Caviar, caviar, caviar, oooooh, caviar, yay! Merry Christmas to me, tee hee! John and I took the opportunity, with the few hours alone we have this holiday, to indulge in the caviar he gave me for Christmas, with toast points, sour cream, sieved egg, and chopped sweet onion, washed down with lovely Veuve Cliquot champagne. Oh dear, I fret only because how can anything else possibly compare to such romantic decadence? I even thought about making blini, for a perfect Dr. Zhivago-esque experience, but man, too much work. Someday, someday, but with making a big dinner tonight, and baking a couple of loaves of bread for tomorrow, it would be more work than fun, so...buttery toast points instead of blini, hardly a sacrifice, ha.

I won't be posting tomorrow, so consider this my online Christmas card to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Here's to happy time with family, safe travels, tasty food, and fine drink.

My best to you all, with love, Stephanie

Andrew Zimmern wrote a great piece on his Chow & Again blog this week about one of my favorite chefs, Doug Flicker. I don't actually know him (Stacey used to work for him), but Doug used to run lovely Auriga (now closed, sniff) and the food I had there...it blew me away. His was the first truly creative, insanely fresh foodie-food I tasted in Minneapolis, and I will never forget it. Plus, Auriga is where I had my first (blind) date with John, so it forever has a special place in my heart. As much as I love on Lucia's, we'd go to Auriga for our pre-SATC movie date today if it were still there. The rave on AZ's blog is that Doug is leaving Mission American (his post-Auriga gig) - can't wait to see where he lands.

And oh, while I'm mentioning AZ, if you haven't seen Bizarre Foods - Russia yet, you should. We watched it last night and it is spectacular. The scenery is breathtaking (St. Petersburg, wow) and the food is gorgeous - I irritatingly fell asleep with my mouth watering and stomach growling (we watched at bedtime). The killer is a scene where Andrew is downing the freshest of the fresh Russian caviars, with warm blini (basically crepes), rich Russian sour cream, and hard-cooked egg... Lord, help me. I can't believe I didn't dream about caviar - although I'm thinking about it plenty this morning, obviously. Which is too bad, because there is none on the horizon (the pic, above, is from this past Christmas). Shucks.

OK! In other reality-based, non-caviar musings, check out this slideshow on the eight foods you should be eating every day. Not too difficult when you think about it - spinach salad with carrots... Quick black bean soup garnished with tomatoes... Yogurt with toasted oatmeal, walnuts, and blueberries... A little inspiration for healthy, colorful, delicious eating over the weekend. Enjoy yours!

Moderate it: you know the cool things about a diet that includes the eight foods above? It pretty much moderates itself. Thank you, vegetables...