Christmas Menu
A few weeks ago I wrote about Christmas shopping for food. Wanted to share the official Christmas menu!
I am of Italian heritage. Anyone who has ever eaten over our house growing up on holidays (heck, even on an average Sunday!) would think my family was NUTS! The amount of food my grandmother, then my mother, and now I prepare and consume on a holiday can feed a small country. This is the menu for Christmas dinner.
The antipasto course is first. We prepare provolone, soppressata, dry sausage, mozzarella, ricotta salata, pepperoni, and other cheeses and meats in antipasto trays. Along with seasoned peppers stuffed with cheeses and prosciutto, seasoned artichoke hearts, and an olive salad, the cold trays complement the hot trays: stuffed mushrooms and warm Italian bread. For many, this is a meal in itself (and really, it is!). But this is only the beginning. Enjoyed with red or white wine, the antipasto sets the stage for the rest of the afternoon. Yes, dinner starts at about 3:00 PM.
The women clear off the antipasto dishes and check the pasta baking in the oven, while the men and children find their way into the living room for football and new toys. And everyone gets a chance to digest the antipasto until the next course is served.
The pasta course is usually lasagna. I personally would prefer a stuffed manicotti or baked ziti, but the traditional pasta for Christmas Day is lasagna. Layers of pasta with ricotta, mozzarella, and teeny tiny meatballs are baked in the oven. I spent last Sunday preparing the sauce (which I call ‘gravy’) and the ‘gravy’ meat, including the meatballs. One hundred and twenty mini meatballs for the lasagna and 65 large meatballs along with sausage, a piece of beef, a piece of pork, spare ribs and braciole were cooked in the gravy in advance. This Christmas I am expecting to serve thirteen people. Luckily, the gravy and any leftover gravy meat can be (and will be!) frozen for future meals. The lasagna and gravy meat are our second course.
By this point, no one wants to eat anymore, but somehow everyone finds room. This Christmas, we are cooking a 20 pound fresh ham along with a 5 pound roast beef. Onions, stuffed artichokes (my personal favorite food!), candied yams, roasted potatoes, green beans, salad, corn, and red cabbage add to the fun (oh, joy!) of the meal.
Notice we still have not had dessert! Dessert in itself is three different courses, maybe four. We start with fruit and then nuts. Winter fruits, including oranges, apples, pears, and finocchio (fennel, a fruit that tastes like black licorice) is served next. Following the fruits are the nuts: walnuts, almonds, Brazilian nuts, hazelnuts, and baked chestnuts, we are now finishing up the bottles of wine, preparing for the liqueurs. The after dinner cordials are served with boxed chocolates, including chocolate covered cherries, after dinner mints and jelly rings.
Finally (now that everyone has eaten enough food to last them for 6 more days) it is time for coffee and cake. We serve the desserts our guests have brought, usually including pastries, cheesecake (my father usually makes his Italian cheesecake specialty) and a chocolate cake. We made dozens and dozens of cookies to satisfy every palate: butter cookies, peanut butter cookies, butterscotch walnut cookies, anisette cookies (my grandmother’s specialty), and nut cups. My parents will bring the tri-color cookies that took two days to prepare (rainbow cookies, and they are worth every minute!) and my aunts will bring the struffoli (honey balls). All of these cakes and cookies are served with a choice of coffees (American coffee, espresso, cappuccino).
And then, everyone rolls home!
Jennifer
Wife to Paul, Mom to Juliana (7), Anthony and Louis (1) and Joseph (2 months)
www.nevaland.com
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Cooking, Entertainment, Holidays, Jennifer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.