Food dreams

December is a month of celebration for practically everybody, but I have - in addition to the common ones, like a birthday of San Nick (December 6), Swedish Santa Lucia (December 13) Christmas (December 24-26) and New Year's Eve (December 31) - also a couple of personal celebrations: one of my namesdays (the birthday of one of my patron saints, Santa Barbara, December 4) and my very own birthday on December 17.

Six celebrations in one month - I think you agree with me that it is way too much, and I should be careful not to give in to too many temptations in order not to overindulge. I started all right, celebrating my namesday with a dessert of star fruit in a red fruit ( mostly raspberry) puree. Mmm, good.

But soon after that I made my first food mistake of the month, when I visited my favorite food blog from the Dominican Republic , after living for over 6 weeks almost exclusively (save for a brief Thanksgiving recess) on organic vegetables, fruits and young greens like these:

At luzcace blog I became dangerously exposed to the menus of their lavish Christmas Eve and Christmas Day buffets, which made me salivate and dream of - be it unhealthy - but familiar FOOD!
And - to make things worse, I became exposed also to images like this:

Oh, my! No wonder that tonight, at the Eve of Sant Nick I had pretty weird food dreams.

The night started with a dream of a desk drawer in my office, full of pastries, typical Puertorican French puff pastries with guava, almonds etc. They filled my entire drawer, pedantically arranged on white paper-lace doilies. Nibbling even on a single one would ruin the whole esthetics of the composition, so - in the dream - I kept looking into the drawer every now and then - and kept closing it without touching any of the pastries.

But after this exercise in food lust and food restraint I - still in a dream - went to a party.

There, a lot of elaborate - and yummy - appetizers were served by waiters in tuxedos on huge silver trays, but whenever I felt tempted to taste any of the appetizers, they would all explode like geizers or vulcanoes!

My - once - favorite bef bourgignone erupted into a vulcano of red wine sauce with pieces of beef falling down like rocks. A cheese fondue with herbs - another - once upon a time - cold weather favorite food of mine - kept bubbling like a cheesy Old Faithfull in Yellowstone, then suddenly erupting and overflowing in its creamy goldness, too hot ( and too scary?) to even dip a breadstick in it. And so - da capo al fine .

I admit that this seemingly endless food 'dance' was increadibly fascinating, but I became sad, nevertheless, realizing that I might stay hungry for the rest of my life - being able only to look at ordinary food, but not eating it. :-((

Finally, early in the morning, after I killed the alarm clock, to keep sleeping for a while longer, I had a final dream about a simple, organic, soft boiled egg from a free range hen. It was made viennese style, in a lightly buttered glass, topped with young sunflower greens and dulse flakes. Even this simple egg, however, is not a part of a 100% "living food lifestyle". Yet, on account of celebrating Saint Nick's birthday I gave in: during a lunch break I went to a store, bought 6 organic eggs from free range hens (they would not sell me just one) and enjoyed one for lunch exatly the way I dreamt it! Ha!

....But it is only December 6 - how on earth am I going to withstand all the other temptations of December??? and with FIVE more tempting eggs in my fridge??? I might even be tempted to create a zabaione.... ;-)