This year, I finally got a chance to see the San Francisco Ballet with Margaret and her daughters, Bea and Isabel, and they twirled for me.

Happy holidays, everyone.

1. New York
Statue of Liberty
Brooklyn Bridge
Chrysler Building

2. Amsterdam
Row Houses

3. Austin
Downtown Austin

4. Boston
Fenway Park (see also)
Old Statehouse

5. Chicago
Chicago Theater

6. Cincinnati
Cincinnati Landmarks

7. Detroit
Downtown Detroit

8. London
Houses of Parliament
Tower Bridge

9. Los Angeles
Randy’s Donuts

10. Miami
Freedom Tower

11. Paris
Eiffel Tower
Notre Dame de Paris
Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoy

12. San Francisco
Downtown San Francisco
Transamerica Building
Painted Ladies

13. Seattle
Space Needle
(Someone please make a gingerbread Bridge Troll and post it on the Internet for all to enjoy. Megan, I’m looking at you.)

14. Sydney
Sydney Landmarks

15. Washington D.C.
Washington Memorial
White House (see also)
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Is your city represented in gingerbread? Let’s do this thing, Internet. Leave any gingerbread city landmarks I missed in comments.

Stocking Stuffers

You make Santa look good, my friend.

Christmas Stocking Roundup

I’m missing Leslie Harpold’s advent calendar today, so I started a littleTwitter Advent Calendar. You’ll find some cheer on my Twitter stream every day until Christmas. Leslie, we blow you a kiss.

Toys, originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

]]> http://mightygirl.com/2008/12/29/christmas-jammies/feed/ 9 http://mightygirl.com/2007/12/27/matambre/ http://mightygirl.com/2007/12/27/matambre/#comments Thu, 27 Dec 2007 14:34:26 +0000 Maggeh http://mightygirl.com/2007/12/27/matambre/

Bryan is adventurous about most things, and especially food. Wherever we go in the world, he tries the sausage. Good idea in Germany, but Malaysia? Anyway, lately, he’s taken to trying meat of all sorts, which is how we ended up preparing Matambre for Christmas. Turns out it’s a very typical Argentine dish, and you should know how to make it, because it’s awesome.

It all started when Bryan dragged me into the butcher shop around the corner, and then pointed to stuff while I tried to translate. The conversation with the butcher went like this:

Bryan: What is that?
Me: What is that?
Butcher: Matambre.
Me: What is matambre?
Butcher: Meat and things.
Bryan: I want one of those.
Me: Uh. OK. How do you prepare it?
Butcher: You put it in boiling water for two hours, then freeze it.
Me: In the freezer?
Butcher: No.
Me: Freeze it?
Butcher: No! You freeze it with the post in the sink.
Me: You make it cold?
Him: Yes.
Me: OK. Do you cook it in the plastic and everything?
Him: Yes, yes! Then you break it with the sink.

In answer to my utter confusion, the butcher mimed preparation of the meat, which ended with us putting the roast in the sink and whacking it hard with the bottom of the pan.

Apparently, a lot of people serve it cold as an appetizer, though they don’t put it in the freezer to get it that way. It’s crazy tasty, and a lot like corned beef, except the vegetables are already rolled up inside with a couple of boiled eggs for good measure. That’s why it looks sort of like a severed arm when you first open it up. Delicious.

Merry Christmas!, originally uploaded by MaggieMason.

This is Santiago Francisco Jesus Mason de Necito Vega. He’s our excellent Christmas bush.