Some statistics of my month-long trip to the United States:

- travelled 13,770 miles (about 22,000 kilometers), according to my frequent flyer miles
- that's only about half of what I would need to get to the next frequent flyer level
- visited 6 different time zones, some more than once (Eastern, Central (lay-over), Mountain (lay-over), Arizona, Pacific, Western Europe)
- visited 7 states (NY, VT, MI (lay-over), AZ, NV, MN (lay-over), NJ)
- spent more time in airport terminals than I care to remember, including an 8 hour wait at McCarran (LAS)
- took 7 flights, 5 of which were either overbooked or completely full
- had my checked bag inspected by TSA at least twice (likely due to the 2 quart bottle of maple syrup I picked up in VT)
- met some of my closests friends, including Saveme, LetThemEatPoly and _ireland_, plus several people I met somewhere other than through this site
- experienced my first earthquake (though I was on the PATH/subway and didn't feel a thing)
- experienced my first hurricane/tropical storm, which had me stuck in the New York City area for 2 extra days (which would've been 5 if it wasn't for the wonderful Deunan finding me a flight home, through MSP)
- handed out more than 20 rolls of Dutch chocolate and 6 packs of stroopwafels
- attended a wedding
- screwed up a wedding cake (damn poured fondant that I never used before, the carving came out perfect)
- spent more money at the arcade at Circus Circus than at the Las Vegas casino's
- didn't win anything at the casino, but that was to be expected with the whopping $21 I gambled
- probably spent more money than I should have, but it was worth every dollar

Now if only I could get rid of this jet lag.

It looks like I'll be stuck in the New York area untill September 2nd, all the flights were full. Not sure yet how I'm going to afford 5 extra nights here. They told me to call back tomorrow or Monday to see if there are any cancellations, maybe something opens up.

I'm supposed to be flying home out of JFK this Sunday. We'll see how that goes. Current predictions have the path of the storm going right over the airport. Anyone on the East Coast that has a spare couch?

Update: all flights out of the NewYork area on the 28th are cancelled. No available flights on KLM/Delta on the 27th in the Tri-State area, so will have to call them for another date (can only select the 26th-28th myself) or divert to another airport.

So, yeah, I kind of forgot to take pictures while cooking for Christmas... I made a few things:

Chicken soup
I just made a broth with chicken, roughly chopped fennel, onion, celery, carrots and leeks, and some parsley. Then I ditched the vegetables, plucked the meat off the chicken and by the time dinner came around, I added some new, finely chopped vegetables and heated it up.

Green beans wrapped in prosciutto
You can check my Christmas blog from 2 years ago for the recipe.

Green bean casserole
I think everyone in the States knows how to make this.

Cornbread
I used this recipe. It came out really tasty. This was the first time I made this.

Sweet potato
I just made mashed potatoes with a bit of milk and butter.

Pommes Duchesse
Just mash some cooked potatoes with salt, pepper and an egg, and pipe on to a cookie sheet or baking tray. Place into a hot oven for a few minutes untill they turn golden brown.

Ham
Not really a recipe required. I use a frying pan with both butter and olive oil (butter for flavour, oil to prevent the butter from burning).

Turkey
The first time ever I made a whole turkey, and sadly, I overcooked it a little. It was still very tasty, but kind of dry. Oh well, you learn. I mixed about 2 sticks of butter with the zest of one lemon, a couple of slices of finely chopped prosciutto, rosemary and thyme. Then I stuffed the butter mixture between the breast and skin of the turkey, and rubbed some of it on the outside.

Stuffing
I used this recipe.

Pecan maple ice cream
This was my recipe of choice. It came out sooooo good. Everyone loved it. I made a double batch and used the egg whites that were left over to make a whole bunch of meringue cookies. I also made the maple whipped cream mentioned in the recipe with the little bit of cream and maple syrup I had left.

Pecan pie
Also a recipe from JoyOfBaking. I was actually surprised about how sweet it was. With all that sugar and golden syrup, I expected a really, really sweet pie, but it wasn't overly sweet. It was just good.

I expect to visit that site quite a bit in the future, as I got myself a stand mixer slash food processor. slash blender slash juicerWell, my Dad paid part of it as my Christmas present. I love it. My brother and his girlfriend got me a cd and some Beatles stuff (mugs, plectrums, poster). It was ok. I'm a bad person to buy gifts for, as there's not much I care about, and what I do care about, I tend to buy for myself already. I'll admit to that.

I was off from work the past 2 weeks. Besides the tons of work preparing Christmas dinner, I pretty much did nothing. I'm just so tired. I haven't been sleeping well lately. I have a hard time falling asleep, and I wake up several times a night. I think it's just the stress from work, and the fact it's about a year ago that my Mom got sick. I've been thinking about here a lot lately. I miss her.