The menu

How to absolutely *serve* this holiday season

What role do you play in the holiday melee? The mom responsible for exceeding everyone’s holiday hopes and dreams, including those of her wounded inner child? The go-with-the-flow relation who reliably shows up to things but is otherwise unencumbered by any sort of advanced prep work? Have you already tied a beautiful ribbon on that perfect final gift or do you still really need to start shopping? I don’t want to shock you, but my role revolves around food. I have bought everyone’s gifts and done a terrible job of wrapping most of them, as is my signature… but when it comes to the Christmas Eve menu, I am focused.

Some years, I lean into a fun laziness—i.e. double-decker nachos served with good champagne, which I recommend highly. Of course some years, I go all out. And every so often, I find a happy balance between the two. So, I come to you now with holiday dinner & dessert ideas that run the gamut followed, as ever, by those good good links (movies, articles, a live Star Wars burlesque show!).

Next week’s letter will be the last of the year, about finishing strong and last minute gifts. Need an idea right now? Why not give the gift of this newsletter in your friend’s inbox once a week?

Dinner:

One of my favorite holiday menus is the feast of the seven fishes. It has an uncertain backstory; no one can quite agree where this ‘tradition’ comes from—most say it’s Italian-American. Some say it’s a Roman Catholic thing. Most Italians from the mother country don’t know much, if anything, about it. I say, who cares. It’s seven fish or seafood courses, starting small (caviar with creme fraiche on potato chips; crudite with a bagna cauda), working up to a seafood pasta (alle vongole, lobster mac ‘n cheese), and finally a roasted or grilled whole fish (or this gorgeous tomato-poached white fish), followed by a light dessert.