Christmas Eve dinner's 'in the can'! Hallelujah!

[Stinky The Clown]

I've been preppin' and cookin' for the last two days. Tomorrow I just have two dishes to prep from scratch cuz there's no way to do them ahead.

Pizza fritte (fried dough) will get done tomorrow. I'll make the dough in the morning and my son will fry it in early afternoon. Thankfully it will be in the mid fifties tomorrow, so he can do it outside and plug the fryer in on the deck.

Someone else is bringing the antipasto.

Italian Wedding soup is done and just needs assembly. The soup gets the spinach added as it reheats. The orzo's been cooked (some people use rice, but I prefer the orzo or ditalini) and shocked and is in the fridge along with the meatballs I cooked yesterday.

The shrimp for the shrimp oreganato is cleaned and ready for the pan. The oreganato topping is done. Put it on the scrimps and pop in the oven for 20 minutes is all it needs.

Two dozen clams are all washed and nice and sleepy in the fridge. They get steamed open and oreganato topping tomorrow.

The cod in tomato sauce is done and just needs a reheat.

The whiting salad (kinda like seviche, but it starts with cooked fish) is done and is served cold.

The smelts just need to be dusted in flour and then fried. They'll get done by my son after he does the pizza fritte.

I was also gunna do a cold eel thing that's very traditional, but I couldn't find any eels. The Asian store had frozen 'swamp eel' but the very name put me off of them. I wanted live eels. Oh well ..... Sparkly always gets a little green when we do these.

The bracciolo is done. I cut two flank steaks in half thickness-wise. I used an old scimitar meat knife I hadn't touch in years. I sharpened it up and it went through the meat like a hot knife though butter. It looks like this and is about 14" long. That's one mean looking knife! The stuffing is a mix of breadcrumbs, reggiano, garlic, parsley, oregano, toasted pine nuts, and salt and pepper. It has been years since I tied a roll of beef. That was the hardest part .... tying the rolls. The sauce on this is the same tomato sauce I used for the cod, but with different final seasonings. The cod has fennel and white wine. This has balsamico and a nice Ravenswood zinfandel.

The veal for the marsala has been cut and pounded. Everything else is just a matter of dredging it in seasoned flour, cooking it, and making the sauce right in the cooking pan. The mise en place is done.

A huge pot of mixed mushrooms was sauteed today and just needs an hour or so in the oven with a cheese, herb, and breadcrumb topping (all made) on it.

Sparkly's doing some green beans and roasting some peppers on the grill tomorrow as the veggies. And a salad.

Someone else is bringing the dessert.

We have champagne for the appetizer course, a white Bordeaux (we still like the French!) and Chalone's Monterrey chardonnay (nice and crisp - almost no oak) for the fish course, and Gnarly Head zin for the meat course. I also have two bottles of nondescript cabernet for backup. I also have a bottle of auslese Reisling for the amateurs :)

I'm pooped!