One last holiday post, just in the nick of time for February

Every year since my birth in 1978 I have visited Niagara Falls, NY for Christmas.  That's right- I've never, ever spent Christmas anywhere else.  My extended family lives there, we stay with my wonderful grandparents and just have a wholesome, fun time full of family love ever time.  I've frequently contemplated what I would do if I started a job that wouldn't allow me to take time off around Christmas. After much thought, the verdict is that I simply cannot take a position where this would be an issue.  Now there's problem-solving for you:)

I love Christmas.  For years my anxiety dreams did not consist of showing up to school naked, or taking exams without having come to class the whole year, like many normal people I know.  No, my anxiety dreams were all the same: it was Christmas, and I'd forgotten to watch all of my favorite Christmas movies, and how in the name of god was I going to watch 10+ Christmas movies before Christmas was over???  Simply not enough hours in the day!  You may think this was a December, maybe November-only nightmare.  No, folks- year round.  Really.  Since I've been married, I think that the Christmas fever has been tempered a bit and I don't remember the last time I had the dream (and not for any lack of stress...) but the bottom line is that I love Christmas and just about all things Christmas-related.  So, when my Grandmere asked me to bake some cut-out Christmas cookies before we came to N.F. this year, I was happy to oblige.  I made them on a beautiful snowy morning, which really added to the Christmas cheer!  

This was the second year that I've made the cookies myself, following all of my childhood years when my mom would make them and I would be assigned the task of decoration.  When I was relegated to decoration only, I took sincere pride in my work, taking the time to decorate each cookie individually, using all the different types of sprinkles and adornments I could find to create a unique vision.  The snowmen got blue or green or brown eyes, colored top hats, perhaps a shirt and pants.  Trees got colored lights, a star on top, loops of garland.  This took a little while since my mom tended to bake several dozen cookies.  A little OCD if I don't say so myself (we're really getting a peak into my psyche today, aren't we?  Yikes!  No one to blame but myself though...)  The good or bad news (depending on whether you value beautiful cookies over good mental hygiene or vice versa) is that I've now stream-lined my decorating technique.  You can check out the end product below.  And now, I think I'm ready to move on beyond December.  Phew!:)

A Holiday Post in Mid-January...

So, you can color me just a little tardy with these blog posts.  Truth is, I've been too distracted by life to focus on what's really important: blogging about the food I cooked over the holidays.  So, for those of you who are willing to warp back to December 2009 with me, please continue to read below.

In mid-December, we decided to have a little gathering with some of our friends and family.  I started hosting Christmas dinner parties while at nursing school, and then took a little hiatus for a year.  I was really happy to bring back the tradition this year, and was so excited in fact that I made enough food to feed ten times the amount of people we actually had.  Or at least I thought so until our guests actually arrived and ate so much food that my Italian grandmere would have been very proud of them all!  The menu was made up of my family's classics, starring and featuring a soup called "Marbles and Grass".  Apparently Marbles and Grass has a long Italian name that that someone in my family changed to a more Americanized name upon coming to the U.S. (or at least this is the story I've heard...)  So, what is "Marbles and Grass?"  Well, if you're reading this blog, you probably know what it is, because you're likely a family member or friend who I've made this for, but I digress.  The "marbles" portion it essentially a pasta dough which has been rolled out and cut into little spheres, deep-fat fried, drained in a paper bag and then soaked in chicken stock where they co-mingle with leaves of escarole (aka "grass").  I've included a few photos of the process below for your enjoyment:

Creating a well filled with a dozen local eggs

The "marbles" rolled out  and cut into spheres, ready for frying

Chicken soup (with two chickens!) lying in wait for it's marbles

I wasn't too sure how the dish was going to go over with our group, which was mostly made up of Marbles and Grass virgins, but like a good Italian, I made a huge pot just in case.  Wasn't I surprised at the end of the party when I looked into the depths of the massive pot (so large in fact, it took up two burners on the stove) to find just a few sad marbles sitting on the bottom, soupless.  A success!

The lasagna- made with Narragansett Creamery's fresh ricotta and mozzarella and a homemade tomato sauce- was left-over in the end, but frankly, it was a pretty darn huge lasagna.  We also had some artichoke dip, local cheeses and assorted tidbits.  We finished off with my mom's sour cream chocolate chip coffee cake which was to die for, as always.   It was a great night full of great friends, the fam, tasty food (if I don't say so myself...) and a few libations.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to wait for next Christmas to do it again...