Holiday Feasting

My social calendar has been full . . . Full of food, that is!

Two weekends ago, we had dinner with two other couples at one of my favorite new restaurants. It's touted as a French gastropub, but they have the most amazing soft tacos. I've tried the steak, pork carnitas, and spicy shrimp tacos, with the spicy shrimp being the clear winners.  The sauce combines avocado, corn, white cheddar and a spicy aioli.  They are spectacular. However, what I enjoy even more is their craft beer selection, which changes weekly.  You can order 6 oz, 12 oz. or 16 oz. glasses. I always try three different 6 oz. beers.  This time I ordered all Christmas Ales and my husband did the same. So we taste-tested six different ones altogether. Fun! I like getting the opportunity to try beers I'd never buy a six pack of, without knowing if I like it. It's also nice to get something unusual, like a raspberry alae or  hard cider, which my spouse would have no interest in drinking.  Afterwards, everyone came back to our house to see our Christmas trees/decorations and have some of the chocolate cherry cake I slaved over (takes me all of 10 minutes to put in the oven).

The next night was my girlfriend Christmas party.  We all brought wine and appetizers. I tried a new meatball recipe. It wasn't bad.  Some wise woman brought chocolate fondue. I forgot how much I love that stuff! Strawberries, pretzels, pound cake, marshmallows, dipped in chocolate. I decided I'm making this for the annual cousin party we host next weekend.

 

After many years of being disbanded, I decided to try to reunite my old book club, circa 2000-2005, just for one evening. Good to see some old friends. We met at the new wine bar in town (which I can walk to, weather permitting, which would mean not now).  It's located in one of the historic buildings and has two levels. You can get a wine flight for $12, and the nice part is, you can choose from about 20 wines and mix red and white. We all got appetizers to share. They had a good portobello flatbread and an edamame hummus that was tasty with veggies. The seating and decor upstairs was unusual. I liked the padded benches along the wall, but it was difficult to balance food and long-stemmed wine glasses on their idea of tables (lacquered tree stumps?) Not sure what they really were, but it was not a good concept. Oddly, this was paired with some sort of nautical ropes hanging from the ceiling with bare lightbulbs on the ends. One of my friends thought they looked like nooses. I love her.

I brought my son home from college last Wednesday, and one of the first things he asked was if I'd made any Christmas cookies yet. I had and I still am. I like to make some old standbys, with a few new ones each year.  On my list for 2013 are: Reese Cup cookies, Swedish almond raspberry bars, chocolate mint bars, brownie crackles, chocolate chip snowballs, magic cookie bars (my childhood favorite), soft ginger cookies, and of course, cut out cookies.

In other news, my oldest daughter became engaged over the weekend, so it looks like some wedding cake is in my future. In case I'm not able to post for a while, let me wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and all good wishes for a Happy New Year. Love to all!