So The Hawthorne is one of those grand old hotels, in mini form, nestled right next to the Common.

The first time I walked in (a few weeks ago, to have coffee with Juli Lederhaus, the hotel’s general manager and one of the nicest people on the planet), it felt like a historic Manhattan hotel.

The Hawthorne also happens to be right up the street from The Mouse House, making it extra convenient for holiday feasting. Now that we’ve finally managed to get ourselves inside, I know we’ll be spending a fair amount of time at the Tavern this winter, tucked in by the fire with cozy beverages and snacks.

We walked in through the side entrance on Essex Street, which puts you in just the right position to peek into Nathaniel’s, the fancier of the hotel’s two restaurants.

Here’s the proper entrance to the restaurant.

And what you see once you walk inside.

For Christmas brunch, however, they transformed the entire lobby into a banquet and buffet area, with seating in Nathaniel’s, the Tavern, and the grand ballroom.

We were seated in the Tavern (the door on the left).

We couldn’t have asked for a better table.

The Tavern opens up to the grand ballroom, which is just as grand as it sounds—and makes you want to put on your best posh frock, drink champagne, and go twirl around in the center of the room.

Enough poking around. We were there for the food. And it didn’t disappoint. We ordered a bottle of wine and went to investigate the buffet.

Right before we got up, Juli came by and snapped a few family pictures for us (thank you, thank you!). And, of course, because I always have my camera with me, I had to reciprocate.

To the buffet!

The lobby was packed with food. There was a bunch of delicious brunch-y stuff. Bacon. Waffles. Eggs. Sausages (mmm, sausages)…

And a carving station with prime rib, roast turkey, and ham.

There was an assortment of other stuff, including a nutty cranberry pilaf and some outstanding butternut squash ravioli with sage brown butter cream sauce.

The Angry Chef loaded up on waffles and bacon to start. (Everyone drinks scotch with their waffles, right?)

While Mom and I took a little bit of everything.

As someone who used to review restaurants for a living, I have to say: Buffets are hard to pull off.

There’s a ton of food. You need to keep it hot. You need to keep replenishing the chafing dishes. You need to keep it from drying out.

I can safely say that The Hawthorne Hotel threw one of the best buffets I’ve ever seen. The food was great, and the service was outstanding.

I’m not quite sure how, but we managed to leave room for dessert.

They even had mini apple pies—one of my favorite desserts. (Hey, I’m a mouse. We’re partial to food in miniature form.)

Visit The Hawthorne Hotel

18 Washington Square W
Salem, Massachusetts, 01970
(978) 744-4080

www.hawthornehotel.com

Hope you and yours all had a wonderful holiday!

December was great and packed with adventure, but I’m looking forward to the new year.

I can’t wait to get back to serious business in the kitchen. We have a metric ton of new recipes to test, as well as another book and a few other top-secret projects in the works.

Thanks again for all your support this year. Don’t forget to download your free copy of our cookbook, a Holiday Feast!

Cheers!

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We spent Christmas day in the country at my folks’ house. They live a few hours from Boston, in a warm house that’s nestled on the edge of a pine forest. It was a quiet and lovely holiday.

And man, I’m still stuffed.

After such a crazy year, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer celebration. My mother is the best cook I know. She always makes too much for the holidays. Everything she makes is delicious—and made from scratch.

Here are a few highlights from our Christmas dinner.

Mom always makes a giant roast beast for Christmas, and this year was no exception. This year, it was a 4-rib standing rib roast. Here it is getting ready to go into the oven.

And cooking.

Here it is hot out of the oven. We tented a little foil over it to let it rest for maybe 20 minutes.

Now, this was a tough choice, but I think that the highlight of the evening for me was the duck pate.

I love duck, but almost never make it for a handful of reasons.

This pate is made with duck breast, pork shoulder, chicken livers, fat back, and eggs—and flavored with garlic, cognac, olive oil, thyme, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, smoked paprika, pistachios, and green peppercorns. It’s topped with bacon and bay leaves.

We spread it on crackers and little pieces of baguette while we were waiting for everything to cook.

My folks love bandol wines as much as I do. We normally drink Domaine Tempier Bandol, but they recently discovered a pretty good (and less pricey!) alternative in Terre d’Ombre’s vin de pays du mont caume. If you like wine from the south of France, definitely check this bottle out.

While the beast was roasting and we were nibbling, Mom made buttermilk biscuits, which are a favorite of The Angry Chef’s.

When dinner was finally ready, Dad carved the roast beast and we set out the rest of the food.

There was stuffing.

And roasted potatoes with a glorious cheese crust.

There was even a salad with a lemon-y vinaigrette. (See…I eat green things!)

There was also some super-yummy baked shrimp that was just bursting with crab stuffing.

And of course, because I’m still an eight-year-old at heart, there were mashed sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows.

Dad and I make this together every year. (There’s always great, precise discussion about the proper ratio of marshmallow to sweet potato.)

Here’s what the table looked like, before we sat down, had a toast, and attacked the feast.

There were waaaay too many choices for dessert.

There was an apple gallette.

There was a creme brulee tarte, which Mom caramelized with a blowtorch.

She served it with heavenly sauce made from fresh raspberries and spiked with a goodly amount of raspberry jam.

There was a German chocolate layer cake.

And Hungarian poppyseed and nut rolls.

A dear old friend of mine also sent some of her homemade gingerbread men back with my parents after their Christmas Eve visit.

As if that weren’t enough, there were 3 different kinds of fresh, local ice cream: vanilla, toasted almond, and chocolate gelato.

We had a wonderful holiday, and hope you all did, too.

Even Dexter, The Barking Sous Chef, had a fabulous time.

We’ll return with our normal recipe lineup tomorrow.

Cheers!

+Jessie & The Angry Chef

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