My children are getting very excited and are wondering a lot about Santa, "how can he know every child name", my daughter is very concerned about Santa´s diet "does he only eat porridge and gingerbread cookies" and "how can he see us when we don´t see him". It is actually amazing how parents keep lying (or not telling the truth) for their children about Santa but I am doing it as well.

Over the weekend we went to a very nice restaurant in Princeton called Agricola Eatery. It is a farm to table restaurant and literally that is just what it is since they have their own farm (Great Road Farm) where they get their supplies. I had some delicious scallops with an orange salad, Monk fish with beluga lentils and a maple-bacon eclair for dessert. If you are in this area it is well worth a try, very good food and a very nice atmosphere.

So now Christmas is really coming this week and last preparations to be done. We will be in Bucks County again for this holiday. I am lucky to have in-laws in this pretty area. My mother in law is also Swedish so we have a mix of American and Swedish traditions. On December 24th we have our Swedish Christmas with some classic Swedish smorgasbord (julbord) dishes like cured and smoked salmon, pickled herring, Jansson´s temptation, meat balls, ham, crips bread, cheese and a rice pudding for dessert. I am in charge of bringing the Jansson´s temptation a creamy potato ansjovis dish, Swedish meat balls (again) and sweet rice pudding (ris a´la malta). I will also bring some of my crisp bread, marzipan figures, mulled wine (glögg) and some saffron buns. It is a lot of food but we keep eating it for a few days. In Sweden this is what you eat for the entire holiday, three days in a row and on the last day you eat it you are quite tired of it.

On Christmas day we go all American with gift opening in the morning. For dinner we don´t have a set menu from year to year. We usually just eat something festive. This year I think that we will eat duck breast prepared in a classic french style with orange sauce (duck a´la orange).

Menu of the week

Monday I am cleaning out the fridge and we will eat a mix of stir fried vegetables like zucchini, carrots, peppers, scallions, kale and broccoli with squeezed orange over it and served with cous cous.

Tuesday Spanish potato tortilla, green salad

Wednesday Baked cod with Parmesan crust, riced potatoes, green peas

Thursday Christmas smorgasbord

Friday Duck a´la orange, green beans, roasted potatoes

Saturday Left overs

Sunday Pasta with left over ham from Christmas with steamed broccoli

Enjoy!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!