Holiday food highlights

December 30, 7:46 AMBaltimore Food ExaminerKit Pollard

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My dad, applying the rub to his dry-aged prime rib. Photo by Kit Pollard.

One of the best things about the holiday season, as far as I'm concerned, is all the food. I've eaten a lot over the past couple of weeks, and most of the conversations I've had with friends and family have been food-related. Here are some of my favorite food-related highlights from Christmas 2008:

• For a work-related holiday dinner, my friend Joyce made these goat cheese-filled Parmesan cups (from the French Laundry Cookbook) and this truffled popcorn (using truffle salt from Sur la Table). Both were a big success. I'm going to have to make the popcorn sometime soon. It sounds so easy.
• In a burst of extreme ambition, my parents dry-aged a prime rib for Christmas Eve dinner. The meat spent 10 days in their basement refrigerator and when it came out, it really did have an ugly crust. But a bit of a trim, plus a peppery rub and a few hours in the oven turned it into one of the best pieces of meat I've had in a long time. Don't be fooled by the fact that the recipe comes from Guy Fieri (who I generally want to throttle) - it was excellent.
• Because it was a Very Food Network Christmas at my parents' house, they also made Giada's bread pudding for dessert - but without the cinnamon syrup (would've been too sweet, I think) and using regular cinnamon raisin bread instead of panettone. I think it was one of my mom's firsts forays into the bread pudding category and it was very good.
• As a Christmas gift this year, my brother gave Cooper a cooler full of elk tenderloin. Really great Christmas gift? I thought so, too.
• Speaking of great gifts, I was also on the receiving end of some excellent food and entertaining-related gifts. For my birthday, Cooper's sister got me the Kate Spade Occasions book, which is full of cute illustrations and party-giving advice (and I love Kate Spade). Plus, my brother gave me The Billionaire's Vinegar, the true story of the 1980's Thomas Jefferson wine hoax...and for Christmas he gave me a copy of Alinea. It's intense. My sister gave us an ice cream maker, which will open up all kinds of new recipes for me, and will be very exciting for Dixon, I'm sure. 

Overall, it was a great Christmas for everybody, both in terms of eating and general festivity. I need a break now, of course, but I'm sure in a few days I'll be ready for next year already.