, I know.

It's not that the store stuff is terrible. I wouldn't drink it every year if I didn't like it. It's an OK substitute for people like me who are lazy intimidated by eggnog recipes. I mean, making a drink with sugar and eggs that you have to separate? I've never wanted to do it (though if I did, this one sounds good).

While surfing around I found this recipe for an eggnog called a White Christmas. It sounds like a nice twist on the classic.