Processing

That's what I'm up to, Internet: processing. You?

Two nights ago when I received Bertha (yep, I've named her, and she'll eat anything, so she's Bertha) I sliced three potatoes into fries in less than five minutes. While those baked with a little chili powder and olive oil, I whipped up some garlic aioli. The first batch didn't emulsify because of a bad recipe, and can I just say that anyone who thinks you can make mayo with one egg yolk is crazy, but the addition of another yolk was all it took for round 2. Fries and garlic mayo for dinner - delicious.

Last night I had a little less time, because I had a party from 5-6pm. It was so much fun, y'all - my neighbor's Monday English class is four kids, about eight years old, and I went over to help her keep them entertained for the Christmas party. We sang a carol, we decorated a tree, we played pin-the-face on-the-Santa, and we played Twister. There were gifts, and the whole house is decked out for the holiday - it's great!

Speaking of which, I am a giant Scrooge McDuck this year. I'm not really sure why - I think it's about half laziness and half Japaniness, because even though there are secular Christmas trimmings everywhere here, having a tree in my house would really just emphasize the fact that there isn't any family nearby to enjoy it with, baby baby. You can't end a sentence with a preposition, but you CAN end a sentence with a PROposition. I was kind of worried about what I'd do with wrapped gifts since a pile with no tree seems kind of tacky, but so far we've received only cards and gift certificates and a certain Big Bertha which is already in use, so no problem there.

ANYWAY, I got my Christmassy fill next door, and there are five more parties this week that I'm helping with. When I got home last night I was just going to relax and play Wii Sports, but Bertha called to me from the kitchen: process! Process! What's a girl to do? I threw in a handful of sesame seeds and a little sesame oil and water, a couple cans of beans, fresh garlic, salt, pepper and vinegar, et voila: bean dip!