The Blog

Once again, my cousins Tangie and Damond pulled out all the stops. Great food, great music, great company.

Here’s the menu, and the pictures follow it. (I’ll try to get the recipe for the fish and leg of lamb posted here.)

Leg of Lamb (Julia Child recipe)
New Orleans Baked Fish
Seafood cornbread dressing
Scalloped potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Brussel sprouts
Kale
Cranberry sauce
Wine and champagne

Table is set.

Tangie blesses the food.

Leg of Lamb (rough recipe by one of the featured chefs in one of Julie Child’s cooking books)

New Orleans Baked Fish

- 3 lb. red snapper or white fish
- 1/2 c. butter or oil
- 1 c. chopped onion
- 1/2 c. chopped green pepper
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp. flour
- 3 c. tomato sauce
- 1/2 c. chopped parsley
- 1 tsp. thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- Pinch of oregano
- Salt & pepper to taste

Wash and dry fish, melt butter or oil in fry pan. Add onions, green pepper and garlic. Cook until pepper is tender, stir in flour, tomatoes, parsley, thyme, bay leaves and oregano, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over low heat for 30 minutes. Place fish in greased pan, pour some of the sauce inside of fish and rest over top. Bake 1 hour in slow oven (325 degrees).

Clearly, it was good. And so was the lamb.

Seafood dressing

Brussel sprouts

My first Christmas morning away from home. Now my home away from home.

Got back to New York at about 6:30 p.m. Headed straight over to the Murray-Haynes household. We enjoyed a seafood stew and mulled wine.

Tangie said she got the spices for the mulled wine at Sur la Table, one of my favorite stores. This the mulled wine spice package she bought. But I can’t find it on Sur La Table’s website.

Tangie and Damond decorated the tree with the faces of the people who will be joining them for dinner on Christmas. (I will post the menu tomorrow.) Good night!

I was able to see my immediate family this year, just for a brief moment. I had to be back in New York before Christmas, so we did our thing early. And you know what that means! FOOOD!

Asked my mom for a crab feast, but I got much more than that. Let the drooling commence…

Crab and shrimp boil with broccoli salad in the background.

My fried chicken. (Yes, I fried it. Tired as I was, surprised that it turned out good.)

Rib eyes and links, seasoned and grilled to perfection by my lovely mother.

My mother’s apple pie. There was something about this one. It was better than any other time she’s made it.

I also got to reunite with my niece, Bailey. She’s the daughter of my step-sister Samara. I hadn’t seen Bailey since right after she was born in nearly seven months ago. I brought her the toy in the hopes she’ll remember me on my next visit.

Every year for the last six I’ve flown to Los Angeles to help my cousin with an annual Christmas event for the kids in her non-profit organization, An Open Door.

So I kicked off my holidays by helping inner-city LA youth have a happier Christmas. Every year we give away thousands of toys to the kids of the organization and their families. Warms my heart every time. And it’s the only community service I do all year. (That needs to change. I should be doing more.)

My cousin Racquel donated her time as the face painter at the event. She hooked this kid up. He was so happy about it. He’s one of several boys that my cousin Makeda invites from an LA group home for boys.

To learn more about Jingle Bash and An Open Door, visit http://www.anopendoor-la.org

They were knocked out. I couldn’t resist snapping this one.

My sister Stephanie and I have never failed to wake up in the morning, either in the same house or separately, and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. Unless I’m experiencing amnesia, I can not remember one year that I have not watched it since I’ve been able to operate a TV remote on my own.

When I was asked to cover a California high school marching band in the parade, I accepted the assignment with glee (corny wording, I know). Not only was I going to get to see the parade this year, I was going to have press access to the parade route. Police didn’t stop me at road blocks, which made me feel superhuman for a few hours.

Me and Papa Smurf.

Buzz Lightyear

Keke Palmer

The Roots and ?uestlove.

Herald Square.

Things I noticed or learned about the parade:

- The floats look much bigger on TV and so do the city streets that the balloons go through.
- The balloons are really as big as they look on TV.
- The microphones that the “performing” celebrities hold are just props. They sing to a backing track. (I needed confirmation of that? LOL)
- High school and college marching bands work the hardest during the parade.

Hopefully, I’ll attend again in a couple of years simply as a spectator.

This was my first ever Thanksgiving away from home. And, oh boy, it was a busy day.

I started the day at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The paper I interned at back in California contacted me regarding a local high school marching band that would be in the parade. I gladly accepted the assignment. I was up at 4 a.m. and didn’t finish the assignment, writing and editing, until around 5 p.m.

Once I was done with the reporting, I headed to my cousin’s where family members were gearing up to partake in a delicious spread. Best of all, it was baby Ailey’s first Thanksgiving. We all gathered around her bassinet and prayed over the food. Quite a touching moment. I tried to snap a picture of it. I think you can tell we are standing around her.

I ate, did some more work on my assignment, and then fell asleep. I was wiped out. Didn’t even get to taste the desert (red velvet cake) until two days later, when I returned for leftovers.

Here’s the menu and a few pictures I snapped:

Cajun-fried turkey
Seared salmon steaks
Seafood dressing
Traditional dressing
Macaroni and cheese
Sweet Potato casserole
Greens
Broccoli
Cranberry sauce
Buttered dinner rolls
Wine and champagne

This year I’m thankful for family. I could not thrive without them.

A beautiful new baby girl arrived to parents Damond Haynes and Tangie Murray on Nov. 20th. I arrived just minutes after Tangie had given birth to my new cousin. I think this is the second time I’ve been present for the birth of a close relative.

Ailey’s birth was especially inspiring to me because I got to witness the formation of a new family as it unfolded. Damond was clearly smitten as soon as he took Ailey in his arms. And Tangie, although exhausted from such hard work, kissed and caressed Ailey like any loving mother would. Even more touching was when she asked Damond for her blessed oil — she anointed Ailey just before the nurses took her to get cleaned up. I’ll admit, I got a little teary eyed when I saw this.

So what’s next for this new family? Lots of firsts, for sure. And I hope I they know that I want to be as big a help to them as they have been to me since I’ve been in New York. (Three months now! Yikes! Time flies.)