I hope everyone is having a relaxing and nourishing holiday season. It's felt so good to take some time off to regroup and catch up with family and friends the last week. The New Year is just around the corner and I wanted to share some snippets of what's been going on around here over the break. We celebrated Hanukkah in DC, Christmas in South Carolina, and are heading tomorrow to New York to welcome in 2015. I hope your New Year celebration is loads of fun!

In my house the holiday season began with the annual night before Hanukkah cryfest. This year I decided to be traditional and forego the food processor for grating all the potatoes, onions, and carrots by hand. My fingers are still recovering but it was totally worth it! My favorite recipe for latkes is Deb Perlman's from Smitten Kitchen. You can find it here along with a catalogue of some of the most creative latke recipes on the web.

Post by With a Grain of Salt.

We spent Christmas in South Carolina staying in a farmhouse on land which has been in Ian's family for nine generations. Built in the late 19th century the house is brimming with antiques, my favorite being the full 1960s kitchen which looks out onto a small lake and floods with sunlight each morning.

The rest of the house is decorated in hunting regalia from the early 20th century and loads of signs giving very solid advice. During the day we went on walks and drove around acres of tangled trees, bogs, waterways, and farm land. I know it's above and beyond cheesy and has been said a million times before but it felt amazing to breathe in the fresh air, soak in the sunlight and have some quiet after the noise and darkness of our basement apartment in DC.

Tangled trees and lush bogs which made me feel like I was walking through a Faulkner novel.

Christmas dinner was a lavish feast of king crab, steamed oysters, and the most delicious sweet potato pie. So far this holiday season I've tried ten new dishes- cannot wait to try my hand at some of them in the coming months!