Late Christmas and Briskies

This is a bit of a random post, just catching up on a few things.

We are back from our five months of traveling. Settling in for a few weeks at home.

Mitzi is so kind making me Pritikin worthy salads for lunch each day.

Due to our travels we didn't get our Christmas gifts out until January. Here Mitzi is putting the boxes together for our children, grandchildren, Whitney's family, and Blair's family.

Mitzi put up all the Christmas and New Year's cards we've received, and decorated for Christmas. Such a nice cozy spot. We are going to leave it up for a while since we didn't get to enjoy it in December.

She also rearranged the buffet display in the family room.

I got a hankering for making Ciabatta bread. I've been wanting to for a few years. Finally made it happen.

I followed Alexandra's Kitchen excellent sourdough ciabatta recipe here: https://alexandracooks.com/2021/04/25/simple-sourdough-ciabatta-bread/

I used my Pajaro Dunes sourdough starter and am super pleased with the outcome on the first try.

I've had this crazy fantasy idea to create a simple restaurant called Briskies. A sort of homage to my Grandpa Sid who owned a deli in Los Angeles during the 1940's. He had a famous brisket sandwich.

My fantasy is that Briskies would sell only one item: a brisket sandwich on ciabatta bread. You can choose your bbq sauce and if you want pickles or not. And that's it.

In my fantasy the operation would make it's own brisket and it's own ciabatta rolls, fresh each day. It would be super systemized. Super small. And super simple.

Briskies: The Simplest Restaurant Operation in the World. That's my dream haha.

There would be a set number of sandwiches available each day. A big sign would display how many were left and be updated in real time as sales happen. When they run out, it's out.

After Durango's difficult experience I vowed to never go into the restaurant business again. So the probability of me creating Briskies is zero. But I like to dream about it sometimes and it makes me happy.

So having said all that, I made Ciabatta for the first time then went and bought some sliced brisket at Rudy's. Mitzi and I enjoyed our Briskies sandwiches with our favorite Blues Hog bbq sauce and spicy Wickles pickles. Yum!

Here's my sandwich, ready to be enjoyed.

And to finish this post here is a picture of part of our kitchen countertop. Mitzi makes our house warm and inviting and beautiful.