this is our Christmas cake

*3-layer cake for Christmas dinner
*1: chocolate torte (bittersweet chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, flour)
*2: nutella mousse (nutella, heavy whipping cream, coffee powder)
*3: peppermint creme (heavy whipping cream, mint extract, confectioner's sugar)
*blackberries, hershey's candy cane kisses

this is caramel popcorn

*on Christmas day, Naomi and I made caramel popcorn
(yellow popcorn kernels, oil, salt, sugar, butter, toasted pecans)

this is christmas eve breakfast

*Christmas "latkes" (potatoes, egg, flour, salt); stovetop Lavazza espresso


Note: My trip home from Europe was a huge ordeal because of the weather conditions. I was stuck at the airport for 3+ days and in the process, lost all of my luggage, including my laptop, cameras, and hard drives with every photo I've ever taken. I am trying to forget about this and just move on. Back to square one.

this is one treasure of the Italians

*what we call espresso, they call caffe. what we call coffee, they call toilet water.

i will miss standing at the bar with Italians taking my espresso. i will miss the ubiquity of the small espresso cups. i will miss always having frothy espresso.

this is how i entered the world

*exactly twenty years ago on this day, she was my vessel into this world...

...and it was not an easy task - so I am turning the tables and saying it to you Mom - Happy Birthday.