After our feast on Christmas Eve, it was a bit of a challenge to rally the troops to cook a gourmet meal for Christmas day proper. However, since all we really had to do on Christmas was get ready to leave for Miami, we really didn't have much of an excuse to ignore the call of the kitchen. We had also been opening presents since Hanukkah, so we just opened the gifts from M's parents (they gave me a new cookbook. Yay!!)

The first year we were married, we had a Christmas feast: Creme Fraiche and Caviar on Endive, Roast Duck, Wild Mushroom Saute, Chestnut Puree (which we messed up so badly that we ended up throwing it out), something green that I can't remember, and Coconut Panna Cotta with Mango Coulis. Since we were leaving for Miami the day after Christmas and couldn't afford too many leftovers, our menu this year was a bit more modest: roast duck, garlic green beans, mashed potatoes, homemade cherry applesauce, and a store-bought mini chocolate cheescake.

The only things worth noting were the duck (done according to Julia's Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipe) and the cherry applesauce. The duck was good, but not quite as good as on previous attempts. I think we overloaded our casserole dish with onions and carrots and didn't give the duck a chance to drip and brown as well as we could have. I'm not a huge fan of duck, so I don't have a pressing need to get this recipe right...M (who will always, always choose duck over any other food) feels a bit differently.

The cherry applesauce was my invention, born from my desire to use my "new" (read: appropriated from my Nana's kitchen after my Papa passed away last year) food mill again, and from my knowledge that cherry and duck is lovely together. I stewed a few handfuls of cherries (de-pitted) and about three Granny Smith apples (my preferred cooking apple, since their tartness means you can control the sweetness of the dish yourself) with the juice of half a lemon, a cinnamon stick, and a bit of water for 20 minutes until it everything was soft. I then added some brandy (I thought about adding Kirsch, which is cherry brandy, but I'm not a huge Kirsch fan, so I stuck with the original) and a bit of brown sugar, cooked it for another minute, and ran it through the food mill. We still have a bit in our fridge, and it has only improved with age. I should think about learning how to officially "put up" preserves and such....

Other than that, Christmas was our day of gathering strength for New Year's week - what we consider the highlight of our year. More to come on that, indeed.