5 Days of Christmas: Handmade Gifts

More and more each year, handmade gifts are the centerpiece of Silka's family's Christmases, and not surprisingly, these gifts are often food. This year we handed out Nigella Lawson's totally perfect granola packaged in beautiful Weck Jars with a custom B+B label - a small but sweet token.

But it was Silka's aunt Diane (of Dumb Duck Farms) who really outdid herself. She gifted us a beautiful and bountiful basket of homemade canned preserves, jellies and sauces, home-tapped maple syrup, and chocolate goodies - not to mention kitchen linens and a subscription to Heirloom Gardener! Silka's parents received the same basket but rather than a subscription, theirs came with a gift certificate for baby chicks in the spring! We don't know when did we all turned so homestead-y, but we love it!

5 Days of Christmas: Holiday Sweet Breads

Traditionally saffron bread is served to parents on St. Lucia's Day (December 13th) by the eldest daughter, wearing a crown of candles and singing songs. While we aren't nearly that hard-core, we love this sweet bread so much that we use every Christmas as an excuse to make it. Silka has baked the bright orange bread many times before, but it's really her mom who's the pro. This year Tina really ran with it, baking a beautiful loaf and enough formed buns to freeze for later.

And on the 23rd, we got an extra treat from our very close friend Mark, who surprised Silka at work with a beautiful homemade Panettone bread. She brought it home and we promptly broke into the fluffy, fruit-dotted loaf. It was such a treat and the perfect thing to get us in the spirit. Thanks, Mark!

5 Days of Christmas: Christmas Dinner

As per usual, Christmas has come and gone in a flash! So much wonderful food was eaten, given and got, that we'd be remiss not to post a few shout-outs over this next week. First up - our fantastic Christmas Eve and Day meals with our wonderful families... 

As is Swedish custom, we had a Christmas Eve feast with Silka's family. The three-course meal started with home-cured gravlax, home-picked sweet dill cucumbers, and home-made limpa bread along with knäckebröd, deviled eggs and lots of cheese. Swedish meatballs (made with beef, lamb and pork from Dickson's), a smoked Flying Pigs Ham, and Janssons Temptation (basically a potato gratin with onions and anchovies) made up the second course followed by traditional Swedish cookies, presents and caroling.

That night, stuffed, we drove to Western Mass so we could wake up to a Christmas morning breakfast of hot chocolate, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants and a Christmas Tree-shaped coffee cake. After opening presents, a hike and some major napping, we filled up on a classic Standing Rib Roast, root vegetables, salad and more and more cookies!

Big thanks to both of our loving families for another perfect holiday!

Great Plates: Rush Creek Reserve Farmstead Cheese

This past Monday night we headed out to Crown Heights for an amazing meal created by Sweet Deliverance and the Underground Food Collective. A few years ago, Jake went to a couple life-changing dinners by the Wisconsin-based Underground Food Collective with his friend Cecily Upton, co-founder of FoodCorps. They were his first real exposure to that kind of local, community-oriented food culture and he was blown away! The food was amazing, the stories were beautiful, and the people were energetic and engaging. Needless to say, we were pretty pumped when we heard there'd be another.

After stepping into a simply decorated and incredibly warm space, with seating for around 75 and an open kitchen of busy chefs, we were handed a fantastic Concord Grape Rye Punch and small plates for house-cured charcuterie and pickles. We claimed a couple seats, caught up with some friends and sat down to a perfectly balanced and beautiful meal. The seemingly endless courses (7 to be exact) were made up of of lots of offal, goat, some black silky chicken, and lots of wonderful salads and slaws. The meal wound down with a rare soft raw-milk cheese from Uplands Cheese in Wisconsin. IT WAS INSANE. We couldn't help but buy a wheel, and we're trying very hard to save it for a special occasion. But we'll see about that...

Thank you, Underground Food and Sweet Deliverance, for an amazing, inspiring and delicious evening!

Great Plates: Gastronomia in Cioccolato

Anna, one of Silka's long-time friends, came all the way to NYC from her home in Italy to bring us this super weird and wonderful chocolate charcuterie plate! Ok, she actually came back to the States to see her lovely family on Thanksgiving... but she stopped by our apartment on the way and wow, are we glad she did!

Great Plates: Pancakes in Angelica

Saturday morning pancakes, wild apple sauce and bacon at the Angelica Farmers' Market.