Mario Unclogged: Christmas Day
On Christmas morning, we wake up at 8, light the fire, open presents, and eat lightly: clementines, Marchesi panettone from gustiamo.com (which will become your only panettone once you taste it), and scrambled eggs with white truffles. Lunch really does not happen, but I fire up the pizza oven as we head out to ski.
For dinner we go to the American South for inspiration. I put a ham from Nodines with cloves and a brown sugar glaze in the slow wood oven and steal the rest from the Lee Brothers' excellent cookbook; we eat black eyed peas, collard greens, biscuits with black truffle honey from Otto and then finish with a selection of chocolate gifts from my friend Katrina at Vosges Haut-Chocolate and some cool confections from Camilo de Blas in Oviedo, Spain, including glazed hazelnuts, tiny bitter chocolate creams, and a bottle of orujo de hierbas to burn the path clear.
The rest of the week is devoted to football, ping pong, and snow activities with the boys.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
10 Comments:
Why fire up the pizza oven ?
blondee47 at 1:03PM on 12/25/07
Wow!
Sounds like the best Christmas... lots of fun and impressive menu
paris221966 at 1:27PM on 12/25/07
I think Mario just fires up the pizza oven in the morning as a ritual, the way some people would watch the TODAY show.
annien at 2:14PM on 12/25/07
We did a ham with bourbon coca cola glaze, a potato gratin with roasted garlic, our good friend's macaroni cheese, asparagus, SE brussels sprouts with bacon (OMG this was fabulous I added some roasted garlic to the vinegar), and I made the Martha Stewart buttermilk-onion pull-apart rolls. For dessert I did the Dorie Greenspan Devil's Food White-Out Cake and the nearly, almost famous box-O-love cookie assortment.
I wish I had a friend who made chocolate. Wait I am my friend that makes chocolate.
JerzeeTomato at 4:06PM on 12/25/07
Jerz: Nice menu. I'm waiting for the turkey to finish as I type this.
annien: LOL.
Adam Kuban at 4:31PM on 12/25/07
Adam what sides? inquiring minds.......
JerzeeTomato at 7:16PM on 12/25/07
I make a heavy cream and egg custard to pour over sliced Panattone and let it sit over night in the refridgerator, then cook it up the next day.Christmas morning is very NY delish, and later we have clams and chocolates and anything else left over from our feast from Christmas Eve the rest of the day to nosh..
foontou at 9:26AM on 12/27/07
Sounds like a wonderful day, right down to the Vosges chocolates!
greenkitchen at 8:12PM on 12/31/07
We love you Mario! Thanks for sharing your family Christmas with the rest of us.
Tiffmeaney at 12:44AM on 01/06/08
I'm so glad Mario orders a Ham from Nodine's every year, I've been filling the orders for the last two years and it always brings a smile to my face when Mario's order lands on my desk. I feel proud to package and send out his order, knowing that he will have a good tasting Ham. Steve
Steve5 at 10:47AM on 07/06/09