Merry and Bright

Puckery Lemon Cream from Luisa Weiss

This will be my last newsletter for 2024. I thank each and everyone of you for choosing to be here. I started this newsletter in the summer of 2022 with about 135 subscribers and now there are well over 11,000 of you. I’m as grateful as I am proud, and it is not lost on me just how lucky I am. I appreciate you sticking with me, and I’m excited to put more energy into this space in the new year.

Many of you reached out about the Juliet Wine I recently mentioned, and I’m so glad it piqued your interest! Because of your enthusiasm they went ahead and created a code for you all to get 20% off any of the wines - just use the code COLU20 at checkout. Enjoy!

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Also in Wednesday’s post,

Luisa Weiss

, the author of the beautiful, recently released Classic German Cooking shared the dishes she’d choose for her perfect German meal and ZITRONENCREME (Puckery Lemon Cream) was her request for dessert. Any dessert that combines citrus and cream is right up my alley and I’m so pleased Luisa picked this one. It feeds a fair amount of people and is beautiful to look at. It’s also perfect for the holiday table.

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Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group.”Classic German Cooking” Copyright © 2024 by Luisa Weiss. Photographs © 2024 by Elena Heatherwick.

ZITRONENCREME

Puckery Lemon Cream

Luisa Weiss

SERVES 8 TO 10

Throughout my childhood, my mother lived in an apartment in Berlin’s Bavarian Quarter, and her neighbor Christa across the landing became a close friend. Christa’s daughter Julia and I were just a year apart and had so much to say to each other that Christa eventually placed a bench on the landing for us to use. And for many years, we were invited to their Christmas.

Christa’s Christmas Eve was the most archetypal German Christmas celebration you could ever imagine. We got dressed to the nines. We weren’t allowed in the living room until a bell tinkled at exactly 6:00pm., at which point the door would swing open and our eyes would grow wide upon seeing the room glowing with candlelight, a boys’ choir singing in dulcet tones on the stereo, and in the center of the room a towering tree hung with polished red apples, glass balls, carved wooden angels, and real candles—lit with real flames! The presents under the tree could be opened only once a riddle was solved for each individual present, so festivities went late into the night. Dinner was a resplendent roasted goose, red cabbage, and dumplings served on Christa’s exquisite heirloom china. Dessert, served in a cut crystal bowl, was a creamy-smooth lemon cream, a perfectly light and sweet-sour end to the rich meal.

Christa’s secret was that she made the lemon cream