Countdown to Christmas

It is December 13th and it is officially 12 days before my favorite holiday, Christmas. I love Christmas, not for presents, but for that feeling of family, tradition and of course food. In every family there is some kind of tradition to this holiday and my family is no different.

Coming from an Italian American family we always celebrated Christmas with tons of food, wine and laughs. I love sitting around the table listening to stories about the "old days" and even now I can remember some of those days. Like the night my Uncle Augie fell in the shower after drinking a bit too much or the Christmas Eve Stacy and I finally decided to try fish. Then there was the funniest Christmas morning when my dad gave us all fake scratch tickets and my brother thought he won thousand bucks. It was priceless and I can still hear my dad laughing.

Then there are the food memories. Christmas was special when my grandmother cooked. She would make everything for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and boy she never skimped. Christmas Eve was filled with lots of creatures from the sea. Grandma made a delicious lobster gravy using the claws and legs of the lobsters and making a tomato sauce with them in which she would pour over spaghetti. The bodies of the lobster were used for stuffing actually there was a lot of stuffed seafood, quahogs, scallops and shrimp to name a few. She also made fried broccoli, to have some kind of vegetable on the table. Christmas Eve was a night full of eating and we didn't stop there, the next day would also be a feast. On Christmas day, Grandma would always make soup with homemade cappelletti, which are meat filled pasta. They are meant to resemble little hats when they are shaped properly. I can remember these quite well as a child. The pasta so thin and delicate and the filling beautifully balanced with a variety of meat and nutmeg. We haven't had these in many years, probably since Christmas day was at Auntie's on Frankfort st. I thought it was time to challenge myself to the test of figuring out the recipe and bringing a family tradition back to Christmas day.

The filling has not been mastered yet, but it will have the staples, nutmeg, chicken, veal, pecorino Romano and others. I will of course call on my kitchen goddess, which is my grandmother and ask for her help as I try this recipe out for the first time. I will share the recipe when I have gotten it down, but for tonight let the 12 days until Christmas countdown begin and here's to the next couple days of recipe testing!

Enjoy!