And then there were three (fishes)

[Stinky The Clown]

We're having a very small group for Christmas Eve. Five people, total.

The family went through one of those generational upheavals this year. One of our exes moved way far away. This caused some of the kids to have to make the time to go there this year. Another kid is working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. One will be with us. And our neighbors.

Anyway ..... I have worked hard to maintain some semblance of the traditional Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes. It really only works with a huge crowd. Fortunately the tradition has an escape clause: any number of fishes, so long as it is an odd number. (That's probably some latter day fixer's attempt to give people like me a way to carry on without the ennui of an old tradition dying. I'll take it.)

This year, we're starting with Cioppino (Fish Number One). That will be accompanied by two kinds of pizza fritte (fried dough) - one that is sweet and one that is savory. The one that is savory comes by the savor from the addition of anchovies (Fish Number Two) to the dough. That will be followed by a salad course. A tossed salad, but mainly rocket (arugula) and arancia (navel orange) segments with an orange vinaigrette. After that, we get vitello (veal) Marsala (I know, not a fish .... my Dad and my uncle would not eat any fish at all, so this was a sop to them and over the years become part of our family's tradition.) and Gamberi (shrimp) Oreganto (Fish Number 3). Sides include potatoes roasted with rosemary and garlic, baked mushrooms, wilted spinach with garlic and lemon, and maybe some broccoli. The list of sides is still being edited at press time. Zabaglione for dessert.

What are you planning?

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

1. Since we've been snowed in for more than a week and it looks

like we've got a week to go, we're planning on campbell's vegetable soup. If that.

Please everyone, have a bite for me.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Where are you? Maybe we can airlift it in?

I hope its as merry as can be, circumstances be damned! :hi:

[tigereye]

9. hey wake me, did you ever get dug out?

:hug: :hi:


It sounds like it's been horrible out your way...

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. Hey tigereye.

We got out Christmas day.

Our neighbors know a guy with a bulldozer who made some great money clearing out those of us with long, long driveways. DH & I were so excited we went out and about even though everything was closed. Walgreens and a gas station were the only things open. We joked that we could get a couple of corn dogs for Christmas dinner, but went home and baked a frozen pizza instead.

It turned to rain on Friday and we went to the tavern. Rain on top of snow is no fun. We've got a Jeep Wrangler with aggressive snow tires and ice breaker chains. Swear to gawd, we slid the entire 1/4 mile down the driveway, but we made it. We got home about 2 hours later and spun tires all the way up. We were both howling laughing, but we got to the top.

:hug:

:hi:

[tigereye]

12. being snowed in is bizarre

one time up here on my urban mountain, there was more than a foot of snow - no one went anywhere for like 3 days. All the roads were closed as well as most stores. It was wild, like living on the moon, with all the white craters...


Glad you guys got out! Merry Christmas. How long were you snowed in? I got a card from my best college friend from college who now lives in Seattle, and she didn't say anything about the snow.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

14. It snowed on and off for 13 days. DH got out a couple of times

the first week, but I didn't want to go. Then it got so bad that he didn't even want to try. The drive had at least a foot of snow and the drifts were 3 feet or so in other spots - very windy here. There's a 6 foot drift in front of the barn. In thirteen days, I got out 2 times.

We get snow most years, but typically we'll get 4 inches or so then it warms up and melts then another 4 inches or so a few weeks later. Nothing like this. And Portland got hammered too. I think they got over 16 inches. The city just isn't set up for it. Very few snowplows.

[tigereye]

15. I'm guessing you are outside Seattle then - she lives in the north burbs

I believe. Yikes! That's a hell of a lot of snow- more like mountain amounts or something.


I can't imagine no snowplows. We are so spoiled here that people fuss when the road gets covered, since it usually snows and then the salt truck or plow takes care of it. I've always lived in the East and that's what people expect. I think what you are talking about makes people appreciate what it must have been like in winter in the "old days"

[bicentennial_baby]

3. Since I've very suddenly been tasked with buying/cooking dinner:

Baked Chicken

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Homemade Stuffing

Homemade Gravy

Rolls (Not sure where from just yet)

Possibly sauteed asparagus, or a tossed salad

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Or something like that... :crazy:

Boring, I know! Way too late for me to plan, esp. in terms of $$. Oy.

[hippywife]

5. How 'bout these rolls

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Light-Wheat-Rolls/Detail.aspx

or these:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Wheat-Rolls/Detail.aspx

Both are very good and not difficult. I let that second one do a rise in the bowl in addition to the rise after forming, which the person who submitted the recipe omitted. Very light and fluffy.

The first one only looks like they are complicated because they are so pretty. After baking, I brushed them with olive oil and sprinkled with basil, granulated garlic and a little kosher salt. :9

[eyesroll]

4. Christmas eve:

Baked Ham a la Alton (gingersnap "glaze")
Brussels sprouts (flash-frozen from our summer garden)
Sweet potatoes with candied pecans
Rolls (homemade)
Wine

Christmas day:
Chinese food and a movie (Traditional Jewish Christmas dinner)

[hippywife]

6. It's the only time of the year

I can talk him into letting me bake a ham so I'm going for it. LOL Also having steamed aspargus, candied sweet potatoes (sans 'mellows), homemade whole cranberry sauce, and rolls.

Our holiday tradition since we have been married is to make Tiramisu together.

Enjoy your traditional dinner, upheaval be damned. :hug:

[Lugnut]

7. We're doing five.

DH cleaned the squid earlier and I'll clean the smelts in the AM. Broiled haddock, aglia olio, shrimp scampi and romaine salad are also on the menu.

We're down to only four for dinner tomorrow night. Our daughter and her ex (their split was amicable, they're still friends and he's still part of the family) will join DH and I. Our son is an owner/operator who is on his way to make deliveries in New England through tomorrow night. He's not happy about missing his favorite meal of the year but his own personal economy requires it.

Merry Christmas, H2S!

[tigereye]

10. my MIL used to make smelts - since I'm Irish I'd never had anything like them!

scrumptious. She is gone now, and I really miss her, her wit, and that aspect of Christmas Eve. She also used to make the best meatballs, as well as pannetone.

[hippywife]

13. My gran and my great aunts

used to make smelts. I was too little to appreciate them and never even tasted them. I wish they were still around, too. :hug:

[Lugnut]

16. My MIL taught me how to prepare all the fish.

She also taught me how to make ravioli and cavatelli. We lost her in July at the ripe old age of 97.

[grasswire]

8. we are upended, too

After going to Trader Joe's today, I waited 90 minutes for a city bus (in heavy snow, cold, etc.) going southbound while 10 buses on the same route went northbound. This is on a route with an every 15 minute schedule. So I am significantly less cheery than I was this morning. I almost discarded the gingerbread house kit from Germany in transit.

Still, I'm not prepared because the teenagers who were supposed to fly out today to Arizona to be with their other family are stuck and won't be going. No flights. Their mother is stuck 300 miles away from here with no trains available and no other way to get home. We had planned to do Christmas this coming Sunday when everyone would be home. Now suddenly I've got teenagers all week with nothing festive planned for them to do or eat. Yikes. That's sad.

My tradition is to do cheese souffle and a huge green salad for Christmas Eve. Christmas day we like to have Chesapeake style spiced shrimp (eschewing our yankee heritage these days, apparently) and a four-citrus plus parmesan crispy polenta, and celeriac remoulade, and a true ambrosia, and stuffed mushrooms and a few other favorite things. Sometimes I'll make spanikopita or Emeril's fabulous artichoke bread pudding.

Kudos to you, H2S, for keeping tradition alive. Merry Christmas.