Near and Afar - Christmas Countdown
Red Ticket Rumbles, Questions for NGrid, Abundant Scallops, A Decadent Breakfast
The tree is up. Presents wrapped. Boxes shipped to off-island family who won’t be with us Christmas morning. Now it’s on to the fun stuff: baking, decorating and sinking into the warmth of the holiday feeling. We are seven days away from the holiday most kids look forward to all year.
This year our tree is sporting a new ornament, sent to me by one of my subscribers who was a follower of my former “Here and There” column. Thank you, Frances!
I will say this about retirement. There is far less stress in preparing for Christmas and more time to be deliberate and to enjoy the beauty of the season.
When it comes to holiday food, we make such a feast for Christmas Eve and again for Christmas dinner that Christmas morning breakfast is minimal. Coffee, juice, some fruit and nut bread with sweet butter and maybe bacon and eggs if anyone feels ambitious and wants to turn on the stove.
I used to make these elaborate yeasted Scandinavian fruit braids for our holiday breakfast that took more time than they were worth. No more. Now I’ll make a cranberry, orange walnut bread that fills the bill for something sweet. Not that sweet is needed. Usually by mid-morning everyone’s nibbling on the chocolate Santas they found in their stockings.
Blueberry Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast
If you want to serve something more substantial for Christmas morning, I have just the thing for you in this no-recipe, recipe for baked stuffed blueberry French toast I came up with one year that is put together the night before.
Here’s what you’ll need: 1 loaf of Something Natural challah bread or any challah or brioche bread; 1 jar Stonewall Kitchen blueberry jam; one 8 oz. container of whipped cream cheese; 3 extra-large eggs; 1 ¼ cups heavy cream; 1/4 cup maple syrup, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, handful chopped pecans; confectioner’s sugar for dusting before serving.
Generously butter a 13” x 9” pan. Set aside. Cut the brioche/challah into an even number of half-inch thick slices. Spread one slice with the whipped cream cheese. Spread another slice generously with blueberry jam and sandwich the two together. Repeat with the remaining slices. Cut each sandwich in half and place in the bottom of the prepared pan, wedging the bread in until the bottom is covered. Beat together the eggs and cream, adding in the cinnamon, vanilla and maple syrup. You could add some dark rum, for an adults-only version.
Pour the custard over the bread making sure all slices are covered and submerged. Cover with tin foil and refrigerate. Overnight the custard will sink into the bread. In the morning, take the dish out of the refrigerator about two hours before you want to serve it. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Let the dish come to room temperature for about an hour. Sprinkle pecans on top. Place the French toast pan on a baking sheet and bake for one hour. Sift confectioner’s sugar over the top after the dish comes out of the oven. Serve with sweet butter and maple syrup.
Red Ticket Rumbles
The simple fact of every decision is that you can never make everyone happy. That’s what the Chamber of Commerce is finding out with its decision to move the Red Ticket Drawing this year from 2 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 1 p.m.
Social media was rife with complaints from those who said the time was a problem for people who were working. Other reasons surfaced as well. One question. If people are working at 1 p.m., aren’t they working at 2 p.m. too? Some people just like to complain.
The time of the drawing has moved over the past 50 years from very late afternoon to 3 p.m. to 2 p.m. and now 1 p.m., but always on December 24. Personally, I think this drawing on the 24th is not only inconvenient, with all the last-minute preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but that it also takes away from what Christmas is really all about.
Years ago, I wrote an editorial for the newspaper putting forth this opinion and suggested that the drawing be moved to a Saturday in January, after everyone had returned from Christmas vacation.
The newspaper was flooded with letters from people who said that the Christmas Eve drawing was as much a part of their holiday tradition as putting up the Christmas tree and setting out cookies and milk for Santa. Vox populi won. We didn’t broach the subject again.
No doubt the Chamber will be discussing this topic in detail before next year’s Stroll.
National Grid has Some Explaining to Do
It has been a rough month for the Chamber, starting with the National Grid power outage in town, just as the Stroll was getting underway. Estimates on the cumulative losses incurred by island businesses are being tallied, but officials say we are talking about millions of dollars.
Chamber head Peter Burke has been doing a good job of reaching out to members to determine the economic impact while also meeting with the Select Board and asking for answers from National Grid.
Why did this happen? Should we expect more future disruptions? What can National Grid do to ensure that if another catastrophic failure occurs, the utility has equipment and personnel in place to restore power more quickly? Some businesses were without power for 27 hours.
Everything is more difficult on an island, and National Grid needs to be better prepared to solve these problems. I’m glad to see the Chamber and the town are holding National Grid’s feet to the fire on this.
Roadwork, New Curbs and Disruptions
Installation of new sewer lines continues in town, affecting traffic on Liberty, Pine, Winter and Silver Streets. Friends on Main Street had trucks and heavy construction equipment associated with this work parked right in front of their house when they were here during Thanksgiving. Not a pleasant streetscape at all, not to mention taking up over a dozen parking spaces at a busy time of year.
This is a multi-year project, and we are now in our third year of it. The good news is that the asphalt sidewalks with Cape Cod berms that were in place on Lily, Centre and Gardner Streets during construction have been replaced with brick sidewalks, restoring our historic streetscapes. I’m assured that will continue and the asphalt sidewalks are just temporary.
Of note is the height of the granite curbs on these rebuilt sidewalks. It will be very difficult for drivers to do the Nantucket thing and drive up on the curbs where they’ve been installed without ruining their tires. That’s a good thing. Cars parking on sidewalks meant for pedestrians are an encroachment and an obstacle for anyone with mobility issues using a cane, crutches, walker or wheelchair.
“More Scallops Than We Can Catch”
I was talking to a friend who’s a longtime scalloper – 65 years to be exact – who said that the harbors are filled with an abundance of scallops this year, and of a good size too. The declining number of fishermen who go out scalloping now means that a good number of scallops will be left on the bottom, at the end of the season, where they will eventually die. Scallops only have a two-year life cycle.
Two years ago, Tara Riley, the town’s Shellfish and Aquatic Resources Manager, reported the discovery of a large area of seed, the size of several football fields. This, coupled with the efforts of both the town and island fishermen of saving seed that washes up onshore during storms and redistributing it, has led us to this year’s happy situation.
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
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This will likely be my last post until after the holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah to all of you.