Silver Spoon Christmas

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. 

Sailu's Indian Kitchen Fruit & Nut Shortbread Cookies

We were all happy in the end! 

Turkish With All The Trimmings

Non-tradition has become tradition for our Thanksgiving Day feast. Two years past, after getting chilly at the Thanksgiving Day Parade, we came upon a fantastic free feast at Occupy Wall Street, all generously donated by chefs of New York City restaurants. Volunteers demanded our attendance for the Thanksgiving meal-really, they pulled us in. The teens were a little unsure, but once they got a taste of the delicious fare, they were more than content. Last year we enjoyed the famed Lam Zhou Noodles of NYC's Chinatown. For $25, including tip, we had 4 heaping bowls of beef noodle soup with hand-pulled noodles and a big plate of pot stickers. This place isn't fancy, but it is high on an authentic atmosphere with seriously good Chinese eats!

This year we decided to stay local, celebrating with the theme Turkish with all The Trimmings. Most of our menu came from Claudia Roden's Arabesque cookbook, a collection of classic Turkish, Moroccan and Lebanese dishes. The meal was a communal effort and luckily, we had an opportunity for a kitchen dance break.

Everyone came close to filling up on the appetizers! We savored the goodness of dipping our crusty bread in Za'atar, Egyptian Dukkah, Italian and Dark Cherry Balsamic olive oils.

Dark Cherry Balsamic from Cosimano e Ferrari,

A favorite purveyor of flavored balsamic and

olive oil in my hometown of Rochester, NY

Dip your crusty bread here

Other appetizers included Blue's ever popular Calimari Salad, Hummus Plate, Baked Feta, 

Roasted Peppers and Eggplant & Toni's Minty Pea Dip. 

Calimari Salad

Show off your Feta Bake! : )

Toni's Highly Addicting Minty Pea Dip

from Whole Living

Let's not forget the Roasted Peppers & Eggplant w/ Garlic Sauce

Following a post-appetizer frenzy, we sat down to a meal of Seared Tuna w/ Lemon Sauce, Turkish Rice & Scallion Mashed Potatoes. For salads: Cucumber Salad, Beet Salad & a Leafy Greens Salad. 

As you can see, Dani thoroughly enjoyed Beet Salad preparation. 

Beet Salad with Garlic Yogurt Sauce 

We  can't get enough of Turkish Rice!

And the entree, Pan Seared Tuna with Lemon Sauce and Scallion Mashed Potatoes...

Dinner for 5 called for 5 desserts: Persian Love Cake, Brownies, Pecan Pie, 

Chocolaty Chocolate Brownies and Vanilla Ice Cream.

We will be enjoying dessert for days. 

We were happy. We gave thanks. And, we were grateful. 

Mediterranean Melange

An uncluttered Sunday is a welcome respite and perfect for hours spent in the kitchen whipping up new and old favorites. This Sunday I mixed up a Mediterranean Melange in multiple courses. The results are mostly Greek cookery with a bit of Turkish flair. While the family still seems to have the patience, I plan on continuing on with all that is Mediterranean! 

I was a bit captivated with capturing all of the ingredients that went into this meal. Here are a few prep pics from today's efforts: 

Beginnings Of Turkish Rice 

 Soon to Be Sizzling Lemony Shrimp

All Of The Lentil Salad Stuff

Just The Basics For Cucumber Salad

 Handful of Yummy Olive Ingredients

When visiting friends Jane and Joan early in the spring we learned of the transcendence of the olive when baked.  aka: We ate them all! Since then, we have become  turned on to many variations of warmed olives, either simmered on the stove top or baked. Tonight we made a stove top recipe of Spicy Rosemary Olives. We used Alfonso's and a Tuscan Mix w/ Onions. I expect these to be on heavy rotation, most especially as an appetizer for guests. 

A small Greek-style cucumber salad is an expected component (more like a condiment) of any Mediterranean meal. We were drowning in scallions, so I rustled up a cucumber and scallion recipe that we especially enjoyed because of the addition of honey and lots of ground pepper, for a sweet taste and a little kick.

Lentil Salad w/ Feta is an old standby that we have been making for 10 years +.  The lentils are simmered in mellow spices, which works very well w/ the saltiness of the feta and the brightness of the cilantro. We always make plenty so that there will be leftovers for lunch.

Leftover steamed basmati rice made it easy to throw together the below Quick Turkish Rice in mere moments. This is a very simple dish to prepare. You warm olive oil in a frying pan and fry up cinnamon sticks and cumin seed. Add in toasted pine nuts and slivered almonds, a couple of cups of leftover rice and currants. Warm, serve and gobble down.

Our main course was another easily prepared Greek specialty, with only 7 ingredients. Sizzling Lemony Shrimp is simmered on the stove top with olive oil with butter to give it a richness that encourages dipping of fresh crusty bread. Everyone agreed that this recipe is a keeper.

I'll see you soon with more Mediterranean inspired adventures!