GOURMANDISING ON NEW YEAR'S EVE

Danish puffy pancakes (aebleskiver), prosecco, bubbly cranberry juice and orange chocolates-- sweet treats  to welcome the New Year.

There is snow on the ground and freezing rain in the weather forecast.  Neither is cause for alarm. Unusual as  a wind chill of 12 F is, in this part of the country it will not stop us from welcoming the New Year with  a dinner of wild mushroom soup and  homemade muffin-sized pizzas.

We will toast 2010 with prosecco, blood orange frizzante and sparkling cranberry juice and Danish pancakes (aebleskiver).  We will replace our traditional viewing of Die Fledermaus with a Russian biopic of Tchaikovsky.  If we feel peckish between dinner  and breakfast, we have pistachios, dark chocolate with orange filling and crystallized ginger good friends brought from the Bahamas.
If we cannot sleep after a doppio espresso, we have a hefty history of the Ukraine to keep us company. We will make no resolutions except to live well, read mindfully  and love well.

LET IT SNOW!

Francis Bacon. our flying pig, gets a dusting of snow.

Below, this bath is for the birds.

A flower basket in the garden.

FESTIVITIES

Kitty wants pie.

Pumpkin maple pie with chocolate ganache.

Turkey with chestnut stuffing.

Some of the loot.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On Xmas Day we had champagne with pomegranate with our friends John, Margaret and Miss Crabbaple. Yesterday, we had a Ukrainian feast at The Big House. More anon.

Flowers from my main guy (not Rahm Emanuel).

Turkey prep.

LICENSE TO NOSH

The Infanta's Stolen

Hazelnut cookies with Israeli date spread.

Bizarre but tasty cornmeal cookies with jalapeno pepper jelly filling.

We are a family of foodies. We love to try out new recipes and we are lucky to have friends with whom to share our experiments. There is no better occasion to share these than the holiday gatherings in our own neighborhood where foodies predominate. Never mind that there are professional chefs and cookbook authors in the list of those invited to local holiday hootenannies. We are fearless when it comes to attempts at culinary upmomship.

For the gathering at the historical home of She Who Will Not Be Named Due To National Security Concerns--are you impressed yet?--we will make cornmeal cookies with jalapeno jelly filling. We have a bit of trouble wrapping our minds about the idea of hot-hot jelly, but we know that MesoAmericans put scorching chili peppers in their chocolate. Who are we to argue with them? We are not absolutely mad about cornmeal cookies. We tried an Italian recipe once and found the texture way too coarse for comfort. Crinimi is Italian for the v-shaped coarse cornmeal cookies. Perhaps in Italy cooks use a finer grade of meal, available in the US at shops that carry South American foodstuffs. We will give it a go. Someone gave us a jar of jalapeno jelly we did not quite know how to serve. Crimini! Now we know.

Junior has been on a baking kick and tonight she produced four delectable loaves of Stolen. Neighbors, countrymen, forget your diets. There is stolen abroad and it is plum good. For her next performance, Junior will attempt hazelnut cookies. Instead of a Nutella filling, she will use an Israeli date spread. More anon.

'THAR SHE BLOWS!

Our entrance light wears a snow cap.

There is a car somewhere under the snow.

Now, where did we put that snow shovel?

Pole vaulting, anyone?

A tobogan might help.

Progressive camouflage.

Storybook tree.

Our snow covered street.

Nineteen inches of snow are something of a record for our village. It isolates us from the nearby Washington, DC and makes us feel as if we were living in David Lean's set of Dr. Zhivago. So far, our neighbors' fences are safe from us thanks to our wonderful wood guy, who brought us a cord of locust and cherry a week before our first snowfall, earlier in the month. We stoke Morsolino, our Scandinavian wood stove, put on the kettle and brew oceans of tea. We bake bread, make soup and rejoice in the quiet the follows winter storms.

During the previous first snowfall, a paltry thing that did not merit any cancellations, the snow plow driver saw fit to spend the entire night scritch-scratching his way around the village. This time around, when the accumulation really called for strong measures, he make a couple of passes on main street and called it quites. " When asked if being marooned in her house at the edge of the woods, Trudy Thundermouse replied with her usual eloquence.

"Hit don't bother me none. Ah've gots me a good bottle of sherry and my mainly main brung me lots of chocolates, tangerines an'oranges and some new desktop publishing softywear. mah turkey's a-thawin' for Xmas. Eve and ah just chillin', just chillin' like the good Lord meant me to."

Quarrel with Trudy's wisdom, if you wish. I think she has a point. Chilling is good. That is just what I plan to do as soon as I get ready for the freezing rain and subzero temps on the forecast for the rest of the week. Button up you overcoat!