Christmas Eve, Italian Style

Christmas Eve is traditionally our designated holiday to host, but with the end of this year being so busy for us, we were on the fence. As it is my favorite holiday meal of all time, I found that I was quite saddened by the idea of not being in the kitchen making a big fish feast, in keeping with the custom of so many (mainly southern) Italian and Italian American households. While I resolved that it would be too hectic to make seven fishes as normal, I was still very excited to choose two basic dishes that could be served to our small group of guests. Both dishes featured below can be made in less than 20 minutes once prep is done. 


First, the appetizer: Calamari alla Luciana (Squid Neapolitan Style) 

Calamari alla Luciana, Photo: NK - Recipe HERE 

and then the main, Monkfish Piccata

Monkfish Piccata, Photo: NK - Recipe HERE
 (Note: we omitted the artichokes and kale and served spinach instead) 

Do click through some of our more involved (but never difficult or unduly time consuming) Feast of the Seven Fishes menus below, but I hope today's post gives you some great ideas for your next fish-driven dinner party or family meal. 

Feast of the Seven Fishes for 6 - Year 1
Feast of the Seven Fishes for 6 - Year 2 
Feast of the Seven Fishes for 6 - Year 3

Feast of the Seven Fishes 2015

Feast of the Seven Fishes Holiday Roundup

For Dessert: Using the selection of Christmas Cookies we'd already baked and serving them alongside high quality store bought Gelato was a fas solution. 

I've featured all the recipe to links to this year's Christmas Cookie Assortment below. Five varieties to choose from may sound daunting, but the baking was made easy and achievable by spreading it out over a few days (freezing some of those made in advance helped us immeasurably). The key is also to choose easy, foolproof cookie recipes, sticking to those that require minimal prep, ideally less than 15 minutes.

Christmas Cookie Assortment, Photo: NK

Cookie Assortment, clockwise from the top:

Ina Garten's Shortbread Jam Thumbprints
Christmas Morning Biscotti
Arrowroot Cookies with Cinnamon
Pignoli Cookies 
Spiced Italian Pecan Meringues 

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I hope you enjoy and that the holiday season brought happiness and peace to your home. 

We look forward to returning to our usual menu program next Christmas Eve! 

Christmas Cookie Of The Year - Snowballs

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a very soon to be Happy New Year! Wow... 2016. I'm not going to go there. Though personally I have much to be grateful for, I am very ready for us all to move along to a fresh new start. One thing is for sure, it's going to be interesting.

As this year draws to a close, I find that as is usual for me, I feel the urge to cook the homestyle dishes and family recipes that bring with them wonderful nostalgia and warm family memories. As I think of the people behind those foods, I'm sorry to say that there are many who can no longer join us around the table at Christmas. That doesn't mean their spirit isn't there. 

Photo: NK 

Enjoying the cookies you see above always makes me think of my Great Aunt Mary. She made these powdery confections every Christmas and referred to them as Snowballs. It's also come to my attention that these crumbly, light cookies packed with ground Pecans and Butter go by many names and enjoy obvious cross-cultural popularity at holiday tables and beyond. Some call them Butterballs,  Rum Balls, and still others, Russian Tea Cakes. Come to think of it, they're also a bit like Mexican Wedding Cookies.  

When I think of Great Aunt Mary, a sweet and gentle soul known for her caution and tidiness, I can't help but also think of the phenomenal Eggplant Rollatini she was also known for. She delighted in its methodical, meticulous preparation, and let me tell you, if you were lucky enough to take home a tray of these leftovers, you knew you were in for some good times.

Though Aunt Mary passed away several years ago, I wanted to honor her this holiday by remaking Snowballs. Without access to her original recipe, I scoured the web for something that looked similar. Truth be told, I can't picture my Aunt Mary adding Rum to these, but what do I know. The winner was a recipe that was featured in Bon Appetit's roundup of Old School Italian Christmas Cookies Sounds about right...

I followed Bon Appetit's Butterballs (aka Snowballs) Recipe exactly and I am happy to say they were fabulous. Light, crumbly, melt in your mouth. The perfect cookie for dessert of even breakfast/brunch with coffee! Even better, these are super easy to make and look beautiful and festive dusted with Confectioner's Sugar. They make great hostess gifts or just any special occasion. Old school though they may be, they have a chic quality to them; I could see serving them at a bridal shower or even chic cocktail party. 

If I had to pick another of my all time favorite Christmas Cookies, I'd definitely go with the Pignoli, but the Snowball is nonetheless a fab addition to any table, any time of year. I hope they bring back good memories for you, and today, I enjoy mine with my Great Aunt Mary in my heart. 

For the recipe, click HERE.

Yuletide Roundup - Christmas 2014

Baccala Salad with Sweet & Hot Cherry Peppers, Photo:NK

Buon Natale! Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all! It's time for our yuletide wrap up - just a quick recap of some of the dishes we enjoyed this season.  

For Christmas Eve we went with the traditional Feast of The Seven Fishes. My mom hosted and she did a great job. To check our Italian Christmas Eve Menus for the past three years, click HERE, HERE and HERE. 

This year, we were treated to smashing seafood salads to kick off the multi-course dinner. I contributed the Baccala Salad pictured to the right. You can find the recipe by clicking HERE. 

Next came a fantastic Calamari Salad…

Calamari Salad, Photo: NK

Looks good, right?

But no seafood dinner would be complete in our family without Linguine with Clam Sauce, easily my favorite dish of all time (recipe HERE), which we often like to follow with a main course of Rao's Lemon Sole, just as in previous years. 

Classic Linguine with Clam Sauce, Photo: NK

This is his put down your camera face

My mom made super adorably presented goody boxes filled with Christmas Cookies. 


For dessert, we kept it simple with delicious Italian Pastries from an excellent bakery called Natale's. 





We need to leave space for Christmas Dinner, you know?  

Sfogliatelle, Cannoli, and Napoleon, Photo: NK 

Speaking of Christmas, my mom in law made it tasty as ever. We were treated to, among other things, a lovely Filet of Beef and a really great Salad with Red Pears and Pumpkin Seeds - I am surely going to try and recreate it some day. 

Filet of Beef & a Pear & Pumpkinseed Salad, Photo: NK 

And there you have it, as fast as it came to us, Christmas was complete. I hope you too enjoyed a holiday season filled with only good things and good food. Here's to lots more cooking in the new year!