Santa was good to me this year. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that my birthday is three days before Christmas and I expressly forbid gifts for that occasion, so Santa was able to splurge a bit on Christmas. I know, I know, Santa wouldn’t have gotten me a birthday gift anyway under normal circumstances, but you see, we’re good friends outside December 25^th and all its implications, so he tends to be there for me other times of year as well. 

In any case, Santa brought me a Sous Vide Supreme this year and for that I’m over the moon.  Don’t know what sous vide cooking is? Chances are you’ve had sous vide prepared veggies or meat a hundred times and just didn’t realize it as it’s a relatively established cooking technique in both industrial and restaurant settings, however until now the price barrier to entry for the home chef was impractical to say the least.  Cue Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades and their relatively affordable new invention, the Sous Vide Supreme.  They invented a countertop sous vide cooker that’s attractive stainless steel, not gargantuan, and holds a precise temperature to within .5 a degree, more or less.  The premise of sous vide cooking is that if you cook something at the temperature at which it should ultimately end up, but over a long period of time in a regulated water bath, it will come out tender, consistent throughout, and full of flavor.  I can now wholeheartedly attest that this is true. 

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Sometimes I can be a bit daft.  When a last minute opportunity to head to Vegas complete with a built-in babysitter/Grandma and a reservation at the coveted Atelier de Robuchon jumps into your lap, the least you could do is remember the damn camera, right? Not I so consider yourself warned: the photos in this entry were all lovingly taken with the very best in iPhone technology, sorry for my forgetfulness. 

It just so happened that last week when Jonas and I were trying to cobble together a plan for New Year’s Eve that didn’t involve driving, hanging with 18 year olds or hanging with 80 year olds, but did involve Grandma’s babysitting assistance, a fair amount of imbibing, and a bit of reveling thrown in for good measure, the phone rang.  A good thing too, as we were in the middle of a heated discussion regarding the merits of an aquarium versus a bowling alley on the biggest amateur night of the year- two options I’m glad we didn’t have to explore.  It so happened that my sisters’ boyfriend of several years had hatched a plan to propose to her in Vegas on NYE (since they live there) and at the last minute he decided it might be fun to have her family around.  I think his secret motive was to ensure she would have a heart attack one way or another- if the shock of the engagement didn’t do it the fact that her sister who she hasn’t seen in a year popping up at their table five minutes later yelling “surprise” surely would. 

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