Everything you need to know about me is in this year’s holiday family video.
(You can find past holiday videos at the bottom of this page.)

What? Your family doesn’t dance around the garage in costumes at midnight Christmas Eve?

Previously: The Rolyat Five (2008) and last year’s experimental piece with a great cameo from our grandfather.

Eating Hoppin’ John the day after brings even more luck, and the dish becomes Skippin’ Jenny—so, I borrowed my fabulous friend Liza‘s idea and made a risotto to stir the peas, collards, and bacon into last night,

and then sliced the rest of the poached pear over a bowl of oats this morning, thinking about all that has happened in the past month.

This afternoon, as big snowflakes fell, I made one of my comfort foods—a portobello mushroom roasted with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes, on top of spinach and latkes with goat cheese. The latkes I made with purple potatoes (I have a weakness for purple foods), and their crispiness offsets the silky mushroom that emerges from the oven in a pool of crackling, popping butter.

I have resolved that in 2010 kthread cooks, my online cooking video series, will return. Here’s how to make this portobello dish that I call “mushaboom” in one of the earliest episodes from February 2008 (see all 28 episodes):

Thoughts on what I might cook for the next episode?

In the next post, I’ll explain the Elvis title reference; for now, let’s begin with the annual Taylor Family Holiday Video. (Here’s 2008.)

Filmed by Kent Taylor in historic Roswell, Georgia at locations scouted by Mary Lynn Taylor, the video stars Kassandra Taylor. (Katrina Taylor and Reid Leslie do not appear in this year’s video due to travel calendars.) Featuring cameo appearances by Dr. William ‘Jitterbug’ Morrison and the renowned singer Amber Tatum, choreography is by Kassandra Taylor. Music is “Come Around” by Tim & Jean (part of Australia’s incredible music scene). Note: Much of this is freestyle—Kassandra isn’t responsible for my attempts to dance near her. Wait for the entire video to load, please, as I tried to use every iMovie filter and transition.

Before Christmas and the filming of the video, we all celebrated Kat and Reid making it through a flight cancellation from Portland, Oregon and arriving in time for Dad’s birthday, when Mom always makes a lemon cheesecake with her secret recipe.

Kat and Reid brought with them their formidable French toast skills,

and challah and panettone were dipped in egg and placed in a hot pan,

then topped with strawberries, pecans,

and a beautiful raw honey made by my mother’s student’s grandfather (you know how I feel about the importance of local honey).

Kat dressed up as a mod Santa,

Kass smiled as she opened her stocking, and we collected our first batch of little presents before readying for the meal.

Soon, the kitchen began to smell of roast pork (I’ll go into our family genealogy another time, but we are partly British),

with a lovely garlic-rosemary salt crust Mom made for those of you into that.

Roasted brussels, a bibb salad (Bibb lettuce is usually grown hydroponically now, so I find those are the only heads with soft leaves in the winter) with an improvised lemon-mustard-honey vinaigrette,

my usual smashed potatoes (this is a variety sold as Buttercream, the obvious choice for most potato recipes),

and wonderful chocolates Kat brought from Cacao in Portland.

Reid took our family Christmas picture outside by the lake (both Kat and Kass are wearing vintage dresses, which makes me very happy),

and we cut the cake. Jesus’s birthday cake. Kat decorated the cake with a crown and the usual lettering on the top—

we added a new phrase to the side of the cake that confused my grandfather, who asked me to give him a Christian side hug.

Instead, Kass, Kat, Reid, and I gave our new Snuggie™ blankets a trial run,

conferring like fleece-clad Druids,

creating a tableaux (we scared the dogs),

returning to our Gleeful show choir days,

and laughing at our very blue Christmas…

More pictures in the Flickr set.

On Saturday, I drove to Washington for my friend Andrew’s talent show birthday extravaganza. The party began with his sister Caroline’s parody card,

and Andrew opened the night’s slate of featured performers with an original song he composed for Annie, who is in library school, called “I Want You to Check Me Out”:

Highly referential and a very difficult act to follow, warm vegan banana bread was a good, gooey thing after the birthday Piano Man,

and folding an origami fox another great talent drawn randomly out of the bowl,

Cardmaker Caroline, who has just started nursing school, demonstrated her new skills taking Andrew’s blood pressure,

I donned a hat and shoes for Tap Like a Pirate Day (it’s really Talk Like a Pirate Day that is widely celebrated, but I subbed tap shoes for dramatic effect);

all the African countries were named,

some joint flexibility displayed,

a couple, newly married, impressed with athletic synchronicity,

a buried flask was opened (freshly filled with whiskey),

and used as a prop in a Eugene Debs reading (many of the guests work at a progressive think tank in the area, so more than a few of the acts alluded to the room’s high collective political and geographic knowledge).

A gentleman in an unusual tie did acrobatics (furniture was relocated),

and “Gin and Juice” was reinterpreted for the guitar,

(here’s the chorus)

and Annie closed with a German song and a truly incredible cake with diverse layers and a splendid sour cream icing,

The next morning, I was recovering from potent tumblers of homemade limoncello mixed with hibiscus tea (Annie and Andrew seemed fine), and my friend Cameron met the three of us at the Dupont Circle Farmers’ Market with a ready explanation of how to pronounce “praline” (he poses the quandary in his calm, forthright way):

We four ambled around the market, spotting the praline muffins Cameron had referred to,

and beautiful fresh ginger, a nice reminder of the freshness ginger can bring to cooking and baking.

In Adams Morgan, Annie ordered homemade yogurt,

Andrew a crêpe with roasted peppers and goat cheese,

and my friend Nina arrived on her trusty bike Rusty.

Closing the loop on a weekend of celebratory sugar, we walked with Nina to Biagio, one of my favorite places, where she explained how the white chocolate we were about to taste surrounded a kulfi-like nougat (heavy on the traditional cardamom), that takes her back to the sweets at the end of Ramadan she waited for as a child.

I think D.C. is quite lucky to have all of these talented friends of mine that I hope to have occasion to see again soon; happy, happy birthday again, Andrew–

More images of talented people in the Flickr set.