Thursday, December 25
30 miles? Condo-only store open-condo-only store open-condo-only store open-condo.
I woke up first at 4:50 and read til I thought it ok to wake up Bob at 6:00 crawling over him to get to the channel changer for news. Which didn’t work because every channel had either a yule log or a Morman Tabernacle choir or some other preacher. Really. Even the cable channels. Bob woke up singing and sang it all. “There is nothing on TV. But it is Christmas so we shouldn’t care” I don’t really have the tune to give you but it works. I always get up laughing.
This is a lovely condo. There is a gas fireplace in the big living/dining/kitchen area downstairs — along with a half bath and laundry room. Upstairs is a large master with bath, two sinks and three, large mirrored closets plus two more bedrooms and full bath.
Here is the downstairs — I brought Christmas lights.
We made coffee and opened our little gifts and cards…..Very peaceful with no people or cars or anything moving outside.
While reading the little Moab newspaper, Bob noticed there was one grocery store open on Christmas day, Village Market, so at 7:30 he called and a guy named Bob answered. My Bob asked how late they were open and that Bob said til 5p. My Bob got a gleam in his eye… we had forgotten garlic (??@!!! seriously?) and Vons hadn’t had leeks which we need for the potatoes au gratin so off we go. The road and town are empty of all signs of life. We got to Village Market, about 4 miles away, and it was closed… not open til 9a. So back we go. And it means another trip to the store later. Bob is not unhappy.
Bob made a lovely breakfast of potatoes lyonnaise, scrambled eggs with diced ham and sliced tomatoes which we had about 9a with a glass of champagne — and I remembered the champagne stopper yay.
After Bob did the dishes YES!!! we went back to the store. Bob is the owner and his wife was at the cash register. They had their Christmas dinner on Sunday so they could be open Christmas day and, as she said, “tonight I get to watch my shows — no cooking no dishes!”
The rest of the day was blissfully relaxing. I made onion soup for lunch — the onions carmelize for about three hours in a Dutch oven, with stirring every 15 minutes or so. It calls for sherry which we didn’t bring but one of the little airplane cocktail bottles we brought was Remy Martin cognac so used that. Then added beef stock and chicken stock (about 3:1) and let it simmer with thyme for about 45 minutes. We had a bowl for lunch with gruyere sourdough toasts and the rest of the champagne. Cheers! Merry Christmas!
The rest of the afternoon we read, watched old John Wayne movies and played 3-13 🙂 I won. Oh, and Bob went to the store one more time (horseradish and chives… ) We watched snow flurries on and off all afternoon and it finally started sticking a bit around 4p.
It’s sticking to my sweater! And then it piles up on the grill.
We started making dinner. Our filet which has been seasoning overnight with salt and pepper looks like this:
We put it in the oven at 225* for about 3 hours with no oil or anything. Serious Eats recipe. Meanwhile Bob made mashed potatoes (sour cream, butter, parmesan cheese) and asparagus and I put together a salad of radish, red leaf lettuce, celery and cucumbers. We finished the steak with a sear with shallots, chives and thyme and served it with horseradish. AND we had it with Joseph Phelps Insignia 2011 from Grant, my ex-colleague, almost boss and now very dear friend. It was perfect.
Bob made chocolate chip cookies for dessert and we went to bed. This is Bob’s favorite photo. The filet seasoning overnight and his future dessert underneath.
Merry Christmas! (I would like to say that every day..).
Bob and Sharon's Travel Diary 