Merry Christmas

You said that twice.  

So Christmas 2019 came.  We couldn't decide on a variety of Portuguese dishes, so we ended up settling on only one: Caldo Verde, Portuguese green soup.


We only sliced and stirred in three of those sausage links; Mom and I snacked on the other two while we waited for the soup to boil.  We saved a few slices of sausage for Dad whenever he woke up from his nap.  

The soup is salty and sour, but not overwhelmingly so; there's a hint of tartness in there as well.  Despite our substitution of Italian sweet sausage (which, I understand, isn't too far removed from the taste and texture of linguica sausage), the soup didn't seem to have any sweetness to its taste.  But it's a pretty savory soup overall, and it was a big hit when we brought it over to Uncle Jerry's house; out of all the soup we cooked, I went home with a measly bowl-and-a-half of leftover caldo verde, which I'm finishing off as I type this.  

It's too bad that we could only decide on one Portuguese dish, because I had my heart set on cooking two, maybe three.  But Mom voted against the Pork Alentejana, the Pasteis de Nata and various Bacalhau recipes (seriously, Mom, where is it written that we can't have cod fish for Christmas dinner?), and I don't do steamed clams, Portuguese or otherwise.  So Caldo Verde is all we really had left, and even then, I had to persuade Mom that yes, we can have soup for Christmas, just like we did with last year's Mosterdsoep!  My mother can be so picky.  But the Caldo Verde was a good choice, no doubt.  

So the random country website says that we should cook Ivorian cuisine for Christmas in 2020, and so far no one has objected.  It looks like we're going to Coastal West Africa for Christmas!  


And now I'm skimming through Ivorian recipes.  The dishes involving cow's feet and Ivorian land snails are a hard pass, but the Guinea fowl, fried bananas and maafe (meat in peanut sauce) sound good so far.  Peanuts are good. Peanuts go with everything. Just ask Thailand! Thai cuisine without peanuts would be like Italian cuisine without tomatoes, right?

Any thoughts?  

It looks hearty and yummy!! Merry Christmas to you to. We had our traditional nibblies throughout the day - you know, chocolates, cheese plate, fruit and cookies and stuff like that. And then had our turkey dinner for Chrissy. I got to see my family and it was genuine fun!

It most certainly was hearty and yummy! And I'm glad that you and your family enjoyed Christmas too.

So tell me more about your Christmas turkey. Turkey is good.