What’s more festive for the Holidays than a wreath and what’s more enjoyable than a fragrant edible one??
Arrange rosemary and sage sprigs in a round wreath shape on your favorite platter. Then decorate with your favorite antipasti items like olives, tomatoes, nuts, figs, dried apricots, dried any fruit for that matter. This wreath will make your house smell amazing and your table look fab!
Every family has it’s traditions for Christmas Dinner. Mine happens to include a lot of food, family and more food. Yup, we love to eat : ) Every year a very large group of my family takes a pilgrimage out to New Jersey for a Christmas day extravaganza! It’s an eclectic bunch. We’ve got my Italian family, my Uncles Armenian side, my in-laws make up the Indian contingency and sprinkled in we have some other countries represented in there. All in all we have about 65 people give or take. We spend the whole day together and it’s fabulous! Here are some pictures and highlights of the day:
These are roasted red bell peppers with some fresh mozzarella. Here is my recipe for roasted red bell peppers.
Even though I don’t eat these, I still think they are pretty : ) They are salami rolled with cream cheese and chives.
Remember me telling you about my Cousin Joe’s famous homemade bread? Well here it is and it’s by far the best bread I’ve ever had in my life.
Check out that eggplant rollatini on the left! So yummy and the potato and cheese perogies on the right. In addition to these for dinner we have so many dishes! {mostly meat} There’s filet mignon, ham, keilbasa, braciole, salad, pastas, sweet potatoes, I can’t even remember all the dishes to be honest : )
Dinner always starts with a champagne toast given my my Uncle and Aunt who host.
Check out this dessert table!:
My Aunt’s mascarpone cheesecake that is divine! {it’s my favorite leftover to have for breakfast the next morning!}
All of these cookies are homemade! And there are 3 trays all filled with different delights!
 "1111x-mas13")
What’s Christmas without a bouche de noel?! This one is chocolate with peanut butter cream!
This is one of my other favorite desserts!! My Aunt makes a Sicilian Cassata which is pound cake soaked in alcohol layered with cannoli cream, chocolate chips and toasted almonds! Mmmmm!
I hope all of your holidays were wonderful!
xoxo
So as an Italian Catholic, we celebrate Christmas Eve every year with the "Feast of the Seven Fishes". It is an Italian tradition to eat seven different kinds of fish for dinner the night before Christmas. My very talented cousin Joe is in charge of this whole meal! He gets all of the seafood fresh from the seafood market in Philadelphia. He makes everything from scratch {including the best bread I've ever eaten in my life! more on that later} And yes, traditionally it's suppose to be seven, but this year we did nine!
Woah, Woah, Woah, I know what you are thinking! Leslie doesn't eat seafood! And I don't : ) This tradition would probably be a lot more fun if I could participate in it, but c'est la vie. But I did want to share because I know a lot of you eat fish. So here you go:
Here's Joe preparing the tuna:
Ok, course one was raw clams and oysters on the half shell served with lemon wedges.
And a special mention goes to my Great Aunt Rose for bringing this beautiful homemade mozzarella served with tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil!
Second course was sesame seared tuna:
The third course was calamari with ginger and sake:
Fourth was broiled miso cod:
Fifth course was mussels steamed in a broth of tomato, white wine, parsley and garlic:
For the sixth there was octopus salad:
Seventh was broiled salmon with a miso marinade:
Next for the eighth, lightly floured monkfish cooked in a lemon white wine sauce:
And finally for the ninth course shrimp with garlic, parley and pepper over penne:
This is a fun traditional feast that any family can enjoy! {well, fish eating families at least ; )}
 "1111x-mas6")
