Sadly, there are no pictures to accompany this post, but I had to jot it down somewhere...
We enjoyed New Years with our dear friends Elena, Franco and their boys in a little village in northern Italy. (yes we go there often - it's becoming like a second home).
Lucky for us, Elena's friend is a chef and he "whipped up" a nine-course meal for us. We started with little bites of pizza, little bready-vegetable rounds and olives. Then were presented platters with several types of sliced meats and a basket of various bread sticks.
Then we proceeded with an artichoke cream soup that Elena had made (not sure when because we'd been in Udine most of the day though maybe it was when we took a "short" 2-hour nap with the kids?!).
Next came a 5-mushroom risotto which was delicious, creamy with fresh parmesan topping it. (the kids ate this course).
After that we had a bit of a break. It was probably 11pm by then. Then, Marco whipped out fat, juicy steaks and crisp, oven roasted potatoes. Delicious. Elena also asked him to cook a few hamburgers because she wanted to see how he did it. It's something about the grill, because he only put a little salt on them. But they were amazing. (kids had 2 bites of the meats and a little pile of potatoes and then returned to Disney Channel in English)
We then enjoyed Elainea's homemade pineapple ice cream. Then we welcomed in the New Year with bubbly, and lots of wishes of "Aguri" to all the dinner party guests.
Jay and I finished the evening with an assortment of tiny cakes and fresh fruit. Cody tried two cakes. Jasper - maybe one, I'm not sure. But by then it was 1am and they kids were crashing - perhaps because of the hour, perhaps because of the Disney Channel overload?
We enjoyed the left overs of the two remaining courses -- Lentils and a soft sausage on the following day for lunch. Ha!
Oh, and throughout the evening we sampled various wines, local, craft beer and tart-tangy sodas. Fun!
What a memorable meal. Thanks for inviting us, Elena!
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