Christmas Dinner in Calella

Grandpa arrived with the long tables for today´s dinner which entertained only the maternal side of Joaquim´s family, a group of 9 children and 11 adults side by side along long banquet tables. When Bonnie asked me how the canneloni was, I could only honestly answer, ¨Well worth dropping your vegetarian ways and becoming a carnivor -- beautiful bechamel sauce and cheese with the right bite on top of stuffed canneloni.¨

Stil, Bonnie was happy with a walnut / blue cheese salad, a lovely vinegrette, and a potato / cheese casserole that was to die for.

I don´t want to forget to talk about the veal in a tomato sauce. I had peaked in that pan early in the morning and seen the fluted edges of 3 inch diamtered mushrooms floating in the sauce and hadn´t known there was meat underneath all of that.


Torrones



The desserts were wrapped and placed down the middle of the three banquet tables. As well Uncle Albert cut a traditional dessert for as long as people came to him, one that is similar to the largest chocolate bars we sell at home, but in variations too numerous to try. No, they are larger here, but it is hard to find something else with which to make the comparison. I have been tasting this confection over the past week, but still have not acquainted myself with every possible variation, so it was a wonderous evening for me.

There is another very odd cookie that comes wrapped. The technique of eating this cookie is to squeeze the confection very hard, then to unwrap it and eat it, otherwise it flakes all over your clothes and the tablecloth. I burst out laughing on this one – for as tightly as I can squeeze my hand, it is not tight enough to master the art of cookie eating, at least not this Catalan coookie and I add to ask for help.

The days of feasting are not over. Tomorrow we will meet at the home of another relative, though I cannot imagine what more we can consume.
Arta