My Christmas Rush!
So today I spent all my day parading from one store to another. I myself am not a big Christmas fan since I do not have a lot of family and friends where I live and let’s admit it Christmas is a family holiday!
But I have a ritual that I cannot shake off. As I mentioned before in my previous posts I am European. I will try to paint you a picture. Christmas in Romania (at least when I was around) was more about family and getting together then presents and other commercial stuff. So the days before any holiday were the most hectic. Why? Because we clean and we cook! And Ohh how we cook! From six to seven appetizers, three or four main courses and lets not forget four or five types of sweets! All home made and all ready to be eaten Christmas day with not only close but also extended family!
Most of the people in Europe get a paid extended vacation from 22nd December to 3rd January so there is plenty of time to visit, drink, eat and have a good time around family and friends! Sounds great right? Well compared to that Christmas in the United States is a little more low key ( at least from my point of view!). There is a lot of shopping involved, but as far as the Christmas Holiday is concerned there is not much time allocated for relaxing and visiting family and friends.
That being said let’s get back to my day and my ritual that I cannot shake off hehe. As I mentioned in the begining today I have spent most of my day shopping for ingredients for my special Christmas menu! As I live in Louisiana you might guess(or not!) that there are not many European stores that I can buy my main ingredients in. In fact there is only one and if you are lucky you might find half of what you actually need. The rest you have to improvise . And that I did!! I pride myself in making the best stuffed cabbage rolls in Louisiana if not the USA( sic!) and I wasn’t about to let my recepie get destroyed over some missing ingredients!
So after 6 stores, 2 markets, 5 hours and 50 miles later I have managed to gather what I needed for my special Christmas dinner!!
I will keep you updated on the menu and how it all turned out in one of my next posts. For now I am pleased of my gathering skills and cannot wait to get my Cooking On tomorrow!
Keep in touch,
