Have a Holly Jolly Goji Christmas

A couple of days ago while doing our Christmas food shopping Dan and I visited julian graves to get Christmas nibbles (or munchies, or snacks, or whatever you call them wherever you are). They had an "everything is half price" sale so we stocked up on cashews, Japanese rice crackers and dried apricots to add to the pistachios, walnuts and dried figs we had bought from a very uncharacteristically forward-looking earlier visit. I love dried figs which seem to have taken their place as a Christmas nibble staple (say that ten times fast, I dare you).

I wanted to get something chocolate, but nothing was striking me. And then I saw them: chocolate-covered goji berries. What is a goji berry I hear you ask? These tiny tasty morsels are apparently a celebrated 'super food' whose health benefits are honored in a two-week annual celebration by Tibetan Monks. Let's face it, the oxymoronic aspect of a chocolate-covered-super-food is appealing in it's own right, but the truth is that Dan and I didn't know what the hell a goji berry was either, so up to the counter we went to make our purchase. Who are we to argue with Tibetan Monks anyhow?

For two people that pretty much eat chocolate nearly every night in the way of Green and Blacks, we are going to have a shockingly small amount of chocolate goodies at our Christmas table, but at least we can rely on the goji berry.

After the exhausting three-hour preparation of eggplant parmigiana that will be the bulk of our Christmas feast, we went out for an nontraditional albeit lovely Christmas Eve dinner of Chinese. (No, I couldn't get the image of a certain scene in A Christmas Story out of my head and therefore continually giggled -- with a little help from a copious amount of vodka). So today, all I have to do is make up the accompanying vegetables (I think they will be new potatoes with a parsley butter, asparagus, and a mixed leaf salad) ... and make sure the roast beef we have (the first I've ever obtained or attempted to cook) for whoever desires a bit of meat doesn't turn into a hockey puck.

Happy Christmas!!!

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