2020 was quite the year for us, even without the infamous Covid running rampant. We had to deal with immigration and tax offices, and heavens alone knew how scared I was to get my next wisdom tooth cut out from my jaw so close to the holidays!
But,
We managed to have a decent Christmas, despite not being able to go meet my family again this year, or my husband’s for that matter (travel is an issue, who would’ve guessed that a year ago!). We cuddled up and spent the day watching movies and eating our little feast in peace.
If you’ve read my post about our 2019 Christmas, You’ll know how stressed I can get in the face of new things such as trying a recipe for a holiday this big (my sweet tooth still longs for that cheesecake)! The pressure of failing was clouding my mind back then, giving me anxiety and making me frantic about every little thing.
But not this year!
This year we had several new things on the menu, such as the Waldorf salad (second container from the left), the garlic herrings (right next to the Waldorf’s, below the fish eggs), the roast potatoes, and the whole oven-baked chicken. I made a whole chicken, can you believe it?!
I had in mind to bake fresh bread and make some forest shroom salad, and even start the day with rice porridge with an almond hidden in it like we did last year. As the day got further I had to scrap some things though, and I am proud to say I did it without feeling like a complete and utter failure.
My amazing husband even got me a treat and bought some salmon roe!
It was an evening of amusement for us, all the way from understanding how potent garlic can be to the legendary First Carving of the Chicken, and also learning that oven-roast potatoes are just to die for and very easy to make indeed.
The meat was tender and the fish eggs were salty, the shrooms sucked in the lemon-butter liquid that burst out from the bird in the oven.
All and all, the main course was an enormous success!
The dessert, oh the dessert. Last year we had a gingerbread cheesecake. This year I went for a new thing, one of my all-time favorites in its creamy, fluffy goodness: Tiramisu. To company this treat I made us some mulled wine by making syrup from black currant juice, sugar, and traditional spices that go in it (star anise, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and orange peels), and dunked a bottle of this amazingly ominous red wine in the pot to mix it all up.
Let me tell you, if you’re afraid of this amazing thing, you should try making it. It’s one of the easiest desserts I’ve made and even with my Borderline issues, I managed to not mess it up! It’s so versatile too, I was bummed after I had assembled my Tiramisu because I forgot to add some vanilla to the filling since both I and my husband adore the spice.
For this Christmas, we got a few physical gifts as well as some games to play from the sale. Cyberpunk was obviously one of them since my husband had been waiting for it quite anxiously. Only two of the gifts were wrapped in a nice way – one of them was from my mother to us (amazingly knitted gloves with open fingertips) and a gift I gave my husband.
Tell you right now that living in a studio apartment with my husband who works from home, it is not easy to hide anything from each other. Yet I managed to do exactly that, and the smile on his face when he finally in the late hours opened the present and found his favorite tinwhistle inside it… The most precious smile I’ve seen in my life.
We ended the evening with some warm milk and cookies before hiding under the blankets to wish each other לילה טוב.
Updated: 30/10/2022
All the food looks good and you two are so beautiful together.
I finally have the motivation to be making holidays and such so.. my cooking getting better each year!