Oh! The house looks lovely all decorated for the holiday...and it's just as lovely inside. Donna's table looks splendid in Christmas colors of red, green and gold. Her tablecloth is white linen with a red poinsetta design bordering it. Her napkins are red. The centerpiece is a flourish of brush pine with red carnations. On either side of the carnations are 12" red candles and gold trimmed red bows at each end of the centerpiece. It's quite festive. The rooms are filled with the aroma of orange and spices and something else that smells awfully good, coming from the kitchen. Let's take a peek at the menu shall we?

MENU

Antipasto

Linguini with Rose's White Clam Sauce

Shrimps Teresa

Broiled Lobster Tails

Assorted pastries and Christmas Cookies

We'll start off with the antipasto recipe. This will be a sampling of how we do ours. You can add to it, or eliminate. The good thing about the antipasto is, there is something on there for everyone and it looks festive, with little effort. For this, you will need at least, a 14" platter. If you don't have one, they have some lovely inexpensive silver or gold sturdy aluminum ones at your local party store. Or, you may want to choose one that is more seasonal looking.

Antipasto

1 ball fresh mozzarella (sliced)

1/4 lb. provolone (sliced)

1/4 lb. sweet sopprasatta (Genoa salami may be substituted)

1/4 hot sopprosatta (pepperoni may be substituted)

1/4 lb. proscuitto

1 jar artichoke hearts

3 cans capponata (eggplant salad)

red roasted peppers (jarred will work fine)

pimento stuffed colossal green olives

pitted colossal black olives

sun dried tomatoes in olive oil

anchovies

Romaine lettuce (optional)

You can line your platter with lettuce leaves, if you so choose. We usually begin with the mozzarella, placing the slices in a circular pattern, around the edge of the platter, with a little space between each slice. Then you can put one of the meats between the mozzarella slices. Then start a second layer, with the provolone. We place some sun-dried tomatoes on each slice of mozzarella. Continue with the meats, and olives in this circular pattern around the platter. In the center of the platter, we have a section of the roasted peppers, a section of the eggplant and a section of the artichoke hearts. We serve the anchovies on a separate dish.
These are the ingredients that we use. Some folks in addition to these, use hard-boiled eggs, string bean salad, Italian tuna and other meats and cheeses. As I said the choice is yours. Drizzle some virgin olive oil over the top and serve with Italian bread and roasted garlic spread*.
*Roasted garlic spread can be purchased at a gourmet shop or easily made.
1 head of elephant garlic
locatelli cheese
olive oil
Remove the loose peel from the garlic and slice off at the base. Spray with Pam and wrap in aluminum foil with the top exposed. Bake at 400 degrees, until you can pierce the cloves easily with a fork. Do not allow it to get too brown.
Squeeze the cloves out of the skin and mashed together with olive oil and locatelli cheese to form a pasty consistency. Spread on bread. Yum! :o)

Rose's Easy White Clam Sauce

Rose uses 1 dozen cherrystone clams per pound of linguini, or 2 dozen little necks per pound. The recipe below will be for 2 pounds. Rose cooks in pinches and handsful, so don't bother getting out the measuring utensils for this one. :o)

2 lbs. linguini (regular- not the thin)

2 doz. cherrystone clams coarsely chopped and in their juice

12 garlic cloves, pressed or grated

a handful of Italian parsley (chopped)

2 c. virgin olive oil

1/4 c. dry white wine

Combine all ingredients except pasta in a large bowl, at least 1 hour before you are ready to serve. Cook pasta according to directions, testing though, so it is aldente, or not too soft. Drain your pasta, leaving a quarter of the water in the pot. Return the pot to the flame and add the pasta and clam sauce mixture. Mix about well until clams begin to curl. Serve immediately.

Shrimps Teresa

For this recipe we use, what we call "Jumbo" shrimp and they come about 8 to a pound.

2 lbs. Jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined and butterflied

all purpose flour (as needed)

2 eggs beaten ( or more as needed)
1/2 c. peanut or canola oil(or more as needed)

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic (grated)

juice from 1/2 lemon

Combine olive oil, garlic and lemon in a bowl and set aside. Heat peanut oil in a non-stick frying pan. Dredge the shrimp through flour and beaten egg and fry, until they begin to get golden in color (do not brown). Place fried shrimp in a baking dish. Pour olive oil mixture over shrimp and bake at 350, until oil starts to sizzle (about 20 minutes) Garnish with parsley if desired.

Well, the meal was delicious! After dinner we exchange our gifts, and there is usually a surprise visit from Santa. He drops by to make sure the children have been good all year. If they have, he gives them one of their gifts and returns later with the rest. Careful Santa! Don't drop those gifts!

All in all it was a lovely evening. Don't forget to leave a snack for "You Know Who"!

We’ll be doing Christmas Day at my house. My family goes their separate ways on Christmas Day to in-laws, etc. I have my closest friends on Christmas Day, who also spend Christmas Eve with their families. There are usually 6 of us and any strays who happen along the winding road :o)
Please..come into my home...the door is opened.