What a year!

We worked hard, traveled the world, learned a lot, met a bunch of wonderful people, had some fun and expanded our family — in April we joined the Dachis Group and now count the folks from Dachis, Headshift, Stuzo and Archrival as colleagues (Update: And as of yesterday, the folks at Powered!).

So to celebrate, we asked our new friends from around the world to send us their favorite local holiday recipes: Amsterdam, Austin, Lincoln, London, Madrid, Philadelphia, Portland, St. Louis and Sydney. And as an added bonus, we’ve thrown in some silly charts about the chow along with some serious information about infodesign.

The recipes include Marionberry cobbler, Cocido madrileño, Grilled tri-tip, Texas pecan cake, Boerenkool Met Worst, Pavlova, Philly cheesesteaks, Mince pie and Gooey butter cake.

We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we do — and here’s to an amazing 2011 and beyond.

Happy holidays from your friends at XPLANE!