Wednesday, January 06, 2010

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?

17 comments:

CherryPie said...

What lovely decorations the nativity is so unusual. I wish I had remembered to take a photo of mine. I suppose there is always next year ;-)

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Cherie. Yes, I think they are lovely, too. It would have been nice to have seen your Nativity scene.

RNSANE said...

Such a delightful repast. My poor friend who recently spent several years working for the U. S. as a civil servant in Sicily is now assigned to Beaufort, South Carolina and she is so miserable, missing Sicily. I can certainly see why. We met on a Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago!

James Higham said...

Fill us in on what this is about, Welshcakes.

Dragonstar said...

What a delicious feast! It would be nice to have a final feast like that here. I like the legend.
Have a good New Year.

Lucia said...

Hmmm, I just had leftovers last night! I'm glad you had a nice time and I love the little Befana.

Rowena said...

Welshcakes you've done it again with yet another fabulous meal. I'm already looking on the calender for another holiday to merit a marathon feast!

Emily said...

Those table settings are gorgeous! Looks like you had another wonderful feast!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Carmen. I can certainly imagine how your friend feels but I'm sure your friendship is a great comfort to her. Hi, James. I did, on the comments on the other Befana post. Hi, Dragonstar. Yes, it's a nice legend. Hi, Lucia. I like her too. Hi, Rowena. Tell me when the next one is! Ciao, Emily. Yes, it was a great feast. I loved the table decorations too.

Anonymous said...

A "retired language teacher from Cardiff, Wales, UK, now trying to make a new life in Sicily" sounds absolutely fascinating; but if I could ask you just one thing and get an answer it would be "is it really run by the Mafia?" If you don't wish to answer (or accept the question) I may take that as a "yes". Good wishes.

Whispering Walls said...

Who's the guy in the baseball cap - Joseph or one of the 3 kings?

Liz Hinds said...

Lovely flower arrangements. So casual but effective. When I try to 'throw something together' that's exactly what it looks like: thrown together!

I hope you look as happy as that Befana on your birthday! I'm sure you will with all those lovely friends of yours.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi, Andrew and welcome. Of course I'll answer your question: Absolutely not. The Mafia exists, of course but there is organised crime in every country. The trouble is that every crime in Sicily gets attributed to the Mafia. There are also groups that have too much political power but those exist everywhere too. I'm going to go into more detail in a post, so please bear with me. Thank you for your question.
WW - Gino's wife decided he is Joseph!
I have that trouble with flower arrangements too, Liz. That's an idea - I could spend my birthday in a rocking chair!

Anonymous said...

"I'm going to go into more detail in a post..."

That will be interesting. I'll look out for it

Bella Baita Marla said...

the food looks fab and I love the pasta bowl

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Coming soon, Andrew. Me too, Bella.

Kathleen Gwinnett said...

Ciao,
I want to tell you how much I enjoyed listening to "Il Volo." I don't believe I have heard them before. I haven't been in Sicily in two years and it such a joy to be able to share your experiences..

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