Diane Morgan - The Christmas Table

In the spirit of Christmas, when family and friends are remembered and acknowledged for making life so special and every day a blessing, I have a long, important list of people deserving a big thank-you gift, wrapped with sparkling paper and tied with a huge bow:

To Bill LeBlond, my editor at Chronicle Books and dear friend, for all his expert guidance, support, and time. Its a professional relationship beyond compare and one I cherish deeply.

To Lisa Ekus, my agent, for her amazing advice and enthusiasm. And to Jane Falla and everyone else at The Lisa Ekus Group for their dedicated support.

To Amy Treadwell, Peter Perez, Leslie Jonath, Andrea Burnett, Jennifer Tolo Pierce, and the others at Chronicle Books, who have inspired, supported, publicized, and otherwise kept my projects on track. You are all delightful to work with. To Sharon Silva, many thanks for copyediting my book with such care and precision. To Alicia Nammacher, thank you for your beautiful, festive design. A huge thank you to E.J. Armstrong and her staff.

To Cheryl Russell, my fabulous assistant, I dont know what Id do without you! Weve cooked together for so long, and tested and retested so many recipes, that I can hardly keep track of how many books we have worked on. You make developing and testing recipes both a pleasure and loads of funit seems like Christmas every time were in the kitchen.

To my friends Harriet and Peter Watson, you have given me the biggest gift of all: your friendship and unwavering support. You have eaten more test recipes and given me honest feedback for more books than I can recall. I cant hug and thank you enough. You bring me joy and much laughter even when really big deadlines like this one are looming. Our families sharing the holidays together represent the essence of the Chrismukkah spirit.

Many thanks to my friends, family, and colleagues: David Watson, Paola Gentry and Eric Watson, Richard and Barb LevKoy, Larry LevKoy, Irene LevKoy, Domenica Marchetti, Charlie and Jeanne Sosland, Bruce and Ellen Birenboim, Steve and Marci Taylor, Sukey and Gil Garcetti, Roxane and Austin Huang, Margie Sanders, Priscilla and John Longfield, Karen Fong, Sherry Gable, Alicia Buoni, Brijesh and Ann Anand, Deb and Ron Adams, Summer Jameson, Kam and Tony Kimball, Mary and Jack Barber, Sara and Erik Whiteford, Tori Ritchie, Josie Jimenez, Joyce Goldstein, Laura Werlin, Monica Bhide, Denise Bina, Judith Bishop, Carolyn Burleigh, Ericka Carlson, Lisa Hill, Cathy Whims and David West, Lisa Donoughe, Kathy Campbell, Barbara Dawson and Matthew Katzer, Tony Gemignani, Braiden Rex-Johnson, Alma Lach, Michael Wehman, Janine MacLachlan, Julie Hasson, David Lebovitz, Janie Hibler, Lisa Morrison, Lorinda and Ray Moholt, Andy Schloss, and the wonderful folks at McGonigles Meat Market.

For their creative talent and amazing guidance when it comes to holiday decor and fowers, I want to thank David and Leanne Kesler of The Floral Design Institute and Christine Belluschi of Klorafl, Inc., both of Portland, Oregon. You three are brilliant, talented, and so much fun to work with.

Thanks to Adair Lara, for her talent, humor, and time shooting my author photo.

Special thanks to Antonia Allegra and Don and Joan Fry, for their professional guidance and encouragement. Whether in France or at the Greenbrier, it is always treasured time when we are together.

Finally, my husband and two children are the most treasured gifts of my lifetime. This book wouldnt have been nearly as much fun to write without my loving and nurturing husband, Greg, sharing in all I do. To Eric and Molly, my children, thank you for all your love and caring every step of the way.

Good tidings to you wherever you are, and welcome to The Christmas Table! This bookin one neatly bound packageis all about bringing you comfort and joy with helpful ideas to simplify, organize, and plan your holiday season.

Christmas is a spirited and creative time of year, with an abundance of family, friends, and, of course, food, food, and more food! For many, Christmas begins the day after Thanksgiving with the start of holiday shopping (not for me, Im napping!). It actively emerges in my home in early December, accompanied by a steady stream of Christmas cards and invitations to holiday parties.

Slowly, but surely, poinsettias appear in my sunroom; blood oranges and pomegranates replace the display of squashes in my kitchen; and the fragrant scent of evergreen is everywhere. For me, Christmas is a season to savor, not fret over. It is a precious time when food, memory, and other strands of our lives can come together in powerful and fun ways. That is why I wanted to write this book.

The Christmas Table is filled with more than seventy recipes for glorious things to eat. But sitting at my Christmas table, surrounded by those dearest to me, I rejoice that food does so much more than keep our bellies full. It nourishes our hearts and souls as well. Legendary food essayist M.F.K. Fisher wrote almost prayerfully about a communion of more than our bodies when bread is broken and wine is drunk.

The process of writing this book was wonderfully nostalgic. I thought back to my childhood in Pittsburgh, helping Grandma Becky and Grandma Rose make rugelach and sugar cookies for Christmas. I remembered the adults happily drinking my grandfathers famous homemade eggnog, while the children gulped down Shirley Temples (we sensed there was a secret grown-up ingredient in the eggnog). We were an enthusiastic, exuberant, and hungry crowd.

I was transported to the year my daughter performed in The Nutcracker, and to the pastry class I took more than a dozen years ago where I made my prized Swiss gingerbread village. (My handiwork, still intact with marzipan snowmen and chalets dusted with confectioners sugar snow, remains a cherished holiday decoration to this day.) I recalled reading The Polar Express on Christmas Eve to two sleepy-eyed but oh-so-excited children (now young adults), and hours spent sweeping up the glitter and glue from ornaments they proudly made at school.

The season is also about our broader communities. For several years my family adopted a needy family for Christmas through a local social-service agency. We would buy clothes and bedding and toys, and arrange gift baskets overflowing with cooking utensils, spices, rice, beans, sugar, flour, coffee, pasta, pots, and pans. During dinner we would share stories and reminisce about this wonderful buying spree. Then wed all join hands, lower our heads, and fall silent. Of course, this was a spirited group, and the solemnity soon gave way to that all-important holiday digestiflaughter.

As with all my book projects, I harvested interesting tidbits of information along the way. For example, I now know (and you will, too) that the cultivation and processing of sugarcane began in the South Pacific several thousand years before the birth of Christ, but the so-called honey without bees didnt reach western Europe (by way of India, Persia, China, and other parts of the globe) until the Middle Ages. Gingerbread? In seventeenth-century Germany and France, only professional bakers were permitted to make gingerbread, restrictions that were relaxed at Christmas and Easter. Sugarplums? They were intensely sweet, boiled round candies similar to comfitsnot plums at all. Ethnic holiday foods? Kutya, tamales, fattoush, stollen, glgg, empanadas, buuelos, and natilla are traditional holiday foods on an international array of Christmas tables. And youll find more tidbits and fun facts sprinkled throughout the book.