A VERY TV CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

For those of you who celebrate and had to work today -- I feel your pain. I hope you were able to find some time to spend with those people special to you. In the land of television, the news or weather does not take the holidays off. So, off I went to Broadcast House early this morning to keep everyone (was anybody watching?) in the loop about our FABULOUS Christmas weather. Little did I know that Ben was already up, making homemade muffins to bring to the station for all my co-workers stuck working the holiday. Some time during the Early Show Cut-ins, I got word that a tall man in a Santa Hat was busy pouring hot cider for Janet on the Assignment Desk. I LOVE THIS MAN. Thank you, Ben for the pumpkin chocolate chip and orange marmalade muffins (along with the hot chocolate and cider.)

After work, I headed down to Springfield to spend Christmas Day with Ben and exchange gifts. Here's how the tree looked (we put it up Christmas Eve.) I like Ben's engineering mind: put up 2 strings of white lights (for an all white tree look), 2 strings of colored lights (for that look) and together with all the lights on you have a wonderful mix of both. I made a mental note of the plethora of VA Tech Tree Ornaments and ZERO Cornell Ornaments...hmmmmm.

Among some of the gifts I got (I got so many tubes of hand lotion I can't even begin!), Ben was listening when I dropped hints over the past few months: Foo Fighters Skin and Bones, Grateful Dead American Beauty, and The Best of Barry White were among the CD's I picked up...I have been singing along all day. One neat surprise is this tuner thing he gave me -- essentially from what I understand, it allows you to watch TV on you computer AND you can record stuff with it. (I just asked Ben to sum it up SIMPLY so I could describe it to you and he started it off with "It's a USB..." I said "stop -- that's not simple.")

Ben politely smiled through some ties I got him. I know the "Family Guy" tie was a hit. The brown striped one? Not so much. But the "Practice Dart Board" with the extra small doubles, triples and bulls eye was worth the schlep down to Woodbridge from Frederick.

My family has gotten used to having to have Christmas basically on any Saturday surrounding it - but never on the holiday. Just like they know to make sure nobody gets married during the "ratings" months of November, February, or May, family members of TV-types know to schedule big events around TV. So, last weekend, I zipped up to the Poconos to have an early Christmas. However, just 2 days before the trip I found out that The Steam Pot went out of business and I had no fall back plan for feeding my relatives. (I sure as heck wasn't going to cook -- after all it is about spreading Christmas cheer and not indigestion...right?)

Enter Chef Charlie Redden to SAVE THE DAY. He did a segment on our 9am show last week and I basically begged him to cater this family event for me. He graciously agreed and it was DELICIOUS! He even made his renowned "Kris Kringle" drink (he won't give up the recipe.) Saturday morning after the show, he met me at the station and I packed up the cooler. Then I was off to the Poconos for a 4 hour trip. When I told my family about Chef Charlie, I mentioned that he was the first certified executive chef in the history of the White House Culinary Specialist Program. That's him to the right serving President Clinton a sandwich. So now my entire family can say (through 6 degrees of separation) that we know President Clinton!

When my sister arrived, she brought the newest member of my family. No, no, not my nephew Zac. Rather, she brought "Magellan", their ferret. He's really cute, but kind of stinky. With Magellan comes a large cage in which he managed to turn his food dish up-side-down within 5 minutes of his arrival. My mom (Ginny Gram) laments that when he goes to scratch himself, his foot pounds the bottom of the cage repeatedly and it sounds like machine gun fire...

The gift exchange was typical -- for every gift everyone opened, Zac got 3. He got a series of little air planes that were just the right size, so when left on the floor, to stab your foot. I gave him this eyeball thing that you can hook up to the TV. It acts like a microscope. But instead of looking into a small eye piece, the giant eyeball transmits what you're looking at, magnified onto the TV. So we took turns looking at our skin. EWWWWWWWW! But neat ewwwww.

Here's a picture of me opening up a FABULOUS gift from my sister, Jodi -- An Orla Kiely purse. Very generous. Thank you Jodi! One of the funny highlights I recall was when Jodi, my mom and I put on goofy hats. We took a picture in front of the tree, all smiling. Then we (naturally) didn't like it and had to re-take it. A split second before the flash went off, my nephew stuck his head in from the dining room to report that he had broken some glass (Magellan was running around and Zac had pulled one of those candle lights down off the window sill and the bulb broke.) Now, I'm not sure what goes through a 7 year old's mind when something "bad" happens -- I guess they think if they report something bad really fast, the repercussions will go by fast and be less severe. So when he said in record time "I broke some glass" and then followed it with "bye", slamming the door shut behind him, I guess the "bye" was closure to the bad news (in his mind) and hence nothing negative would follow. Now, back to the picture that was in progress just as this news was coming in at record speed. LOOK AT THIS PICTURE! It is so funny. The look on Jodi's face

sums it up so well -- here is my sister, a mother, trying to process what her son just blurted out. But she knows the camera is about to take a picture so she doesn't lose eye contact with the camera. But the look of perplexed angst is so real I was beside myself laughing! Ginny Gram vowed to disown me if I showed her in the picture, hence, the "no comment" art work. I am not sure what I was thinking...probably something along the lines of "What did Zac do *now*???". Good times.

No family gathering would be complete in the Martucci household without some Scrabble. My pop (that's him to the right) complains when he sits next to me that my computer is always in the way. What we all unanimously say is "We wouldn't need Kim's computer opened up to Dictionary.com if you would stop trying to pass made up words as real ones!" Pop quieted down...he was outnumbered and he knew we were right...

All in all it was a great time. Some day we will all be together on Christmas. I don't think the glass will stop breaking, or the animal cage won't be the central decor item in my dining room, or my Dad will stop cheating at Scrabble, but one day we will all gather on Christmas! I'll see you tomorrow...

BOILED PEANUTS

I first learned about boiled peanuts when Matt and Ted "The Lee Brothers" came to WUSA to promote their cook book and catalogue http://www.boiledpeanuts.com/index.html that features unique southern cooking delicacies. I didn't get to sample any, but kind of became intrigued.

Growing up in New Jersey, I wasn't hip to grits nor "country ham". But dating a southerner has opened my mind to some fantastic food. This past weekend I spent some time with Ben and his family in Asheville. Part of our trip took us to South Carolina. When Ben spotted a road side stand that sold "green peanuts" he had to pull over and buy some.

Boiled peanuts are difficult to make up this way because in order to do so, you need "green peanuts". That doesn't necessarily (from what I have found out) mean that the color of them is green, rather, it means they are fresh -- not altered or roasted. (I am more familiar with roasted peanuts and just always assumed that that is how they are naturally -- WRONG.)

So, Ben got his multi pound bag of green peanuts. He also purchased some freshly boiled peanuts; I would finally have my chance to sample them. I will give you the outcome now because what I am about to describe is kind of negative, but know that I LOVE THEM and wish I had some more to snack on in the studio even as I type.

Now back to the not so pleasant thought that sprung into my head when my hand ventured into the boiled peanut bag: "Gosh these things look like chopped up lumpy earth worms -- I don't want to eat that!" Granted, they totally looked disgusting to me. But once I easily took the boiled peanut from the shell (the trick is to squeeze the peanut so that it splits along the seam in a straight line), it kind of looked like a purple chick pea. I popped them in my mouth and it WAS ALL ABOUT YUM. Seriously. I became addicted. I can see why the tradition down south is to eat them on the porch where the shells can easily be thrown away.

Here is a neat website that goes into the boiled peanut history http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/BoiledPeanutsHistory.htm -- including how much salt to add if you are going to boil your own and other tricks. It also explains how these things were important for the Confederate Soldiers during the Civil War. Neat stuff.

Ben plans on making his own as I mentioned. But do you know of any local boiled peanut locations around the District, VA or MD? I'd love to hear from you.

THE GREAT CHANNEL 9 HAND LOTION SURVEY RESULTS!!!

It started simply enough: During one of my weather segments Thursday morning, I casually asked viewers which hand lotions work REALLY well. I have been suffering from chapped hands and lips and I knew our extended 9 News Now Family would step up to the plate. AND YOU DID! I am *STILL* getting emailed suggestions from you!

So, without any further delay, let me share with you what I have learned. Below are the choices ranked by popularity followed by the names of the folks who like it and any comments they have to share about their choice. Thank you to all who took the time to write me -- I (and my hands) LOVE YOU!

#1 CHOICE

GOLD BOND ULTIMATE HAND CREAM

Eric Brown Senior, Sandy Scales in DC, Brenda, Elaine - who is a nurse in Calvert County, Cassandra (recommends the one with Shea Butter), and finally Dennis Soiberman who is a Cabinet Maker, prefers the foot cream version to use on his hands (!!)

#2 CHOICE

CORN HUSKERS LOTION

This stuff sounds "neat". It is in a clear bottle with a yellow label. I have heard "you should try it but you probably won't like it". When asked why, I was told because "it doesn't smell too perfumey" to "it feels like snot" (ewwww! - thanks for that description Ophelia) But, you guys love this stuff and swear by it. Jesse workes at Dulles and says they have to use it to get finger prints off people with severely dry skin. Here are the names of the folks that voted the Corn Huskers way: Kim Martino, Ophelia, Jesse martin, Carol, and Dan in District Heights.

#3 CHOICE

AVON MOISTURE THERAPY

I heard from the Avon Ladies on this one! The most interesting tidbit here is from Donna Smith of Upper Marlboro. Donna used to be a middle school science teacher. She used to have kids test the various hand lotions for their science fair projects and what their research consistently said is that in order for a hand lotion to be effective, it has to contain urea (!!!) She said not to ask her why -- do we *really* want to know -- ewwwwww!!!. With that in mind, she likes this Avon stuff. Here are the rest of the folks that voted the Avon way: Stacey Davis, Andrea Edwards of Temple Hills, and Cheryl Green.

VARIOUS UDDER CREAMS

I found this to be the most interesting solution to dry cracked hands. Folks swear by this stuff and point out that farmers have been using it for yours. I am told that the farmers have been putting it on the cows udders in winter for years and if it works for them it must work for us! There are a few different versions of this product: "Udderly Smooth Udder Cream" and "Bag Balm". Tina Murry, Carol from Stephenson VA, and Jeff Snavely (who is a cabinet maker that says wood absorbs the oils from your hands faster than anything else) love this stuff.

NEUTROGENA HAND CREAM (not the lotion)

Thanks to Judie, Diane LeDonne, and Linda for this suggestion.

MARY KAY SATIN HANDS CREAM Angela Fossett & Mika Summers-Gomillion

AVEENO

Cheryl Gearhart voted for this one. Our own Howard Bernstein likes it too. He even suggests getting the two pack at Costco. (Thanks HB)

Here are the "best of the rest" (one vote):

Vicks (the gooey kind - wear with gloves overnight), Vaseline (again wear with gloves at night), Vaseline Intensive Rescue Moisture Locking Lotion, Eucerin Plus Intense Care, La Roche Posay "Lipikar", Cetaphil (Peggy in Germantown says to put this on while your hands are moist), Aquaphor (from Laurie in edit booth 4), Surgeon's Skin Secret Beeswax (Christine says to get it off QVC), and finally Bliss High Intensity (you can get it at Nordstrom for $18 -- "Kim" says it's expensive but goes a long way.