Houston's: Consistently Good Service and Food

My friend J and I have known each other for about a decade now. She was one of the first people that be-friended me during my first week at UMASS and despite distance and busy schedules, we still remain such good friends. J is in medical school in New Jersey and her schedule is thus jam-packed, but she still comes to Massachusetts from time to time to visit her family. Whenever she comes into town, I'm lucky enough to be one of the few people she makes time for.

J came into town last week for Christmas with her family. Her wonderful boyfriend S came into town yesterday to catch up with some of his college friends (he is a BC alum). J and I emailed a bit over Christmas to see if we could find a time for her and S to catch up with B and I. Since B wasn't working today, the four of us met up at Houston's in Faneuil Hall for a long lunch.

B and I arrived around 12:30 PM for a 12:45 reservation. It was actually quite silly for us to be early because as long as I've known J, she has always been late to everything. This is a quality I actually very annoying in most people but endearing for her. This is what happens when you know someone for a really long time.

Houston's was actually quite busy today with the usual business lunch crowd along with a lot of tourists in town for the holidays. While we were waiting for J and S to arrive, our friendly host seated us in one of the round booth tables and checked my shopping bag for me. This reminds me of why Houston's is one of my favorite chain restaurants. I find both their service and food to be consistently solid. The servers are well-trained with a lot of the old school dining etiquette that you don't find in a lot of places. For instance, they will gently remind gentlemen to take their hats off in the restaurant. It sounds like something so simple but it is actually something that needs to be enforced in Boston with its lack of dress code.

While we were waiting, I decided to start out with a glass of wine. I perused their wine menu and found that they had some unusual wine choices at very reasonable prices. Drawn by its adorable name, I decided on a glass of 2008 Kung Fu Girl Columbia Valley Reisling. I was served a very generous glass of wine (one of the other reasons I enjoy Houston's) and perfectly chilled. The reisling packed a powerful punch with a strong citrusy and sweet flavor.

The sweet reisling did nothing to curb my appetite and B and I decided to order an appetizer while we waited for J and S to arrive. Since there were no descriptions of the rolls, we decided to try the Thai tuna roll with no idea what would be in it. While we were waiting for our sushi to arrive, our server brought us over warm towels to clean our hands, along with cold small plates and soy sauce. The attention to deal impressed me because there is nothing that turns me off more from sushi than a warm plate to eat with it.

J and S arrived around the time our sushi roll did. They also came with large appetites and decided to split the standard spicy tuna roll, which came out shortly after our Thai tuna. The Thai tuna is definitely worth trying. It was a large maki roll with tuna, avocado and crunchy peanuts marinated in Thai peanut sauce. The sushi was interesting because it had a lot of flavor (although the avocado did get a little lost in the sushi) and a lot of texture with the peanut crunch. I was a big fan.

For my lunch entree, I decided on their Thai steak and noodle salad. I've had this dish several times before and I love it because it is a brightly colored and flavored dish. This is a cold steak dish consisting of slices of a marinated filet tossed with Thai noodles, chopped mangoes, halved cherry tomatoes, cilantro, romaine, and peanuts. The steak was cooked a perfect medium rare and was very juicy. The combination of flavors really worked well although the portion was way too huge to even come close to finishing. My dining companions equally enjoyed their entrees, which consisted of the Club Salad, Spicy Tuna Roll Salad, and the Chicken Tenders. I stole a bite of B's chicken tenders and I made a mental note to try the club salad or chicken tenders (both come with the chicken) the next time I am at Houston's. They are lightly breaded and fried and so tender and juicy.

We had a long almost two hour lunch where we ate, laughed and caught up with each other from the last time we saw each other this fall. The restaurant and bar were both incredibly busy but we never felt even the slightest delay in service. Houston's started to clear out by the time we left around 2:30 and I felt incredibly full from the delicious lunch but also from the laughter we shared this afternoon. Located in Faneuil Hall, Houston's still remains one of my go-to spots for a leisurely lunch downtown.

The Barefoot Contessa's Croissant Bread Pudding

In addition to the pumpkin scones, B and I decided to make a second dessert. We knew this was overkill since my mom was also making mini-loaves of carrot, ginger, pumpkin, cranberry and corn breads; mini cherry cheesecakes; and a pecan pie. But we wanted to make another dessert to add to the selection. After doing some research, we found the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Croissant Bread Pudding and decided to give it a try.

B purchased the main ingredient - the croissants - the day before Christmas Eve at Flour Bakery. Flour Bakery has some of the most buttery, flaky and all-around delicious croissants around and we purchased half a dozen for our bread pudding. We left the croissants out for two days to dry out the moisture in the croissant. We needed the croissants to be a little stale for the bread pudding.

On Christmas Eve, we got the rest of the ingredients together. While the recipe calls for raisins, neither B nor I are huge fans of raisins so we decided to make an easy substitution with dried cherries.


We started out by spraying a baking dish with some cooking spray. I sliced the croissants in half horizontally and placed the bottom half of the croissant in the baking dish. Our medium baking dish was too small so I placed the croissants as close together as possible in a large baking dish. We distributed a cup of the dried cherries on the croissants and were careful not to allow the dried cherries to fall to the bottom of the pan to prevent them from burning when baking.



I put the top halves of the croissants on its corresponding bottom half. B and I prepared the custard portion of bread pudding and poured it the baking dish. We placed a few clean small plates on top of the croissants to get the bread to soak the custard mixture in.

The baking pan was placed in a large baking pan with about one inch of water in it. We made an aluminium foil "tent" with vents on top of the baking pans and placed both pans in the oven for about forty-five minutes. This steamed the bread pudding. Afterwards, we removed the tin foil and cooked it for another forty minutes. The croissants expanded and puffed up and turned a delicious golden brown color.

When the bread pudding was done, we cooled it and then placed it in the refrigerator overnight. We brought the bread pudding with us on Christmas Day and left it out in the kitchen while we ate Christmas lunch so that it would return to room temperature. B and I were both worried that the bread pudding had some dark brown spots that might taste burnt but they were just a darker color presumably due to the butter in the croissants.

The croissants were moist without being soggy. The custard was light and fluffy and thankfully, not overdone. The bread pudding was my dad's favorite dessert by far because it was not too sweet and he liked the light consistency of the whole dessert. The dried cherries were a pleasant substitute and added a tiny bit of tartness to the dish. We knew the dessert was successful when my parents asked us to leave quite a bit behind for their leftovers. I think they were looking forward to eating it for breakfast and dessert after Christmas. The croissant bread pudding was incredibly easy to make and it will definitely be added to the dessert rotation of our dinner parties.

Angie's Pumpkin Scones

My friend A is a Midwestern and younger version of Martha Stewart. She hosts lots of themed parties for various holidays along with sorority functions, and she is constantly making lots of yummy treats for these events. Besides our love of cooking and baking, she and I also share a deep affection for anything pumpkin. When she started tweeting about the pumpkin scones she made for another social gathering, I hinted (okay, demanded) that she send me the recipe!

Since my mom refuses to let anybody contribute to the actual Christmas meal, we are only allowed to contribute to appetizers or desserts. Last year I brought both a hot and cold spinach and artichoke dip for appetizers, but this year B and I decided to tackle the desserts. Since my dad doesn't like desserts that are overly sweet, I thought the pumpkin scones would be something he would enjoy.

First, we gathered up all the ingredients:

Pumpkin Scones (nom nom nom)

2 cups Flour
⅓ cups Brown Sugar, packed
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
½ teaspoons Ginger Powder
½ teaspoons Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Orange Zest
1 stick Unsalted Butter, Frozen
½ cups Pumpkin Puree
½ cups Heavy Cream

FOR THE ICING:

1 cup Powdered Sugar
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ginger Powder
2 teaspoons Corn Syrup (I did about two squirts)
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Heavy Cream (enough to make icing thick, almost like honey)




Together, we mixed the first eight scone ingredients and B added the frozen butter stick by grating it on a cheese grater over the flour mixture. Angie added a helpful note to work quickly with the butter because the butter melts easily and this was definitely a good tip! Aren't the butter curls so beautiful?

While B mixed the butter curls into the flour mixture with a fork. I got to work and mixed the pumpkin and cream into a smaller bowl.

I poured the pumpkin mixture into the flour/butter mixture. B folded the ingredients with a wooden spoon just until flour is moistened. I turned the dough onto a lightly floured board and kneaded the dough over a couple of times. I wanted to get a nice dough consistency without overworking it. When I was done kneading the dought, B formed the dough into a rectangle and then cut them into triangles, about one inch thick. He put them on a plate and froze them for about forty-five minutes.

We took the firm scone dough out and placed them on a baking sheet that we sprayed with cooking spray and baked at 400F for about twenty minutes until the scones were firm and golden around the edges.

While the scones were cooling, I put together the icing by mixing the first five icing ingredients. I added the heavy cream in small amounts at a time, stirring often, until the icing reached a thicker consistency. Like Angie advised, I added enough heavy cream to make the icing a honey-like consistency. When the scones had cooled, we piped icing onto the scones.

We made a test scone that was a little misshapen from the rest and tried it out. The scones had a nice pumpkin flavor but the nutmeg and orange zest really stood out. The icing added the perfect amount of sweetness. My family really enjoyed the scones on Christmas Day and I'm definitely going to make them again in the fall!

Thanks Angie for sharing the recipe!

xoxo

Christmas Day with the Family

Because there was no traffic on the roads, we got to Tewksbury earlier than we expected on Christmas Day. B was excited because this is the first time he has celebrated Christmas before. My dad insisted that we take lots of photos, especially since he was in love with B's ridiculously fancy Nikon camera and he wanted to play around with it.

We always have appetizers and apple cider while we are opening gifts. We had some raw veggies with a cold onion dip and a white bean dip. The pureed white bean dip was ridiculously delicious and healthy! We also had a cheese and cracker platter, along with shrimp cocktail and my mom's spicy cocktail sauce.

While we nibbled on appetizers, we opened gifts. Here are some pics below. On a side note, my mom made me promise to state that the walls and living room are deconstructed right now because of the upcoming painting job in our house:

B got a Cuisinart immersion hand blender to upgrade on the old one we already have. He also got a five speed hand mixer. Both of those items were from my sister, who was actually away this Christmas. This is the first Christmas I've ever spent without her and she was definitely missed! She got my Massachusetts bar certificate (see below) framed to match the rest of my office frames (law degree, college degree, law award plaques). She also framed my Massachusetts federal bar admission certificate as well.

At Thanksgiving, I took my dad's old Rolex watch. My maternal grandparents bought it for my dad as a pre-wedding gift but he hasn't worn it in twenty years because it actually broke down. Unfortunately, at the time, there weren't many certified Rolex repair centers in Boston. So I did some investigative work and thanks to the lovely people at Paul Duggan Company, my dad got his repaired Rolex for Christmas. He was thrilled and I was happy to do this for him.

B and I also got the woman who has everything a gift card for her to get herself something special. While I hate gift cards, she insisted on it.

My sister also got my parents each a Nintendo DSI and some brain games for them.



My parents got B and I some great serving ware dishes. They know that we love to entertain and I know these will come in handy. They also got us some lovely champagne flutes from Crate and Barrel. We realize that we are definitely going to need a hutch for our dining room to store all of our entertaining dishes!

For my baking needs, I got a new Oxo rolling pin, along with a three level baking rack. My dad was joking that this can also be used as a tool to keep B in line!

B got a fantastic Crate & Barrel mirror from my parents for his closet. He just put it up today and it makes the room look fantastic!

I surprised B by getting him a limited edition Nooka watch (there are only 200 of this particular style in the world) along with a sweater he has been admiring for some time at Banana Republic. While I suspected that B was going to get the Michael Kors tortoise watch that I've been coveting for so long (see my wrist below), he also surprised me with a new Canon powershot camera. Everyone knows that I use my camera so much but it was time for an upgrade. I totally was not expecting it but I was so happy for it!

After the gifts, we opened our stockings. My mom crochets all of our stockings. This year, she made B one and also new ones for my sister and I.

B was especially excited because he has never had a stocking before. He was so excited about having his very own!

He seemed to be unsure of what to do with it and looked to me for instructions! We had the usual candy and baked goods, along with a new ornament for each of us! My mom got me an exquisite tree ornament made of lace and pearls!

We had a lovely time opening gifts and I was so happy that B was there to celebrate with my family. It is so great knowing they love him as much as I do. Christmas is always wonderful when you spend it with the ones you love.

xoxo

Christmas Day Feast

On Christmas morning, B and I woke up and headed to my parent's house for Christmas. Last year B opted out of spending Christmas with my family since he was still packing for the big move to our apartment. But over the year, he's had many meals with my family and knows that my mom goes all out for family feasts. Christmas is no exception and B definitely was ready for the Christmas day "lunch" (you know that random meal you between 1 PM and 5 PM on holidays) with my family.

Here are some highlights of my mom's feast:

Green beans sauteed with butter, shallots and fresh cracked pepper.

This was a new recipe - Ruth's Chris' sweet potato casserole, which consists of mashed sweet potatoes with a chopped pecan and brown sugar crumble. It was a hit at my house and will definitely be repeated next Christmas!

My mom's famous cornbread and spicy sausage stuffing. Yum!

I am not a fan of ham so my mom has switched to a roasted pork loin the past few years. This time she did it with a Dijon mustard and bacon crust. B was in heaven!

My mom also made several sides for the pork, including a very fresh and light mango salsa with plenty of diced red peppers, jalapenos and red onions. I love mango salsa because I love the combination of spicy and sweet. This was my favorite.



She also made some cranberry sauce with an orange juice base and citrus zest.

The final sauce was a peach and dried cherry salsa. This was definitely sweeter and a good compliment to the salty bacon.

Of course, my favorite side dish is the mashed potatoes. They are so light and fluffy with plenty of butter, half & half (instead of milk) and fresh cracked black pepper.

Usually my mom makes lasagna but this year she did stuffed shells. The shells were stuffed with a ricotta, spinach and chopped turkey mixture. This was another big hit.

We had several bottles of prosecco and Korean plum wine with our meal. My mom really outdid herself and she told me that she loves making so much food for our family because it is her way of giving us some love and joy. I went home that night (armed with enough leftovers for a week) full of both my mom's wonderful cooking and, of course, my family's love.

xoxo

The Ultimate Lunch at Locke-Ober

When it comes to dining, I am incredibly lucky to have family, friends, and of course a boyfriend who have a sincere appreciation for good food. Whether it is No. 9 Park's prune gnocchi with seared foie gras or banh mi in Chinatown, I have been able to taste my way through some of the best food that Boston offers.

But there is one place that until today I had yet to visit despite its close proximity to where I went to law school and where I now work. In fact, this restaurant has a deep and rich history as the third oldest dining establishment in the City of Boston. This is the kind of restaurant that I envision when thinking about the long business (and often liquid) lunches that used to be so common in my profession. It is one of the few places left in this city where a man would never think of going without a dinner jacket.

Locke-Ober.

Although I love some of the recent movements in the restaurant industry, Locke-Ober represents everything that is lacking in today's modern restaurants. The restaurant is a true beauty with rich mahogany panels, French furniture and Italian sculptures and paintings. From what I understand, the place really started to lose its luster until Lydia Shire restored Locke-Ober in 2001. When B and I started dating, we talked about how Locke-Ober would be the perfect place to meet for lunch during a workday but our plans fell apart when Locke-Ober suspended their lunches last year due to economic considerations. So when we heard that Locke-Ober reopened their lunchtime service this fall, we decided to plan for a lunch date sometime close to the holidays and finally, today I got to experience this dining institution.

When we arrived, we were pleasantly greeted by the hostess and maitre d'. They confirmed our reservation as we checked our coats. The bar was busy and if you think Cheers is where everybody knows your name, then you certainly haven't been to Locke-Ober. This is the epitome of an old boy's club and everyone looked to have known each other for at least a few decades.

I got a chance to sneak a peak at the downstairs dining room, which looked so breathtakingly elegant. Unfortunately, we were led to the upstairs dining room, which was a little less refined but elegant nonetheless. The tables started filling quickly as lunch service began. Our server was young and perhaps a little green as he seemed nervous to hand us our lunch menus. He asked to take our drink orders yet he hadn't given us the wine menu to look at. With the holidays so close, I was definitely in the mood to celebrate and ordered their only prosecco offered by the glass. Strangely the server only took my drink order and the wine menu without asking B if he wanted a drink. It was all very odd but I was willing to overlook our server's errors as he made up for it with a charming personality and nervous enthusiasm.

B ordered our lunches and we were happy to indulge in some carbs with the bread basket presented to us. The basket contained slices of raisin and white breads, along with some white dinner bread rolls. I opted for the raisin and lightly slathered some butter on it. The butter, by the way, was elegantly presented with a thin cover with the Locke-Ober crest on it.

Our first course soon arrived to our table and we were thrilled with the generous bowls of soup in front of us. To start, B ordered "New England's Macomber Turnip Soup...Drizzle of Truffle Oil", which he delightfully devoured. I ordered JFK's Lobster Stew. The lobster stew was a beautiful orange color from the lobster meat and topped with chopped parsley. The broth was much thinner than a lobster bisque but like a bisque, had the traditional hints of heavy cream, milk and sherry. There were generous pieces of lobster tail and claw meat with a slight hint of maybe paprika. The stew is named after John F. Kennedy who used to frequent Locke-Ober on a regular basis and the lobster stew was reportedly one of his favorites. The story is that JFK used to order the stew just for the broth and would give the lobster meat back to the waiter. I'm not sure if that's true or not but the broth would certainly merit such a tale (although I would happily keep the lobster meat!).

After we finished the soups, we started onto our actual lunch course. B chose the Winer Schnitzel a la Holstein. I didn't know this but a la Holstein means that the breaded veal is served with a fried egg, anchovy and capers. Although B removed the anchovy, he was thrilled with the combination of fried egg and capers with his winer schnitzel. The schnitzel was also served with a side of thin egg noodles in a parsley and butter sauce.

While I rarely order pasta, I was too tempted by the truffle-floured tortellini of sugar pumpkin served with toasted sage leaves and liquor candied cherries. This generous portion of pasta was served atop the thinnest slice of butternut squash in a brown butter and sage sauce with beautiful shavings of parmesan on the side of the giant pasta bowl. Each bite of tortellini was rich....decadent...amazing. I honestly wouldn't have been able to put my fork down under any kind of circumstance.

Locke-Ober was the ultimate lunch for me. I think that I never have before and maybe never will have such an amazing meal. Our server was green but a nervous server couldn't even make me feel a negative thought towards this meal. I surprise myself because I rarely fall head over heels in love with a restaurant and I certainly walked into Locke-Ober with enough high expectations that it was destined to fall short. But this was a dining destination and one I won't likely forget anytime soon.

Locke-Ober is located at 3 Winter Place in Downtown Crossing and luckily for me, serve both lunch and dinner.

Framed's Triple Threat Cake

I think I've mentioned this before, but one of my favorite cooking blogs is Framed. The author is always making delicious meals or desserts that really catch my eye. If you haven't checked out her blog, then please do so when you can. One of my favorite things about blogging is getting inspired and motivated from other blogs. I can't even tell you the number of times I've put together a new outfit, checked out a restaurant based on a blog review or tried out a new recipe based on reading someone else's blog.

Yesterday, the lovely author of Framed posted a blog about a Triple Threat Cake that she made (after seeing the recipe on CakeSpy). I forwarded the link to my boyfriend as I'm likely to do whenever a new recipe catches my eye. We both loved it since we have a not so secret affection (or obsession) with boxed Funfetti cake mix. I know, I know - it is a guilty pleasure. Since the boyfriend was home from work, he decided that he would make this cake, especially since the recipe was pretty easy using pre-made pie mix, pre-made cookie dough (in his case) and boxed cake mix.

While he won't guest blog, he did take some pictures along the way. He admitted that he only remembered to take pictures after the pie crust and cookie dough had been already placed in the pie pan. Here are his photos below:

When I got home from work, the cake was cooling. I did help him frost the cake after dinner and we lamented over the disappearance of Funfetti frosting. Plain frosting with sprinkles on top is just not the same but it will have to do. I wish we had a thicker layer of cookie in the cake but it was delicious nonetheless.

Who is going to come over and help us eat this cake? We realized how silly it was to make a cake right before Christmas when our place will be loaded with sweets and goodies, along with Christmas leftovers!

Happy Holidays everyone! xoxo

Birthday Celebration at Privus Lounge and Do Re Mi

After Hanukkah celebrations with B's family on Saturday, we dropped off our Hanukkah gifts and the Zipcar and headed to Allston for my dear friend M's birthday celebration. We were starting the evening off with dinner at Privus Lounge.

Privus Lounge is located at 165 Brighton Avenue in Allston and is owned and run by the same proprietor as the Kells, which is directly adjacent to Privus Lounge. The restaurant was well prepared for M's large birthday party, which included twenty-two of her nearest and dearest. They gave us two long tables against the window which were separated by a small column in between.

To start, I ordered some lychee soju. Soju is a distilled rice alcohol comparable to vodka. Traditional soju has a clean taste but I decided to try a flavored soju for the first time. The server assured me that the lychee soju wouldn't be too sweet and it had a nice smooth taste.

Despite protesting about the amount of food we ate at B's parents' house, B and I ordered the Korean dukboki appetizer dish to split. Traditional dukboki contains rice cakes in a spicy gochujang based sauce with vegetables and beef. But Privus Lounge had a lot of Japanese and Korean dishes (along with sushi rolls) with an American twist. Their dukboki came with melted mozzarella cheese on top (which is sometimes offered as a variation of the dish as Korean street food), but this sounded absolutely disgusting to me so I asked for them to take that off the dish. The dukboki was very spicy and perfect for such a cold night. It had glass noodles along with cones of rice wrapped in sushi. It was delicious.

B and I also split the crazy volcano make which contained salmon, kimchi and cucumber. Unfortunately it was topped with melted mozzarella cheese, scallions, mayo, grilled flying fish roe and hot pepper flakes. All you could taste in the sushi was the cheese, rice and seaweed. This was probably the worst attempt at Japanese and Asian fusion of sushi.

Some members of our table, including B, decided to split an order of Korean fried chicken, which is apparently very popular in Korea. However, it never arrived. Our table never really inquired into it because they were pretty full with the other items they had ordered. But when the bill came, they billed us for the chicken! When I pointed it out to our server, she said, "Oh right, you guys never got it." She then went to take it off the bill but never once apologized their error in not bringing out something that a table had actually ordered. It was all very odd.

After the strange ending to the meal, we headed over to Do Re Mi for a night of karaoke. We brought in some beverages and had a blast in the private party room for several hours. From the leather couches to the disco ball to the Korean karaoke, we had a blast. Renting a karaoke room is a very popular thing to do for Asian young adults but I think that my American friends had just as much fun.

We ended the night early to beat the pending snowstorm but it was honestly the most fun I've had with my friends in a really long time. Asian foo

Here's a pic of the birthday girl - Happy 26th Birthday M!

xoxo

Weekend Hanukkah Celebrations

On Saturday morning, B picked up a zipcar and we headed down to the South Shore to celebrate Hanukkah with B's family. Most people celebrated Hanukkah the previous weekend but because B was on call, his family postponed it until this past weekend so he could enjoy the day without any distractions.

Since we hadn't seen his parents in awhile, we decided to go down really early to have breakfast with them. Since we were already on the road, we decided to pick up some bagels and the fixings for breakfast. Based on the recommendation of one of my bosses who lives in the area, we stopped at Life's a Bagel in Canton. It is a tiny bagel shop the size of my kitchen where the line was wrapped around the store. The windows were steamed up and the sign indicated hot bagels. Despite the long line, it moved rather quickly. We picked up a dozen assorted bagels, along with some tubs of cream cheese. We headed to Maxie's Deli at the adjoining strip mall to pick up lox and the traditional accouterments. We were disappointed when all they had was the lox and no pickled onions or capers.

With our car loaded up with gifts and smelling like delicious hot bagels, we headed to B's parents house for breakfast. We ate our bagels and waited for B's sister, brother-in-law and nephew to arrive. Little Noah was a bundle of energy and we played with him until it was time to eat. We started out with a simple appetizer of cheese and crackers that B and I had brought down. We included a smoked cheddar, Gouda, and a spread cheese that B's dad really enjoys. For our Hanukkah lunch we had the traditional brisket, roasted carrots, pureed butternut squash, latkes with homemade applesauce. B's parents prepared way too much food and we were happy to take some leftovers for the rest of the weekend.

After lunch, we opened up Hanukkah gifts. Noah really enjoyed opening the gifts more than the actual gifts themselves! Here are some pics of the gift-opening below:

Noah helping Grandpa open his gifts.

He really liked his Elmo Lego's!

Playing tug of war with Grandpa!

Noah testing out his Elmo slippers!

I honestly think the holidays are so much better when you can give gifts to a child. After gift opening, we had a delicious lemon cake that E brought down from New Hampshire along with a plate of holiday cookies from a local bakery. We left around 4 PM and headed back to the city as we had a birthday party that evening.

The next day I took a look at some of my favorite gifts:

B got me the Starburst necklace to match my new House of Harlow Starburst ring. I was so surprised and absolutely love it!

He also got me Season Eight of 90210. I have faithfully been buying every season and I was excited to watch an episode last night!

He also got me the photo book of one of my favorite fashion photography websites - The Sartorialist.

B's parents got me these Chiasso bookends for the cookbooks I have on top of our refrigerator. They also got me a Chiasso floor lamp for the bedroom.

I realize that we only own a few cookbooks. In the picture above, the far left is a recipe book with all of the recipes B and I have tried out, the Top Chef recipe book and the 2009 Zagat's. I am happy to add more to my collection. I got the American Fashion Cookbook that I have coveted since seeing it on We Are Not Martha's blog! Fashion and cooking are two of my favorite passions and some of the appetizers looked really neat!

I also got A Korean Mother's Cooking Notes, which is one of the few Korean cookbooks that really do traditional Korean recipes. My mom is actually making a personal Korean cookbook for B and I but this is a long process as she doesn't measure anything and this cookbook will be helpful until she sends me some of her recipes!

B's sister added to our wine collection with a bottle from the vineyard they spent their honeymoon.

And B and I also got some Chai to warm us up during the winter.

I also got countless books, including the Overnight Socialite, the Senator's Wife, and the Legal Career Guide. In addition, I was happy to receive a one year subscription to Food Network Magazine, along with a new soft winter North Face hat for the cold winter season!

Although I loved the gifts, the best was just spending some good quality time with B's family. Laughter, warmth and good health made this Hanukkah so great.

xoxo