Never Have I Ever (Book Edition)

Jenn McKinlay: It's time, once again, to play Never Have I Ever! Only this time it's the book edition.

For every item listed, you get one point if you have NOT done it. For example: If it says Never Have I Ever...dog eared a book page and you have NOT done that, you get a point. If you have done it, no point for you and, quite frankly, a hand slap. Get a bookmark. You're not a savage. 

Because you are all presumably bookish people, I'm expecting very low scores. 

Okay, Reds and Readers, what's your total? Leave it in the comments. I'll go ahead and admit here that my number is 4 and, yes, there was a hand slap as I have dog eared some pages in my time. Mea Culpa.

Let the Games Begin (Not Those Games)

INGRID THOFT

There were many delights this holiday season:  spending time with family, delicious food, a roaring fire.  My family has lots of traditions, including a gingerbread house decorating extravaganza, a viewing of the Grinch, and ice skating, but another holiday highlight was lazy hours spent playing games.  Whether you are twelve or in your seventies (sorry, Mum) there's always someone game for a game in the Thoft household.

Our old standby is Scattergories.  We usually play this in teams, which provides  the opportunity for aunts and uncles and cousins to break off in twosomes and put forth their best efforts, which produce giggling fits and heated discussions.  My husband still argues that there is a vending machine somewhere in the world that dispenses empanadas (category: name a food starting with "e" that you find in a vending machine.)  Is there?  Do tell, Reds!

Have you played Balderdash?  It's a game of creative definitions and bluffing, and hilarity always ensues.  When the younger set was itching for a game, we pulled out Sleeping Queens or Exploding Kittens, card games that never disappoint.  Don't worry, no cats are harmed in the course of Exploding Kittens.

Poker was another option, peppermint candies standing in for money.  My eighteen-year-old nephew, who has a standing Saturday morning poker game at Panera (kids today!), was kind enough to teach the basics to the rookies in the family.  There's nothing like playing stud poker with someone whose diapers you changed!

And if our interest in more traditional games started to wane, at 3:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., everyday, most of the family would assemble to play a trivia app on their phones call HQ Trivia.  A series of twelve questions, the game taxed our collective brain power, and we didn't win even once.  I never would have known about this game were it not for the millennials in the family, but I'm in good company on that front.  One night, journalist and broadcaster Dan Rather was among the winners, having been introduced to the game by his grandson.

Reds and readers, do you like playing games?  Tell us about your favorites!  MaryC, you won yesterday's giveaway!  Shoot me your address at ingrid@ingridthoft.com.

And I'm just throwing this in because I can't get over it.  Check out my niece's gingerbread house!

One Word. Two Syllables. Know What I Mean?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: New Years is coming, and I know we'll talk about resolutions, at some point, but--not today. Today we are talking about New Years Eve traditions. And ours is: Okay, watch me.

 I'm holding up one finger. You say:  One word! Right!

 Holding two fingers against the inside of my lower arm. You say: TWO SYLLABLES!

 I'm looking pensive, thinking thinking.

 Grabbing my earlobe. You say: Sounds like!

 I "hold the steering wheel with two hands", then "steer like crazy." You say: DRIVE!

I stamp my feet and shake my head. I do the "drive" thing again, then gesture to show it's what's AROUND me.

You say: Car! Sounds like CAR.

 I touch my nose. Two fingers on my inner arm.

 You say, second syllable. Right?

   You say, sounds like "car" something?

 Yes! Okay, we got this. Then I look worried. Is this gonna work? I better remind you.

 Two fingers on my inner arm. You say—Geez! We GOT that! Sounds like Car something.

 I'm thinking. I could do "jade," but that's tough. Or "laid," but that's fraught with problems.

 Plus it has to be plural. Maids? Aids? Afraids? Yeeesh.

 Now you know what we all do on New Year’s Eve. Car-maids. Are we geeky and old?

 And pssst. How would you act out that second syllable? 

And while you're thinking, here's another of our New Year's Eve traditions...rack of lamb. One word, two syllables, sounds like--points to tummy. YUMMY!

 Hank's Secret and Amazing Special Occasion Rack of Lamb

 Rack of lamb, you're saying? That's extravagant! And difficult! Yes, it can be extravagant--but it doesn't have to be. And it doesn't have to be difficult, either. In fact, it's an amazingly affordable treat--that's gloriously impressive.

 And pssst: easy.

 First, you should know this is my go-to dish when I want to impress someone. Just saying. And on New Years Eve it's the absolutely perfect romantic dinner for two. Or four.

 Serve with tiny green beans and maybe wild rice. YUM. And easy!

If there are two of you, a rack of lamb serves four, so there are fabulous leftovers for New Year's Day--just add to a Greek salad for a lovely dinner.

Everyone thinks rack of lamb is one of those feasts that's out of reach. This proves "everyone" is wrong. Prepare to wow your friends..and have one of the most delicious dinners ever.

 Ingredients

8-rib lamb rack

4 tb. olive oil

 2 tb. dijon mustard

 1 tb. parsley

2 tb. soy sauce

2 grinds black pepper

1 garlic clove or chopped garlic

Preheat oven to broil.

 Whisk all the ingredients (except lamb) together until the mixture forms a mayonnaise consistency.

Place lamb on broiler pan, lined with foil to make it easier to clean. Coat each side of the rack of lamb with the marinade. End with the lamb concave on the pan.

Broil five minutes per side. Turn oven to 400 degrees. Bake (with lamb track convex on the pan) for 10 minutes for rare. (This is chic, but I think this is too rare.) Bake 12 minutes for medium rare (that’s how I do it!) 13 for medium.

Remove from oven, let stand for five minutes.

Secret: after those all important five minutes, make the first cut in the rack in the middle. This will show you instantly if it's not done. If you need to bake it for another minute, no problem. It is far better to undercook, check ,and then put back in the oven than it is to over cook.

Slice into chops, arrange on the plates with rice and green beans, and wow. Let me know how you like it! It's one of our very favorites.

SO Reds, what are your New Year's eve traditions? And how do you feel about, um, Car-Maids? 

On games we played...

HALLIE: When I was trying to finish writing NEVER TELL A LIE, I got totally stuck. I'd gotten my character locked in a windowless attic room and I could not for the life of me figure out a **believable** way of getting her out.

The answer came to me as I was driving and,for no particular reason, thinking about games I played as a kid. Candy Land--remember those amazing graphics of the gingerbread man and gumdrops? Clue, of course, with its real lead pipe in the days before toys were recalled for being toxic. Careers, a truly bizarre game where you pick a career based on how much money, fame, or happiness you want. (Turns out it was invented by a sociologist and one of its careers was "Uranium Prospecting".) And what about Go to the Head of the Class?

It was Chutes and Ladders that helped me get my character out of the attic, but I'm not telling whether it was a chute or a ladder that did it.

What were your favorite games?

RO: I remember the names of those games but don't remember playing them. Also Operation, Parcheesi, and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots. I played a couple of card games, Royalty and Uno, but two board games stand out from my childhood.

The first is RISK. It was about global domination, kind of like Monopoly for those who thought Atlantic City (Monopoly) too limiting. I played with an older male cousin so that's probably why I thought it was cool. For some reason I always wanted to own/invade Kamchatka - or something like that. It was green..I think you could see it from Alaska.

The other game, of course, was and still is Scrabble. I am one of those annoying people who can be 200 points ahead and still agonize over the next word, and more importantly, ruin something for the next player. My husband only agrees to play a few times a year because it's too demoralizing.

I've always wanted to really know how to play mah jongg. In high school,friends and I played with somebody's mother's set. I even had my own cards (there's an annual card with the official mah jongg hands, as I recall.) But I haven't played in years. I bought a gorgeous set on Ebay a few years back and haven't used it once. So, I also bought these nifty bracelets made of vintage mah jongg tiles - I had a feeling that was going to be as close to the game as I was going to get. I just rented the movie Lust...Caution and there was a lot of mah jongg in it. (Also some pretty steamy sex, but that's another blog.)

JAN: At my house, with three older brothers, we always LOST the pieces to the board games. The only games that stayed intact were Trouble, the game where you get to send your opponent (and older brother) back to square one. That was probably my favorite. And Monopoly, which my father kept track of. Mostly, we played card games, especially during rained out vacations down the shore, and next door at my aunt's house. Crazy Eight, Rummy 500, gin Rummy. and some poker. It taught me to be a cagey competitor (hah!)

To this day, when I play cards, I like to have a glass of Coke over ice in a squat "rocks" glass. It reminds me of being a kid who felt grown up, getting to play cards with the big kids.

ROBERTA: RISK! that's what I was going to mention, too. My older sister always won, though she doesn't remember it that way. We also loved Clue, Parcheesi, Mousetrap, Monopoly, Candyland, Chutes...When on vacation at the Outer Banks in NC with my extended family, big groups of both adults and kids used to play Pounce. this involves everyone having her own deck of cards and playing solitaire with them, but all playing to the center of the table. So you were constantly scanning the cards in the center and try to bang yours down before someone else got to what you needed. It was so much fun. I'm certain the grown-ups weren't sipping on Coke in their rocks glasses:).

Recently, we have developed a family tradition of playing Boggle. In my stepfamily, as the kids got stronger and bigger, it was the only game I could win. Even that's beginning to give way:(. I had a lot of fun putting a Boggle game in ASKING FOR MURDER. Rebecca Butterman was a tad annoying to her guests, insisting on using every rule properly, and then keeping score when it was clear she was ahead. Something like your description of playing Scrabble, Ro. Remind to decline if you ask--or make sure we give you a big handicap to begin:)

HANK: Yes, RISK! That's where I learned about Irkutsk (and right, Ro, I think you can also see it from Alaska) and that Italy always loses. We also played Yahtzee. And I adored Go to the Head of the Class. I haven't thought about it for years--but wasn't it pretty much Trivial Pursuit (also fun) with desks? Mille Bornes? We were big on Charades, too, and I'll admit I still love to play it. Another good after-dinner game is Celebrity--do you guys know it?

We also used to make up games as kids, the main goal of which was so that my little sister Nancy would lose. My sister Nina and I would say--hey, Nanc, want to play "Hawaii?" And she, dupe, who wanted to be with the big kids, would say yes.

Then we'd get out the card and proceed to pretend to be playing a game. And then just make up random rules. "Oh, we forgot to say 8's are wild, but only if they're red. You lose again."

We also tormented her in Scrabble. We'd put down any old word-looking combination of letters, and then tell her it was Russian, and Russian words were fair. (She's a very happy and successful person now, don't worry.)
I do adore Scrabble. Or I should say, I used to. When I used to win. But my husband is killer at Scrabble, and it's no fun when I'm making perfectly good words, and then he puts some triple-score word with z and x in it, a doozy that also uses two lines, and works across and down. I yell "Earthquake, earthquake!" and so much for the board.

Roberta, you could probably make something of this...

HALLIE: What is it you ladies had for world domination? I had an Annie Oakley rifle... And I know CELEBRITY. Still love charades. And am a pissy loser at Scrabble, too.

Roberta, loved the way you used BOGGLE in "Asking for Murder" which I just read on the plane back from the lovely Surrey International Writers Conference in Vancouver.

Please, let us know--what are the games you loved to play?