The sun in shining, old ladies are rattling through my alley with Kroger shopping carts, the camelias are blooming, the sounds of Junior Kimbrough, The Black Keys and Loretta Lynn are floating through my open windows, booming 80s-era Cadillacs are passing by, tiny empty malt liquor bottles bought at gas stations are glistening in the grass, the spanish moss still hangs in the old oak tress and the clouds look like mile-high meringues over a blue hydrangea sky. 

After a flu so bad that the ghost of Waylon Jennings or some black metal band like Witchmaster or Skyforger should have written a song about it and the subsequent viral laryngitis/respiratory infection that plagued me all Christmas break in Minneapolis, it’s good to be back in Savannah. Like, really good. 

And since I am not taking any classes in an effort to do some hardcore toiling on my thesis, I don’t have group projects or evening classes to blame for not posting. So look forward to enjoying the fruits of my newfound devotion to taking care of business in 2012. 

Since the only successful culinary venture I had during the holidays was putting red hots on christmas cookie wreaths with my grandma in between coughing and having a great extra-strength-rapid-release tylenol/fever-induced hallucination of making a coconut cake in the shape of Ryan Gosling, let’s look at the glorious gastronomical gifts my family gave me for Christmas like the pee-my-pants-beautiful jadeite cake stand and cookbooks above. 

Red gingham ramekins from my mama who also has hereditary ginghamitis

It’s a berry basket. It’s ceramic. It’s a ceramic berry basket, which begs the question: is this the pinnacle of man-made cuteness? 

I’m so over the moon for my first Le Creuset pieces that I took them on an embarrassingly nerdy senior portrait-style photo shoot all over my landlord’s backyard. I recently made Ina Garten’s Lemon Chicken Breasts in the braiser, and it took “holy crap this is good chicken” to a new level. 

My grandpa insisted that he and my grandma get me an apple slicer for Christmas after my last post, and my uncle gave me a flattened Corona bottle which acts as a spoon rest - repurposing at its best. I also found a gnome-sized powdered sugar sifter and strawberry huller in my stocking. 

My grandma gave me these adorable pot holders and a tea towel along with a reversible quilted table topper to go with the theme of my kitchen/living room, which kind of looks like if Michelle Obama, a Northeast Minneapolis Bartender and Willie Nelson decorated a Cracker Barrel in two days on a $200 budget. 

I also snagged these oven safe plates that belonged to my dad in college, which also goes with the alternative themes of my living room: domestic items of my parents’ heydays and/or my mother is secretly using my house as a storage unit. 

It was a great Christmas. Now all I need is the City of Savannah Historic Review Board to approve my kitchen expansion plan. 

I’ll leave you now with a picture of my Southern Belle Echinacea that’s blooming outside my door in case you live in a place that leads you to forget what flowers look like this time of year. 

Next up: poorly lit iPhone photo of the week, pecan-crusted chicken with Vidalia onion dressing, fingerling potatoes and haricot vert and pictures of my 30Rock Season Premiere menu featuring Pimento Night Cheese.