Launching into the Christmas season.

It's time to launch the CHRISTMAS boat. The season of buying has begun.  We don't want to be late. Besides, the weather is frightful, and could get worse. If we don't get out and buy now, the streets could be flooded, iced over, detoured, or impassable in some ways.



Something in me wants inspiration, counting on sights, sounds, smells and tastes to  bring the magic back each year. Baking and decorating the house might propell me into action.

Why?

Christmas  is a big baggage I carry.

I have this idea that it has to be surprisingly fulfilling;  it has to make everybody’s secret wish come true. Not just any old wish, but the wish we did not know we had, a wish we made out loud only to ourselves, burying it so it did not continue to take up space on the shelf of wishes. If That wish stayed on the shelf, never fulfilled, it would be a sorry reminder, year after year that our lives were not magical, but ordinary and insignificant.

Wishes must be fulfilled at Christmas.

Christmas comes only once, and it is ok to have wishes out of the ordinary, special, expensive. Deep down, our job as parents, wives, sisters,  is to make magic dreams come true. We must become extra-ordinary and whip up that magic wand. Even if our finances are meager.

I assemble many lists to get me started,  the obvious needs and the practical solutions, sweaters, socks, gloves. Only once, we all  wanted gloves, the ones we could stuff in coat pockets and have on hand as we rode up to the mountains for the day, after a snowstorm had powdered the local San Gabriels. None of us remember what we did with those gloves after the first outing. 

Most people I know  buy with confidence, stick to their lists, in and out of the malls, bags full of clothes or toys. Everyone is happy in their families.

What does my husband crave that he doesn't already have or couldn’t purchase himself?  I have paid no attention.

How do people get ahead of the season by buying off season?

I need to discover what everyone wishes. Something in me wants to be a fulfiller of unknown dreams, every year.  I picture that blessed morning, eyes sparkling, voices  squealing, arms bouncing up and down, and then the rush to hug, call, find the giver of that secret wish.

 “Oh Mom, how did you know?”



My husband is a confident shopper. If  he likes something, the children too would like it. “Look, isn’t that fabulous. I am getting that for her!” he says when he shops, and wraps the present without giving it a second thought. .

 I'm never sure.

There were years with pre-lists, years with no lists; years with themes; years with gift certificates; years with cash; years with fruit baskets and special wines.

This Christmas will be different.  I will give away something I love to someone I love. This Christmas my daughter will get my crystal water pitchers and my boys will get my books, the ones I suggested they read, and the ones I have wanted them to read. Isn’t this like forcing my taste on them? After all, they are adult, adult by day and children when they visit each other, stirring the dust of memories of Christmas past all over the living area. Before long, we’ll all remember who got the biggest stuffed animal, and who never wanted the skating lessons.

Yes, this Christmas will be different.

Now, don't hold me to this.

I might get inspired as I prepare the panettone.

How Gourmet Magazine took me back home.

Christmas in Italy

I live on Garrison lake, by the Pacific, in Oregon.
For Christmas, we hang around the dock and catch ourselves a trout or bass or perch.
Our holidays are simple and easy going.

But I long for things I had when I was a child in Italy.  At Christmas, more than at any other time. So, when I opened the December issue of Gourmet, last year,  there was an article about making PANETTONE at home. Panettone is the traditional Christmas bread in Italy.

The two page step-by step instructions provided by Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery in New York City made the process look simple and doable.

Now, I don't  do much baking.
I do bake a pear tart, as the yummy one above using our harvest pears in September.

Making panettone was never on my list of things to try. But making something that you had as a child, something your mother and grandmother were fond of serving back in the old country, became an irrestible urge.

I had time.
I had the ingredients.
I just had to send for the special paper molds  with a phone call to Sir Arthur Flour.

So, following Jim Lahey, this is how to make panettone. Active time: 20 minutes. Start to finish, two whole days.

Ingredients:

1C raisins
2Tbsp light rum
2/3C tepid water plus 2Tbsp hot water, divided
3 3/4 C all purpose flour
2/3 C sugar
1/2 t salt
1/2 t active dry yeast
1/4 t lemon zest
1/2 vanilla bean, split lenghtwise
3 large eggs at room temp.
1Tbsp mild honey
12 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter ( 10  1/2 Tbsp cut into tablespoons and well softened; 1Tbsp melted, 1 T chilled
2/3 C candied citron, small pieces

Equipment:
a heavy duty stand mixer with paddle attachment; a panettone paper mold; 2 metal skewers, long

-Soak raisins in rum and 2 Tbsp of hot water, preferably overnight.
-Mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast, zest and vanilla bean at low speed until combined
-Whisk together eggs, , 2/3 C of tepid water, honey.
-With mixer at low, pour egg mixture into flour mixture until combined. Increase speed to medium.
-Add 10 1/2 Tabsp of butter, one T at a time. When all butter added, increase speed to medium-high until dough is smooth and elastic. About 8 minutes.
-Drain raisins, add citron pieces and 1Tbsp of melter butter. Stir into dough with wooden spoon.
-Place dough in a large bowl , cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a cold oven for 15 hours.
-Discard vanilla bean and sprinkle dough with some flour before you  fold seams down and fit in the panettone mold*
-Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise for 5 hours.
-Preheat oven to 370 F with rack in lower third.
-Place mold on a baking sheet and score a big X across the entire top, with a serrated knife.
-Add a Tbsp of butter on the X
-Bake 1-1 1/2 hour, or until a wooden skewer comes out slightly moist. Panettone will be very dark.

-Use the big skewers and pierce the panettone including the paper mold 1 inch from the bottom, so skewers are parallel and the panettone can hang upside down over a large stockpot and cool completely.

Panettone keeps , wrapped tightly in foil in a sealable bag, for a week or two at room temperature.

I made a dozen of these, and gave them away to friends and family members.

We ate Panettone for breakfast on Christmas morning, and it felt as though we were sitting at the table with Mamma e Nonna in sunny Italy.

p.s. If you want to learn about Christmas traditions in Italy, check these other blogs:

http://lakeviewer-italianforbeginners.blogspot.com/

http://agliooliopeperoncino.blogspot.com/

http://manofroma.wordpress.com/

A jump on Christmas.

This town

will celebrate Christmas

through Giving Trees, baskets give-a-way, can drives

reminding

residents to shop locally

the hardware shop, the movie theater

the art council, restaurants

the flower shop

the grocery store.

We'll all do our part to share what we have

to help and to care.

I thought about

what to give my grandchild

who needs nothing.

So, I did one thing just for her:

I started a blog to teach her what I know

in Italian.

You may remember that I grew up in Italy.

She is interested in learning Italian

and I can help.

If you too want to learn Italian with J.

hop along and check the new blog.

http://lakeviewer-italianforbeginners.blogspot.com/