The last post of 2022. What a long strange year it has been, right? I don’t think anyone will mind showing the first year post COVID the door.

This afternoon I had my last reminder of why I think this year has been ridiculous when I had an unsolicited reach out from someone today who really was kind of douchey. A stranger no less, but kind of the way the year has been. And when it’s obnoxious outreach it’s always social media. Sometimes that is why it was nice pre-social media: less contact with unpleasant strangers.

It has been quite the year of blogging. It’s feast or famine, love me or hate me. But the thing is, I still write for myself really. I like to write.

I decided to end this year with food-ish post. The recipe as it exists for what I’m making for New Year’s Eve dinner which should be done shortly.

Aldi stores carry these Black Angus boneless beef ribs. I wanted to make something comfort food-ish since we were running around today and had some family obligations. It’s a bummer because we were invited to a fabulous black tie New Year’s Eve party but there was no way we would make it in time.

So what I did was brown the ribs in a dredge of flour and seasoned salt and Herbes de Provence. I pulled them out and set them aside.

Next I deglazed the pan with Marsala wine. Then I added chopped celery, 1 chopped white sweet onion, 1 chopped red onion, and a little head of garlic all chopped up.

When the onion and celery were translucent I added a couple of diced carrots and one container of fresh baby Bella mushrooms and one container of white button mushrooms.

After the remaining vegetables had cooked a bit I added back the beef. Then I added more Marsala and about half of a 32 ounce container of beef stock. Finally I added halved baby Yukon gold potatoes I had pre-cooked a little.

It all went into a 325° preheated oven, and a little over an hour it was all cooked and fork tender. If I make this again, I won’t pre-cook the potatoes and I will do it in a 250° oven, low and slow for a few hours.

It turned out pretty well for a dinner that was just a random thought the other day.

In between today’s obligations, I stopped to pick up a couple of vintage cook books from a vintage and antiques dealer. You know, I love vintage cookbooks! One was put out by the Washington DC Junior League years ago and it’s called Think Christmas, the other was published by Willistown Friends Meeting and called Quaker Flavors.

Anyway, I guess that’s it for 2022. In a little under 3 hours it will be 2023. Kind of hard to fathom. I remember all of the little kid years of New Year’s at my great aunts with Dick Clark on the little TV in their kitchen. They and their lady pals from the neighborhood played cards and drank anisette. At midnight if we were not already asleep, we would get these tiny thimble sized glasses of very watered down anisette to toast along with the ladies!

I would say most of my growing up and even adult years I have stayed home more than I have gone out for New Year’s Eve. I remember a particularly fun New Year’s Eve in my 20s where I went to dinner in Greenwich Village with someone and then to a hysterical off Broadway show called Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. It was one of the longest running off Broadway shows. It was so fun I still remember it .

There were other New Year’s Eves, where I got all dressed up and went to parties, and wondered why I bothered. I think we’ve all had those experiences. But still a lot of fun memories.

Outside I have heard fireworks starting. I am happy to say goodbye to a weird year and all of it’s drama and look forward to 2023.

Cheers and be safe wherever you are!