Posted by Mario Batali, December 25, 2007 at 9:00 AM
On Christmas morning, we wake up at 8, light the fire, open presents, and eat lightly: clementines, Marchesi panettone from gustiamo.com (which will become your only panettone once you taste it), and scrambled eggs with white truffles. Lunch really does not happen, but I fire up the pizza oven as we head out to ski.
For dinner we go to the American South for inspiration. I put a ham from Nodines with cloves and a brown sugar glaze in the slow wood oven and steal the rest from the Lee Brothers' excellent cookbook; we eat black eyed peas, collard greens, biscuits with black truffle honey from Otto and then finish with a selection of chocolate gifts from my friend Katrina at Vosges Haut-Chocolate and some cool confections from Camilo de Blas in Oviedo, Spain, including glazed hazelnuts, tiny bitter chocolate creams, and a bottle of orujo de hierbas to burn the path clear.
The rest of the week is devoted to football, ping pong, and snow activities with the boys.
Ho! Ho! Ho! and Merry Christmas, Serious Eaters! Please enjoy our version of the famous WPIX Yule Log program. For your enjoyment, we give you the Burning Bûche.
Everyone here at Serious Eats wishes you and all your extended family the happiest of holidays. We hope all of your holiday wishes come true.
Posted by Adam Kuban, December 24, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Of course you're going to want to leave some cookies for Santa tonight. If you don't already have a recipe in mind, here are some of our favorites from the Serious Eats Recipes archives.
Posted by Paul Clarke, December 19, 2007 at 3:00 PM
“A merry Christmas, Bob!” said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. “A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss our affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!”
A Christmas Carol regularly gets trotted out this time of year (or DVDs of Scrooge McDuck cartoons do, anyway), to mark the holiday with Dickens’ tale of redemption. While Tiny Tim’s treacly “God bless us, every one!” is enough to set my teeth on edge, I have to admit that this reference to Smoking Bishop in the closing scene at the Cratchits puts me in the holiday mood.
The old Smoking Bishop is one of a family of once-common drinks that now make their sole appearance during the holidays, if then. But this near-forgotten class of punches is worth rediscovering, for both culinary and social reasons. As Eric Felten writes in How's Your Drink?, “Of all the outward signs of the miser’s redemption, the final confirmation of Scrooge’s transformation comes when he takes ladle in hand to serve up the Bishop.”
Posted by Lucy Baker, December 19, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Christmas is less than a week away, which means it's time for my mother and me to resume our annual debate: Is it too soon for another turkey dinner?
I say yes. Thanksgiving was barely a month ago, and my memories of the meal (unlike the half bag of cranberries in my fridge and the shriveled sweet potato in my vegetable drawer) are still fresh. Not to mention the fact that I ate leftover turkey sandwiches for days afterward.
For the upcoming holiday feast, I think a roast beef would be perfect, particularly when rubbed with fresh herbs, studded with garlic, and finished with port sauce. Lobsters, in their festive red shells, would also be lovely. Or why not try our hands at preparing a true Christmas goose?
"Imagine a Christmas ham, sealed in plastic and defrosting in the fridge. Imagine the cloudy ham water that leaks out of it and sits in the bottom of the plastic when you unwrap the ham. Imagine it carbonated and sweetened. Imagine putting it into your mouth and manfully fighting the automatic gag reflex." Thanks to The A.V. Club's review of Jones Soda Christmas Pack, I now know what I want to serve at my Christmas dinner!
The Hansel and Gretel aesthetic is so outdated. This year why not decorate your holiday table with a modern gingerbread house? No colorful gumdrop roofs or candy cane lanes here—just a garage, a rock garden, palm trees, and an asymmetrical roof. [via notcot.org]
On Christmas morning, we wake up at 8, light the fire, open presents, and eat lightly: clementines, Marchesi panettone from gustiamo.com (which will become your only panettone once you taste it), and scrambled eggs with white truffles. Lunch really does not happen, but I fire up the pizza oven as we head out to ski.
regularly gets trotted out this time of year (or DVDs of Scrooge McDuck cartoons do, anyway), to mark the holiday with Dickens’ tale of redemption. While Tiny Tim’s treacly “God bless us, every one!” is enough to set my teeth on edge, I have to admit that this reference to Smoking Bishop in the closing scene at the Cratchits puts me in the holiday mood.
, “Of all the outward signs of the miser’s redemption, the final confirmation of Scrooge’s transformation comes when he takes ladle in hand to serve up the Bishop.” 
