Actually I prefer Thanksgiving which has much the same schedule of family togetherness and eating, but without present-giving, which makes it somehow more meaningful (the togetherness) to me.
Anyway, I had a traditional Norwegian Christmas this year with my friends Heather and Sara, and Heather's family (which is where the Norwegian part comes in). We ate many delicious things, pretty much nonstop from when I arrived circa 4pm until I left to catch the ferry home at 8:30pm. We also drank the entire time, a holiday practice that I am glad to see is not only prevalent at my family's gatherings.
I can't remember all of the things, or all of the names of things that I ate, but we started out with festive and delicious flutes (hand-blown Norwegian glass! how Norwegian!) of Domaine Chandon champagne, which as Heather pointed out, I put miniature bottles of in our respective Christmas stockings last year. It was excellent--mild, bubbly, smooth, and when it was gone we were all quite sad. Luckily three bottles of good wine followed (A to Z pinot noir, Strong Arms shiraz, and something else that was also lovely). Sara and I ate le panier bread with prosciutto and butter with our champagne, and the prosciutto was lovely and not too salty. We discussed the merits of living in Italy and having access to cheap prosciutto all the time, and the various things you can put prosciutto on if it is extremely cheap and tasty. I don't think I have ever used the word prosciutto that many times in one body of text before...
Heather's mom made us some Scandinavian-style marzipan, which I loved. It was more almondy than other marzipan I have had, which I usually find too sweet to eat much of, but this was perfect. Soft, with some dark chocolate drizzled over the top for contrast. We continued snacking on crisp, spicy gingerbread cookies (in Winnie-the-pooh shapes!), biscotti with almonds and apricots, crackers with tasty cheese that I enjoyed but can't remember what it was, almonds, and various other cookies as they fell into our paths. We were seeking cookies with booze in them, but to no avail.
Dinner was well worth waiting for, and we were all hungry.
There were whole cooked potatoes, which were soft, white, and delicious. Kohlrabi, coarsely mashed, which we all agreed is a completely underrated vegetable and should be eaten with greater frequency. Lamb with mustard and/or cranberry sauce as well as sausage (and yes, I made the "Winona had a little lamb" joke and Sara and Heather were kind enough to laugh). Collard greens! Maybe not typically Norwegian, but absolutely delicious and if Bill would just tell me what he did to give them their somehow undefinable taste, I would be thrilled and then cook them all the time at home. I'll be asking about this again at other family get-togethers that I am privy to.
Before dessert, Heather brewed up some earl gray tea, which was perfect to go with our delicious and beautiful dessert from le panier, the Bûche de Noël, which, according to www.lepanier.com, is
"A French tradition for the holidays. The Yule log cake is a rolled chocolate cake layered with chocolate mousse, wrapped in ganache, decorated with dark chocolate holly leaves and meringue mushrooms. Perfect for a party centerpiece!"
So maybe it wasn't a 100% Norwegian Christmas, but the Bûche de Noël is every bit as decadent and amazing as it sounds. One small piece and I was ready to settle down for a long winter's nap.
In short... Christmas was excellent, the food and company were fantastic, and the hooch was great.
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