Allison's Wonderland

Christmas time, is a time for eating and over indulging. I thought we ate a lot in the states when it came to Christmas time, but Italians might have Americans beat.

Every year at Christmas, the Airaldi family gets together and eats a meal prepared by Lala. Lala is the same lady who taught me how to roll ravioli, and my hard work was about to be eaten. I was excited to see just how it tasted! Simona, Matti, Gianluca and I had to make the long trek to Lala's house which consisted of one flight of stairs. Needless to say we did not work our dinner off on our walk home. We were the first ones to arrive and everyone else trickled in pretty late. I think the three sisters were getting a little upset. The three sisters consist of Anita (Gianluca's Mom), Mimi, and Lala (the cooking expert) You can see them in the picture with me.

The table was totally decked out and there was more food there than I could have imagined. We had about three different antipasti's. My favorite was roast beef with this weird sauce on it. It tasted soo good! We had shrimp, fish, salmon, lots of bread, vegetable salad, etc. I was getting so full off the antipasta. We had about three of those, and then there was first, seconds, and the main dish of ravioli. There was wine everywhere, white and red, and everything was chaos. Kids were screaming and running around, adults arguing about what food to pass and where to sit. Just the way Christmas dinner should be. :)

When the ravioli came out I was so excited. The ravioli I rolled was a tad bit bigger and it was kind of fun separating Lala's ravioli from my own. I guess that's just the difference between America and Italy. Everything's bigger in America. I must say, it tasted pretty darn good. Then there was dessert. They brought out different wine Moscato and Champagne, and Pannetone. Pannetone is this bready fruitcake like dessert. I'm not a big fan so I passed on it. There were two huge bowls of fruit and of course chocolate. I was stuffed and over whelemed by all of it. Lala did an excellent job and I don't even know if she ate the whole evening. She was so busy! I never saw her sit.

So the next night, after our huge dinner at Lala's, we had reserved spots in Prato Nevoso's make it snow dinner. It still has not snowed yet and the shop owner's, ski instructors, and real estate agents all got together in order to pray and eat for snow. Their businesses are suffering! If I were to write a book about my trip to Italy it would be entitled Pray. Eat. Snow. :) Not really, but anyway, the dinner was at the very top of the hill and had a beautiful view of Cuneo. This dinner lasted about 4 hours. Food is important in Italy and it very well should be. You don't get the reputation Italy has for food by well, having bad food! We ate till our stomachs hurt and didn't end up leaving the place till almost 1:00 in the morning. They had the roast beef anitpasta thing again and I loved it!! YUM! And if you're wondering about the picture of the three guys, I took a picture of them together because of their colored sweaters. Most Italians wear black I've noticed so this was a little splash of color. :) I think they are all ski or snowboard instructors. Not sure about the one on the left. I definitely have gotten my fair share of Italian food since I've been here. Till the next meal! Buon Appetito!