Cooking for Christmas

It just wouldn’t be Christmas at the Tiny Bungalow without some crazy food. Last year we went all out with traditional English fare right up to the Yorkshire pudding. This year, we decided to go with an Italian menu. There is nothing like an Italian grocery the days before Christmas. The crowd, orders for fish and meat and general chaos really puts me in the holiday spirit and luckily, we have one that's not far away.

We had a few friends over on Christmas Day and this is always an excuse to cook up something special (as if we needed an excuse). Christmas Eve was spent making homemade pasta – tortellini, that was later tossed in sundried tomato pesto and basil pesto
We also tried a brachiole recipe that called for a single piece of meat, flank steak, rolled in herbs, cheese and garlic, seared, and then put in a sauce. This was a great alternative to the smaller, more traditional ones made with flattened bottom round and it came out pretty good. The sauce and brachiole was served with fried polenta.

Finally, what good are veggies if they can’t be wrapped in meat? We had prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, a dish with sautéed peppers and olives, and fresh olives and fresh mozzarella to complete the menu.

It was a great day and even better since we shared it with good friends. Our friend Kim even got a chance to eat the food as opposed to just reading about it on the blog. I don’t think anyone left hungry because there aren’t any leftovers (to my dismay).

Finally, I have to give props to my friend Deanne. I was looking for something good to munch on while cooking and I found a great recipe for spiced pecans on her site. I ended up altering the recipe a bit - leaving out the chili and adding vanilla to the egg white. I might even add a tablespoon or so of butter to the egg whites in the future but this was an extremely simple recipe, they made the entire house small like the holidays and they tasted great.