A FEAST FOR THE BEFANA

The last of the Christmas feasts was a jolly lunch with Gino the artist, Linda and fourteen other lucky friends today. Gino had designed the table centre, using yellow winter jasmine and roses from his garden:




He had also made some pretty arrangements with pine cones:




This is Gino's 2009 presepe [crib] which he made with artist's clay:




Gino's elderly uncle remembered making crib figurines from natural clay because that was all he and his brothers had.

Now to the food. First of all there was spaghetti, which Gino is serving from this enormous bowl:



Then there was pork served with spinach, peppers and cauliflower:




Afterwards there was fresh fruit and desserts made by some of the guests. There was this yummy apple strudel,



this perfect, light fruit cake flavoured with chocolate



and I took along another batch of my white chocolate salame plus my standby semifreddo of marrons glacés:



Finally there was Stilton which Linda had bought in Britain at Christmas, with port and various homemade liqueurs.

No more feasting till my - aaargh! - sixtieth birthday, by which time I'll look like this:



But she's rather a nice befana, isn't she?