Christmas Eve Mediterranean Feast

Preparation for our Christmas Eve Mediterranean feast began several days in advance with culling though our cookbooks, selecting recipes, making a shopping list and checking it twice, deciding where to shop for best values for which items, doing the shopping, putting away the groceries, and cooking up what we could the day before. All in all, it was an enjoyable process with my husband just as enthusiastic and willing to do whatever it took to help me shop and cook.

Although dinner was intended to feed four adults and a child - the two of us, our daughter and son-in-law, our two year old granddaughter, with the addition of our week-old grandson - ...

Baby Leif fast asleep in Nana's arms.

...we made so much food, we had leftovers for all of us for three more meals, including Christmas day!

~ Our Mediterranean Menu ~

• Vegetarian Lentil Soup - Arabia - TLOB*, pg. 19
  
• "Start the Party" Hummus & Pita Bread - Arabia - TLOB*, pg 125
  
• Orange, Red Onion, Black Olive Salad (Munkaczina) - Arabia -
  
• Subsistence Tabbouleh - Arabia - TLOB*, pg. 143, also see quinoa tabouleh, gluten-free
  
• Dolmathes - Greece - GCIAAK*, pg. 122, also see stuffed grape leaves - vegetarian dolmades
  
• Garlic Green Beans with Mizithra Cheese - Greece - PA*, pg. 89 (with asparagus)
  
• Special Rice with Cinnamon - Arabia - TLOB*, pg. 29
  
• Mo Kadeem's Roasted Fish in Tahini Sauce - Arabia, TLOB*, pg.315
  
• Mrs. Manarelli's Civilized Panna Cotta - Italy, TLOB*, pg. 86
  

Cookbooks:

1. *TLOB - The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber (a culinary memoir)
   
2. *GCIAAK - Greek Cooking in an American Kitchen (1983) by St. Demetrios Church Cookbook Committee
   
3. *PA - Papas' Art of Traditional Greek Cooking by George and Chrisoula Papas
   

cinnamon rice, quinoa tabouleh and munkaczina with feta cheese

vegetarian dolmades in tomato sauce, roasted red snapper in tahini sauce with roasted pinenuts, garlic green beans with mizithra cheese

vegetarian lentil soup with cumin, green beans with
olive oil, roasted garlic and mizithra cheese, pita bread,
roasted fish and dolmades

panna cotta with chocolate sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream, less 2 tablespoons to dissolve in gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons gelatin (1/2 packet)
4 to 8 tablespoons of chocolate sauce, fruit puree or sweetened fruit

Directions:

1. Heat two cups (less two tablespoons) of the heavy cream and sugar in a sauce pan.
2. Simmer for 15 minutes.
3. In a very small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining two tablespoons of cream.
4. Remove the simmered cream from the stove and add the gelatin-cream mixture.
5. Stir to dissolve.
6. Pour 1/2 cup of the hot cream liquid into 4 lightly-oiled metal molds or ramekins*.
7. Refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours until set.
8. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
   
9. Dip the molds in hot water and run the edge of a knife around the molds to loosen.
10. Invert molds onto serving plates and drizzle your choice of sauce over top.
11. *Option: Serve panna cotta in ramekins without removing and serve with sauce.
    

Serves 4