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...