What does a chef eat for Christmas dinner? 
He and his spouse start with some Champagne. We have a tradition of drinking Moet White Star. This year we tried something a tad less expensive, Nicholas Feuillate. It is dry (our preference) and decidedly fruiter than the White Star. The kitten, Jinx, wonders if I am about to play with her. We munched on French bread toasted with Camembert as we sipped the bubbly.
I bought part of a leg of lamb to roast, bone in. I first marinated the meat in a paste of rosemary, garlic, thyme and black pepper that I pulverised in a morter. A touch of red wine completed the marniade. Being somewhat of a lunatic, I split some wood and got the grill going with natural hardwood charcoal. The Cleveland weather was really not too bad this Christmas, cold but not freezing. I cooked the lamb half way on the grill and finished in indoors in a low temp oven.
We uncorked the last bottle from our cave, a Flora Springs Out-Of-Sight Vineyard 2002 cab that we picked up on a 2005 trip to Napa. It was better than I remembered. Really yummy with the wood-roasted lamb. To accompany the lamb, and for my vegetarian spouse, I made saffron risotto and steamed asparagus. 
I hope you all had as wonderful a day as we.
