Solstice Greetings
Chestnut Tower, Wicker Rattle, Cake on Christmas Eve
Happy Solstice! Here are some things I like to settle into close to the holidays:
I had my first Bicerin of the season the other day on a freezing walk to Soma - it’s my favourite holiday drink, comprised of three distinct layers (if it’s made right): rich drinking chocolate on the bottom, espresso in the middle, and topped with cold, lightly whipped cream. It is divine and quite literally changed my mood on that walk. Another holiday-ish drink I’m very much looking forward to trying is the Milky Blue tea from Mariages Freres that I recently picked up. Not to be confused with their Milky Blue Absolu, which I mentioned here, this one boasts “delicate notes of candied chestnut and creme patissiere” (sold) and its “gently rolled, deep green leaves recall a pleasing and comforting fragrance of melted white chocolate joined by a wispy hint of gianduja gracefully carried by a note of ‘panettone’ from the Piedmont - an ode to external pleasure.” (SOLD). For more suggestions I also very much enjoyed seeing Laura Mclaws Helms’ posts of celebrities of yore and their favourite holiday drinks.
For holiday baking I’ve made ginger cake and these dreamy brown sugar shortbread cookies that I had put in my cookie box (this time I made the mistake of halving the recipe, don’t do this.) I also made the Christmas Cake from The King Cookbook (I continue to love and recommend the cookbook to everyone I know) and am impatiently waiting for it to finish it’s one week’s rest.
Tomorrow I will make this chestnut chocolate torte (a satisfying use for most of my crème de marrons stash) for a Tourtière party in the evening. I’m excited.
With a baby it can be harder (nearly impossible) to sit around and read and watch stuff (especially now that she’s moving around), but my husband and I are persevering with our holiday watch list (‘just gotta make it to our half episode of Fanny Och Alexander’ we jokingly say to each other throughout the day). We also watched The Family Stone and soon we will watch what we like to call “The French Family Stone” - Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale. I ordered a copy for our library this year as it is a perennial favourite (it’s also currently streaming on Criterion, though not in Canada.)
It’s also time for a flip through Holy Night by Issei Suda, a beautiful book I bought a couple of years ago from my friend Christina at her store Soop Soop (it’s still available here.) All photos were taken on Christmas Eve in Tokyo in 1991. In the book Suda writes that Christmas Eve in Japan is observed by buying cake and bringing it home to eat; that lovers spend it together as the most romantic night of the year. I love this idea, obviously, and even more so I love looking at the style in these photos: the nylons, the pumps, the double breasted coats, the cake boxes and bouquets of roses as accessories. I quickly adopted this tradition of buying cake on Christmas Eve and bringing it home to eat, last year’s was a Mont Blanc from Nadege. I’m planning on doing the same for this year, after going to a matinee screening of Marty Supreme. Some of my favourites from the book:
Although my mother insists that babies only need “wrapping paper and boxes” for Christmas, I couldn’t resist getting a few things, especially for her stocking. Most of these gifts came from a fabulous general store (which also became a one stop shop for my husband’s stocking, and a few things for me as well):