After way too long, the next installment in my honeymoon summary (second day in Rome) is available. I decided to backdate the honeymoon entries so they're all in one place. At this rate, I may not finish writing about our honeymoon before our first anniversary!

We had a good Christmas with Patrick's family. Lots of sleeping in and being warm inside while it was raining outside. I'm glad we have another long weekend coming up!

I managed to fit a few of my family's Christmas traditions in, even though we weren't able to visit them this year. In addition to watching A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life, I made my mom's coffee cake (with our new bundt pan! I forgot to flip the filling/batter order for the bundt pan versus the tube pan, but it worked out fine and the top was prettier this way) and brought grapefruit for Christmas breakfast. The cake went over well with Patrick's family, I think.

Tonight's dinner was successful. I made Sea Bass in Crazy Water (Bronzino All'acqua Pazza. Our recipe was from Rustico, which I received for Christmas. The recipe was similar to this one). I actually used sturgeon instead of sea bass because the only sea bass we could find was Chilean, and that's not good for Mother Earth, while farmed sturgeon is just fine (I proudly pulled out my Seafood Watch card in the middle of Schaub's to figure out which fish I could buy in good conscience). I have no idea if it was a good substitution, culinarily speaking. The Seafood Watch card should include suggestions for which good fish can be substituted for bad fish. I'd like to try it again with a seafood mix (prawns, squid, mussels, etc.). Fish is kind of expensive, but it sure was a tasty dish! We soaked up the broth with some crusty bread.

I also made Fennel Gratin (recipe from Fast Italian, similar to this). Too bad fennel isn't in season. I should've checked the price per pound before buying it. It was a rather expensive side dish, but pretty good. I wouldn't say I loved it, but I'd make it again when fennel is cheaper.

Jewish Sour Cream Coffee Cake

This is my mom's recipe. We have it with Christmas breakfast every year.

Ingredients:

Batter:

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup sour cream

• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup sliced almonds (or chopped walnuts)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 10" tube pan. (I used a bundt pan instead)
   
   
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix well.
   
   
3. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
   
   
4. Add flour mixture and sour cream alternately to butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour.
   
   
5. Combine filling ingredients.
   
   
6. Spread half of the batter in the pan, sprinkle with half of the filling, spread remaining batter in pan, and top with remaining filling (reverse for bundt pan, starting with filling instead of batter).
   
   
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
   
   
8. Cool 15 minutes and remove from pan.
   
   

(makes 16 servings)

Last week, I finished a little knitting project I'd been working on. My company participates in a giving tree program every year, and one of the cards I picked was for a 1-year-old girl who wanted a knit hat and mittens. I couldn't find anything good at the mall, so I made some myself. I hope they're the right size. I made them out of soft merino wool (machine washable!). I used this hat pattern and this mitten pattern (no thumbs; babies don't need thumb holes).

I'm not thrilled with my cast on for the hat, but everything else looks good. They seem a little big to me, but I don't spend much time around 1-year-olds. She'll grow into them if they're too big. I hope she likes them!.

On Saturday, we went with Tree and Andrew to see Comedy on the Bridge/Brundibar at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. They were two 40-minute operas, both based on pieces written in Europe around World War II. Comedy on the Bridge was okay, but there wasn't anything really remarkable about it, except for the costumes and set. Brundibar was better--the music was catchier. The costuming and set design were done by Maurice Sendak, and the librettos were by Tony Kushner, so it's not surprising those were the best parts of both shows. It just that neither show seemed to have much substance. It was like reading a children's book (I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since that's what Brundibar was based on. Well, that and the original opera performed by children at Terezin, a concentration camp. I don't know how to feel about that). If Kushner and Sendak teamed up again, I'd go see it, but I don't know if I'd recommend this particular show to others.

After the show, we walked around 4th Street in Berkeley, and then we had dinner at O Chame. The food was good (though pricey), and the decor was pleasantly simple. We split a Tuna Sashimi platter and a bowl of tofu dumplings, both good. Tree and I had miso soup (I love that stuff!). For the entree, Patrick had a big bowl of udon with pork tenderloin in broth; I had roasted black cod with chanterelles, spinach and red chicory; Tree had roasted salmon with baby bok choy and enoki mushrooms; and Andrew had lamb with portabello mushrooms and edamame. I'm a big fan of mushrooms and greens, so all those combinations sounded good to me! All the meat dishes were pretty saucy, and there was rice to soak up the extra sauce. A very good meal!

For dessert, we went across the street to Sketch Ice Cream, owned by Andrew's friend's friends. It was a very lovable ice cream store. The aesthetic reminded me of miette--cute and simple. And they had tables and benches out in front, all facing the sidewalk for easy people-watching. And they have not only delicious ice cream, but also baked goods, so you can create your own ice cream sandwich (Patrick had vanilla shortbread with earl gray ice cream). My teeth have been sensitive lately (okay, ever since I went to MIT and started brushing my teeth too hard--that's the theory at least), so I opted for a little gingerbread cake (yummy! Crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside) and a cup of hot cider. I was delighted to find out that my cider came with a scoop of ice cream! (Optional, but of course I accepted) They normally add vanilla ice cream, but they were out, so I had the Straus Yogurt flavor instead, which was a good choice. The tanginess went well with the apple-cinnamon flavor of the cider. I've become a hot cider junkie lately. It must be the rainy weather. I hope we can go there again. I wonder if they put ice cream in their hot chocolate too...

On Sunday, Patrick hung Christmas lights on our patio (I helped by holding the lights; he got to wield our new staple gun, The Attacker). We're not religious, but both our families celebrate secular Christmas, and we decided this would be a good year to get some Christmas lights and a little tree and share our traditions with each other. We got a few ornaments at Crate and Barrel, and Patrick has a starter box of ornaments that his grandma made for him when he was little (what a thoughtful present!). This was his first year using his own ornaments instead of his family's (though he'll probably still get to help hang those too, since his family lives about 10 minutes from us).

I like our little Christmas tree and patio lights. I'm not a big holiday-decorating fanatic, so I think this a good amount of decoration for us. We'll only have one or two boxes of Christmas stuff to store in our triangle closet come January. Here are some pictures. It's pretty easy to tell which ornaments were mass-produced by Crate and Barrel and which were lovingly made by Patrick's grandma in the 80's. We're lucky to have some good family ornaments right off the bat.

I seem to be writing about what I made for dinner a lot recently. Not to worry; there's a knitting entry coming soon (and I haven't forgotten about those honeymoon entries; there's just so much else going on right now!).

I made Italian Wedding Soup for dinner on Saturday (modified somewhat--I added leeks, carrots, and spinach). It was my first time making chicken broth from scratch, and it didn't turn out as spectacularly as I'd hoped. I'm guessing I was supposed to simmer the chicken et al. uncovered instead of partially covered, so more water could evaporate. The broth I ended up with just tasted bland and watered down. I boiled the leftovers for a while after dinner, and it helped improve the flavor, as did a few splashes of hot sauce. It'll be better next time.

Straining the broth after simmering:

Soup after adding leeks and mini turkey meatballs:

Soup is on:

Soup after boiling for a while longer:

Last night I made gingerbread dinosaurs (well, I made the dough for them and then had to chill it overnight, so I baked them today after work). I used my dinosaur cookie cutters for the first time! I decorated the cookies with some storebought icing, which was surprisingly fluorescent. My decoration skills are not so good. Someday I'll try making royal icing and do it right.

T-rex and brontosaurus, before baking:

Assorted dinosaurs (and some wooly mammoths) cooling:

Decorated cookies, full of holiday cheer:

I used the gingerbread man recipe from A Baker's Field Guide to Christmas Cookies. I think it was successful, though I keep comparing the taste to my gingersnaps, and the dinosaurs just aren't as flavorful. But they're cute!