Lagniappe: A List of Things I Made Over Christmas Break That I Did Not Photograph and Therefore Cannot Properly Blog About

I drove home to Florida to spend the holidays with friends and family, at around 35 hours of total driving time and about 2,500 miles. Thank God for hybrids, audiobooks and 5-Hour Energy!  (I drove 15 hours nonstop overnight on the first leg.)


Food

Banoffee Pie: A British classic, made with graham cracker crust, the most delicious toffee, sliced bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate. It's even BETTER than it sounds, I assure you.

Rocket Pizza Bianca: Not a true pizza bianca, of course, since my boys wanted red sauce, but we assembled this pie of wonder with baby arugula (known as rocket in Europe), buffalo mozzarella, goat cheese and prosciutto. That's the life!

Pan Seared New York Strip with a Bleu Cheese Crust: Just like Ruth's Chris Steakhouse makes it, sizzling in butter and paired with garlic mashed potatoes.

Spaghetti Bolognese: I was bold enough to feed this to an Italian. Sometimes I stun even myself with my bravery. Lucky for me, it's a solid go-to recipe that involved ground beef and Italian sausage, carrots and white wine, and an all-day simmer. I PROMISE, this recipe will make it onto the blog one day.

Baked Clams: I was forcibly relieved of my reign over the kitchen with the aforementioned Italian when he prepped his family's traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner (absolutely positive I was Italian in another life, btw) for Christmas Eve. Even with just the two of us, he somehow managed to make a lobster tomato sauce (involving an entire lobster, natch) with shrimp and mussels served with linguine, a shrimp cocktail appetizer, and about two dozen baked clams. Once I was permitted back in the kitchen, we stuffed those suckers with panko bread crumbs, diced bacon, shredded cheddar cheese and scallions--and then stuffed ourselves. Not exactly seven fishes, but we were stuffed to the gills with deliciousness as it was. (See what I did there?)

It goes without saying that I played around with the lobster and made it dance like it had maracas before it was seized from me and dismembered into the pot.

Drinks

White Christmas Sangria: Made with Granny Smith apples, cranberries, and fresh rosemary--this was a sweet and festive Christmas Eve drink.

French 75's: A fantastic cocktail introduced to me by my tres chic friend Lily, it will get you super drunk on a mixture of champagne, gin, lemon juice and sugar. A Happy New Year's Eve it was, indeed.


I SUCK.

Sorry.

But I hope your holidays were grand!