Food

Our family food tradition for Christmas Eve is paella, an amazing Spanish dish that can be made with or without a ton of seafood.  I was first introduced to this tradition 10 years ago and fell in love.  Living in the desert southwest can present some logisitical issues in procuring the ingredients; this year I went to four different groceries in search of exactly what I needed.  In our house, we opt for seafood and that is the most difficult to find.  Last year was my first attempt at making the paella, to which I added lobster and it was fabulous. This year's addition was Moët & Chandon Imperial, making the entire paella experience more amazing!!

The preparation is not quick, nor it is easy, but the final paella is so worth the time. I usually start prepping 2 days ahead of time waiting until Christmas Eve morning to buy the mussels and clams. It takes no less than 3 different grocery stores (this year it was 4) to find the perfect ingredients for this dish. The seafood is the most difficult of all the ingredients to find, mainly because we live in the desert southwest.  Although I can not share our family paella (it is 3 pages long), we include chicken, chorizo (Goya, of course), mussels, clams, shrimp, lobster and a plethora of veggies.

As always, dinner was followed by a festive martini. This year we celebrated with the Christmas Cookie:

• 1 ounce of Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 ounce of Kahlua
• 1 ounce of Goldschlagger
• Pour the ingredients into a cocktail shaker over ice, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick to be a bit more festive.

This year, I was fortunate to share our family tradition with my family and a very dear friend.  Here's to many more years of paellas together. Chink, chink!! 

~c~