I'm making the macaroni and cheese from Moosewood's low-fat cookbook. It has a little onion, mustard and nutmeg, and I throw in shredded carrots too.

Tonight was black beans, onions, garlic, a little flour and probably some things I've already forgotten about,  all mixed together with an egg and dropped into some hot oil in a wok -- something between a vegie burger and a fritter. Served with turnip greens and onions with home-made bread. Not entirely awful as those things go (the beans, I mean; turnip greens are never even a little awful).

Tomorrow is a collaborative meal with sister-in-law making veal (eeew!) and green beans for the combined households (her, my parents-in-law, my wife and me), me making mashed potatoes (with garlic; don't tell), mushrooms, gravy, bread (already baked) and some sort of fish thing...probably baked Mahi Mahi with tomatoes and cream. We're also taking wine and my wife's homemade cookies.

As to that fish idea, just to see what others more expert than I have done with baked Mahi, I went to Cooks Illustrated's site (not to be confused with that-other-site). I typed "baked mahi" into the search box and got this:

"NO RESULTS FOUND FOR "BAKED MAHI" DID YOU MEAN: BAKED MAGI?"

Apropos of the season, I guess.

Merry merry.

In a rare move, Polk County District Judge Don Nickerson ruled that David Flores' constitutional right to due process was violated because a key police report naming another suspect was never turned over to his original defense lawyer.

Nickerson also found to be credible new testimony this year from a woman who said that suspect, Rafael Robinson, admitted he accidentally shot Davis.

Nickerson's ruling indicated those two elements likely would have affected the outcome of Flores' trial in 1997. [...]

Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said Wednesday he "respectfully but strongly" disagreed with the judge's decision. He has asked the state attorney general's office to appeal the ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court on his office's behalf.

An appeal before the state's high court typically takes nine months to a year. The court can opt not to hear an appeal. In that case, Sarcone would have to decide whether to try Flores anew or set him free.

The Des Moines Register has a timeline of the Flores case here, as well as a good piece by Lee Rood on seven people who "cast doubt on evidence that helped convict Flores." Commenting on the case last year, Rob Warden of the Center for Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law

said he's never heard of an alleged wrongful conviction case in which three separate people came forward independently to name another suspect.

"There's an extremely high probability that he's innocent," said Warden, whose [center] has helped exonerate dozens of people. "The fact that you now have three people who don't have any connection to each other and no discernible motive to do anything but tell the truth is just extremely persuasive."

As for food, it's rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, broccoli with hollandaise, salad and crusty bread.

We're chill.

All this lasagna and pot roast (MY FAVORITE FOOD!) talk has my mouth watering.  Yum!

I finished my baking tonight -= walnut kipferl - and delverd a plate of mized cookies to the landlord and heir kids.

Tomorrow, it's turkey (dark meat only), probably bread filling, leeks (I think I'll gratin them), some other veg.

Day after tomorrow - second Christmas - it's the traditional meal for that day:  rabbit stuffed with prunes, I'll probably pair that with chestnut puree (statt mashed potatoes) and some cabbage, probably with a sweet-sour touch to it.  Couldn't get red cabbage today at the supermarket, so we'l make it up as we go along.

Right now, it's egg nog with a liberal (heh)admixture of rum, and "It's a Wonderful Life."  The dog is snoring and dreaming, the tree decorated, the presents under it all prettily wrapped.

The reviews said this one was so dark it was going to be hard for mainstream audiences. They're right. An old man with nothing personally to gain sacrifices his life for the future in this movie. When was the last time a powerful man sacrificed his life for the future?

Aloha and Merry Christmas!

But, we only had 5 - close enough.  Shrimp cocktail (a family Christmas Eve tradition after mass), calamari, octopus salad, cod, perch, chicken and baked penne casserole.   Had carolers come to the door and now looking forward to eating lots at a cousin's house, where we have gone to doing all appetizers and finger foods, instead of a meal (although we do have a ham).  Seems you end up eating way more food when you can pick all night!