Christmas Is Here All Right !

My niece's birthday (she turned 4 years old this year) is now my official "Ready, Set, Go !" for the Holydays serious cooking and baking. This year it began quite hectictly, with a huge snow storm! My sister working-mom-very-busy-sister could use my help to prepare and serve the buffet for our dear Nora big day. But this time I was late, and the 16 inches of snow which felt on us in the night of Thursday to Friday didn't make thing easier for forgetfull me who had to do last minuts ingredient chasing in of-course-remote-and-far-away-from-home specialty stores. I was full of good intentions last Monday, thinking it'll be so cool this year to share with the world, on my brand new cooking blog, my complicated holyday's cooking. And I did began the week very well thank you ! I took pictures of the different stages of preparation of the different recipes I was executing. But starting on Friday, things began to slip toward the catastrophy and in the midth of all the hurry and hurry-up, I didn't make it to take pictures of the finished dishes. I just was totally overwhelmed and couldn't take time for the photos. Hopefully next week I'll be better organized and I'll be able to post actual finished dishes pictures. Satruday's party was a mix of muslims (practising their religion) and different people from different regions of the world (France, Martinique, Haiti, Québec, Morocco, Algeria.) So I decided to make 2 different recipes of eggnog. One with booze and one without booze (also good for all the kids present at the party).I made The Travelers Lunch Box recipe for the non-alcoholic version and Orangette's ''Seattle(st)’s Best Egg Nog'' for the alcoholic one (See links to these on the ''Blogs I Read'' index on the right). Incredible success. Most of the guests never had eggnog in their lives or if they had, it was the store-bought kind. Both bowls of eggnog were empty long before the party ended. My brother-in-law (one of "I never heard of eggnog" group of people), just couldn't stop making jokes about the french name of the drink, "Lait de Poule", literally translated "Chicken's Milk". Among the highlights of the buffet, one of the most successfull dish was the "Birch de Noel". This year is the fifth Christmas in a row I make this complicated bûche. It's alway an incredible success. I'm requested to make it more and more often as the years pass. This year, I'll make no less than 4 "birch de Noel". It's a recipe I discovered in the December 2001 Martha Stewart Living magazine. I tried it in 2001, and continued to make it ever since. I tried to suggest my friends and family may be I could make them an other dessert this year for a change. They refused. They WANT their birch de Noel and if ever I wanted to try something different, yes I can, but bring the birch de Noel with it please. I regret I didn't take time to take a picture of the finished bûche, even in the sheer crazyness of dessert time at my niece's birthday party (dessert time coincide with gift-opening time, and I'm both the official caterer and official photographer of the very important 4th birthday of the cutest of little girls). But no worries, I will have to make it for my husband's family Chritmas lunch, my family Christmas party, my friend's Chritmas party... You get the picture (errrr... may be not just yet...) Any party I'll go will have its Birch de Noel. He was so frustrated and when he was about to leave, he went sniffing the crumbs in the serving plate, then turned towards me and said "do you think I could eat that crumb of the meringue mushroom?" To which I answered ''no, I'm sorry, I can't guaranty it hasn't been in contact with the fresh coconut." I took pity on him an promised him a coconut-less version after the Holydays. So, I have plenty more occasions next week to picture the famous bûche. For the meat course, I made a flavourfull, tender and juicy brined and roasted turkey, with moroccan flavours. While my brother-in-law was carving it, I went to check on my sons and their friends who were making lots of noise on the secong floor of the house. After some lecturing, a time-out and listening to few complaints, I went back to see how the buffet served on the kitchen island was going. And there was the turkey carcass, standing royally in the center of the island.Of course, I prepared for yesterday's and on-coming parties, but more about that later... Bon appétit !