We flew back from our vacation today only to find frozen pipes in our wall (and then had to watch how two gaping holes were sledge-hammered into said wall by our kindly super), an unpleasantly loud carbon monoxide alarm, and air colder than it was in Berlin - which makes the airing out of a possibly carbon monoxide-filled apartment almost entirely impossible without freezing to death.
Ah, home - there's nothing like it, is there?
So! A photo essay it shall be.
Tea the day before Christmas in Brussels. Well, tea and Champagne. It's always the right time of day for Champagne, isn't it? Especially when you get to have your tea and Champagne with Belgian gaufres, warm and yielding and studded with crunchy pearls of sugar.
The potato focaccia that is making the rounds in my family right now (a recipe soon, I promise). Roughly: you boil a potato, let it cool, then mash it into a fresh yeast-flour-olive oil dough. Let it rise, top with tomatoes, dried oregano, and that gorgeous salt and bake until browned and puffy. From Puglia to Modena to Brussels to Berlin - now it's my turn to bring it to New York.
Then, because, as I was saying, you can never have too much Champagne, oysters and pink Champagne on Christmas Eve are very fine indeed. They are even better when eaten in the company of family; family I have not celebrated Christmas with since I was five years old. Taste-testing British oysters versus French ones with my cousin's nine year-old daughter was even more fun.
Our friends in Berlin kept some of their Christmas dinner warm for us so we still got to eat some leftover goose and red cabbage when we got to Berlin a few days later. I think Father Christmas navigates his way through northern Europe by the scent of braising cabbage alone.
And then, be still my beating heart, Ben flew all the way to Berlin to surprise me - to walk through the cold city and visit with my friends and drink milky tea with me and my mother and celebrate the advent of the new year and keep me company when I said goodbye and flew back to New York again. How did I ever get so lucky? God only knows. Really.
Happy New Year, dear readers! May it be a healthy, happy, joyful 2008 for you. I cannot even wait for all the surprises that this year holds in store.
welcome back! you've been missed but i'm glad you had a great time! and your pictures look beautiful! can't wait for the focaccia recipe...
Posted by: amy | January 03, 2008 at 09:47 PM
What a wonderful time you had! Best wishes for the new year!
Mary
Posted by: Mary Coleman | January 03, 2008 at 10:47 PM
Oh good! You're home! So sorry to hear about the pipes, but girl, I LOVE this new camera of yours...
xo
Posted by: Molly | January 03, 2008 at 10:53 PM
Welcome home, and happy new year to you. (Sounds like Ben's a keeper. How lucky you are!)
Posted by: Lydia | January 03, 2008 at 11:47 PM
Happy New Year!
Goose and red cabbage is amazing - I would navigate by that scent too. Maybe Ben did when he flew to Berlin?
Best wishes for 2008.
Posted by: Drew | January 04, 2008 at 03:32 AM
Happy new year!
I been reading (more or less silently) your blog for a while but this post is so warm and wonderful that I simply had to comment it. The photos are great too.
Best wishes!
Sanja
Posted by: FreshAdriaticFish | January 04, 2008 at 04:03 AM
love the new camera! What a great way to end...and start, the new year. Bonne Année!
Posted by: David | January 04, 2008 at 04:46 AM
yes the camera is AMAZING. Stunning photos. So it was YOUR apartment with the problem!! They checked ours two days ago! lots of love xx
Posted by: jocelyn | January 04, 2008 at 06:31 AM
Congrats on the new camera and so sorry about no heat... KS and just got heat in our bedroom so for 2 weeks, we would put on 4 layers of clothing just to go to sleep!! And wore hats and wool socks to bed! :) I hope you have a wonderful 2008 and look forward to pictures from your new Nikon - yay for Nikons!
Posted by: radish | January 04, 2008 at 08:20 AM
I love the new camera, too! It's exciting to see what you can do with that little puppy in your hands.
Posted by: RA | January 04, 2008 at 09:33 AM
Happy New Year to you and Ben, Luisa! What a fun trip you had, and what beeeeeyoooteful pictures you took! P.S. I'm so sorry for you loss.
Posted by: ann | January 04, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Happy new year! What a nice way to celebrate -- and love the photos, too.
Posted by: nicole | January 04, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Oh, what truly stunning pictures! That camera (and the boy) is fabulous, hooray for Nikon. I'm happy to hear you had great holidays and welcome to the new year.
Go out and buy yourself some space heaters (when our heat broke in a blizzard one year we bought a bunch and holed up in the bedroom for several days until it was fixed).
(btw, those little silver rimmed coasters- fabulous!)
Posted by: Mercedes | January 04, 2008 at 03:27 PM
Yay to the new camera, lovely holiday and awesome Ben! So sorry to hear about your Nonna. I vote for a whole month of his recipes, including those braised artichokes I have no-so-secretly pined for.
Posted by: deb | January 04, 2008 at 03:31 PM
Oh Luisa, the end of the year and the beginning of this new one sound like they've been bittersweet for you. Thanks for sharing everything with us. I second the vote on sharing your Nonna's favorite recipes.
Posted by: mary | January 04, 2008 at 06:22 PM
That is one delicious photo essay! I want to wish you a happy new year and hope that the rest of the year is happy. My condolences about your grandfather - he lived a very long life!
Posted by: Hillary | January 04, 2008 at 06:25 PM
I am ready to join your family after that photo essay! What a beautiful trip...happy new year!! And I'm sorry to read about your grandfather, but perhaps visiting Italy for his 100th bday anyway would be an excellent way to toast in his honor...
Posted by: molly | January 05, 2008 at 09:29 AM
Luisa, I'm so sorry. Thanks for sharing your trip with us (yum) and I hope we can all share in your Nonna's favorites for what would have been his 99th year. Amazing.
Posted by: km | January 05, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Luisa, this is all so delicious and warm. Please post the focaccia recipe as soon as you can, so I can convert it to gluten-free.
I second Deb. I would love to see your grandfather's recipes. I'm so sorry about his death. That photograph made me cry.
Posted by: shauna | January 06, 2008 at 12:26 PM
You're all so sweet - thank you so much. My grandfather would be laughing right now at the notion that people would associate any recipes with him: he was a happy eater, but not a cook. My Sicilian uncle, who is alive and well, is the source of our family's best recipes... I'll try and see what I can rustle up from him. And the focaccia: very soon, I promise!
Posted by: Luisa | January 06, 2008 at 01:06 PM
What a lovely photo of your grandfather. You were all fortunate to have him for so long. I had two beautiful grandfathers myself,one in the UK, and one here, and lost them both before my eighth birthday.
I was lucky to know them as well as I did. They were singularly funny men, in very different ways, one an old time cockney, the other, an eastern european jewish immigrant.They were both married to women who did not laugh easily!
Last year, at a family party, one of my cousins, who had an 8mm movie camera as a kid, brought a video he had made, splicing various films together. We watched it, and there were my paternal grandparents, walking and talking! I had no idea that such films had existed, and surprised myself by crying. I was not the only one who was so moved, either.
Two wonderful posts, Luisa.
Posted by: Lindy | January 06, 2008 at 03:35 PM
Lovely post, Liusa. I really love your writing style and I always enjoy visitng you.
It sounds like your holidays were wonderful. Ben definitely is a keeper!
I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your Nonno. I'm sure he is smiling down on you right now.
I can relate to your pipe problem. Our main drain line failed and the whole week before Christmas was spent having our floors jackhammered and a new line installed. Ugh!
All the best to you in 2008.
Posted by: StickyGooeyCreamyChewy | January 09, 2008 at 12:41 AM
Lindy - what a lovely story; every time I read your comment I get all choked up.
Posted by: Luisa | January 13, 2008 at 12:10 PM