THE CHRISTMAS KITCHEN

The 10th Day of Christmas

The Food

I'm sadly lacking great photos for this post because my hands were covered in too much flour, butter and sprinkles over the past few days to pick up my camera.  There has been lots of good kitchen action going on here.  By the time anyone reads this however, most of the goodies will have been devoured or we will be so full of said goodies that we will be regretting our Christmas kitchen ambitions.  

The cookie list:

pizelles

jam thumbprint

cut outs covered in a mass of sprinkles

gingerbread men

candy cane cookies

almond paste pine nut cookies

chocolate biscotti

chocolate nut fingers (which have not been made yet but are definitely required)

also a chocolate pecan pie (my personal favorite)

and a coconut cream pie rounding out the sweets list

On the savory side we have had several batches of Chex mix in the oven.  Also three loaves of my Aunt Judy's famous sourdough bread.

An entire day was spent on a delicious secret recipe (secret because no one can really remember where it came from, what exactaly is supposed to be in it, or what the real name is)  but my husband's family calls minulatti.  Sounds Italian doesn't it?  

On the kitchen staff, there is an expert dough roller, several taste testers, and lots of opinions on the correct fillings and the order in which the fillings are placed, also on the correct rolling and dough tucking techniques.  There are also specific rules about when you can eat the minulatti - only on Christmas Eve after midnight according to my father in law.  But those rules we blatantly broke because they are SO GOOD fresh from the oven.

The finished product, which I do not have a picture of because I was one of the rule breakers eating the minulatti instead of taking pictures, is like an antipasti roll.  Pizza dough filled with ground beef and onions, salami, olives, roasted red peppers, and capicalla.

And then of course there are the menus:

Christmas Eve

shrimp cocktail

cheese and crackers

beef tenderloin

twice baked potatoes

green salad

jello salad

chocolate pecan pie

Christmas Morning

sausage egg souffle 

cooked cinnamon apples

toasted panettone bread

mimosas

assorted hot drinks

Christmas Dinner

ham with pineapple chutney

scalloped potatoes

green beans almondine

coconut cream pie

So my kitchen is a mess, my jeans are getting tight, my children are eating their weight in cookies...

but its Christmas and its all good.

 Happy Eating!