Just as I was nodding off in front of the television on Christmas Eve my wife prodded me awake, “lets go!” Off we went to go celebrate Christmas at my sister in-laws house, still a bit hazy and feeling a bit verklempt by the fact that my mother hadn’t arrived yet! When I called to find out why she was late in arriving at our house. I realized that she had made a mistake and thought the invitation for dinner was for Christmas day, rather then Christmas Eve! She told us to go without her because it was late. We were going alone and I felt a bit sad she wasn’t celebrating with us like every year!

Our dinner this evening was a suckling, nothing to whine or squeal about, eh? For our appetizer we had a mix of Atlantic oysters, Beau Soleil’s from Canada, Wellsfeet and Flowers. I made a spicy mignonette sauce and we started with a prosecco which was fabulous pairing with the briny oyster juices, vinegar, shallots and the bite of the black peppercorns in the sauce! Are baby suckling pig was anointed Benjamin? No idea why but it was a good way to make some jokes about midnight snacking of my niece who felt bad for the little oinker! I suggested that when she would be sneaking some pieces out of the fridge at night and her mother would ask who she was talking with in the kitchen,her response would be, “I’m talking to Benjamin mom!” It was sort of sad and we commiserated the poor little porkers demise none the less we devoured him! Perhaps we should of sang a song or something to the spirit of Benjamin, we always forget to thank the animals rather then some idol or whatever? Accompanying the little pig, we had a wonderful array of traditional Ecuadorian corn dishes, mote (hominy), tostaditos (corn nuts, that are toasted and salted), some avocados as well some more traditional side dishes, like braised red cabbage, a stuffing made of veal and rice and so on. A real pig out you could say! The wines were organic, from Australia, France and Spain, the best was the one from down under a very fruity Syrah, Rams Leap. Finally our piéce de résistance, Büche de Noel that I made in record time consisted of genoise with Italian meringue butter cream, a gianduja spread, cocoa nibs and of course the ubiquitous mushrooms made of French meringues!