A NEW YEAR'S DAY LUNCH - 2

A NEW YEAR'S DAY LUNCH

Irma, who is a very refined cook, invited me to a fabulous lunch yesterday. First she served champagne and canapés of foie gras which she had brought from France, then antipasti of this elegant salad and dressed mushrooms; next came her pasta al ragù bianco [the recipe for which I will post when I secure it from her!] followed by her fillets of veal in a cream sauce. I've shown you this dish before, but am putting a picture of it on the next post anyway. Finally [also on the next post] you may behold my own contribution to the feast, made at Irma's request: I tell Italians it's a semifreddo di limone because it has that sort of texture but it's actually the much missed Jennifer Paterson's "Suffolk Lemon Pudding", from her Seasonal Receipts book. It tastes better here than when I used to make it in the UK, because of the quality and freshness of the lemons. The Italians laugh at me when I am turning it out of its container as, once I've dipped the bottom of the tin in hot water and loosened the edges of the dessert with a knife, I make them all pray! As you see, the prayers seem to have worked yesterday.

ANOTHER PRESEPE

I like this simple presepe, displayed in a friend's home.

BLIMEY LASAGNE

Linda's lasagne of ham, beef, pork, peas, mozzarella and parmigiano looked so appetising as it came out of the oven that I could only exclaim, "Blimey!" So as "Blimey lasagne" it [or "they", I should say, lasagne being a plural noun - once a teacher, always a teacher!] will, forever, be known.

MIDNIGHT IN SICILY - 2

The Sacro Cuore Church, the lucky, warming lentils being served up from a traditional pot and a dish of the same.

MIDNIGHT IN SICILY

After much procrastination [because I like to make things difficult for myself] I declined an invitation to join friends at a restaurant last night. There was to be dancing after the meal, from about midnight till 4 am and I felt that it would have been unfair to leave Simi that long, especially on a night of many loud fireworks [ for no nation does joyful noise quite like the Italians]. I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as I'd have been worried about her all night long.

The other reason for declining was the fact that the company would have been composed mainly of couples. Now, I don't mind my single status but sitting like a Victorian matron watching couples dancing on a night when people are apt to get emotional would have been too much even for me. [In Britain, a man will dance once or twice, on such an occasion, with a woman who is not his partner but that doesn't seem to be the case here; and even if it were, it could make you feel worse!] The art of being single, in any country, lies in staying away, as far as is possible, from situations which are likely to throw you off balance and this could have been one of them. I suppose that the kind friends who invited me didn't think about this aspect of the matter as it's a long time since they've been single.

Then there was the potential expense. James has been blogging about seasonal overspending today: well, the meal alone would have cost 55 euros, then there'd have been the hairdo plus manicure and I'd have had to have a facial! [OK, I'd have had the hairdo anyway.] And a place as elegant as that calls for a new dress; a new dress calls for shoes to go with it, then there's the evening bag and the lippy that's exactly right for the dress... so we're talking about expenditure of at least £150 when you tot it up and all for something that was probably going to make me miserable!

Am I a grump or what? What do you think? Would you have gone under those circumstances?

Anyway, I was quite happy with the idea of spending a quiet New Year's Eve here with Simi; she's wonderful company at any time and I really did want to be with her when those fireworks went off. Then Linda phoned and invited me to join her family for a cosy, early [by Italian standards] supper, so I did. I was home by 11.30 and drank the New Year in [twice - once at midnight Italian time and then again at 1 am which is midnight in the UK] with the person [for she is a person!] who means the most in the world to me. Simi is wagging her tail in agreement.

I'm having to put the photos on the next post again as I am having trouble uploading them here.

Midnight in Sicily, by the way, is the title of an excellent book on Italian politics and the Mafia by Peter Robb.

PER LA BUONA FORTUNA...

... don't forget to eat some of these tonight!

BUON ANNO A TUTTI!

UNA FESTA DA ME

Today I have done some entertaining myself, for a change, and very happy about it I was, too! I didn't know these friends were coming till about 5 pm yesterday, so it was a bit of a mad dash to think what to prepare, go shopping and get cooking.

Last night I whipped up my "standby" chicken pâté, using chicken livers, sour cream [well, ordinary cream with a dash of lemon juice, as you can't get sour cream here; all cream here has a different texture from the kind on sale in the UK, by the way] and a goodly splash of mandarinetto liqueuer. Then I made a ragù bolognese to go with the obligatory pasta, mainly because it does not contain tomatoes, to which one friend is allergic; instead, you add a little diluted tomato purée to the mixture. For dessert I tried out Nigella's idea of using pandoro as the base for a sophisticated trifle and can report that it works very well. I'm sure the fact that the pandoro I had to hand contained limoncello helped the flavour along! [The recipe is in Nigella's Feast book.]

Then this morning I got some fine Parma ham from the superb Sfiziosa deli along the road. Parma ham needs no embellishment as part of your antipasti. No time to make my own bread, so pane arabo, also from the deli, had to do. I made some bites of fresh cherries and Asiago [a mild-flavoured, non-crumbly cheese] and also of cherries and chunks of mortadella [above] and plonked a dish of olives, together with one of fresh almonds, on the table as well. As a main course I served "Mediterranean chicken" , the recipe for which I posted here a few weeks ago. All was enjoyed and lunch lasted till 6pm!

END OF YEAR SICILY POLL

I do hope a few people will vote! I'd really like to know what your perceptions are and, via the comments, whether I have, in some small way, managed to change any of them. If you have other ideas about Sicily, please let me know about those, too!

WHAT DOES THE WORD "SICILY" BRING TO MIND?
	good food
	great wines
	mafia
	tarantella dance
	sunshine
	palm trees
	Greek & Roman amphitheatres
	Etna
	poverty
	spacious homes
	dry-stone walls
	beautiful countryside
	hospitable people
	old ladies dressed in black
	religious processions
	puppet shows
	citrus fruit
	Sicilian carts
	the Mediterranean
	Limoncello
 
Free polls from Pollhost.com

OUR OTHER XMAS CARD CORNER

Simi thinks I should show you all our other "card corner" as well, and it's particularly for M... of Laugh More, Love More, so that you can see that I did get your lovely card, M., and it has a place of honour! Oh, and the second one down on the right, she insists I tell you, is Simi's birthday card from her mummy!

XMAS CULINARY STARS - 3

And more!
1. salad of senape leaves
2. Roast turkey, Sicilian style. [There is no tradition of roasting the whole bird and bringing it to table.]
3. A tray of delicious dolci from a local pasticceria.

Of course, the real culinary stars are all the wonderful friends who did the cooking. I hope they're relaxing today!

XMAS CULINARY STARS -2

More images from Laura's magnificent Christmas Day spread:
1. pasta in brodo
2. bollito [mixed, boiled meats]
3. cima genovese [stuffed breast of veal, Genoese style]

CULINARY STARS OF A SICILIAN XMAS

Here are vegetables fried in batter, a tartina from a selection which formed part of friend Laura's antipasti yesterday and dressed bresaola.

TOMBOLA

How the Italians love a game of tombola, especially at Christmas and on New Year's Eve! Time and again, after you have feasted, out come the cards and the bag or container of numbers. These days the cards come with little plastic shutters that you can slide over your numbers as they are called but at one time pieces of orange peel were used and you ate the oranges during the game. I never used to play "bingo " in Britain, but I can see the attraction of tombola as a family game during these festivities: it is convivial, as it is played around a table; any number of people, of any age, can play; and its fascination may go back to the ancient idea that man's fate is somehow linked to numbers. I had great fun, yesterday and on Sunday night, learning the Italian nicknames for the numbers - I don't even know them in English, apart from "legs 11" and "clickety-click" - and there is a list on the right here if you are interested, though there will be regional and local variations. Some of the names are comical, as in English, whilst others have religious overtones, such as Natale for 25, Santo Stefano, whose day it is today, for 26 and gli anni di Gesù [the age of Jesus] for 33. [How many British people would know that these days, I wonder?] I particularly like "le pantofole del Papa" [the Pope's slippers] for 88! Every now and then, a number would be called as "so-and-so's age" and the speed at which every family member worked out which number it signified astonished me, as I couldn't tell you the age of any of my cousins or second cousins! [So here is yet another indication of the closeness of the Italian family.] A game takes ages to set up, by the way: first there is great debate over who will "call", then another over the stakes, then the "pot" has to be worked out and finally everyone has to decide what number card [s] they want, so they will think aloud back to the last time they won and try to remember their "lucky" card number. So much good-humoured ribbing, reminiscing and fun are to be enjoyed during the playing of this simple game.

Now I want to begin to share with you some of the food I have been lucky enough to have been offered over the past two days: the peperoni in the first picture were dried in the sun during the summer and were then lovingly conserved in oil, strattù [tomato paste] and herbs. Then we have Linda's pasticci di verdure or little vegetable pies, filled with Swiss chard. The crimped edge may remind you of pasties in Britain, but the texture of the pastry is much softer, as the flour used here gives a very different result. The third picture shows a tomasino, a pastry filled with sausage and ricotta. More on the next post!

SPLISH, SPLASH, SPLOSH - IT'S XMAS!

Hi, folks, it's Simi! You didn't think I'd stay off the computer today, did you?! I know I've already said "Buon Natale" but I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas on the day itself, which, as you see, is a very wet one in Sicily! We're late posting as my mummy's been out, which gave me a chance to catch up on my sleep under her duvet.

I'm afraid I wouldn't pose under the tree like Harvey and Holly or keep still in a hat like Mojo as Babbo Natale [in the form of my mummy] was so late coming and by the time I got this new yellow toy all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa in the warm and play with it.

My mummy thought James, in particular, would like to see our "Christmas card corner". She wants me to tell you that this is the only time of year she allows book titles to be partially obscured. She's so fussy about her books but I don't mind, as long as she's fussier about ME!

I hope you've all got lots of chewy sticks and new pully toys to keep you happy. I'll be back soon!

Love and auguroni,

Simi X

XMAS EVE IN THE BAKERY

And a merry Christmas Eve, one and all!

I have been baking bread for tonight's festa all afternoon, so here is Stromboli bread, filled with mozzarella, basil and garlic and, below it, sun-dried tomato bread.

Well, a girl has to get ready, you know, so I'm off now to do just that.

BUON NATALE A TUTTI, from Simi and me xxx

CHRISTMAS IN NOVEMBER

Sicily is treating us to one of its storms today and, as it is eleven days after Santa Lucia [13th December] Raffaele tells me that we are in November, for each day after that saint's day corresponds to a month. Therefore we have November weather today but yesterday was fine and sunny as befits October here.

Everything is open all day today and above is the Via Sacro Cuore at 10.30 am.

I hope to be back later. Buona giornata a tutti.

[FRANKIN]SENSE & SENSIBILITY

What is it about Christmas that makes everyone hypersensitive? Or is it just me? Earlier I bumped into a friend who asked what I am doing on New Year's Eve. When I said I didn't know, she said she was going to her sister-in-law's and would ask if I could come along, though it might be a bit squashed, space-wise. Now this person would not hurt me for the world, but I felt a bit like a burden that has to be shared among my group of acquaintances. I wouldn't have felt like that at any other time of year, but would have just asked her not to worry about me, which is, in fact, what I did say. I think I've got the single person's "Xmas pricklies" again: I'm not ungrateful to my wonderful friends here but when you are the single one you don't get to do the entertaining yourself on the main day of any feast. I think that's mostly true in the UK, too. And, although I love cooking and adore it when I have people to do it for, I couldn't possibly sit the large numbers the Italians invite, so what am I whining about?!

I'm also prickly because Amazon have lost my parcel of books [OK, they're sending a replacement but I won't have them for Xmas - it is Xmas!], a new ID disc I'd ordered for Simi isn't ready and because icing sugar here is sold in irritating 125 gr little packets instead of a nice, big box.

Now I've got that off my chest, here are the things I miss about Xmas in Britain:

1. The sound of the "Scouts post" Xmas cards dropping on the mat, usually on the last Sunday before Xmas. You feel loved because they all come together!

2. Baked, glazed ham. You can't get that type of ham or gammon joint here; it is just cured in a different way.

3. Sitting round the fire.

4. Outdoor Xmas lights - on houses and in gardens, I mean. There are plenty of Xmas lights in the streets here but you don't see many outside ordinary dwellings.

5. Good carol singers at the door [but in December and preferably on Christmas Eve!]

6. Being able to do all my shopping in one place in one go and collapsing into a taxi with it.

And here are the things I don't miss:

1. Roast turkey. It's OK but I think there are better meals in the world.

2. British women's magazines with their "countdown to Xmas" and "how to survive the visiting family" articles. They used to make me feel completely out of it and guilty because I did not have a family to cook for on the day. Mind you, even msn italia was featuring a "guide to surviving the mother-in-law" earlier today, so maybe things aren't that different here for some families!

3. People fighting over the last brussels sprout in the supermarket. If you are not British and don't believe me, take a look at this. Here the supermarkets are a little more crowded than usual and the queues for the meat counters are longer, but there are no endless check-out queues such as those you see in Britain. Probably this is because the Sicilians still use their small, trusted shops as well and do not rely on the supermarket for everything.

4. Being cold!

5. Carol singers who can't sing, don't know the words and who have no intention of giving the money collected to charity knocking on the door at all hours from November onwards.

6. Being "taxi-gazumped" outside supermarkets. You know: you order a taxi and when it comes the driver shouts your name and someone comes out of nowhere, yells "Yes!" and before you realise what is happening off they merrily go in your taxi.

Hmmm - that's pretty even.

Gina and her husband popped round this afternoon and were surprised to see all my cards on display. [Despite the above Scrooge-like ruminations, I have got lights and decorations everywhere.] They asked if some of the cards were from other Christmases! [I've mentioned before that Italians, in general, only send cards to those who live far away and even when they receive some, they don't put them out for all to see.]

I'll be less Scrooge-like on the blog tomorrow, folks!

SOME SEASONAL DELIGHTS

These are pagnuccata, little balls of dough fried and covered with honey. Below, on the right, is torrone, a nougat of almonds, honey, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla. Long ago, the Arabs brought sesame seeds to Siracusa and when these are used, as on the left, the concoction becomes known as cobaita, or cubbaita in dialect, both words being corruptions of Arabic qubbayt. Many women make their own versions of all three delicacies.

BLOGNOTE - 2

I am a technical nitwit so have only today managed to upload the Blogpower banner, a wonderful idea of James's. [I couldn't get the banner to go where I wanted it in the sidebar, though!] So soon I'll be linking back to all who have been kind enough to link to me in the past few days. Thank you all for your pazienza!