Christmas Day Menu

For some reason, Christmas and I never quite connected this year. Not that anything went badly, I just never quite got caught up to where I thought I should be. Spending too much time and mental energy on other projects, I guess, and left too much for the last minute. Still, the food turned out pretty well, just less ambitious than I had hoped to be. Maybe next year I'll get myself more together.

• For brunch, an old standby: Ina Garten's Challah French Toast
• Blackberry-Mustard Glazed Ham - easy and very good, though the sauce thickened a bit more than I would have liked it to
• Roasted root vegetables, also to Ina's recipe
• Potato and Portobello Mushroom Gratin - this was all right, but might be improved by a touch of cream

To go with, my mother-in-law's orange rolls and a lime Jell-O mold. For dessert, the Nutmeg Cheesecake I made last year.There seems to be an error in my transcript of the recipe -- salt is mentioned in the crust but not how much. I put in 1/4 tsp and that seemed to be fine. I will have to see if I can find the original magazine and fix it, but that bookcase is behind the tree right now.

And that's that! New Years Eve we will probably keep simple, as people with young children tend to do.