Merry Christmas, happy Channukah and/or midwinter festival to everyone! We’ll be celebrating with family, and there will be stollen, pecan pie, lasagna and salumi, among other things. What are you cooking this holiday weekend?

Considering that we didn’t even know where we’d be having Thanksgiving until a few days ago, I think things worked out pretty well.

I had thawed one of our Well Fed Farms chickens and salted it ahead of time, so that even if we got stuck at home by bad weather we’d have something to cook. Fortunately there was a break between storm systems, so we were able to travel after all. We took the chicken with us to my parents’ house, and it roasted up beautifully. While it cooked we drank Cava and ate Mt. Townsend Creamery Seastack cheese and Breadfarm bread, and my father and I made a joint effort on the stuffing.

Given that neither of us really had a definite idea of how to make stuffing, it came out really swell. Onions, mushrooms, a bit of celery, and lots of sage sizzled in a big skillet, then most of a loaf of Breadfarm Baker White cubed up and stirred in, then some butter and chicken stock, and about half an hour in the oven. It was everything we like in stuffing. My father did his world-class buttermilk mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce with orange, and I shredded Brussels sprouts and sauteed them until crispy.

The following night was a turkey at a friend’s house, more buttermilk mashed potatoes, totally different stuffing, more vegetables, and gravy (which we forgot to make the first night). And after both dinners, there was pie. I didn’t have my usual sweet potato pie recipe with me, so I tried one by Ruth Reichl, which we found online (I followed the recipe pretty closely, but added bourbon instead of rum). It was very good, a bit lighter and sweeter than the one I’ve made before. No-one seemed to have any complaints.

Also, there was a snowstorm on Thanksgiving day, to make the kitchen extra cozy.

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your Valentine, whoever they may be. We celebrated last night instead of today, so I’d have time to cook up one of our favorite meals: seared lamb chops, garlicky white beans and a big pile of lacinato kale cooked in the bean liquid, risotto-style. For tonight we have a pot of soup that can be heated up when we get home – nothing fancy.

What’s everyone else doing for dinner tonight?

As I mentioned over on my Facebook page, I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired lately. This is mainly due to the fact that we’re trying to lose a bit of weight – eating lots of vegetables, avoiding starch and alcohol, and getting more serious about running (we’re looking at another 5K in April, then our first 8K in May). We’re eating simple preparations of food for the most part: roasted vegetables, sauteed greens, lean protein, fizzy water and tea. Not much to talk about, really.

But yesterday was Brigid, also known as Imbolc, and we always have a little private celebration to observe the return of the light and what tends to feel much more like the start of a new year than “normal” New Year. I wanted a dinner that was light, non-starchy, but a little fancy and evocative of spring, and I found one in Nigella Lawson’s new book (I love Nigella, reading her is like eating potato chips for me). It’s a very simple supper for two consisting of pan-seared sea scallops and a puree of peas flavored with creme fraiche and Thai green curry paste (a take-off of British mushy peas, I assume). I added a side of roasted asparagus, which was perfect with the other flavors, and opened a bottle of rich, buttery California chardonnay.

The peas turned out really, really well – the texture was silky, and the curry paste came through very lightly, with the occasional hit of lemongrass or hot chile. If we make it again, we’ll either leave out the creme fraiche or go much lighter on it, as it was richer than it needed to be, I think. And apart from the creme fraiche, it’s an incredibly quick pantry meal – frozen peas, jarred curry paste? Easy. It could also easily be mixed with a little broth and served as a soup, or as a sauce over white fish.

The scallops were also lovely, and very simple – I mixed a little butter and oil in a pan, seared the scallops  until barely done, then deglazed the pan with lime juice and poured the resulting lime butter over the scallops, dusting them with a bit of chopped cilantro. I’ve never tried this flavor approach with scallops before, but it was fantastic. I’m definitely doing this one again.

We lit all the candles in the house, turned on the fire, and felt that spring might be here soon.

Peas with Thai Curry

From Nigella Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson

• 1 lb frozen peas
• 1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
• 1-2 Tbsp Thai green curry paste, or to taste
• salt

Cook the peas in boiling salted water until done. Put them in a blender with the other ingredients and puree until smooth. Taste for seasoning, adjust as necessary. Serve warm.

We celebrated the end of 2010 our usual way, with oysters and potato chips and onion dip and Good Luck Noodles and bubbly, then rang in the new year with cassoulet, followed by a serious need to lay off the carbohydrates for a while. Here’s to the new year – may it be a good one!

I hope everyone had as fun a Christmas as we did. We went to my parents’ house, bearing five pounds of fresh mussels, two loaves of bread, several packages of salumi, a bottle of wine and some cheese. My father brined and roasted a turkey and I baked a sweet potato pie. We shoveled snow to work up our appetites. It was a good weekend.

I know everyone and their mother probably has a recipe for potato pancakes, but I recently discovered a new method for making them and it’s SO GOOD. And since Hanukkah, that celebration of fried food, begins tomorrow, it seemed like a fine time to mention it.

The secret is onion – quite a lot of onion, too. Really, it makes a huge difference! Mitchell Davis, author of the very useful book Kitchen Sense, attributes the technique to his mother, and I was amazed the first time I tried it. You grate the onion alternately with the potato so its juices coat the potato shreds and keep them from browning. Then it all gets mixed together with egg and matzo meal and fried slowly, producing a savory pancake with a perfectly crunchy outside and a soft sweet interior. I’ve made them two or three times now, and they are the very best latkes I’ve ever eaten. A little horseradish creme fraiche doesn’t hurt, either.

And by the way, today marks the end of another National Blog Posting Month – I made it all 30 days! Daily posting is not likely to continue, but we’ll see where inspiration leads me. As always, thanks for reading!

Recipe after the jump…

Potato Latkes

Adapted from Kitchen Sense by Mitchell Davis. Makes enough pancakes for two people.

• 1 pound potatoes (I like Yukon Gold or similar varieties)
• 1 large onion
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp matzo meal or bread crumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• oil

Lay out a clean dishtowel, and grate part of a potato onto it. Then grate part of an onion over that, then switch back to potato. Alternate potato and onion until it’s all grated, then roll up the dishtowel and wring as much liquid out as possible.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the egg and mix in the matzo meal and salt. Add the grated potato and onion and mix well.

Put a large cast iron or heavy nonstick pan over medium high heat and put in about 1/8 inch of vegetable oil. When it’s hot, scoop up handfuls of the potato mixture, shaping each into a rough disk and slipping it into the oil. Don’t crowd the pancakes – if they don’t fit easily, use an extra pan or do them in batches. Let them cook about 10 minutes, until golden and crusty on the bottom. Carefully flip and cook another 5-10 minutes, keeping an eye on the temperature to make sure they don’t brown too fast. Drain on paper towels and eat while hot.

We went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving this year.

It was very cold.

But there was coffee. And coffeecake.

And later, Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house. My mother and I made the pies. Everything was fantastic.

It snowed rather a lot that night.

A pair of coyotes appeared in the field across the road, and quails congregated around (and sometimes on) the bird feeder.

We stopped for Mexican food at South before heading up over the pass again.

The weather in the mountains wasn’t great, but it could have been worse…

…and the sun was shining at home.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

No matter how many odd original cocktails we try, sometimes you just can’t do better than the classics. A plain gin martini, served cold and up. A Manhattan with good vermouth. Or a Negroni.

In some ways the Negroni is the perfect holiday cocktail. It’s easy to make, being equal parts gin, campari and vermouth. It can be served up or on the rocks. The campari gives it a festive color, and its bitterness cuts through salty and fatty foods beautifully – I once made gougeres and stuffed them with bits of truffled salami, and after washing them down with Negronis can hardly imagine a better pairing. The drink acts as a digestif, settling the stomach and readying it for more eating. Sounds like Thanksgiving weekend to me.

Negroni

• 3/4 oz gin
• 3/4 oz campari
• 3/4 oz sweet (or dry) vermouth
• lemon or orange rind

Stir the first three ingredients with ice, and strain into a cocktail or rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon or orange twist.

Stay warm, drive safely, and have a wonderful holiday. Thanks for reading.