What could I eat on Christmas morning so I can keep up my energy to visit three families and say Merry Christmas ten thousand times? The answer: The traditional Californian breakfast, minus the avocado, because we forgot the avocados when we went out of town, plus a bell pepper and pecans. It works, because grapefruits and pecans are gloriously Texan Christmas food gifts and are always on hand, and I never say no to a cucumber. Bell pepper is wonderfully boatish and keeps the pecans from any funny business on those very, very flat hotel plates.
The light from the hotel window, which looked out on an outlandishly empty city, illuminates the food and makes it seem like the energy from the sun is soaking into the food to give energy to us . . . I think the solstice inspired all that.
Did I mention that this breakfast takes 5 minutes to make? Peel the cucumber, slice cucumber, peel grapefruit, cut and seed bell pepper - edible! Do bring a cucumber peeler on travels, though, if you intend to peel cucumbers in a hotel. Knives might work for potatoes, but they compromise too much deliciousness on a cucumber.
Merry Christmas!
