✨Merry Christmas to all Hivers around the world✨
How was your Christmas? Mine was absolutely lovely 💕
We had my sister Maria, her husband, and my nephew Nino for the Christmas feast, and I was a slave of the kitchen from Monday to Friday evening and that's where I'll start this tale, the beginning of the Weekend, Friday Christmas Eve.
I woke up early to make the Ham Bread, but I was a little pissed of because Maria had called and said that she was bringing one. Had I'd known I wouldn't have to spend money buying things to make it, which she knew, but anyways, I later breathe and made my peace with it, more work but more leftovers for us, so I started my dough and rested it the time needed about 1 hour. Then I rolled it and started to build the bread itself, trying not to snack from the filling, a tough thing to avoid.
I wanted something special on this bread since I had more than 4 years without making it, so I used some gathered intel from some local bakeries and made a design for the bread. I had two loaves and 1 quarter because one loaf was bigger than the other and it didn't fit on the tray.
I put them in my preheated oven and was expecting that in 30 minutes they'll be done, but no, the oven wasn't hot enough to brown them, so they were cooked but I had to leave them for another 3 minutes for them to get color. It was hell, all that wait, but it was worth it.
The Chicken was already marinating with Garlic Butter and herbs, so I had time to decorate the cake and make the chicken salad. For the cake, our Traditional Black Cake, I made a simple Royal Icing and some Maraschino Cherries, red and green.
After that, I put the Chicken in the oven...
Do you want to know what it had?
I separated the skin from the meat and put a mixture of garlic, oregano, rosemary, red wine, and butter underneath it, and marinated it overnight. After 2 hours in the oven, I took it out and bathe it with the melted butter and brushed it with a mixture of dark soy sauce and red wine. Delicious!
At 10 pm we sat down to enjoy our feast. Mom said grace and prayed for our family and all the families from all over the world. It was lovely, heartfelt, and proper for this occasion.
We ate the bread my sister brought with her...
On Saturday, Christmas morning, my nephew was hysterically crying out Ho-Ho wherever he go because he wanted to see what gifts were under the tree. When he finally reached for his gift bag, he was thrilled!
One of his gifts was a Cuatro, a Traditional Venezuelan Instrument. Funny enough, he plays it like if it was a violin. He also got an Avengers Toy Gun and a Police Station Car Track. He played while we were enjoying a Christmas breakfast with some leftovers a hot cup of coffee.
Sadly they'd had to leave for lunch with my sister's Maria In-Laws so, by Saturday afternoon it was just mom, little sister Gigi and me. We put on our sweats and Gigi and I watched again Netflix's Alice in Borderland, and mom went to her room to watch Christmas movies on Youtube and for dinner guess what? Hallacas!
Yesterday morning we gifted some Hallacas to my aunt and cousins, along with Black Cake, not mine, the one my sister Maria brought with her, and a Panettone made by me. We got home quickly because mom wasn't feeling too well, she had high blood pressure so, the home we go.
Despite that, and knowing that might seem a little boring, we enjoyed our Christmas this year, it was a fun weekend, a lovely weekend, a blessed weekend.