Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve dinner we wanted to do something that was no cooking and no fuss involved since we would be gone for Christmas mass from 4:00 until 6:30 or so. So Brett and I decided to try to duplicate an awesome meal we'd had in New York at a restaurant called "Artisinal". They specialize in cheese and have cheese plates that you can eat for dinner or to share as an appetizer. We LOVE cheese, so we copied Artisinal's meal and really enjoyed it! We stumbled upon bamboo cutting boards at Southern Season on major sale, so we couldn't resist serving dinner on them just like they do at Artisinal. We chose six cheeses and had the cheese monger order them for us from mild to strong and we paired three different wines with the cheeses. We added all the yummy sides that accompany cheese so well like cornichons, seasoned olives, pears, dried salami, dried fruit and of course bread. We also had escargots! It was oh so tasty. Sydney stayed up with us for the special "cheese party" and had her own plate with a bubbly apple juice so she could be like the adults. Her favorite parts of the meal were the juice she got to drink out of crystal, the dried fruit, the cornichons, the goat cheese and the brie. She also tried escargots. Love her adventurous spirit!