Kicking off the holidays

Everybody has their "holiday thing." I've never been one for all the commercial buzz – hard-sell on gifts, Christmas music two months before the day itself, etc. – but I do love making time for good friends and good food. Food is an especially high priority this year, after my wonderful dental surgery and head cold, which somewhat got in the way of enjoying what I ate over the past few weeks. Accordingly, then, Bonnie and I kicked off my vacation by having friends over for a meal last night.

We started off enjoying a hearty squash-and-leek soup whilst sipping a pleasant Sancerre (Henri Bourgeois, Le MD de Bourgeois 2004). Then we moved onto a nice tray of spanakopita – a meal in itself, to be sure – accompanied by veggies (baby bok choi and asparagus) with a balsamic vinegar dressing. With that we had a white Mercurey (J. Faiveley, Les Mauvarennes Domaine Faiveley 2005). We customarily have something red with spanakopita, but one of the guests couldn't have red wine, so we went for this and it was a surprisingly good match. For dessert, we had Bonnie's wonderful fruitcake (om nom nom!) and some chocolate biscuits (we cheated . . . these were from Italy, and not home-made like all the rest), served with a local mead (Cuvée de la Diable).

A good start to the holiday season!