Mangia!!

My brother-in-law, Tony has an Italian background so he grew up with the traditional Feast of the 7 fish dinner on Christmas Eve. When his Aunt Connie passed on, no one in the family took the reins. My sister Kathy, instead, started her own tradition and makes an annual seafood dinner for Tony, Kris, Nikki and myself and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on Xmas eve. This year, it was on the Saturday before Christmas and also the night a blizzard was to hit.

Kathy begins preparing a week prior. It is a tremendous undertaking. We always start off with a crab dip with Mazzola bread. This is usually a big hit since everyone is hungry and this year was no different. And every year there is something new and this year it was the appearance of Nikki’s boyfriend, Tom.


Tom, Nikki & Kris

While Kathy was cooking, Nikki, Tom, Kris and I played a vigorous game of Cranium. Ginger sat with us in her new red blinking light collar. We were humming, drawing, sculpting and acting out clues - it was really interactive and made for great laughs. And loads of fun.


Ginger

Dinner was ready as Kris and I won the game. Perfect timing and why the game was sooo much fun!

Kathy outdid herself. I contributed the crab-stuffed mushrooms and Kris made string bean casserole. The rest of the menu: Kathy’s famous seafood salad consisting of shrimp, conch and calamari and lots of garlic & parsley. There was also an Italian tuna & chickpea salad which also had black olives, red onion, celery and plum tomatoes. Freshly made fried calamari and a seafood lasagna which was made with a béchamel sauce and shrimp & scallops. Everything was simply delicious. Unfortunately my photos this time don't give it justice but it's all I have.


crab-stuffed mushrooms & Italian Tuna Salad


Seafood Salad


Stringbean casserole & Crispy Fried Calamari

Nikki was in charge of dessert and she had decided on individual chocolate molten cakes but for some reason waited until the day before to get the ramekins. Long story short, no ramekins were to be had and I ended up buying a jumbo muffin pan. As muffin pans go, it was a nice one but at $18, did we really need to keep it? I saved the packaging and after the cakes came out beautifully and Tony did a fabulous job of cleaning it…the pan went back to the store…none the worse for wear.


Chocolate Lava Cakes


This is AFTER baking and washing the pan! Good as new!

We chose to open gifts this evening just among ourselves. This would help in not having to be overloaded on Christmas day . I loved the way Kris wrapped my gift that I didn’t even want to open it!



On our way out, Kathy gave each of us our annual home-made Xmas sweets. We were all happy campers! Even if we had to drive home in a foot of snow!


Left to right: chocolate covered pretzels, biscotti,merengues,chocolate toffee crackers,chocolate krispies & coconut mounds...YUM!
Thank you, Kathy!!!