It is Christmas day and I have come to a place I don’t visit often.  It is the “I don’t want to cook, bake, dirty a dish, wash a dish, put away a dish ever again” place.  I made an epic dinner for my parents last night.  Normally, I stretch a meal like this out so I am doing as much in advance as possible.  Over the years of cooking for my family, throwing many dinner parties, and cooking for clients, I have gotten to be a master of the do-ahead meal.  But I didn’t expect my house to be overrun by illness – stomach flu, colds, fevers, ear infections, and pneumonia to be exact.  And so, I had to cram a lot of cooking, baking, and cleaning into a very short amount of time.  For the record, dinner was great.  The following was the menu:

Chestnut Soup
Roasted Beet Salad with Ricotta Salata
Wild Mushroom, Wild Rice, and Root Vegetable Roulade
Celery Root Mash and Blasted Broccoli
No-Knead Bread (my first time making it and WOW, was it good)
Nutella Pound Cake
Crème Fraîche Ice Cream

You may remember that I said I would post everyday last week.  Because of the sick house and this menu, that did not happen and I apologize.  To make up for it, I am doing a giveaway!  Chocolate!

My dad is a retired physican.  He had a private practice and every year at this time he would come home with lots of presents from patients.  They were mostly food-related and there was a lot of chocolate.  I thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  Randy does not have the type of job where people give him treats and I have the type of job that, if someone gives me treats, it’s me who made them and I’m giving them to myself.  But imagine my surprise when Randy walked in one day last week with a giant box of Vosges chocolate.

I think I’ve made it clear, about 1,000 times, that I love chocolate.  But there is too much here for me to eat and it is of such high quality that some bars come with “best enjoyed by” dates.  And I love to share.  So, leave me a comment about the best gift you got this season, and I will pick two winners.  Each one will get 5 3-ounce bars of some funky flavors (curry, chipotle, etc), some chocolate covered nuts, and something involving marshmallows (I haven’t opened the box so I can’t be sure).  Deadline for entry is Wednesday, December 29th, noon PST.  Happy holidays to everyone.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed!  Winners will be announced Dec. 30th.  Thank you all!