boxing day

I've actually had a mostly good christmas this year. I'm not a big fan of the holiday generally, so i have pretty low expectations -- I don't like all the gift giving (on demand) and I generally think two-days of pure parties and family time is just too much. But this year it's been wonderfully low-key and enjoyable (outside of a few rocky points). I think this has been in part due to my Mom's amazing cooking. She really outdid herself this year.



Christmas Eve dinner is always a curry with rice. It's always yummy - but this year she spiced it up. My sister made a delicious moroccon dish -- sort of like a chicken filo pie. The bottom layer was chicken with spinich, onions and egg? with a dash of cinnamon and then a layer of filo and then a top layer of almonds and honey and cinnamon, then more filo. It was really tasty. A great combo of sweet and savory. My mom cooked a butter-chicken curry (which actually doesn't have any butter, it's a creamy tomoto-based curry) and then instead of rice she cooked a cous cous with winter vegetables. It was delicious.



THEN! for christmas brunch she made the most amazing crab cakes I have ever had. They were slightly spicy, totally savory and just amazing. She served the crab cakes with an egg dish (also mouth-watering), lean bacon (who doesn't love bacon?) and then a cinnamon twist bread. I don't think i've had food that amazing back-to-back in a while. I think she's definitely raised the bar for our New Year's Day crab curry -- which I'm going to be making...