Anniversary and a new year

T and I did something different for our wedding anniversary last night. We spent the evening with Chummy and the Midwives. Watching BBC dramas isn't exactly a foreign activity to us (we are huge BBC geeks and will be glued to the television along with the rest of you as the new season of Downton Abbey airs Sunday night) but we were late getting on the the "Call the Midwife" bandwagon and are just happy there is still room for us to ride in the back.

We also enjoyed a lovely dinner of Gulf shrimp with mango cocktail sauce and avocado, puff pastry rolled with cheese and lingonberries, watercress with pear and spicy-sweet almonds salad, dry-aged steak with horseradish butter and buttermilk potato puree.  For dessert we had T's favorite chocolates and ice cream with warm caramel.

This morning we'll be feasting on yet another tasty meal, my favorite of the year. I am waiting for the yeasty blini to rise and soon the little rye cakes will be frying alongside latkes. I'll top my cakes with sour cream and caviar. T will eat his potatoes with lots of gravlax and go sweet with the blini. I've recently been eating more than my fair share of frozen mango and will add it, pureed, to sparkling wine finished with a squeeze of tangerine.

Ah the bliss (and blini) of a New Year. Here's to clean slates and fresh starts. Happy 2014!