Christmas soufflé, a new tradition?

During the holidays, we read much advice for organic vegetarians on how to weather the season's food temptations and realized how much of what people anticipate about the solstice period is rooted in meat-centric habits. We've never been slaves to tradition, even in the days when we still partook of the occasional poulet rôti or grilled sardines. For the past couple of years, Juliette and I treated ourselves to a wonderfully tasty Christmas repast of roasted duckling with all the trimmings. We used as much organically produced fixings as we could find in local markets and shops. The result was, given the parameters of the project, a great success. We thought we had found our perfect holiday meal, a true culinary and gustatory delight and a project that kept us occupied all year long. In the spring we noted the effect on local cherry trees of every change in the weather, because the cérises à l'eau de vie (cherries put up in sugar dissolved in alcohol) that we would prepare from the fruit would be a major element of the stuffing for the little bird. We waited eagerly for the announcement that orders were being taken for bio cannettes at the bio grocery. Once the order had been placed, we waited eagerly once again for the duckling to arrive. Then we counted the days until Christmas Eve, which was feast day, followed on Xmas Day by a meal of leftovers in the form of a picnic, weather permitting.

But I digress. This essay is about a new culinary tradition for the holidays, the Christmas Soufflé.

to be continued . . .