Yuletide Events

Christmas has long passed now, but since the last post mentioned the cooking adventure that Briana and I had in store, I thought I should share the outcome.  In Italy, a honey-baked ham is not common fare for a Christmas dinner, but we didn't let that stop us.  Briana had scouted a little deli that said they would have a ham ready for her to pick up on Christmas Eve. Before we went to pick it up, we stopped into a butcher shop to compare the price. We headed over to the deli and proceeded to get two kilos of ham, which rang up at 80 euros...  My jaw dropped and we decided to try to find a cheaper ham. Ten minutes later, we arrived at the butcher shop only to find that they had closed for a 3-hour lunch break.  Again my jaw dropped and we left laughing at our situation.  Finally, we went to the deli section of our local grocery store and ordered "due kili di prosciutto."  They gave Briana a strange look and asked her, in Italian, of course, "In one piece?!"  They puzzled over the chunk of ham, not knowing how to cut off only two kilos.  So they put the whole ham on the scale and it weighed about 8 kilos. The ladies were very nervous to cut it.  The senior of the three pointed to a spot and said, "Cut here." After it was cut, she put it on the scale, raised her arms in the air and exclaimed, "Due kili!!" No joke, they cut it perfectly.

Briana had to hand cut the cookies into Christmas shapes.

I conjured up a glaze for the ham with a little bit of orange marmelade, cloves, sugar and nutmeg. 

My first time making home-made stuffing. A concoction of dried bread cubes, apples, raisins, cranberries, onions, celery, chicken stock, sage and other spices.  It was so good that I made it again a week later.

Briana made this baked brie appetizer, topped with cranberries, apples and cinnamon.  Melts in your mouth...

The ham didn't even need to be carved, it pretty much just fell apart. Not to brag, but it was honestly one of the best hams I've ever had and I wasn't the only one that thought that.  Italy doesn't know what they're missing.

Family for a day.

About a week later, I went to La Scala with some classmates to see the Swan Lake ballet.  Gorgeous theatre, fur coat and red lipstick, fancy for a night.

The End