Christmas eve

We started off, quite festively, with champagne at the neighbors, enjoying conversation, playing music together, and then playing murders until at the bottom of bottle four, we reached a lull where kids were hungry enough to bring home for supper. After that much champagne, I was quite pleased that I had had the presence of mind to skin the salmon filet before we went over.
I put the water on under the potatoes, then we popped over to the other neighbors for the annual exchange of cookies: I offer up Vanillekipferl, Zimtsterne and Lebkuchen, she reciprocates with her Swedish cookies: Pepperkakkor, Krumkake and Spritz. We have two Christmas-y trays that the cookies go on, and they move back and forth between our houses yearly.
Once the cookie exchange was accomplished, along with the usual catch-up on offspring/girlfriends/niece, we headed home and put on the salmon. I was thinking a nut crust and some pretty fresh cranberries would make for a nice counterpoint to the buttery flesh, but apparently the acid of the cranberries reacted with the carbon steel of my pan, and the juices turned out a grubby grey. Luckily, there was no metallic taste, and it looked worse in the kitchen than by candlelight on the table. The potatoes did the buttery melting thing, with herb salt, and lemon juice gave the steamed broccoli the perfect tang. A lamb's lettuce salad with a lemon-herb dressing made for an elegant but festive supper on a busy evening.
We only managed one of the cheesecakes this evening, but there are enough leftovers that we can resume more scientific testing tomorrow.