Buon Natale! The Dutton, Meller Rizzo clan had a beautiful Christmas, a lovely time celebrated with family and friends.
The Silver Spoon Cookbook was our inspiration for an Italian Style Christmas. A classic cookbook, it was adapted a few years back to the international market and has gained world-wide popularity. It's filled with authentic and easy Italian recipes and known to be overwhelming in it's scope. However, if you can focus on trying a few recipes, you'll come back to those recipes again and again. A funny thing about the Silver Spoon is that it is often confused with the Silver Palate cookbook, which is equally popular and well-loved.
Sammie did a great job creating a festive Christmas atmosphere for the table.
We also had a British feel with Christmas crackers in the mix.
Who doesn't want to don a crown for the holidays?
There were excesses in appetizers. And, we had a bit of a healthy bent
with a crudite to go along with a homemade hummus plate.
Always a winner, Blue's calamari plate was polished off quickly. In fact, truth be told, we reminded Sam & Danny to be sure the guests had a chance to try this Christmas favorite. Here is the recipe for the calamari.
We had flavored olive oils on hand for dipping, for scooping up with
local Artisian Sourdough Hungry Ghost Bread.
This is the Local Trinity loaf, made with local triticale, spelt and wheat.
And we all went gaga over the Lamb Meatballs with Lemon Cumin Dip.
Here is a link to the recipe at Chow which is on it's way to becoming an old standby in our household.
We made it with pork instead of lamb this time as the teens aren't big fans. It's fabulous either way.
Sarah made a lovely tomato based Minestrone with Lentils for our first course.
Our entree was Cod & Pancetta with Vegetables from The Silver Spoon, a dependable dish that we have prepared at least a dozen times or more.
This is delicious for all of the seafood fans!
Since it was Christmas, I put in more butter than called for and used half and half instead of milk.
Creamy deliciousness.
I had to get a shot of these tomatoes from River Valley Market, that we added to our chopped salad. They are from Lady Moon Farms, a organic Fair Food Farm that operates between Pennsylvania and Florida. And, as you can see, they produce beautiful tomatoes year round.
This is Dani, the veggie chopper, extraordinaire!
The final results. Nice job Dani!
All that chopping made her sleepy? Perhaps it was all the fish & pasta!
Dessert was a Chocolate Peppermint Cake courtesy of Toni, Sarah's famous English Trifle and Indian Cookies. Here are the chopped raisins and cranberries for the cookies.
We were all happy in the end!
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