fuck yeah, christmas.

so we threw a little christmas party with the above title. it might be a little vulgar for the birth of jesus, but my holiday spirit is high. it is. i even made an ornament this week. and holiday decorations. and cookies with candy canes in them. and i am traveling all the way to buffalo for what casey keeps referring to as "catholic christmas," which apparently does not include midnight mass but instead a buffalo bills game (against whatever team tim tebow is on). 

so, yes, a little party. with the fanciest cheeses. alex and i made a special trip to southern season to pick the most perfect ones: sheep, cow, and goat. and rosemary bread. and peach bitters. that place is really something.

 

casey actually hosted/bartended this fête: three kinds of bourbon, as well as gin and sparkling wine. and punch, of course.

 

i am working my way through damon boelte's catalog of punches--this is his ruben's cooler no. 2, a concoction of gin, elderflower liquor, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, cucumber, and soda water.  

always a smash.

one-two punch.

casey and i are throwing a christmas party. he is going to make old-fashioneds. i am picking out a punch recipe. so much good to come.

algonquin punch.

yes, i threw a little party for the policy girls and made algonquin bar punch. casey white made a frozen ice bundt packed with lemons to keep it cold and not diluted.

it was potently delicious. you missed out.

(please excuse my very messy table.)

to say.

three nytimes articles that are practically permanent tabs:

• recipe for preserved lemons. shira asks what i will do with them once i make them. no idea. but i want to make them.
  
• an article on food stamps, now know as SNAP. thank you, lyndon johnson, for making this program happen, and damn you, michael bloomberg, for suggesting that low-income earners should not get to choose what they eat.
  
• more on punch, and my old hood in brooklyn. it's the punchiest.
  

with love.

tracy and i are in love with prime meats. (yes, i am in love with the meatiest restaurant/bar ever). and our favorite bartender, damon, wrote the recipe for the punch we made last week. how awesome is that? we didn't even know when we made it. but it's the rockest.

la bonne année.

most people celebrate the new year on january 1st. but not everyone. while they celebrate the regular new year as well, the russians also celebrate old new year on january 13th and the jewish people celebrate yom kippur in the fall.

well, we sort of moved it, too. tracy and keith and i wanted to throw a party, but we were all traveling throughout the holiday season, and so we decided it would be a post-new years new years party of sorts. so, i made some treats. obviously. hummus and carrots and peppers, to start.
vegetarian sushi with carrots, peppers, chives, and cucumbers .
two of my favorite dips, recipes from ina garten: pan-fried onion dip and sun-dried tomato dip. they are both full of fatty awesomeness that i cannot describe here because then my friends will no longer eat them.
finger foods. tomato+basil+mozzarella.
fancy olives and sesame-crusted almonds.
and punch! in my new punch bowl. yes, i realize the bowl itself is ugly. it's vintage. be nice.

this was the harvest moon punch, created by a bartender at prime meats, with the recipe found on the internet. it was a hit. a smash, if you will.

additionally, tracy and i made some fancy-schmancy margaritas with those infused tequilas: blood orange margarita with the cinnamon tequila AND red chile guava margarita with the pepper one. so very awesome, these cocktails. and we have so many good liquors left to drink. with fancy bitters. we have a coveted bottle of angostura bitters, as well as 2 types of fee brothers: cherry and rhubarb.

the nytimes was right when they said it was a good cocktail decade. an evolving. we learned that the drinks of our grandparents are the best ones. my own grandfather likes whiskey; maybe that's why i am so into the old-fashioned these days.

bonne année. let's make it a good one.