Holiday Goodies

I used to have a fear of doing things on my own. This included going shopping, going to the movies, and going to sporting events. Now walking into a coffee shop in Rome, at age 22, I am completely void of that fear, and I am as thankful as ever for overcoming it.

I have just walked into Caffe Della Pace, placed behind one of the most beautiful piazzas in all of Rome—Piazza Navona. With the option of sitting outside or in, I choose in, as the air on this December morning is brisk. I am told that I not only have the choice to sit inside or outside, but that I can pick any table in the entire cafe—which is composed of two large rooms. The front room, which I have just walked into, is full, and so I venture into the back room. ‘This is perfect,’ I think to myself. ‘No one is back here.’ I spot a table on a lower level of the room next to a backdoor. The table has three seats, but I don’t mind because there is a statue placed to the side of the table that can keep me company.

The waitress follows me as I sit down and hands me a menu. Quickly, I say, “Pronto,” which means “I am ready,” in Italian “Un cappuccino e cornetta con cioccolato per favore,” I say, which translates to “A cappuccino and a chocolate croissant, please.” She smiles at me and says, “Si,” before walking away with my menu.

For the holidays, old favorites are entitled to special love. Case in point, apple pie. Nothing is more American and no dessert is more satisfying than apple pie, hot from the oven, topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Delicious as it is, special occasions call for special ingredients.

Whisky's smoky sweetness seems like a perfect companion for apple pie's richly comforting wholesomeness.

My mother made apple pie for Thanksgiving and Chanukah. Her recipe was the essence of simplicity. One of those dishes that intuitively adheres to the principle of "let the ingredients speak for themselves."

At a time when farmers markets didn't exist in cities, my mom would pack my sister and myself into her Dodge and we'd head out to the farms in the areas surrounding Banning, California, the small town on the way to Palm Springs where we lived during my high school years.

Back in Rhode Island, there was never much to look forward to after Christmas. The holiday decorations came down, it was depressingly dark by 4:30 pm, and that once-fluffy-perfect-for-sledding-snow had turned into treacherous black ice. But there was always panettone.

Panettone is an Italian sweetbread made with candied orange, zest, citron, and raisins that is closely associated with Christmas and New Year's Day. Growing up in Rhode Island, my family received a lot of panettone for Christmas because it was a go-to gift among Italians. Need a gift for your lawyer? A loaf of panettone is perfect. Invited to someone's house for coffee around the holidays? Bring panettone. Have an exceptionally good mailman? Give him a loaf of panettone, plus a shot of anisette when no one's looking. That always warms him up a bone-chillingly cold route.

Probably one of the best ways to sample Italian wines is in a pairing with Italian cucina especially when chefs of note are involved in the preparation and choices, and so it was one evening. To celebrate the Holiday season this very special event took place at Market City Café in Burbank, California. Together the Executive Chefs from the MCC Hospitality Group joined forces to produce a superb repast – seven courses of fabulous Italian food paired with Italian wines from Tuscany, Umbria, Asti and Friuli Venezia Guilia near the Slovenian Border. The bustling restaurant on the edge of the Burbank Mall was bright and shiny with Christmas decorations and sparkling lights, and a lot of excited and happy people, all looking forward to a very eventful evening and willing to forget all their dietary conditions and the no-nos that many nutritionists and doctors want to place on food loving folks!

The opening course was a delightful array of three cheeses, a pressed goat’s milk Garroxta produced in the Catalonia region of northern Spain, a creamy white New York Camembert and a lovely Fourme d’Ambert which is one of France's oldest cheeses dating as far back as Roman times. Slices of bread, grapes and the slightly sweet pochettes of date preserve and onion marmalade offset the cheeses perfectly. Servers came round pouring a subtle Santa Marina Pinot Noir from Venezia and if I had not known there were many more different wines to be poured, I would have spent the evening with this!