HHDE days 24-25: xmas!!

* read the original HHDE post here. follow along and post your daily endeavors in the comments! {click photos to enlarge}

The Mistero's family has a xmas eve tradition involving men and boys braving the cold dawn on an early morning visit to the fish market and cheese shop, with breakfast to follow. so i usually use that time to uphold my own xmas-time tradition of reading "holidays on ice" by david sedaris. i even have an old copy of the book inscribed and autographed by mr. sedaris himself!

since our recent tradition has been to host on xmas day, i also got started with some table-seating tree-branch crafts and setting the table:

here's how the final table setting looked on xmas day, before the food went down and the guests arrived:

our recently-minted xmas tradition also involves making homemade bagels on xmas morning (hence the advance table setting). my bread bible is "artisan bread everyday" by peter reinhart. this also gives me HHDE cred for starting the dough on day 23, for which there is no blog entry.

homemade sesame, poppyseed, and everything bagels

since our xmas day festivities are a potluck affair, we (for once) decided to go easy on ourselves and make a one-pot dish. i hadn't had chicken marbella until our neighbor made it for us last year, and if you haven't had it, you should make it lickedy-split – it is an easy and delicious crowd pleaser! another favorite dish i keep making is salad with roasted butternut squash, walnuts, pomegranate seeds, and shaved parmigiano reggiano. this time i also added roasted beets, red onion, and a little bit of bacon (yum!). sometimes i add farro or quinoa, too, or whatever else strikes my fancy.

we had the "log" going all day, keeping everyone warm and toasty on what turned out to be a beautifully snowy xmas day. hope you all had a very merry holiday!

* read the original HHDE post here. follow along and post your daily endeavors in the comments! {click photos to enlarge}

The Mistero's family has a xmas eve tradition involving men and boys braving the cold dawn on an early morning visit to the fish market and cheese shop, with breakfast to follow. so i usually use that time to uphold my own xmas-time tradition of reading "holidays on ice" by david sedaris. i even have an old copy of the book inscribed and autographed by mr. sedaris himself!

since our recent tradition has been to host on xmas day, i also got started with some table-seating tree-branch crafts and setting the table:

here's how the final table setting looked on xmas day, before the food went down and the guests arrived:

our recently-minted xmas tradition also involves making homemade bagels on xmas morning (hence the advance table setting). my bread bible is "artisan bread everyday" by peter reinhart. this also gives me HHDE cred for starting the dough on day 23, for which there is no blog entry.

homemade sesame, poppyseed, and everything bagels

since our xmas day festivities are a potluck affair, we (for once) decided to go easy on ourselves and make a one-pot dish. i hadn't had chicken marbella until our neighbor made it for us last year, and if you haven't had it, you should make it lickedy-split – it is an easy and delicious crowd pleaser! another favorite dish i keep making is salad with roasted butternut squash, walnuts, pomegranate seeds, and shaved parmigiano reggiano. this time i also added roasted beets, red onion, and a little bit of bacon (yum!). sometimes i add farro or quinoa, too, or whatever else strikes my fancy.

we had the "log" going all day, keeping everyone warm and toasty on what turned out to be a beautifully snowy xmas day. hope you all had a very merry holiday!