My Overstuffed Christmas Holiday

It has been close to impossible to get out to eat these past few weeks due to too many holiday functions that had me scarfing fast food in between events: or back at places I frequent regularly and have reviewed already; or at private events where we just generally stuffed our faces with…well…stuff. But my sharp and witty comments have been sorely missed by my faithful readers as emails have indicated, so I decided to write about some of the more memorable eating moments of this past holiday season.

Start with the cookies. I come from an Italian family and we always had lots of cookies. My family makes some special ones. One type of cookie is called Ostia…which consists of two wafers similar to large communion wafers stuffed with a nuts, orange rind, chopped chocolate and molasses filling, then cut into wedges. It is a unique cookie. I have only seen them made by folks from my grandmother’s part of Italy. There is also another cookie we call bullets. A dough is made with a little flour and some egg mixed with tons chocolate, orange rind, nuts and whiskey. The dough is rolled out into a log, cut on the diagonal to form diamond shaped cookies then baked. We call them bullets because they tend to get hard as rocks after awhile. My wife solved the problem by adding a dash of oil to the recipe. Now they are just plain heaven on earth. Both of these are the carryover cookies from my youth, and I love them along with the more common but just as delicious pizzelles, biscotti and wedding cookies. Don’t forget the America’s contribution to my Christmas cookie list…seven layer cookies.

At the top of the list of cookies that we buy this time of year are the rainbow cookies, which are cake type cookies in three colors with a fruit filling in between the layers and covered in chocolate. You used to be able to order them online in a loaf from Ferrara’s in NYC’s Little Italy. Now you can only buy them pre-sliced. Jimmy’s on Youngstown’s north side also sells them. Add to the bakery bought list are clothes pin cookies and nut and apricot horn cookies. Classic Bakery does a good job with these. I don’t think you can make them as cheaply as Classic sells them.

Kolachi, baklava, and fruit cake I usually receive as a gift from folks. I am partial to Claxton Fruitcake, available in grocery stores, which is moist and fruity and will make a fruitcake believer out of you. Kolachi and baklava are little different and I tend to be picky. There is a gal named Andrea Reiser in Mercer, Pa. that does a bang up job on these two items. Best baklava I have ever had, and the kolachi is tied for first place. Andrea knows how to bake and offers a limited number of baked goods that are about as good as you can get.  She also supplies desserts to Tambellini's in Pittsburgh, so she has to be good.  Pastries by Andrea in Mercer, Pa.  724-967-2715 Worth a phone call and the trip!!!!

Best catered affair this season is a tie between Tippecanoe Country Club’s Candlelight Dinner and the Avalon Golf and Country Club - Buhl's (the spectacularly renovated Sharon Country Club) New Year’s Eve event. There is a lot of competition in the Country Club biz in this area in everything from golf to food service. Tippecanoe has always done large affairs well with outstanding buffets as well as sit down affairs. Although Tippy’s Trim a Tree Party is the larger of the two events, the Candlelight Dinner brings back memories of a more genteel time. At either event, the food is unending and beyond reproach. Tippecanoe is my club, and I am justifiably and proudly partial.

Avalon’s New Year’s Eve Party is an all you can drink all you can eat bash where folks are dressed to the nines in their New Year’s Eve finery and rock to the wee hours of the morning with an outstanding band. It is a HUGE party, one of the largest I go to on any regular basis. What is amazing is how adeptly they handle a very large crowd that is apparently recession proof. Although it is a buffet, I have never waited in line for more than a few minutes. The same buffet is set up in two areas of the facility, and starts with wonderful appetizers and ends with medium rare fillet of beef at the carving station. They get better at it every year.

In between the cookies and the nights out are dinners at Springfield Grill, Michael Alberini’s, Alberini’s in Niles, Panera’s, various pizza places….and when rushing between non-food events, dinner at Perkins or Bob Evans.

This year we sampled food from Jimmy’s, Anzevino’s, Rulli’s, Catullo’s, as well as baked goods from Mocha House, Classic Bakery, and the Clarencedale Bakery. We had hors d’oevres at home and in house at Tippecanoe. We had spaghetti out at the MVR and lasagna in, made by my wife for our Christmas Eve dinner. We had smelts and linguini from Patsy’s in Campbell and corned beef from Kravitz in Liberty and Corky and Lenny’s in Cleveland.

We had nuts and cheese from the Youngstown Club. We had shrimp, shrimp, shrimp, and more shrimp. We had chocolate from Gorant’s, Philadelphia Candies and Daffin’s. And we had new decorations in our house from Coventry Lighting, Fellow’s Garden Gift Shop, Something New and Breezewood Garden Center in Bainbridge, Ohio. And yes…we trekked to Kraynak’s in Sharon and noshed on some of the nostalgic candy and cookies found in their miles of aisles.  

So now it is time to recover. It will probably be another week or two before I reach a normal schedule as I play catch up on my procrastination. Look for regular reviews to start again in a week or two. In the meantime, join me as I digest, literally and figuratively, all that I have eaten and done this past holiday season.

Happy New Year.