I’m watching Top Chef right now and my mouth is watering as the cheftestants are cooking their own BBQ at The Salt Lick outside of Austin. I’m thinking of my own trip there last March. And seeing all this meat, I’m dreaming of the prime rib we had on Christmas day!

Slip’s cousin Michael used his Big Green Egg to smoke this huge piece of meat in Jack Daniel’s wood chips (that’s wood chips made out of old Jack Daniel’s wooden barrels— great flavor). 

The meat was juicy, tender, flavorful, and perfect. Michael served up slices (and ribs) with a creamy horseradish sauce, as well as fresh horseradish with a serious kick. We also had sides of salad, corn pudding, roasted root vegetables, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, and fresh bread. And a gorgeous cake for dessert.

And leftovers? There were plenty. Prime rib sandwiches for a week!

Merry Christmas! We had our usual cuddle up, drink coffee, and open gifts this morning, and I loved it as always! I got so many things that I really wanted and adore, along with some other treats that I’m excited about. Three of the things topping my wish list were Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table, a new Belkin arm band for my iPhone, and a pretty pink Nathan water bottle with a pocket. And one of my favorite board games, Balderdash! I also got some great stocking stuffers including orange and fennel hand cream, noise canceling earbuds (pink), subway tokens, and an erasable highlighter (love office supplies). Now it’s time to make a fire and bake some cookies and prepare appetizers for dinner tonight!

Christmas dinner is enjoyed by all at Slip’s cousins’ house, M and A. M knows all things cool and trendy about cooking, and always whips up some amazing cut of meat for any meal I’ve had at their home. Well, this year M bought a pig— and by pig I mean hog— with a friend, and that’s what we had for Christmas dinner.

M went to a local farm last week and came away with about 100 pounds of pork, including fatback, pork belly, and pork tenderloin, which is what we had for dinner. I think it is pretty cool to be involved in the process of local, sustainable eating, especially when I eat meat (which isn’t too often).

Slip and I brought along pepperoni pizza puffs for an appetizer, and we also enjoyed some homemade sangria and more antipasto before the main course.

On the buffet for dinner was pork tenderloin, macaroni and cheese (with or without bacon), a delicious fresh salad, brussel sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, and homemade rolls that M always makes— so yummy!

For dessert we brought along chocolate shortbread with seasalt, but the other dessert was so amazingly indulgent and ridiculous— chocolate bread pudding made with croissants! It was topped with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. Mmmm.

After our feast, at the late evening hour of 7:45pm, we got together our things and headed home to our apartment. Our friend Ashley came over and Slip gave him a little stocking stuffer, Kinder Happy Hippo’s. One of these hippos took a dip in a mug of hot chocolate. We enjoyed the night in playing board games and sipping hot cocoa and Irish coffee. Ahhh, the joys of time off with friends and family.

I didn’t celebrate Christmas before Slip and I dated— except with the routine movie and Chinese food— but I have loved the new traditions his family has brought into my life, so much! This includes Italian Christmas Eve, with 7 fish dishes.

We brought along the Hot Crab Dip I made last year, with the crab meat doubled (a whole pound of jumbo lump!) and lots of extra Old Bay. Here’s a snapshot of some of the other things we enjoyed:

Smelts in the fryer:

I didn’t try the smelts last year, but they were great! As Slip’s cousin said to me, anything fried and dipped in marinara sauce can’t be bad. These were no exception, with a kick of saltiness that all smelts embody.

Stuffed mussels:

Calamari salad:

And a few other tasty treats, including an antipasto platter, the fried smelts all cooked up, and shrimp in a pistachio pesto:

It was all so delicious. We were stuffed with these and other fish dishes, as well as kale lasagna, Christmas eggplant, bruschetta, baked brie, and cucumbers stuffed with white bean and sage dip. Then we noshed on some desserts, including homemade pizzelle cookies, Mexican wedding cookies, and cashew toffee crunch squares.

After all the food and champagne was enjoyed by all, we tucked in for an early morning wake up. Afterall, Santa was coming. In the morning I got cozy on the couch with my big cup of tea, enjoying the woodsy smells of the fireplace and the glow of the Christmas tree.

Before presents Slip’s sister made us a filling breakfast of kale and peppers scrambled with local eggs, and a side of full-bodied homemade tahini, homemade raspberry jam and toast.

Here’s a look at some of my favorite Christmas gifts:

So excited for my new silpat! And to all you Philadelphians, tokens are a wonderful stocking stuffer idea. Plus chocolate, tangerines, and tea (or in this case, coffee). Big sigh… I just love Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all, and enjoy preparations for the New Year!

Saturday night Slip and I bundled up and headed out for a night on the town. He was a wonderful boyfriend because he took me to the Nutcracker! I used to love going to see this show as a kid and took ballet for 7 years— I love the costumes, the makeup, and of course the major Christmas vibe. The show wasn’t as dazzling as I remembered- the first act is actually pretty slow. But the second act (in the land of Sugarplums!) was wonderful, and the Academy of Music is beautiful, full of glitz and glimmer. We sat up high, and these were some of the highlights in our view:

Amazing chandelier that lifted up at the beginning of the performance.

A view right into the orchestra pit.

Beautiful, ornate architectural detailing in every corner.

After the ballet we were hungry and decided to walk down to one of my new favorite places in the 13th street corridor, Barbuzzo. Similar to my experience at Audrey Claire with Carys a few weeks ago, we got seated at the bar practically in the kitchen, with amazing views of every thing going on from sous chef to wood oven pizza to the finishing caramel touches on the most popular desserts.

The first thing we kept seeing come out of the kitchen was the “pig popcorn”- tossed in apple cider vinegar powder and served with horseradish aioli. Not something I would typically order but I had just watched Iron Chef: Battle Pork Fat, and it was obviously really popular and fresh, so I couldn’t resist.

I paired this with sangria rojo and Slip had a Anchor Steam Christmas Ale.

Barbuzzo has great cheese and meat plates, so next we shared the buratta from puglia, served with red bartlett pear, arugula, eevo, saba, and candied walnuts.


Buratta cheese is firm on the outside and creamy on the inside, kind of like a ball of mozarella filled with ricotta. To me the best part of the dish was that the salt came from the pears, perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper, and the sweet and crunch from the walnuts. The dish was fresh and crisp, a perfect follow-up to the pork rinds and refresher right before our next course:


The “Uovo” pizza-brussel leaves, guanicale (thick Italian bacon), caciocavallo, flor di latte, truffle and a farm egg. The creaminess of the egg added something that cheese just cannot. The truffle was visible and added a gourmet and hearty flavor. The pizza dough was sweet and thin, and the cheese was salty and delicious. Moreover, the taste of the pizza was perfection, but it was clean and it didn’t linger at all. I loved it! The pizza additions were served whimsically, in tiny little jars:
 
I loved how aromatic the oregano became as we crushed it over the pizza. The spicy oil was not too spicy but a subtle addition to the flavor combination.
While we were sitting with a perfect view we also saw 2 desserts coming out of the kitchen, over and over and over again. We decided, why not, it’s date night, let’s get them both! So we did. We had the warm apple bread pudding as one of our treats:

I love bread pudding and usually can never turn it down, so this was definitely a delicious treat. Plus, anything with melting cold ice cream over hot caramel is a plus. While this was definitely a solid dessert, it didn’t blow my mind. Especially after eating this—

A salted caramel budino. I had never really heard of this dessert before, but after we saw it ordered at least a dozen times during our dinner, in addition to the description (“salted caramel budino: with dark chocolate cookie crust, vanilla bean caramel and sea salt”), as well as the sous chef explaining that it’s their most popular item, we had to have it. 
Well, this budino WAS out of this world. I wish I could perfectly capture in words how amazing this dessert was, but I’m afraid I can’t do it justice. The pudding was smooth and custard-like, the caramel had an amazing sea salt flavor (and can I mention, I’m loving the sea salt trend in desserts), the whipped cream on top was rich and smooth, cutting the salt flavor, and the crust added a crunch.
Well, if that sounded at all good to you, you should go to Barbuzzo yourself, or better yet, order a 6-pack of Budinos to take to your holiday party!
Saturday was definitely a fun night and though I think I am Nutcracker-sated for a few years now, I cannot wait for my next trip to Barbuzzo!

I have failed to post this so far because I have not had enough time to dedicate to the marvel that was our Christmas dinner at Slip’s cousins’ home. Everything that I tasted was not only delectable, but inspiring and even intimidating. I don’t know how many pounds it was, but that massive rack of prime rib came out to be sliced and I was in love. It went something like this:

The meat was cooked perfectly— I don’t know how he did it. It was tender and pretty rare, just the way I like all steaks. He made a sauce which included fresh mushrooms, garlic, cream, and wine to accompany the meat. The sauce was rich and paired perfectly with the meat. Our dinner also included a beautiful compilation of roasted root vegetables (courtesy of Slip’s sister, and including turnips, beets, carrots, and sweet onion), green beans with walnuts and onions, really awesome mashed potatoes, and freshly baked dinner rolls.  My plate, which I would eat again right now, looked like this:

YUM!

Thursday night’s dinner was fun and filling, as the Italian Christmas Eve does not disappoint. Naturally we got right to eating and drinking (the beverage of choice was champagne), so I did miss out on photographing most of the hot items. Some of the seven fish dishes included fried smelts, lump crab stuffed mushrooms, our hot crab dip, and a shrimp dip. There was also a lasagna with braised leeks and onions, shrimp, parmesan, ricotta, and bechamel, which Slip’s mom made and the guests adored.

The spread included some classic Italian antipasto, like roasted red peppers, olives, artichokes, and grilled asparagus.

Slip’s cousin brought us all these adorable tins filled with yummy cupcakes and what is now my new favorite candy, chocolate mint M&Ms.

There was also a fantastic dessert spread, which included homemade Chocolate Butter Rum Cake and these homemade pizzelle cookies Slip’s aunt made on her pizzelle press. My mom made chocolate peanut butter brownies with peanut butter frosting and chocolate ganache— really good. Recipe to come soon.