Well, I was reading Susan Ellis’ blog Hungry Memphis at The Memphis Flyer website this afternoon. By the way, Susan has been absolutely killing it with good information this week from Cochon to the Business Journals best chef craziness. Well she wrote about the Farm to Table  Conference that is coming to town this week, and BAM, it hit me. Two weeks ago, I had a little email interview with Christian Man about this very same conference, and like the Cochon-crazed person I have become, I just sat on the interview and forgot to post it up.

So, with that, apologies are in order to Christian and to anyone that would have preferred to get this information two weeks ago. Here’s some info on the Farm to Table Conference for Mid-South Producers, which will take place on February 6, 2012 from 8 AM to 5 PM at the Memphis Bioworks Foundation Conference Center.

From Farm to Table to Internet to Your Computer – The Interview

Christian, tell me a little about yourself.

I am a native Memphis and currently work for Knowledge Quest, a community non-profit organization in South Memphis, where I coordinate Green Leaf Learning Farm, an urban educational agriculture program.

You’re on the planning committee for the Farm to Table Conference, what’s that all about.

Presenters and panelists include farmers from the local farmers market, like Arkansas DeltaMade, Newman Farms, Olive Hill Community Growers, representatives from Urban Farms and Whole Foods Market, and Tony Geraci, Executive Director of Child Nutrition for Memphis City Schools.

The conference will feature sessions on a variety of important topics for the local food system – from marketing produce to grocery stores, schools and restaurants, to vegetable production, community supported agriculture, new farm start-ups, and food policy. A networking lunch will provide attendees the chance to further develop relationships and collaborative opportunities.

In your opinion, what’s the one thing that eaters in Memphis should know?

Eating “locally” is not an activity for elites. It’s just a matter of educating yourself and choosing wisely. Las Delicias is an excellent example—inexpensive and tasty.

How does one attend the conference?

You can register online at Brown Paper Tickets or at the conference the day of (Feb. 6).

For our hungry readers, tell us the last three local places that you ate?

Soul Fish, Sweet Grass, Fino’s From the Hill

Thanks Christian!

From Interview to Conference aka The End

Here’s the deal. I don’t know it all about food, not even close. But what I do know is that local farms are providing us with awesome food, and I know that the more we support their efforts as an industry the better off we will be. Maybe I’m out of line, but it seems to make sense to eat things that are grown/raised around us when they are available. And, I’ll tell you one thing, I will continue to support these folks, because, I don’t want to live in a place/time/whatever where local food is not available!

-Thomas

What’s the proper course of action when you hear that the biggest burger you’ve ever eaten has a larger, tastier twin? The proper course would probably be to run as fast as you can to the nearest salad bar. But, here’s to the people that figured out how high a roof was by jumping off of it instead of getting a measuring tape and a ladder. I didn’t go it alone, so here’s to the two brave fellows that took on the Mr. Goodburger Challenge.

It isn’t the most beautiful picture, but then again, this burger does fall in line with traditional beauty. It is as beautiful as an Andre the Giant bodyslam, as beautiful as Frankenstein, and as beautiful as a GREAT WHITE SHARK. Beauty because of what it is capable of, what it has on the inside, not because it is dolled up.

As the three of us did battle with the behemoth, we made slow but steady progress. The bottom bun was close to disintegration, meat was everywhere, the four slices of bacon looked like a third patty on the top, but through it all, the flavor, oh the flavor.

As we sat, watching Days of Thunder, I was like a brain-hemorrhaging Rowdy Burns and the burger came at me like Cole Trickle swinging a baseball bat at the pool table, threatening to “fix it right here!”

It was a hell of a night. I might wait a while before attempting it again, but you can be sure that I’ll be back, although I would say that a single patty with bacon wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world! See you there!

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Roxie’s Grocery
520 N 3rd St
Memphis, TN 38105
(901) 525-2817

T: Holy Berkshire!
K: What?
T: Cochon is coming to Memphis!!! This is only the coolest sounding food event that I have ever heard of. 5 pigs 5 chefs and 1 extremely excited T-Rob!!!

Well, here we are, less than a week from the competition, and I’m not sure that everyone has a grip on what’s about to happen at One Commerce Square on Saturday. So instead of me trying to figure out the best way to explain something that I have never actually been to (although my intuition on things like pork festivals is pretty strong), I went to four people that know what they are talking about in Kelly English, a contestant and chef of a place you might have heard of before, Restaurant Iris; Michael Hudman, former lacrosse superstar, and Andy Ticer, the two chefs at a little place called Andrew Michael that are also competing in the event; and Brady Lowe, only the brainchild and head honcho of Chochon555 and the Taste Network. So, here’s how this will go, I’ll ask the questions and some of these guys will answer them up. Pictures from previous Cochon events will set them ambiance (thanks to Brady for letting me use all of them).

I assume that after you read this you will want to get tickets. Go to the Cochon website for info on that.

The Great Cochon Interview

Cochon and Heritage Breed Pork – What’s It All Mean?

 Thomas: Brady, tell us a little about yourself. Where did your interest in food come from?

Brady: I give most of my food passion credit to my family. It’s a huge part of our lifestyle, especially father, who recently passed away.  We were raised with this great love of food.

Thomas: What’s Cochon all about?

Kelly: Cochon 555 is the celebration of responsible farming, cooking and eating.

Michael and Andy: Bringing awareness to the farmers around the country returning to the roots of food. Sustainability and a good product, that’s what heritage breed farmers promote. We think that they are changing the food culture, making it more about quality than quantity. And Cochon is the granddaddy party to celebrate heritage pork famers.

Thomas: Brady, what made you start the Cochon competition?

Brady: I founded Cochon 555 when all of my friends — chefs, winemakers, farmers, were telling me about the huge need to educate the population about heritage pork.  As a result, I am so passionate about increasing awareness of the sources that support a more natural, sustainable food system. I think the best way to spread the word is through unique culinary experiences.

It all started from a series of conversations. I met farmers struggling to keep their family businesses alive. I saw restaurants looking to source exceptional ingredients. And I heard from consumers wanting to know where their food comes from and how it has been raised. All of these conversations converged into one idea: the ultimate quest for content and flavor. The Cochon tour is a journey that I knows food lovers will want to join, like touring with your favorite band, watching new artists take the stage to showcase their own riffs on pork, and eating your heart out while the band just plays flavor all night long.

One team's plate from Cochon555 - NYC

Thomas: In the competitions 4th year, how are things different than your first year?

Brady: I would have to say the momentum for the tour and for the cause.  Heritage Breed Pigs are so much a part of popular thought these days, as people are discussing sustainable eating in the media and in forums.  The tour continues to gain recognization and respect.  People are calling me every day to participate, lend a hand, invite us to their town. All this being said, the cause and mission is still as important as ever.  We need more chefs to see the value for heritage breed pigs, more consumers to be willing to pay more for it, and more farmers to raise them.

Thomas: Why is it important to celebrate heritage breeds of pork?

Michael and Andy: Heritage is history. Without history, where would we be? By using a heritage breed, like Mark Newman’s Berkshires, which we use exclusively, we’ve developed a really important relationship that inspires us constantly.

Kelly: If you look at the people raising these pigs, they are the most passionate people in their industry. This is not the most economical or easiest way to get a pig from pasture to plate, but these farmers care about what they do. Same thing with the chefs involved, their restaurants are about way more to them than just a bottom line…to each of us our restaurants mean much more to us than dollars and cents, our restaurants ARE who we are.

Brady: Flavor.  There are a long list of reasons, but at the end of the day, for me, it’s about saving flavor.

Thomas: What are the challenges or excitements of cooking with a whole hog?

Kelly: It is exciting to honor the life of an animal by using every scrap of it. That’s such an overlooked part of cooking, if I roast a chicken and it gets overcooked or didn’t give it my best effort, then I have wasted that life. I take that seriously.

Michael and Andy: When you start with something as beautiful as a whole Berkshire, slung over Mr. Newman’s shoulder coming through our door and wind up with these amazing cuts, with all these different flavors and textures stretched across the prep table, it inspires you. We look over the table and we start asking each other, what about this? or this?

It reminds us of Italy, when we watched our foster family slaughter their pig, the whole family would start to do their job, yelling back and forth to each other different ways to utilize it. They only got the one and it had to last. For them, it was a thing of real beauty, something they respected because it was theirs—they’d raised it, they’d fed it, and now it would feed them. And there are always challenges. Each pig is different. Each one has a few surprises while we fabricate it.

M-Town, The 901, Feb 4, 2012, The Scoop

Thomas: Why bring the competition to Memphis?

Brady: Memphis has such a rich pork history.  I’ve wanted to get there forever. You have talented chefs who are supporting the cause and consumers who are eager to learn more about the breeds.

Thomas: How pumped are you to have the competition in Memphis? What does that say for our city?

Kelly: When I was in Atlanta I could not believe the production of the event…oysters, caviar, wine, butchering demos, chicharons in so many places you would think that Willie Wonka dreamt it up. I said to Brady after the event, “If you are celebrating the pig, and you don’t come to Memphis, well then you really aren’t celebrating the pig.” The tour stopping here says so much about where we are right now as a community from restaurants to emphasis on wine to emphasis on sustainability and green living to the way we think about food and eat it…Memphis is a badass place.

Michael and Andy: Since we are born and bred Memphians, this is our home. This city is our heart, and it’s the most supportive group of people in the world. And there is so much freaking talent in this city. There are incredible people doing incredible food here, but lots of times, it feels like the city gets overlooked, that people have almost forgotten that Memphis is an amazing food city. Cochon 555, and Brady Lowe, they see it and bringing this event here is turning a national food spotlight on our town. We love it. We are so excited.

Thomas: What should people expect when they come down to One Commerce Square on Feb. 4?

Kelly: Leave your expectations at home, don’t come in with any preconceptions. Things you never thought of with pork will happen. I judged last year in New Orleans and Eric from La Provence did a Pork Baked Alaska, it blew my mind.

Brady: Pork, pork and more pork. It’s five chefs each preparing whole roasted heritage pigs so you should expect to taste ears and trotters.  They also should expect amazing cheese, an endless supply of wine, caviar, a fun guess the ingredients challenge from our friends at Le Creuset, a rockin’ Perfect Manhattan bar, a champagne toast from Laurent-Perrier.  It’s a walk around event, so we ask people to bring an appetite.

Michael and Andy: One hell of a show. It’s going to be porktastic.

Another team's creation at Cochon555 - NYC

Random Food and Drink Question Lightning Round

Thomas: Bourbon or Scotch?

Kelly: Bourbon every time. I like mine with ice and family and friends.

Brady: Bourbon and ryes, American craft all the way.

Michael and Andy: Well, Bourbon obviously.

Thomas: Pancakes or Waffles?

Michael and Andy: Waffles

Brady: Waffles … with bacon and ice cream

Kelly: Both, but no syrup for me. Sorghum or Molasses…I have never really had a big sweet tooth, even when I was a kid.

Thomas: BBQ sandwich or Ribs?

Kelly: Where are we eating?

Andy: I’m sandwich. Michael: Ribs. All the way.

Brady: Seriously? Bones all the way

Thomas: Ribs – wet or dry?

Brady: I always go for both, but dry is better when you are driving

Kelly: Dry.

Michael and Andy: Wet. Especially and mostly from Cozy Corner.

Where Do Yall Eat?

Thomas: Where might people find you out for dinner when you aren’t in your restaurant?

Kelly: We have so many good places in town that it is hard to answer that. Las Tortugas is where I find myself a lot.

Michael and Andy: We love to grill. We eat in Andy’s backyard a lot. For lunch, we eat at Cozy Corner, Gus’s, and Bosses. We do go to Restaurant Iris (but don’t tell Kelly). Felicia Suzanne’s, Interim and Sweetgrass are great options. If it’s local, we eat it.

Thomas: For my traveling eaters, are there any places that you absolutely recommend in other parts of the country?

Brady: Man, that is a great question – i love Toro and Oya in boston – Del Posto in NYC, Lark in seattle, there are a lot of great places and my stomach hurts now after tinking about it.

Thomas: What is your best tip on a place that most people may not know about?

Kelly: Everyone knows about the burgers at Topps BBQ right? The pasta salad at Bogies Deli is ridiculous. The vegetarian (yes, I said it) udon at Dō is stupid good. The quiche at Beauty Shop is the best brunch item in this hemisphere.

Michael and Andy: Casablanca for sure. Between Mendenhall and Truce. Great little place with awesome schwarmas. We also just got introduced to the best muffalata in Memphis at this place called Jerry’s Sno-Cones on Wells Station.

Thomas: Anything else?

Kelly: I like to cook food.

That wraps up the Great Cochon interview, and hopefully, you now have better understanding of what Cochon555 is, why heritage breed pork is important, and of how cool the guys at Restaurant Iris and Andrew Michael are. All four of these guys have a great passion for what they do, and that is why we are lucky to have them around. See you on February 4!

-Thomas

So, last year K’s father and stepmother hosted a Christmas family dinner, which became an instant tradition. It was so good that we gave it an official name, the 1st Annual Clan Gordon English Dinner. It went down as one of my favorite 10 meals of the year, and it was really a huge hit. Well, this year was no different, and we set up on January 1. Prepare to witness the early frontrunner for best meal of 2012, the 2nd Annual Clan Gordon Dinner (New Orleans edition).

There are a lot of photos, so I’ll mainly let them do the talking.

Crab cakes and biscuits mingle before getting cooked.

Crab cakes sizzling. There was much rejoicing.

A well thought out table setting.  The hosts had a wine pairing for every dish. Those glasses would not be empty for long (or stay full for long).

These crab cakes were seriously delicious. It was like Baltimore meets New Orleans meets my belly. Ohhh yeeaaaaahh.

Herb biscuits. Every meal needs a good platform.

Duck breasts with a Steen’s cane syrup and molasses glaze.

Sidenote, I ran into Kelly English (he cooks pretty good) recently, and I asked him about Steen’s, and he said it is one of the 4 things that Louisianians take very seriously in terms of food. The other three were boudin, andouille sausage, and white rice. Get some if you haven’t had it before End Sidenote.

This duck ended up being one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten. It was sweet and tender, kind of like me.

This spoon bread was made with the home-made andouille sausage that K’s dad made a month earlier. That’s a wholenother (isn’t that such a Southern word) blog post, but basically, K’s dad taught me, K, K’s brothers and their lady friends how to make country pate, andouille, chaurice, and plain ol’ breakfast sausage. It was a total sausage fest (yeah, yeah, I could see that one coming). Back to the spoon bread, it was awesome, and it was definitely cool that it was made with the sausage that we had all made.

Sidenote. In a similar activity, last week the same group got together to turn about 30 pounds of pork belly into various bacons, pancettas, salt porks, and the early stages of some pork confit. That is foreshadowing for a future blog post. End Sidenote.

OK, I started to get really hungry at this point and quit taking photos of all the individual items. On my plate, you see the previously referenced duck, biscuits, and spoon bread. What is new is the black-eyed-peas that were also cooked with the andouille sausage and the turnip greens that were cooked with sausage and ham hock. Greens are my favorite vegetable, and these were as good as any I’ve had.

Here’s another view of the two latecomers.

Here is the chocolate bread pudding that was baking up a storm while we sat at the dinner table. It is hard to get great photos of things that are basically solid colors, so I settled for an action shot with the knife and the bread having a little post-slice conversation.

Here’s the bread pudding with some spiced whipped cream that one of the lovely ladies put together. It just melted right into the hot bread pudding. This was decadence, overkill, and insane, but oh so necessary, and oh so good.

Recap

The 1st Annual Clan Gordon Christmas Dinner went down in the books as one of the best meals of 2011, and I can say pretty easily that the first dinner of 2012 is firmly locked in place on the list for 2012. There are few things in life that are as good as a family dinner done right. When done like this, it creates the perfect combination of excellent food, flowing beverages, conversation, comfort, familiarity, and to me, the best part, is the mutual care and affection that is the basis for the whole thing.

The title of this blog is Eat Local Memphis, and all of those words are important to me. Of course, and obviously, I love eating and all the community and fellowship and fun that comes with it. I love local, because I really want to support those that are making this a unique place and that have decided to share their passions, talents, and ultimately take a risk to do that. And I love Memphis. I know some people, maybe even some of you, give it a bad rap some times, but I love this place, and I wouldn’t trade it for anywhere else.

Do something cool soon. Invite some friends or some family over for dinner. Have some music, some drinks, and maybe even give them a little job in the kitchen when they get there. It is a good reminder that no matter how many awesome restaurants (a lot) we have, it is important to use your home for some of the festivities! Hell, invite me over if you need an extra to fill out the table and you have a weird desire to have your food photographed and publicly commented on!

-Thomas

PS. Thanks also to Emeril. All the recipes came from one of his cookbooks. I’ll pass on that info when I get it. Ironically, it was a cookbook where he was skinny on the cover.

Let’s say you were sitting around wondering where you could find a great burger in Memphis. Maybe you even dared to wonder who serves the best burger in Memphis. Type “Memphis best burger” into the ol Google, and you’ll likely find the Best Memphis Burger blog near the top.

(Sidebar – start humming some Braveheart like music in your mind) This blog is all about one man’s quest to locate the best hamburger in a city full of legit hamburgers. Bam!

So this site has become a bit of a resource for me and my burger chowing crew, which primarily consists of me, the Counselor, and the Professor. So the Counselor hollered at me a bit ago to ask if I had tried out Roxie’s Grocery. Never heard of it, so I checked out the BMB blog on it, and in true Jerry McGuire fashion, he had me at “It was like a double giant Tops Bar-B-Q cheeseburger on steroids.”

Photo from BestMemphisBurger.com

That being said, the Counselor and I fired up the Eat Local mobile and headed over to 520 N. Third, which is right in the middle of the Uptown development to try a couple of these Uptown Burgers. We zipped into the grocery, which is dark and a little crowded on the inside, headed to the back, checked out their burly menu (includes corndogs), and ordered a couple of burger combos for the road (no place to eat inside).

Here’s what it looked like plated up. This burger went total #beastmode. Two patties, and really one would probably be plenty. Three cheeses melted all over the place. Onions and peppers that had been grilled up made a great addition, and the classic white bun soaked up all that goodness like you know it should.

This is another shot of the monster. The meat was seasoned well and cooked just right. This thing was seriously delicious.

Here’s a shot that gives a little perspective on this thing. Those soft hands may not have spent many days doing manual labor, but they aren’t tiny hands either. Eating this thing was like doing curls.

So here’s the verdict. Not afraid to take on one of Memphis’ best and biggest burgers? Go get the Uptown at Roxie’s. That sounds like too big of a task? Try one of their smaller options. Roxie’s is right on the border of Downtown/Uptown, easy to get to, and delicious. If you like it, give props to the Best Memphis Burger man. Thanks for the tip!

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Roxie’s Grocery
520 N 3rd St
Memphis, TN 38105
(901) 525-2817

I had never seen this on TV, as I typically only watch TV in bunches on Netflix or when I’m trying to watch the Tigers, Manchester United, or basically any football game that is on the channels that my antenna picks up (yes, I use an antenna for TV). Buuuuuutttt, I do read a lot of blogs, so I know that bacon has been at an all-time popularity high lately, like Clark’s desert boots and old-school, non-automatic coffee brewing techniques.

Thus, the bacon mocha coffee has made it to Memphis. Sounds like something that Zoolander would get. I asked the nice ladies behind the counter about it, and they confessed to never having tried it, although they assured me that at least two or three people do like it. I also found out that they ended up with the bacon-flavored syrup, because a customer brought it in for them to try out. So, I did what a food blogger does, and I said (internally of course) “screw it” and ordered one.

Next thing I know I have two coffees, one that I wanted and one that I was compelled to order. The International Bacon Lobby will be pleased that their guerrilla marketing has done a number on me.

How was it you ask? It was like a regular mocha with a hint of smokiness. It was more aroma than flavor, and it was like the inference of their being bacon in my drink, more than the idea that there might be some thick sliced Benton’s floating around in there. What was my experience, it was like drinking a mocha that made me think of bacon, and as a man, bacon is one of those things that has never really let me down. So the smell of bacon is somewhere up there with the smell of freedom and the smell of a game winning shot. If that makes sense to you, then, I guess we are kindred spirits. If it doesn’t, then don’t worry, you are probably much more normal than me anyway.

Go try one, or just take my word that it was interesting. Either way, I guess it is nice to know that it is there, just like freedom.

-Thomas

PS. I didn’t take a picture of the coffee, because it just looked like every other coffee in a to-go cup.

Poplar Perk’n
4610 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN 38117

An Elizabeth Alley Sketch

The class combined a great subject for my ADD-style life, one in which I am always doing multiple things at once, or quickly switching from one activity to another.  Writer’s ADD side note: Currently, I’m alternating between watching the Tebowie video, playing Words With Friends, writing this blog, listening to Terrapin Station, and watching tv on Netflix End ADD no(wait! look at that)te…

So, anyway, sketching is a great activity for me, because it allows me to work on my artistic skills when I have a little bit of time. The other great part about it is that it lends itself to building up a visual vocabulary, which helps when I want to really sit down and draw or paint something. Just like I couldn’t write this blog the same way without the years of picking up random slang (“those potatoes are savage!” “That pizza was hella-unreal,” “Broseidon, where’d you get that local chalupa???” “This blog is total jibber-jabber” etc), I can’t produce much worthwhile art without having some visual vocab in my arsenal.

So, anyway, my first sketching class kept things somewhat simple by limiting me to blacks, whites, and greys (not so simple). But I’m really pumped for this upcoming session, because it will bring color into the picture. I imagine that it will be something like the cinematic classic Pleasentville.

So, if learning how to sketch sounds as awesome to you as it does to me, you should think about taking the class with me. It will be for the next three Thursdays from 6pm-9pm. It’ll be totally gnar-adical. See you there!

-Thomas

Sketching in Color
Flicker Street Studio

With this game featuring two dominant teams, K and I had to get with the program and get a dominant take out order for the game. While this may no be a traditional tailgate, our dinner from Sekisui Pacific Rim (SPR) is a great matchup for the game. With LSU, I first think of the awesome secondary, led by Claiborne and the Honey Badger. With Bama, I think of a powerful running game with Richardson and Memphis’ own, B. Jones.

When I think about the awesome team at SPR, the standout is the crab salad. It is simply put together, but like any great team is better than the sum of its parts. Losing the quick access to this salad has proven to be the most difficult part of moving to Midtown from a place right in their neighborhood.

This is a Heisman-level salad. Take my word for it.

The other awesome part about watching LSU and Bama is that they are both so stocked with talent. With each of these there is the chance that a really good player that hasn’t gotten a lot of publicity will step up and be the x-factor. There is a similar situation going on with my sushi order as well. K went off the grid and deep into the depth chart to pick out some rolls that aren’t a part of our normal starting lineup (INSANE FOOTBALL METAPHORS!!!!).

I’m not even sure what all we got, but I have a feeling that, like tonight’s game, it will be all good.

Enjoy some football, and I hope you’re enjoying your gameday meal!

-Thomas

You want to go to there:

Sekisui Pacific Rim
4724 Poplar Avenue
Memphis, TN 38117
(901) 767-7770

Maybe?

Whether that does it for you or not, I’m excited about 2012. I can foresee a lot of cool things/people/places to blog about, and I’m looking forward to writing about them. I’m resolved (or rosolutioned) to post at least 100 times in 2012, so you have that to either look forward to or worry about.

Remember that I want to hear from you, and if you have any recommendations on places that I need to eat or people that I need to interview, let me know!

That’s it for now, but expect some rapid fire posting, including a write up about tonight’s fish taco experiment. Let’s end on this:

From me and K to you.

-Thomas

As long as I can remember, I’ve been eating Christmas Eve dinner at my mom’s house. This year, we changed the plans so that Christmas Eve would actually fall on December 22, so that everyone that had to travel could be there for our key event. Here is a visual run down of what happened.

Folk’s Folly filets waiting to get cooked (but not cooked very much).

Brussells sprouts waiting to get cooked up. Inspiration? Kelly English’s sprouts at Iris.

My brother and his lovely lady prepped these taters for their trip to the oven.

Oysters on the half shell is the traditional starter at Christmas Eve. We get ours at The Cove. You can too.

The full oyster set up.

Pistachio brittle, courtesy of K. There is probably a whole other blog post about this stuff…

I caught a glimpse of the steaks after they cooked while filling up my beverage in the kitchen.

Those stuffed taters, ready for action.

Sprouts and bacon.

Steaks cooked (the Thomas Kellar way). This was maybe the best combination of quality meat and perfect cooking I have ever had. Artichoke hearts also from Folk’s Folly.

The plate.

After dinner, we retired for coffee, pie, and some gift exchanging by the fire. Here’s Muddy’s pecan pie and cranberry apple pie served with some awesome vanilla bean gelato.

Have a happy Christmas Eve and a merry Christmas!

The early Christmas Eve meal was a huge success. Great to spend time with friends and family and sit by the fire. There isn’t much better than time spent with the people that we love. Well, I’m off to church and to Christmas Eve dinner at my sister’s. Enjoy whatever it is that you’ve got planned, and enjoy the people that you spend it with.

-Thomas

PS. Don’t forget the real meaning of Christmas!