SAM / ALISON HAUS

I've never been an anxious party thrower, and so have held many gatherings both formal and impromptu over the years. With the exception of a handful of friends, however, nobody had been to my current apartment before this Christmas. Matt and I are stuff people, we own lots and lots and lots of little things... like rocks, and books, and dishes, and sea shells, and shoes, and little bits of paper that we think are special... Our apartment came with very minimal storage and no area compartmentalization, so for a year I felt burdened by the sight of all that stuff all at once and couldn't handle guests. In the last few weeks we made a great show of effort in getting our space functional for the holiday, which was totally worth it but exhausting. Today I have not gotten out of bed, and have read, in anticipation of all the future parties I will now have, and reflective of my holiday gifts to myself and from others: Canal House Cooking, Kinfolk, six back issues of the Diner Journal, and Harumi's "Your Japanese Kitchen." A good holiday to me is spending the day cooking and eating with friends and family, and hopefully drinking something delicious (and possibly expensive), and I am lucky that the season so far has allowed this. I will ring in the New Year, thusly, at work. These photos are from Thanksgiving at Sam and Alison's in Chicago, where Virginia brought the tenderest Japanese turnips, French breakfast radishes, an abundance of greens and alliums from her farm in Cleveland and we ate the freshest turkey I've even tasted.

XMAS EVE PREP

At this time we were all drinking Ronnybrook Egg Nog and Germain-Robin with freshly grated nutmeg and eating enough terrine and pate to get gout.

Fish plates (!) and festive decorations.

THANKS SANTA

Just kidding. We puppysat that little poodle, Ollie, for three days though and what a present he was! My mom also took a hint and got me the below mentioned Tanya Aguiniga necklace, which I have worn three of the past four days, has more knots than in the photo, and came packaged like this:

Sort of like a bunch of sweetbreads tied together. More of Ollie!

I love a rope. I have been known to take a rope off the beach, out of an abandoned factory and off a Jambon Serrano and tie it around me. Now I want this handmade one, by Tanya Aguiniga, at Sight Unseen.

sunny days

nyc feels like portland in winter right now. not cold, but cold, overcast, drizzly, everyone has a cold. i'm longing for the california trip i took last month.

top to bottom: at the colony club in palm springs, outside tartine with and by the lovely renee of montmarte and anaise, the general store in sf, iko iko, vivier and bentley, coho at a wine tasting, the eames house(!), the fremont diner with margaret (and dan and matt).

My brother is part of Chicago art-group PplSft who are hosting COCKTAILS, II in Philadelphia at BODEGA next Month. Sadly, I will be missing the event as I will be (unsadly) in California, but I am designing the food for the event.

ROYGBIV

FOOD STYLIST LINDA LUNDGREN.

IDA EKBLAD. i liked this show. greene naftali.