This is the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
The year before last my husband's family celebrated Christmas in mid-January, when his mother returned from a three month stay in Nepal and India. That year's dinner featured curry and Indian and Nepali spices.
Last Christmas, dinner was inspired by our family's trip to Africa and we sampled African dishes and Zanzibar-style samosas. It was celebrated on February 12th. Due to travelling family members and/or the logistics of gathering almost every member of a large family together in one place, holiday dates have been fluid in recent years. It's all about getting together after all.
This year we celebrated our family Christmas on December 10th---the closest we've gotten to the popular date in three years. Hurrah!
So I already feel like the holiday rush is over. Lucky me! :)
This year's Christmas meal featured a Spanish theme as Jeff's mother is walking the
Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage across northern Spain this summer.
A turkey meal with cranberry sauce is traditional and all, but I think our menu was pretty delectable:
We started with....
Crema de Espinacas son Salmon Ahumado (spinach and smoked salmon soup) and moved on to:
*Pollo en lata ("Chicken for a Crowd")
*Cachelada leonesa (a sausage and potato casserole)
*Castilian-style green beans
*Pollo en salsa de almendres (Chicken in Almond Sauce)
*Ensalada de Colisflor limon (a cauliflower and tomato salad in lemon dressing)
*Paella Valenciana (a yummy and mildly spicy rice and chicken and shrimp dish)
This was followed by Tarta di Santiago, which Jeff made as our contribution to the feast. It's a very traditional Galician almond tart, which seems to hail from the city of Santiago de Compostela itself.
There you have it, Spider Girl's family's holiday menu.
Did I mention my brother is in Cambodia right now? I wonder what his Christmas menu will look like. He makes sure he's somewhere international during this time of year (not a Christmas kind of guy). One year he had conch soup in Mexico for Christmas dinner.
13 comments:
hey that's yummy menu...will i be invited?...so i see that the menu includes the cuisine from different parts of the world,that's very interesting...you seem to have had a good time with your family,that's really nice...hope many more happy days come your way:-)...do let me know what cuisine you learnt after your brother returns from cambodia.
O! No fair! You know I love all things Spanish! You have to send me all the recipes of that meal!
I still so want to go work in Spain in the next couple years. That picture just reinforces it. As much as I love Canada, where in this country can I see something with that amount of history, that beauty and style?
What a great way to enjoy the holiday.
Sounds like an amazing celebration. And sausage/potato casserole? Yummy! Recipe please?
If it wouldn't be alot of trouble, may I get the reciepe for the Paella Valenciana,please?
sounds DELICIOUS!!! now i'm starving..i think i have a chocolate bar around here somewhere...*sigh*
mmmmmmm!!!
I hope our Un-Christmas Italian-themed dinner in January proves just as delicious!
I'm heading home for the 'holidays' myself, but I'm pretty sure I'll have turkey etc. Pair that with a surly father and an absentee, bitter sister, and WOW, let the good times roll!
Heh heh, Bill, I don't speak Spanish, just going with my mother-in-law's nickname for it...yes it does mean tin chicken but I don't know why, although it kinda looks more like a stew. Certainly sounds more tactful her way! :)
I also probably spelled a few of them wron as I couldn't translate all the writing she gave to me.
skyeblue2u, I have asked her to email me the Paella recipe.
zanzibar-style samosas? i thought samosas were very indian . . . am very curious . . .
Hi Oreen,
There is a distinct Indian influence in Zanzibar. Before we went other people described the yummy samosas which they'd had there. When we got there, we were not disappointed by the cuisine. Yum!
I'm jealous of the picture and the fact that you have food ideas so early into the holiday season.I'm leaning toward spam sandwhiches and root bears for the family. lol
Hey Tai, I'll be home for the holidays, too, so if the good times get rolling too fast and furious at your place (wee! family drama!), you're more than welcome to drop by mine.... :)
and spider, because of this post, I dreamt about your brother last night. I kept telling him, "Aren't you supposed to be in Cambodia at the moment?" but he was too busy eating fruitcake to answer. (what, exactly, does fruitcake symbolize in dream analysis, anyways?)
Good to find your blog. I lived in Spain for 2 years--I went to the University of Barcelona--I saw most of the country--It's something else. Glad you enjoyed your travels.
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