![]() ![]() One and a half years ago: Mexico City Food Guide Six months ago: How to Keep Asparagus Fresher, Longer ![]() Three years ago: Bourke Street Bakery’s Chocolate Ganache Tartlets Two years ago: Epicurean Cutting Boards (a great last-minute gift idea for your favorite cook–they’ll use this for years to come!) One year ago: Brussels Sprouts, Apple, and Pomegranate Salad (a great holiday side dish– top with blue cheese if you’re feeling extra!) I think it’s worth the effort, and I think you will, too. A few times, the kitchen fairies might have heard me grumble, “This had f*cking better be f*cking delicious.” But at the first taste, the hours passed and the leaning tower of dishes in the sink were all forgotten- and then all forgotten all over again when this bébé stole the show at Thanksgiving this year. (You know, so you have enough time to make the roast you want and the roast your in-laws can’t live without, facepalm.) Impressive presentation? Check! (I mean, look at that color! At the candied cranberries on top, looking like holly berries dusted with snow!) Incredible flavor? Check! (The cranberry and lime–assertively tart flavors–are balanced with *just enough* sugar.) Make ahead? You bet. So you have to trust me when I say: this cranberry-lime curd tart deserves a spot on your holiday table. Thirty years of curating and baking extravagant desserts had turned us into real snobs. Our standards were exceedingly high: recipes other family members would ooh and ah over, we would raise our eyebrows and say, “it was good, but not make-again good.” We had peppermint torte with fudge topping and pumpkin crème brûlée, double berry mousse and the Zuni Café gâteau victoire. Starting around Thanksgiving, she would trawl recipe websites for the most festive, most delectable Christmas dessert ideas. The only place where Mom had total control was the desserts– and ho boy, did she seize the day. It was a magical dinner every year, but it required a truly herculean effort. Mom wants to make a beautiful beef roast? “But we can’t have Christmas without turkey!” Mom makes an incredible wild rice stuffing studded with little pearl onions and jewel-like dried fruit? “But what about the bread stuffing?”įiguring the only thing worse than cooking the same thing for 30 years was dealing with irritated in-laws, Mom ended up making the beef roast and the turkey, the rice stuffing and the bread stuffing. If that alone doesn’t win her consideration for sainthood (Saint Mary of the In-Laws?), get this: many of the older generation of my dad’s family felt free to make menu requests– demands, really. In attendance? 10-15 people, almost entirely from my dad’s side of the family. For decades, my mom hosted Christmas dinner at our house in California. ![]()
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