Dearest Readers,
I hope you had a good Christmas. Mine was a very traditional Christmas (given that it was my first one in Atlanta and traditions have to begin somewhere, don't they?). After various discussions, ifs and buts, Eric even agreed to purchase a minuscule purple Christmas Tree that he had placed in front of one of the living room's windows.... so small that when I arrived home I didn't even notice it! But as he pointed out, it's the biggest tree he's ever had. Perhaps because it's his first? It seems obvious to me.
I also received the first stocking. In Italy we give a stocking for the "Befana" (on the Epiphany) but they don't have the old witch here so they give the stocking for Christmas. Instead of coal, I received various Italian cheeses in the shape of rocks. They look good... I'll let you know! The most prized gift: ten individual portions of Nutella with its own spoon!
If I had followed Italian traditions from my own household, the menu would have been as follows: mixed starter of various bruschettas, smoked meats and pickels. Ravioli with beef ragout made by Annetta. Various roasted meats. Roasted potatoes. Salad. Panettone, Pandoro, Torrone, Panforte, Ricciarelli, assorted nuts in monkey quantities. Coffee. Total length of the meal: between 3 and 5 hours. Depending on who was joining the lunch. If it was my uncle Antonio, the meal could have been dinner since he would have been late at least one hour but likely closer to two.
Here instead, we celebrated this year with an Icelandic Christmas. Not that we followed a particular ritual. We simply cooked an Icelandic style dinner... and since we didn't have anyone over for dinner, we had a very slow and relaxing day... meaning our Christmas "lunch" didn't start before 8:30pm.
Before we move to the cooking, a couple of tid bits about Iceland: despite being as large as Cuba, it has a total population of 300,000 people (compared to the 11 millions in Cuba)... it is really true that people prefer to live where it's warm. But as much as I thought that it must be freezing over there, their average temperature today was 5C! In other words, it's colder here!
I would also like to share a picture of Gullfoss... not bad at all (taken from google):
Moving on to the menu:
Appetizer:
Slid med Surum Rjoma og Granslauk (Herring in Sour Cream) : 8-. To be honest I was the one that decided on the "-". Eric loved it despite I had been a bit too liberal with the cream. Honestly I do not care for pickled herrings but the sauce was indeed delicious.
Main Course:
Sunnudagssteinkin (Sunday Road - Roast Leg of Lamb): 8.5. For those of you unfamiliar with this fact, leg of lamb is Eric's signature dish. So he prepared it. I thought it was delicious and I scored it 9.5 but Eric preferred to err on the side of modesty and so he scored it 7.5!
served with
Potatoes browned in sugar: 5.5. I think something must have been wrong with this recipe. The potatoes were simply too dry. But I did like the sweet taste. It went well with the tartness given by the vinegar marinade of the lamb.
Dessert:
Jolakaka - Christmas Cake: 7.5 if eaten dry, 8.5 eaten with a nice glass of wine. Very soft and light (of consistency not calories clearly).
And to drink? A while ago while in Washington DC, I had purchased a bottle of our favorite wine: Frogs Leap Zinfandel, Napa Valley. We decided to open it once I had a job. And so we opened it yesterday. It's not cheap but not even outrageously expensive... approximately $30 here. I don't know if it's available in Italy. I know in London it's sold in exclusive wine stores and it's quite a bit more expensive!
This is all for now... and next week? Well, I think it goes without saying... New Year's Eve Jamaican style!
By for now and Happy New Year!
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