Sharing the Joy Italian Style: Xmas Eve
I intended to post this sooner but washing the wine glasses from our Christmas Eve dinner took a whole lot longer than I anticipated. In fact, the whole dinner and festivities took a lot longer than I anticipated.
John and I come from different backgrounds. John is an Irish Catholic who attended parochial school in Massachusetts. I’m Jewish with my grandparents coming from several Eastern European countries. I grew up in Chicago and attended public schools. I went to synagogue. My family was traditional without being religious.
W
hen we married, John and I decided to celebrate all of the Christian and Jewish holidays, honoring both of our backgrounds and enjoying the traditions that each of us shared when we were growing up. We have certainly embraced the celebrations!
This was our first Christmas in eleven years without any of our grandkids. We really missed them; the holiday is sooo…. about kids. So when it came to Xmas eve, we planned a very grown-up dinner.
The evening featured lots of great good food, wonderful wine, rockin’ music, laughter, and love.
Shedding all of our past family traditions, we scripted a sophisticated Italian feast. We invited our best friends, Pam and Harvey, their newly engaged son, Nick, and his beautiful fiancée, Lisa. With John and my mom, there were seven of us. In my traditional fashion, I prepared food for 18. (I always have leftovers).
Glasses of Pinnacle Ridge 2006 Methode Champenoise Blanc de Noir Sparkling wine were poured as we exchanged hugs. We toasted Nick and Lisa on their upcoming marriage.
They’re getting married on 10/10/10 here in Northern California and then onto to Taipei for a feast celebrating their marriage with Lisa’s family and friends in Taiwan.
We continued to enjoy more Pinnacle Ridge Blanc de Noir as we indulged in the Antipasto Platter consisting of chunks of aged Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano, Roasted Olives, Spinach & Ricotta Torte with Marina Sauce, Beef Carpaccio with Spinach and Roquefort Butter, and a wonderful assortment of bread from Wild Flour Bread, the bakery in Freestone just down the road from us here on the Extreme Sonoma Coast. We also enjoyed a fabulous Fig and Gorgonzola Terrine with Port Syrup and Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms (a recipe from The Barefoot Contessa) with quiet Christmas carols playing in the background. We continued to let the Sparkling wine flow.
Then it was time to turn up the volume. Thanks to John and TiVo we were able to enjoy THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME CONCERT while we worked in the kitchen, dancing, loving the music, and marveling at the talented group of musician. We paused the concert and finally sat down to our first course around 8:30.
John and I decided to serve an array of courses for dinner ~ small plates with different wines so we could dine slowly and enjoy.
First Course: Honeydew Melon Wrapped in Prosciutto. The melon was not as ripe as I would have liked (that’s what happens when you buy fruit out of season), so I sliced it earlier in the day, removed the rind, then put the melon back in a Ziploc bag. I sprinkled the melon with sugar and poured 1/4 cup of Elderton 2007 Botrytis Semillon that I had left over from a meal we had shared with friends last weekend. We drained the melon and wrapped it in prosciutto. With the melon, we enjoyed a bottle of Hans Herzog 2008 Viognier from Marlborough, New Zealand. Pam and Harvey visited Hans Herzog in October and brought back this great bottle of wine to share. The floral aspects of the wine complimented the melon and the saltiness of the prosciutto was outstanding with the wine.
Second Course: Tomato, Blue Cheese & Grilled Bread Salad. For the grilled bread, I chose a combination of garlic rosemary bread and a sour dough round from Wild Flour.
Third Course: Breaded Zucchini & Eggplant with Chunky Marinara and Emmental Cheese
Wine: Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2006 Balistreri Vineyard Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast.
Fourth Course: Lemon Risotto with Lobster Medallions
Wine: Sonoma Coast Vineyards 2007 Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast.
Dessert: Chocolate Ravioli and Ricotta Pound Cake Topped with Sautéed Strawberries and Marscapone Cream
Wine: Duff Gordon Pedro Ximenz Viejo, Sherry, Jerez, Spain
We finished up dinner around 11 o’clock. We cleared the table and put away the leftovers. We loaded the dishwasher and left the rest of the dishes for morning as we watched the rest of the concert. It was long after midnight when we said “Merry Christmas.” When we walked outside, the night was cool and crisp. The moon was shining brightly. I think I saw a shadow cross the moon that looked an awful lot like a man in a sleigh.
*Although my camera was on the counter in the kitchen, I was having way too much fun and I neglected to take any photos of our fabulous food. As I make each dish in the future, I will add images to this posting and the recipes.