Overabundance

What I don't understand is how, after five days of intense holiday cooking, the inside of my refrigerator still looks like this. The only possible explanation is that some ninjas came by in the middle of the night and added food while we were sleeping.

I have given myself a personal challenge to eat or give away as much of this food as possible before it goes bad.

The problem with leftovers is that you get sick of eating the same things over and over. What I am trying to do is use the ingredients but change the flavors to make them seem like something new. We had a big roast beef for Christmas dinner, with green beans on the side. Tonight I made those ingredients as a beef stir fry with Mollie Katzen's dramatically seared green beans and whole wheat noodles. I bought my parents the tiniest (and saltiest) ham ever to make on Christmas Day while I was at work, but the three of us managed to eat only about half. The rest might go into a big pot of black eyed peas for New Year's Day.

Luckily, I work in a department that's infested with locusts- anything you leave on the break room table is eaten within hours. I took some of the Christmas Eve leftovers to work with me on Christmas Day, so the thigh-enlarging treats are mostly taken care of. A half bag of pretzels and some dill dip are coming to work with me tomorrow.

I'm also making use of my freezer- three servings of beef stew are plenty for one week, but the rest will be great on cold January and February nights. My parents brought me some excellent pecans, and the leftovers will go in there for future baking.

Now I just need a suggestion for what to do with a quart or so of unsweetened soy milk. I don't want to drink it, but maybe there is some sort of household purpose for it?

The cool part of hosting Christmas is that EVERYONE who comes over brings wine. I have 9 bottles on the wine rack and in the fridge, plus some champagne. I also have a bunch of Sam Adams Winter Ale and a few Yeunglings, so Happy New Year to me! I won't need to buy wine for at least two weeks.

We had a really great Christmas here. My mom spoiled the pets as usual (I'm pretty sure this is an indication of what will happen with my future children).

Oscar really loved his new squeaky toys:

The cats got some new toys with feathers on them, which they really loved. But they both seemed to love the wrapping paper best of all. Isabelle helped me wrap:

And Leo stalked my parents' feet under the boxes:

So long for now, KISS (keep it simple stupid), and please, tell me what to do with the soy milk!