Christmas 2024

Once again this year, with all the kids on the East Coast, two in North Carolina and one in Philly, it was a very quiet holiday season. We spent our holiday money on going to Santa Fe with Rob and Dyce and on one little splurge for the two of us here in town. And truth be told, with Rob and Dyce gone to Boulder, albeit temporarily, we were feeling a bit down.

Still, we put up a tree and decorated it with our small collection of food-related and other meaningful ornaments; the strip of bacon ornament that Ann gave me many years ago is a favorite. We brought back a few ornaments from our trip to Santa Fe. And we lost another favorite, an exquisitely detailed garlic, in putting up the tree.

One of Our Food-Themed Ornaments

Our splurge for ourselves was attending a Brovia Barolo tasting accompanied by a risotto topped with white truffles at our local wine shop, Viaggio. We brought home a couple of bottles for special occasions at the house. Nebbiolo has become our go-to grape in the last five years. We love light-bodied reds, but our palates being saturated with Pinot Noir is likely causing us to branch out to Nebbiolo (and Sangiovese, Tempranillo, and a couple other grapes). Ann is finding out that she prefers the relatively softer Barbaresco to the more structured Barolo.

Brovia Barolo Tasting

Risotto with White Truffles

We eat a diet low in simple carbs, so pasta is a big splurge for us. In celebration of the holiday season, we decided to splurge on pasta for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Ann had a particular hankering for pasta fagioli and requested that I make it for Christmas Eve.

Borlotti Stregoni Ready to Cook for Pasta Fagioli

I had ordered some Italian Borlotti from Rancho Gordo for just such an occasion. I typically make pasta fagioli with cannellini, large white kidney-shaped beans. As these borlotti cooked, they got darker, heavier looking, and super meaty, not at all the style of bean that I want for my pasta fagioli. I only used half of them in the pasta fagioli so as not to weigh it down; the remaining half became a substantial bowl of American chili when combined with a lot of Chimayo chile powder.

This year, supposedly a La Niña year that should be colder and wetter, has proved to be warmer and wetter. So, we have had more rain than snow here along the river, although they have had many, many feet of snow up at Mt. Bachelor. The rain has kept me inside far more than I have wanted, but I finally got a chance to get out for a walk along the river on Christmas Eve. This year, there seem to be many more trees along the trail decorated with Christmas ornaments. I don't know why, but these temporary decorations always warm my heart.

A Rare Day to Get Out on the Trail

For Christmas Day, at Ann's urging, I planned to make cavatelli with pancetta and sage using the cavatelli maker that I bought at the end of the summer. I was worried about its low price and it really failed to work, the crank handle stripping out after making two or three cavatelli. I think I can rig it to work, especially with a wetter dough, but I gave up on Christmas Day and converted the semolina and water dough to tagliatelle. Hopefully, the good folks of Emilia-Romagna will forgive me for making one of their classic dishes with decidedly southern-style eggless noodles.

Making Semolina Dough for Pasta

Tagliatelle with Pancetta and Sage

Brovia Barolo Villero for Christmas Dinner

And that is the tale of our muted holiday celebration for 2024. We hope for more friends and family next year though we are grateful for what we did have this year.