Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My stepfather's birthday falls right before Christmas, and the one year we were back East for the holiday, my sister and her husband took us all out to eat to this glorious honestly French restaurant in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut to celebrate his birthday. The meal was divine and even impressed my partner, who is notorious when it comes to restaurants (he is usually either happy when he has something to criticize or happier when he can find absolutely nothing at all to criticize, and that night he was blissfully silent!).

Gelato made from the plums with which we made plum wine last summer.

chicken banbanji
(steam two breasts of chicken in the microwave, together with sliced ginger and green onion and saké. make a sauce by blending together 3T each of soy sauce, mirin and rice vinegar with 1/2C of sesame seeds in a blender. serve chicken and sauce over julienned cucumber with brown rice on the side.)