Christmas Brunch

I was scheduled to bake the morning of the 26th, which meant I couldn't do an evening dinner party on Christmas.  And I closed the store on the 24th, so that took out Christmas Eve.  Good thing I'm Jewish.

So I made brunch instead.  Only three of us, so I didn't get too elaborate.  I didn't even create any new recipes.  I kind of modeled it after a tea, but with breakfast and lunch items.  I made a platter for build your own cold cut mini sandwiches, some latkes, a kale and white cheddar frittata, bacon and apple cinnamon rolls, and a keto rosewater-pomegranate cheesecake.  The guests brought grapes.  The goal was minimal leftovers, aka lunch for the rest of the week.

For my own dinner that afternoon (when you're a baker, dinner is around 3pm), I visited the new 99 Ranch that opened a reasonable distance from me.  No more trekking 20 miles.  The main dish was chicken with home-canned sweet and sour sauce, with vegetable fried rice and gingered bok choy for the sides.  Totally basic stuff that didn't require a trip to an ethnic market.  After putting some frozen egg tarts in my cart, I found a packet of 24 tart shells in a different freezer section for $5.  Maybe on a different trip.

This is just the bok choy section

However, I'm glad I went.  It's beautiful, organized, and still has the chain's good prices on specialty items.  There may not be as much of each item because of space restrictions, but the variety is the same.  Next time, I'll go hungry and visit the upstairs food court first.  I need to research recipes for Lunar New Year.