Saturday, December 15, 2007

Italians Read On

For the past few years my family has had a fun new tradition. On Christmas Eve my side of the family meets and we have a "traditional" Christmas dinner. Last year it was Asian Christmas with sushi, pot stickers, and ham fried rice. The Christmas before was Mexican Christmas with homemade horchata, pozole, and tamales. Well, this year is Italian Christmas and I need recipes! I think that Ben and Jeri (wow that was kinda funny) should be able to help me out here. I need recipes that are GOOD! They don't really have to be traditional Christmas recipes but they have to be authentic Italian food.

We started this tradition because by Christmas we were all tired of the turkey/ham dinners. My mom really dragged her feet the 1st year...until we told her that she didn't have to cook anything and that us kids would do it all. Last year she even brought it up first and asked what kind of meal we were going to cook.

Now if only I could talk my parents into Indian Christmas next year, not American Indian, India Indian, then I'll be happy. :)

8 comments:

sorensenpower said...

I think we should include ALL Indian cultures...

Becca Jo said...

I just don't know if I want a Navajo taco for Christmas dinner! Those are authentic American Indian cuisine right?

georganne said...

You could make gnocchi. They are technically dumplings, but they taste more like homemade pasta. We serve them with a white or red sauce.

Becca Jo said...

Oh I actually have made these before-a long long time ago. I made potato ones. I know that you
can make them out of bread too. I need a recipe!

jeri said...

Allrecipes.com is pretty much my go-to source for every recipe I use.

We usually have Italian for Christmas because my mom gets tired of turkey/ham... and we ARE Italian ;) So my mom makes either a lasagna with spinach and spicy sausage (instead of ground beef) or a baked ziti (again, with the spicy sausage).

If you wanted to go totally crazy, you could make ravioli. I've heard it's not too hard. Bring Eli down and we'll make them together! I bet they freeze well so you can heat them up for Christmas dinner and no one would know. You could fill it with anything from cheese/spinach to butternut squash and pecans, depending on how gourmet you want to be.

If you want to go basic, e-mail me and I'll give you my grandmother's recipe for spaghetti sauce. Or stuffed chicken breasts with marinara sauce. Mmmmmm.

Ben said...

Do you want pasta or treats?
I could blow your mind with a red sauce and meatballs recipe, and Val makes a wicked-awesome Tiramisu if you're interested.
Buonissimo!!

georganne said...

you can also add 1c. spinach if you'd like.

georganne said...

3 potatos
1 egg yolk
1 c. flour
salt/pepper
Make mashed potatoes out of the potatoes. (but don't add anything else to them) Then mix in the egg and the flour. Roll them into logs and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. Boil in water until they float. Done.