Christmas in Collingswood
We celebrated our first Christmas in the new house
and it was even more wonderful than we imagined it would be.
Nate, with his Oma Maggie, as he tries to steal a cookie, or a piece of cake, or maybe even a sip of wine. Who knows? Our table was laden with many goodies!
Roast butternut squash cut into large chunks & toss with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, sliced onions and diced fresh chestnuts. When it's caramelized and tender (after about 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven) put the roasted butternut squash into a bowl and stir in cleaned fresh spinach; the heat from the squash will wilt the spinach. Toss in dried cranberries and serve hot immediately.
We also had scalloped Japanese Sweet and Idaho Potatoes, sliced thin, layered in a baking pan with minced onions, salt, pepper and olive oil between each alternating layer of sweet and russet potato. For the main course, I made a brown-sugar cured bone-in ham, with a glaze of Dijon Mustard, molasses, dark beer, hot sauce and smoked paprika. Roasted the ham for 2 hours at 425 degrees and then let it rest before slicing.
Of course there were also cookies of all kinds and the Bouche d'Noel from DiBartolo's Bakery on Haddon Avenue. I'm not a big fan of icing but the cake was very moist and fresh. The icing tasted too much of shortening.
We drank lots of wine and beer, ate lots of great food and everyone was engaged in endless laughter and conversation around our table. At one point, Nate was running around through the dining room, into the kitchen, up and down the steps that lead from the kitchen to the living room and back around again. People were whooping it up at the table and the wine was flowing. It was a raucous joyous time.
Both Liz and I had real moments of realizing that this was exactly what we had hoped and envisioned but we didn't realize it until it was actually happening. To share a holiday meal with people who we love so much and who bring us so much happiness was the most extraordinary gift of the season.
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