Christmas day:
-Beautiful salad with an exceptional balsamic vinaigrette. I wish I knew more details about its components. In my education on food, I've grown to appreciate the natural beauty of leafs, greens etc. They are the epitome of the unprocessed, like sushi that grows on trees or vines.
-Prime ribeye roast, lovingly coated with crushed pepper
-Sweet potato casserole inspired by a steakhouse recipe, a rich, decadent success.
-Mashed potatoes, patiently home-made
-Julia Child's vegetable mornay, a family staple. The thrill of manipulating the complex chemistry involved in a rous never gets old. I feel the same sensations as prior to the "Pull" in skeet shooting.
We never got to dessert, as we were pretty darned sated. Had a bit of an explosion when we tried creating the au jus.
On the more general topic of food, Americana and culture, everyone in my family got a bounty from Pensey's spices this year. It sounds like many of the above posters had some incredible meals. This thread's topic is particularly important to me, so thank you, Hans. Good food is powerful. I'll leave it at that and let the details of ingredients, preparations, methods etc do the rest of the talking.
One of my Christmas gifts was this book, which I was devouring yesterday on the Metra: Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.
I need to complete some kitchen renovations and then its on to duck prosciutto!