Day of relative austerity begins

I could not even think of eating breakfast this morning, nor can I even look at the leftover wine corked on our table. Dios mio. I am almost completely tired of both eating and drinking and plan to detox all day. I just managed a small lunch of brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, 1 slim piece of turkey and some cranberry sauce washed down with a large glass of seltzer. I did, however, post the recipes for the pumpkin cheesecake and lemon fluff pie that were elected the top two desserts last night. Both are truly divine. T really hit it out of the park this year in gifting me a pasta maker (Michele, my sister's boyfriend, said it's the same one his grandmother always made her pasta with; true authentic Italian!), a Soda Stream (seltzer maker), and a fantastically charming, vintage lazy Susan I'd found on Etsy. I drink seltzer as if it were an essential nutritive particle so will definitely become quite attached to this machine, and perhaps I'll have better luck with Yotam's lemon-goat cheese ravioli if I am not required to roll it by hand which, if you recall, absolutely did not work last time. The ravs were gorgeous but leaden as hell and it took some real determination to work through them.

I gave T a laser-cut portafilter basket for our espresso machine (he picked this out of course) and the boys gave him an automated vacuum-sealing canister for coffee beans. Elia and Michele thrilled us with all kinds of products from the Greve-in-Chianti truffle festival (!) and various, local (to them in Florence) wine and olive oil productions. As I looked around at all this incredible, edible and culinary loot, I realized how seriously interwoven cooking and food have become in my family's life. Though I really can't fathom the thought of much eating today, I know I'll be back to it all in the very near future. After all, New Year's is coming and with it the meal to welcome luck and health in 2012 (collards, black-eyed peas, cornbread), and my pile of recipes continues to grow and beckon.