Bread Pudding!

Today one of my friends back in Kitsap County is hosting an early Thanksgiving style get together, because she has been sentenced by the shipyard to spend the next month and a half or so in San Diego, supporting The Mission Statement.  Having been thus punished this way more than once myself, let me say there are worse things in the world than having to spend 6-weeks in San Diego.

I had to make a few trips to San Diego during my time in the Shipyard...one about 12-18 months, and usually lasting 4-6 weeks.  It was almost ideal as far as off station work goes...usually 12 hour shifts, with some weekends off.  4-6 weeks is an ideal length of time...long enough to make you realize how much you love your wife and kids, but not so long that you find yourself sitting in your hotel room at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, wondering if it would just be more efficient to pour out a 3rd of the bottle of diet coke, then just add the Black Velvet directly into the 2 liter bottle, instead of making individual drinks.

Yes...7 months in New York is NOT the ideal length of time for off-station work.

In final reference to San Diego...it is true that on average, the young ladies in Southern California are on a different aesthetic scale than the young ladies in the Seattle area...and that beautiful natural scenery makes the trip easier to take also.  Once again...Upstate New York in the winter was lacking in this area...ski parkas make is somewhat difficult to gauge a young ladies attractiveness.

So...in support of my friends feast today, SWMBO asked me to prepare Bread Pudding to bring as a desert.  I make a pretty tasty bread pudding, but every year at the Holidays, I find myself having the same problem...Where did I put that recipe when I was done with it last year.  So it's Hi Ho off to the internet machine to sift through site after site, recipe after recipe to find what looks to be the most correct recipe for
southern-style-christmas-bread-pudding-with-bourbon-sauce

Yup...that's the right one...Delicious.  It helps that I am fan of ANY bread pudding.  Early on though, I learned that the '1-cup' of bourbon for the sauce part of the recipe is WAY to much...I have cut it down to about 1/3rd of a cup now, and it is still fairly stout.  Last year, I tried using Hazelnut Flavor Kahlua, and that was A-Okay.  Today, rather than break open a new bottle of bourbon, I might use either Crown Royal, or I think I have an almost empty bottle of brandy.  Either one will taste quite alright. 

I also cooked up a package of pork tenderloin with honey mustard glaze.  Thin sliced and served cold on a plate with some different dipping sauces, it will make a fair appetizer, and maybe I will talk to SWMBO about donating a jar of pickled asparagus I bought in Eastern Washington also.

Other than cooking and giggling with the kids, my other free time has been taken up finishing Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia.  Good Book...very fun and fast paced read.  And, as someone who is a serious shooter it very nice not to read a book with a ton of gun mistakes.  I hate watching a movie or reading a book and finding something that is just plane WRONG.  I understand a certain poetic license in movies and books, but GET THE FACTS RIGHT! 

Two of my favorite Authors of All Time are Stephen King, and Alistair MacLean.  Mr. King needs no introduction.  Mr. MacLean should not, and wouldn't have a generation ago: HMS Ulysses, Ice Station Zebra, the Guns of Navarone and about 20 more...very entertaining spy/espionage books.  But, Mr. MacLean was not a gun person, and I occasionally develop a twitch while reading some his stories. 

Now off to add the 2nd book in the series, Monster Hunter Vendetta to the Chirstmas list.