The weather was too nasty to travel, so we had Christmas on our own. I got let out of work early on Christmas eve, and we had a nice early cocktail hour – Jon made Corpse Revivers and we finished off the sweet potato and beet chips from our last dinner party, with dangerously addictive spinach dip from the co-op deli.

In the afternoon we made a batch of salted chocolate caramels.We didn’t have enough bittersweet chocolate for the recipe, so we had to scrounge every piece of solid chocolate that we had in the house, and supplement with chocolate chips. The candy turned out really good, rather like solid brownie batter.

For our Christmas Eve supper I roasted a lovely small chicken, salted well ahead of time and stuffed with garlic, and made a farro risotto with tons of mushrooms and a bit of cream. Holy cow, it was good. We drank a Saint-Cosme cotes-du-rhone with it, which was perfect.

Christmas morning we opened a few presents. I got a copy of Nigel Slater’s Appetite, which says everything I wish I’d thought to say about food and cooking. I also got a couple of Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit bars, which just shows what a wonderful husband I have.

I also got a new macro lens for my camera. Whee!

For breakfast (after the requisite pieces of chocolate) we made buckwheat crepes with mushrooms, asparagus, gruyere and prosciutto (plus coffee and leftover prosecco).

And, later on, a ham dinner with friends and lots of good wine. I had to go to work the next day, but I definitely felt like I had had a good Christmas.