We made short work of our backlog by completely relying on our Dutch heritage and reinstitute a second day of Christmastide, moving the planned extravagant dinner forward to today and, who knows, maybe tomorrow as well when we, like yesterday, lose ourselves in just the canapés and accompanying drinks, igniting philosophical musings so entertaining we let the night wheel us in.
Ivory would probably endorse this version of what happened, but would nevertheless add I cooked for an orphanage anyway, which is correct, when you consider that these snacks were planned to actually just be an appetizer, started around lunch time but we gloriously never got passed.
This toned down festivities, without decorations and dress ups but featuring an intense and recurring perambulation through our stuffed pantry, could easily turn into the unexpected revival of that twelve days event we so despised when we were chateau dwellers, mostly because of its waste and hassle we can now control and eliminate ourselves, thus improved into something more sustainable.
These were my personal favorite on yesterday’s ongoing spread: our homemade cream cheese on toast with salmon cured in Hawthorn Berry Jelly topped with fermented young Nasturtium seeds, Christmas in a bite, Les Pierres style. Tonight might finally bring Balsamic Charred Brussels Sprouts in white wine with sweet potato mash, or Saffron Infused Roasted Butternut and Sage Risotto, or one of the many other courses skipped, but never truly left behind and already reawakened on the tip of my tongue.
Bonne continuation everybody!