Family Fun - Christmas in Greenville

Saturday we went to Greenville to have Christmas with my husband's daughters, their husbands and our grandson.  We met at Beth's house since that's where the grandson is and I said I'd bring dinner. 

Since everyone has had traditional dinners of turkey, ham, roast beef, I decided on spaghetti for something different for everyone.  I had sauce in the freezer, had some new recipes I wanted to try so pasta it was.

We did some prep on Friday with grocery shopping and making the appetizer and the garlic bread.  I got several new cookbooks and had marked some recipes to try so now was the time.  Yes, I do try new recipes on people all the time. 

One new cookbook is barefoot contessa back to basics by Ina Garten.  So far, very good. For Saturday I made Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad and Garlic Ciabatta Bread and both were good.  For dinner on Sunday I made Roasted Potato Leek Soup which was also very good.

It's a new cookbook so there are not many recipes online that I can cut and paste.  I'll type out the caprese recipe, keep checking the Food Network site for the others or purchase the book, I really like it.

Roasted Tomato Caprese Salad

• 12 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise, seeds (not cores) removed
• 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 16 ounces fresh salted mozzarella
• 12 fresh basil leaves, julienned

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
2. Arrange tomatoes on a sheet pan, cut sides up, in a single layer.  Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sprinkle with the garlic, sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
3. Roast for 2 hours until the tomatoes are concentrated and begin to caramelize.  Allow tomatoes to cool to room temperature.
4. Cut the mozzarella into slices slightlly less than 1/2 inch thick.  If the slices of mozzarella are larger than the tomatoes, cut the mozzarella slices in half.  Layer the tomatoes alternately with the mozzarella on a platter and scatter the basil on top.  Sprinkle lightlly with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with olive oil.  Serve at room temperature.  Serves 6.

I remembered to take pictures but not until we were all eating and saying how good it was.  So this is most of it!

We took Legos for a gift, many, many pieces of Legos and Matthew was very excited.  He also had to show us his drum set that Santa got him and the Wii Guitar game that Santa got I think so Santa could play with it.  We all had a great day of fun and the adults played too.

Matthew with Indiana Jones Legos                                               Aunt Christine 

Matthew longing to play with Aunt and Grandma                        Sharing is fun!

Wii drums

Real drums                                                                  Dad and Uncle Chuck playing

Sunday was a fairly quiet day but yesterday we went shopping.  Really adopting.  Since we have one cat now, we thought it would be nice to add one more adult cat or two kittens.  We went to the Atlanta Humane Society and have added Cody and Sophie to our family.  They are 7 month old brother and sister and gorgeous.  Once they come out from under the guest bed I'll get pictures.  It could be a while since their older sister isn't very welcoming.  I didn't know cats could growl for such long times.