HAPPY NEW YEAR 2021!!!!!!!

[ocnbrze]

Happy New Year my AF family!!!!!!!!!

i hope everyone survived the year that WAS 2020. i hope everyone made it thru healthy and intact.

I hope you celebrated safely and hopefully do not have toooo much of a hangover right now.

 

[ocnbrze]

so to start the new year off, i'm planning to make a beef stew with leeks, fennel, potatoes, carrots and the piece of resistance LOBSTER!!!!!!
and i will be using New York steaks as my beef.

its my take on surf and turf.

and i'm gonna finish it with a strawberry shortcake, a glass of bourbon, and a cheap cigar.

what are your plans for the day, if any?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Well, @ocnbrze, with THAT menu, I definitely won't be coming over for dinner!

My day will involve chocolate, and lots of it. Dark chocolate to be precise. Other than that, who cares?!

BTW, how weird is it to not be having the Rose Parade?! It's a first for our lifetimes. I just can't imagine Colorado Blvd not jam-packed right now with people oohing and aaahing over the amazing floats. I always say this, but it's true, television doesn't do justice to how amazing the floats are. Once you see them up close, you get it. The TV stations have been noting that this is a "Chamber of Commerce, picture postcard" day, the kind we have 99% of the time on New Year's Day, when people around the globe wish they could be HERE, warm, in the bright sun and blue sky, with the beautiful, snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. Well, maybe next year...

 

[Dannydet]

Enjoying the day with my wife, taking down the Xmas stuff, now ordering pizza for dinner.

 

[ocnbrze]

Well, @ocnbrze, with THAT menu, I definitely won't be coming over for dinner!

My day will involve chocolate, and lots of it. Dark chocolate to be precise. Other than that, who cares?!

BTW, how weird is it to not be having the Rose Parade?! It's a first for our lifetimes. I just can't imagine Colorado Blvd not jam-packed right now with people oohing and aaahing over the amazing floats. I always say this, but it's true, television doesn't do justice to how amazing the floats are. Once you see them up close, you get it. The TV stations have been noting that this is a "Chamber of Commerce, picture postcard" day, the kind we have 99% of the time on New Year's Day, when people around the globe wish they could be HERE, warm, in the bright sun and blue sky, with the beautiful, snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop. Well, maybe next year...

Weird but not too weird. I never really watch the parade......my mom does though.......so it's weird for her.

I read a weird article in the LA Times that was talking about at the end of the parade how the all the band members would clear out their instruments......and what you end up with was a lot of spit all over the pavement......gross. and how all that grossness could be carriers for the virus. I kind of stopped reading it cause it was just gross......lol

edit: what are you allergic to shellfish? Or don't like stew itself?

 

[MoodyBlues]

Weird but not too weird. I never really watch the parade......my mom does though.......so it's weird for her.

It's just always been a part of my life. From growing up three blocks south of Colorado Blvd, and walking up to the parade on New Year's Day, to watching it on TV from afar when I lived out-of-state--it gave me a sense of home, you know? Seeing MY mountains and city I knew so well. Homesick, too. Badly homesick. When it looked like this in Dallas:

...believe me, I WISHED I was here. That fountain was right up against my house, but it still froze solid if I didn't keep adding hot water to it. I did, because I had a lot of birds (cardinal and blue jay families, especially) counting on it as a water source in the winter, plus eating the seeds I'd put out for them.

I read a weird article in the LA Times that was talking about at the end of the parade who the all the band members would clear out their instruments......and what you end up with was a lot of spit all over the pavement......gross. and how all that grossness could be carriers for the virus. I kind of stopped reading it cause it was just gross......lol

I haven't read the paper yet today, but that's interesting.

You're funny! NOTHING (and I really do mean NOTHING) grosses me out!

 

[lunatic59]

Doesn't anyone else do the pork and sauerkraut thing on new years?

The traditional Philly thing is the Mummers parade -- cancelled this year due to the you-know-what. Unfortunately we've also got a bunch of $%^&^#^ entitled morons who are protesting the cancellation in tight groups and not a mask among them.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Doesn't anyone else do the pork and sauerkraut thing on new years?

Well, let's see.... ... hmmmmm.... NOPE!!!! A) you know (I don't eat meat), and, B) I've always despised sauerkraut! My mom loved it, and I'd force myself to serve it to her on our [vegan] hot dogs. She LOVED it. And beets. Ugh. *SMH*

As for clueless morons holding super-spreader events...

 

[Dngrsone]

Wait, it was New Years last night? Where have I been?

...oh, right: in bed, for the past freakin' week

 

[ocnbrze]

Wait, it was New Years last night? Where have I been?

...oh, right: in bed, for the past freakin' week

in bed? for the past week? are you ok? you did not get the virus did you? i hope you are ok. at least you made it thru to 2021

 

[MoodyBlues]

Wait, it was New Years last night? Where have I been?

...oh, right: in bed, for the past freakin' week

Wait, I didn't know that. Are you okay? I mean as okay as you can be after losing your mother? You're not sick with COVID are you? Or are you? Let us know.

 

[MoodyBlues]

what are you allergic to shellfish? Or don't like stew itself?

I thought you knew! I've been vegetarian-then-vegan since 1988.

As our pal @lunatic59 likes to say, I eat FAKE ice cream. Actually, it's delicious, decadent, creamy, ooeey gooey, luscious vegan ice 'cream.' And my lifelong chocoholicism is satisfied with dark chocolate--which, by the way, is GOOD for you! It has heart benefits and other stuff. Who knew?!

 

[ocnbrze]

I thought you knew! I've been vegetarian-then-vegan since 1988.

really????

i always pictured you as a cow eater

 

[Milo Willamson]

I said in a random thought thread, of my day.
Still, my ex really gave me great advice. We are still friends.
I have not seen her in forever, and still, she looks so beautiful We had a zoom get together with my other sister and my mutual friend too of just talking it up.
For the longest time, around two hours and I just been in awe of how much people do change, but they will always remain the same.
Was at my sister's place from two in the afternoon until about an hour ago, got home, and chilling with some cartoons

Played Sorry Star Wars too, was a gift of my brother in laws to me, so we were happy for a spell.

 

[ozonetrooper]

Doesn't anyone else do the pork and sauerkraut thing on new years?

I grilled phat pork ribs on the smokey and laid them on a bed of sauerkraut with black eyed peas as the side.


Later that day my neighbor gave me a healthy serving of blackeyed peas w/sausage and boiled cabbage, think I got it covered.

 

[MoodyBlues]

really????

i always pictured you as a cow eater

Yep, I sure was! I was brought up that way, as most Americans are. And meat is a very big component of Armenian cooking, too, so, yeah, that's just how it was!

For a long time after I turned vegetarian, I regretted ever having eaten meat--based on my current knowledge. In retrospect, I'm GLAD I didn't know then what I do now. I mean if, as a child, I had seen and read the things I have now about the heinous cruelty sentient beings are subjected to in the meat industry, I definitely would've wanted to go vegetarian--but I'd have been forbidden to. There's no way in hell my family would've allowed that. So I'm glad I didn't know, and I no longer feel guilty, or beat myself up, for participating in that cruelty earlier in my life.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

My Mom always cooked chitlins' on New Years. Stunk up the house but she'd eat them. I had a turkey sub to celebrate 2021. Just mayo, extra mayo, American cheese and toasted.

 

[MoodyBlues]

My Mom always cooked chitlins' on New Years. Stunk up the house but she'd eat them.

OMFG!!! Even when I did eat animals, eating their intestines never appealed to me! My cousin, whose husband was black, actually worked up the courage to taste them once: they made her gag. One and done!

 

[dontpanicbobby]

So nasty it's good.

 

[lunatic59]

There's a French country sausage called andouillette that is basically intestines' stuffed into intestines. I tried it once while in France. It honestly tasted like I would imagine eating poop would taste.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Chitlins aren't quite that bad. Close though.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

They're fried.

 

[Dngrsone]

in bed? for the past week? are you ok? you did not get the virus did you? i hope you are ok. at least you made it thru to 2021

Wait, I didn't know that. Are you okay? I mean as okay as you can be after losing your mother? You're not sick with COVID are you? Or are you? Let us know.

I'm sorry, my friends, I didn't mean to cause any concern

No, I haven't come down sick with Covid-19; I may have caught it back in the early days (late Jan 2020, before anyone knew it was in the US) and recovered, but I am (AFAIK) clean right now. I spent most of the week in bed because of my depression exacerbated by the whole year, my mother's death and the fact that my employer gave me the whole week off.

I will be back at work tomorrow, yay.

 

[lunatic59]

because of my depression

Been there. If you need a sympathetic ear ... even a virtual one ... I'm here.

 

[ocnbrze]

I'm sorry, my friends, I didn't mean to cause any concern

No, I haven't come down sick with Covid-19; I may have caught it back in the early days (late Jan 2020, before anyone knew it was in the US) and recovered, but I am (AFAIK) clean right now. I spent most of the week in bed because of my depression exacerbated by the whole year, my mother's death and the fact that my employer gave me the whole week off.

I will be back at work tomorrow, yay.

well that good as far as your health goes.....i'm glad you are ok.

as for your mother.....

i hope 2021 will be better for you.