Christmas Aftermath

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was good. I stuffed my face with lots of yummy food and deserts. My family has a tradition where every Christmas we make what we all just call Assyrian Stew but really the actually name for the stew is called "Kurrish".

The tradition has been going since my Great-great grandmother immigrated to the U.S. from Persia during WW I. This dinner is something I look forward to every single year because we only have it at Christmas and it is sooooo delicious.

The stew is made up of tomato juice for the base, green beans, onions, cubed pieces of beef and pork, and 2 or 3 hungarian peppers for flavoring. Depending on the size of the pot you're making you let it simmer for about 4-6 hours keeping in mind the longer it cooks the better it tastes. Then, when it's all set to eat you pour the stew over rice (and not that minute rice crap, actual baked in the oven rice) and serve with a side of pocket bread and green onions. I personally prefer not to have any of the pocket bread because I would rather enjoy the stew as is, rather than filling up on bread. Usually, we also have hummus and tabouli on the table as well which is eaten with the pocket bread, but I've never cared for either one since I was a kid so I choose to leave those off my plate.

This Christmas was nice and relaxing even though it had less of a Christmas feel to it because of how busy I've been with work and the lack of time to prepare for the holiday. I wanted to put up a Christmas tree with my grandma but either she was working or I was working so we never had the time together to do it and eventually it just came down to us not putting one up. So instead my grandma, with the help of my little cousin, decorated the hibiscus we have in the living room.

I thought it was really cute, and Vern (Yes I named my plant) even decided to give us a pretty Christmas flower in the middle of winter.