Holiday reprise

Christmas and New Years was very special this year. On Christmas Eve, we had dinner with my aunt Char, she made chicken cacciatore, spaghetti, sausage and a delightful salad with butter lettuce and oranges. We brought a reserve syrah - sorry, I don't remember the brand name - but it paired well with the meal. The piece de resistance was cannoli. I had made the shells with my aunt a couple of weeks before Christmas and we used a pizzelle machine. She puts in a little cinnamon in the batter, so they come out a warm, brown color that is very appetizing. She makes the filling out of ricotta cheese and vanilla pudding - but you can also make the filling from the recipe on the cannoli shells box and and it is delicious, too. Or you can fill them with ice cream. My grandma used to put chocolate chips on both ends...
On Christmas Day we went to visit my boyfriend's relatives and had champurrado (a Mexican drink made with cloves, condensed milk, masa -or in some cases flour- with piloncillo and cinnamon). We also had buñuelos, a dessert made of fried dough with piloncillo, cinnamon and sometimes honey.
On New Year's Day, we visited with other relatives of my boyfriend's and had pozole. This delicious soup is made with pork, hominy and chile...what a delicious combination. There was a different version of buñuelos also, these were a bit thinner and had piloncillo in the dough. And we were given a to go parcel which was devoured over the weekend - thanks Annette :)
I'm sharing all of this with you because I feel fortunate to spend the holidays with family. I was feeling a bit nostalgic for the holidays today. Here is a picture of me taken on New Year's Eve with a chihuaua - there was a gaggle of them at the home we visited. I so wanted to take one home, but it's not practical now, so I'm just living vicariously through the photo. Sweet doggie!