BUONA BEFANA!

For children and grown-up children everywhere...

A QUICK SEASONAL ROUND-UP

There are so many wonderful seasonal posts out there but tonight I want to tell you about two that made me laugh a lot and also draw your attention to two that are, quite simply, lessons in courage.

Fullet's post about the Catalan "shitting log" tradition first had me worried, then fascinated and finally roaring with laughter. I recommend it, especially if you have the post -Christmas blues.

The Devonshire Dumpling's self-deprecating humour over at NoClue always cheers me up and her eclectic tales of Christmas goings-on down in deepest Devonshire are first class. I particularly liked her "It's Been Sunday for the last 10 Days" post and her follow-up today is a gem. Thank you for the gong too, DD, even if it is aimed directly at my head!

My friend Maria from across the pond was a very sad lady this time last year but if anyone is living proof that we can bounce back after seemingly insurmountable difficulties, it is Maria. The path back that she has chosen would not be mine but I admire her for finding it in the tangled jungle of this life and I am so happy for her. Maria has been a loyal follower of this blog from the beginning and I want to thank her for that, too. Do take a look at her new blog, Gratitude Café, the title of which reflects her positive attitude

Finally I can only urge you to read this post by Betty of Daydreamn World for she and her son, Reid, are examples to us all. My thoughts are with you both, Betty and I'm sure other readers here will join me in wishing Reid a full recovery in 2010.

BAKING A HAM IN SICILY

OK, at the end of the festive season I admit it: if there's one Christmassy aroma I miss, it's that of a clove-studded, glazed ham baking away in the oven.

Italian hams are cured in a different way to British ones, and you cannot buy the equivalent of a gammon joint to soak, boil, glaze and bake yourself [not that the soaking is strictly necessary any more]. You can, however, get cooked ham which is similar to the British variety so I didn't see why I shouldn't glaze one of these joints, or part of one. I talked to Mr T in the deli about it and he didn't see why it shouldn't be possible either. He brought out a whole new Prague ham, said he would cut off as much as I wanted and then set the rest on his cold counter. That was an offer I could not refuse and so I purchased my ham.

The ham did not have a lot of fat on the top to score, but I have found this to be the case with a lot of small British gammon joints, too. Anyway, I did my best, stuck the cloves in and cobbled together a glaze from my homemade cranberry sauce, some marmalade made by a friend and, well, it would have been a pity to waste that amarena syrup from the jar of Amarena Fabbri I used for my "chocolate thingies" the other day, wouldn't it? The cooking smell was seasonal and friendly, the finished ham looked almost like the "real" thing and it tastes just fine:

And now I'm done with nostalgia for another year....

WHITE CHOCOLATE SALAME WITH CRANBERRIES & PISTACCHI

I made two versions of this over the festive season: the darker one contains espresso coffee and the lighter-coloured version contains Maraschino liqueur. Here is the recipe:

Soften 100 gr unsalted butter and add the yolks of 2 eggs and 100 gr sugar to it in a good-sized basin. Beat well with a balloon whisk. Add 250 gr of just softened, pure white chocolate and about a tablespoon of strong espresso coffee or Maraschino or Kirsch and continue to beat. Now put 300 gr petit beurre or other crumbly biscuits in a freezer bag and bash them to crumbs with a rolling pin. Add them to the mixture in the basin with a handful of dried cranberries which have been softened in warm water and some very finely chopped pistacchi. Mix all well together. Beat the 2 egg whites to soft peaks in a separate basin, then add them and mix well. Now put a length of baking parchment on a work surface and plonk the mixture in the centre of it. Roll the paper over the mixture and shape the mixture into a sausage form with your hands. Scrunch up the ends of the paper like crackers and tie them with kitchen string. Wrap the whole thing in a layer of foil and freeze overnight. Remove from the freezer to the fridge a couple of hours before serving.

You can see Katia from loveSicily's chocolate salame here.

NEW YEAR'S DAY FEAST AT GINA'S

There was feasting yet again at Gina's today and this is what over twenty lucky people ate:

After an antipasto of aubergine salad there were home-made cannelloni of spinach and ricotta and of meat:

Then there was polpettone , one of Gina's specialities:



There were also spiedini



accompanied by chips as only Gina can make them, cooked in her wood-burning oven in olive oil and with rosemary



and mushrooms



and dressed peppers



plus peas and green salad.

Afterwards there was fruit followed by dishes of pastries




and I took along what I imaginatively call my "chocolate thingies" which I have now perfected:



Recipe for Welshcakes Limoncello's Chocolate Thingies:
To make 25-30 of these, you will need about 250 gr of the best, pure white chocolate and 250 gr pure dark chocolate or vanilla-flavoured chocolate. Have some small paper cases ready on a heat-proof plate. Into these sprinkle some chopped, toasted almonds [no need to toast them if you have fresh Sicilian ones] and a cherry from a drained jar of Amarena Fabbri cherries. Melt the chocolate one bar at a time in a microwave or a double boiler, watching it carefully as it catches in an instant. [If you use a microwave I suggest you heat it on medium for 30 seconds at a time until it is ready.] Use a small teaspoon to fill the cases with chocolate. Decorate with chocolate vermicelli, more chopped almonds, edible silver balls, etc. Leave them in the fridge for at least a couple of hours and until ready to serve. Everybody likes these!

BUON ANNO A TUTTI

Simi and I wish the world peace in 2010.

Luciano Pavarotti & Stevie Wonder - Peace Wanted Just to Be Free

TWO INTERESTING CALENDARS

This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine on December 22nd:

TWO INTERESTING CALENDARS

Italy has been famous for its calendars ever since the publication [by the company’s UK subsidiary]of the first Pirelli Calendar in 1964. Whatever the shortcomings of the tyre company’s calendar with regard to political correctness, ageism is not one of them, for it famously included the then 72-year-old Sophia Loren in 2007.

Today we would like to tell you about two Italian calendars that you may not have heard of:

Fifty women of all ages and sizes have posed for the Curve d’Autore Calendar 2010. This calendar is produced by Donna Donna Onlus, a non-governmental organisation founded in Rome in 2008 to help women who have difficulty in accepting themselves as they are, in particular those suffering from eating disorders. Bulimia and anorexia are the main causes of death in females aged 12 – 25 in Italy and eating disorders affect 200,000 Italian women.

The aim of the calendar is to negate stereotypical ideas of feminine beauty and to increase awareness of eating disorders. The photographer Gerald Bruneau took pictures of students, artists, housewives and professional women whose bodies are tastefully draped in red velvet. Each page of the calendar tells women, “Tu sei Bellezza” [“You are beautiful”].

The calendar will be distributed free of charge from now until January 6th as part of the solidarity demonstration, Roma Insieme. It represents the first stage in the campaign, Uniti contro i disturbi alimentari [United against eating disorders] which has the support of the Italian Ministry of Equal Opportunities.

The second calendar is the Calendario dei Carabinieri 2010. The Carabinieri Calendar is in its eighty-second edition and was presented in Rome on December 1st. Previous Carabinieri calendars have become collectors’ items and this year 1 million, 350,000 copies have been printed, all of which are now sold out, according to various websites.

The theme of this year’s calendar is the swearing-in ceremony, “the most demanding and solemn act the uniformed men and women will carry out during their career” over the almost two centuries of the corps’ history. The calendar also remembers all the Carabinieri who have served loyally and faithfully in times of war and of peace.

You can view images from the Carabinieri Calendar here.

UPDATE: Last week a student of mine who is a Carabinieri officer brought me the 2010 calendar as a gift. I am delighted to have it and it is a very impressive publication:

MY TIP FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

You might as well enjoy it because....

The Beverley Sisters - It's Illegal, it's Immoral or it Makes You Fat

NEW YEAR'S EVE WITH LUCY

Here's Lucy again:

Lucy and Viv at New Year

AND ANOTHER SANTA CAME FROM ALBANIA...

Rosa and her husband had to go to Albania to see a sick relative before Christmas and then, because of a rough sea, could not get back to Italy in time to spend Christmas Day with their children [who stayed with their aunt]. I think we can all imagine how stressful and disappointing that was for them.

However, Rosa was in good spirits when she came to see Simi and me yesterday morning and it was like Christmas all over again: I shall treasure these intricately carved ornaments and the one on the right represents a çiftelia instrument and a sheep, a symbol of good luck in Albania. Rosa tells me that my good fortune will be assured if I fall asleep looking at the object so I have placed it beside my bed and am now full of hope for the New Year.

Then, when I tasted this Albanian dessert, I thought I had gone to heaven. It is called tulumba and consists of fried pastries in syrup - but what a syrup, reader!



Thank you, dear Rosa and family. I hope you have a wonderful New Year's Eve together and that you have the happiest of new years.

A SORRY SIGHT

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the fact that the two palm trees in front of the Sacro Cuore Church here in Modica have been infected by the red palm weevil and have to be cut down. This is how the entrance to the Church now looks.

NOW TRY THE iMod

I like the wrapper designs for these bars of pure Modican chocolate which are wittily named "iMod":

SANTA LIVES NEAR TURIN

This is an article of mine which was published in Italy Magazine today. I thought you might enjoy it:

Imagine the scene: it is Christmas Eve, you’ve had a busy day at work, you’ve come home, cooked and finally put your two excited toddlers to bed. Wearily you trudge down to your apartment block’s basement, where each tenant has a storeroom, to retrieve the gifts which you have hidden there – and they have gone. Yes, some heartless thief has taken the Christmas gifts which you worked so hard to buy for your children. What would you do?

In Alpignano [Torino] the victim of the burglary frantically drove around her town in the hope of finding an open store but the only places still trading at that hour were the all-night petrol stations. She desperately looked for gifts in the shop attached to each one, until, at nearly 4 am, she met a Carabinieri patrol and was able to explain the situation to the officers. They reported it to their captain, who, imagining the disappointment that would be written on the children’s faces a few hours later, decided to help the mother. He said that he would have hidden the toys in the basement storeroom, too.

The Carabinieri captain called the owner of a toyshop in nearby Giaveno and the shopkeeper agreed to come and open his store. Thus, although the thief has yet to be apprehended, two little girls of three and a half and two and a half had a happy Christmas morning after all.

UPDATE: The story reminds me of a song which doesn't seem to be played much any more. Here's the great Jim Reeves:

Jim Reeves - Scarlet Ribbons

QUICKEST-EVER LEMON CAKE - RECIPE

I got the idea for this recipe from a magazine and adapted it a bit. It made a successful Christmas dessert on two occasions:

You will need to purchase a sponge cake base of the sort that you can split into 2 or 3 layers. Separate the layers and sprinkle some Limoncello or other lemon liqueur over them but do not sprinkle any on the top. Now make up a lemon cream: in Italy you can buy powdered crema pasticcera [confectioner's custard] so I just made up a pack and a half of this according to the instructions and added the grated peel of a large lemon. [Use an unwaxed one if you can.] If you cannot buy crema pasticcera you could make some lemon butter filling or just add some grated lemon peel to whipped cream. Spread the filling over the layers [not the top] and reassemble the cake. Now cut another lemon into slices and put these on the hob in a non-stick frying pan with 6 teasp sugar. Heat until caramelised, watching it carefully. When they have cooled a little, use the lemon slices to decorate the cake. Put the cake in the fridge for an hour or two. When you are ready to serve, sieve some icing sugar over the top, using a doily or greaseproof -paper templates to make a pattern if you wish. [I used Christmas cookie cutters.]

On Christmas morning I was out of lemons so the second cake became an orange one. Use the same procedure but moisten the layers with Cointreau or a similar liqueur. Add a little fresh orange juice to the filling as well as the grated peel:



Slice and enjoy!

THE "WHAT I ATE AT XMAS" POST!

It had to come, folks, and here it is!

At Raffaele's on Thursday there were these treats on offer - and yes, I was servita after minimal waiting this time!

Later on Christmas Eve I was invited to eat focacce with Irma and family.

Irma made this lovely table decoration.

Focacce are traditional on Christmas Eve in Sicily and Irma, like most Sicilian women, makes her own:

This one is filled with patacche [or topinambur in dialect] which are Jerusalem artichokes:






This one is filled with sausage



and the middle one here with ricotta:




Broccoli [cauliflower] is the most traditional filling for the vigilia:

This one has a meat filling, though some Sicilian families do not eat meat on Christmas Eve:



My contribution to the feast was my "quickest-ever lemon cake" and I'll be posting the recipe later or tomorrow!

>
Irma had made cobaita



and a friend had made and brought her these wonderful biscuits the day before. [Irma must have more will-power than me as she'd kept them!]



Grazie per la bella festa, Irma!


OK, Christmas Day at 1pm and it's off to Gina's mother-in-law's home for another feast!

Just look at this pretty presentation of the antipasti



and then there was a surprise as the pasta was served al cartoccio:



After that there was spicy sausage



and fennel salad



and polpettone made by Gina



followed by a dish of meltingly tender pork



served with a green salad and an aubergine salad:



My "quickest-ever lemon cake" became a "quickest-ever orange cake" as I'd run out of lemons



and then there was my favourite Sicilian dessert, gel al limone:



And to finish there was mouthwatering fruit:

I must tell you that only in Sicily would the men, during Christmas lunch, have a jolly conversation about which cemetery plots they had purchased and only in Sicily would two women produce a meal like that and, when thanked, shrug their shoulders and say,

"Oh, it was just a family meal - nothing special."

Grazie, Gina e grazie alla signora!