Merry Christmas and a happy new year

On Christmas eve, we were all gathered around the tree, drinking champagne and vodka, since part of my family came from Russia. There were 25 of us, aging from 8 to 70. Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, cousins... Each one of us had brought a "10 euros" present. We all wrote our names on little sheets of paper. The papers were then gathered in a hat. And a little girl whose name I can never remember picked them up one by one. When my name came up, I could choose from the pile of "10 euros" presents, all wrapped up in glamorous papers, the one I liked the most. I was lucky enough to end up with a bottle of decent french red wine - a Chenas, which I recommand you buy from L'Hardi vin (121 rue des Dames, Paris), a very good and cheap wine seller.

The dinner was made of russian meals, mostly, starting with blinis and salmon, with their fresh cream and melted butter, malossols (huge pickles), eggplant caviar, culminating with salmon Koulibiacs (a typical russian meal that looks very much like a meat pie, made of salmon and cabbage), and ending with a Criollo (chocolate, meringue, lemon and ginger, a cake that I had made following a recipe by Pierre Hermé) and home-made chantilly cream. Quite nice.

Now, we are on new year's eve and I am heading to the countryside. I guess the name of the town is Bernet or Berlet or Berlé. Anyway, I've got a map and a hundred cell phone numbers I can call for help. I'm invited by a nice couple, although they have the strange habit not to live in Paris. A fact that, like most Parisians, I can never fully understand. They told me that they had done home made Foie gras. "Yummi", as you might put it. I'll tell you how it turned out.

A happy new year to you all !

See you in 2005 ! Goodbye America !