Well, another year has passed. Welcome to 2007! Hopefully everyone had a good Christmas (if you celebrated it) or spent the holidays doing something nice. My Christmas was spent down in Dunsborough, a smallish town located around 3 or so hours south of Perth, at the home of my partner’s brother and his family. The coastline along Dunsborough is stunning – unspoilt beaches with crystal clear water set in beautiful landscapes. Christmas’ are a big thing for the household, especially this year with the marriage of a daughter. There were members from the groom’s side which made for a large gathering!
The Christmas celebrations started the night before, with around 25 people gathered for a meal of epic proportions. It was a big Italian do – meatballs, zucchini fritters, pizza, zipolli (deep fried fritters with anchovies), roast turkey, pork, lamb and seafood. Dessert then followed! Pavlova (a meringue with toppings of fruit and cream), traditional pudding with custard, mince tarts, biscuit…it goes on. There was enough food to feed a troop! All I can say is I’m glad there were lots of helpers around – helpers to prepare the meal, helpers to eat the meal, helpers to clean up after the meal…you get the idea. As you can imagine, I was pretty full at the end of this. But of course there were then the leftovers, some of which we had along with other goodies at another big meal during Christmas day lunch.
After lunch, the traditional exchange of gifts and unwrapping of presents and where you graciously accept things you then proceed to leave in the cupboard somewhere without touching it for the next year. I’m normally pretty lucky though, most people know I like food so I get bottles of wine (very practical and doesn’t stay around too long), cookbooks (always handy) and different types of food bits like biscuits, preserves, that sort of thing.
Here are some things I received:
clockwise from top left:
- bottle of Cullen Cabernet Merlot (one of the top wines in the country) – a splurge for myself, because I’m worth it
- small panetonne – a traditional Italian Christmas sweet bread, much like a brioche
- 2007 Little Britain diary – yeh but, no but
- cookbook by Giorgio Locatelli – a famous chef from London
It’s also wonderful to get things which you can enjoy and reminisce over, like the panetonne and biscuits we got.
Happy 2007 everyone!
