Christmas Extravaganza

Once again, I have failed to update for weeks at a time. Luckily, I have an excuse-Will and I just spent three wonderful weeks in Wisconsin and Louisiana for Christmas and New Year's!! We were alone in Germany for Christmas 2008, so it was wonderful to see our families and friends again. I will be posting frequently these next couple of days with recipes and holiday food (too bad I'm posting AFTER the holidays...yeah I know), but I wanted to share a couple of pictures with everyone. My family does Italian Christmas every year, although we always make sure to include new recipes each time so the traditions don't become boring. Our staples every year are lasagna, meatballs, Italian sausage-if you live in the Milwaukee area, I highly recommend Glorioso's on Brady Street!-garlic bread, panettone, stuffed mushrooms, shrimp, codfish, stewed fruit...yes we go all out!

Every year at Christmas, my family would buy porchetta (Italian roast pork that is heavily salted and stuffed with herbs, garlic, fennel, etc). I never really liked it until I went to Italy for the first time and had it as an appetizer. This year my brave mom decided to make it on her own, and while she wasn't particularly pleased with the results, everyone else seemed to enjoy it!

 

Yum, is all I can say. We have bought cookies, cakes, and everything in between from Canfora Bakery in Milwaukee for holidays, weddings, showers, you name it. Their cookies are fantastic, so fantastic in fact Will was compelled to "make sure the cookies were up to everyone's standards" on the drive home from the bakery. Pictured here are spumoni, anise, and amaretti cookies.

Christmas morning in Wisconsin!