When Too Much Isn't Enough
I may have mentioned before that:
a) my mother used to love panettone and
b) I am possibly turning into my mother
Hmmmnn …. So every Christmas along with three sides of smoked salmon she would purchase at least five, large traditional panettone you know the Italian vanilla bready cake with raisins and bits of dried fruit in it.
And she would purchase it all from the butcher where we got the three bird roast, the gammon etc etc because where else, right?
And every year she’d be eating panettone until at least Easter time if not later. As she got more advanced with age we would find panettone not only in the larder but in the storage cupboards and sometimes in her walk-in closet too.
No she wasn’t losing it, she just loved it and knew that her bullying children would try and take it from her or at least reduce the order come Christmas-time.
Now don’t get me wrong this wasn’t elder abuse on our part …. It was more like we were so sick of panettone and smoked salmon that over the years neither my sister nor I could face them with much joy! We also didn’t want to see all this smoked salmon and panettone go to waste – smoked salmon does not freeze particularly well and certainly not for a whole ten months or so.
One side of salmon and one panettone would do very nicely for our festivities. And you’ll be pleased to know this was a battle we continued to fight and continued to lose right up until she popped her clogs!
We don’t even know how it all started given there’s not even a smidge of Italian in our family? I suspect it was my BFF who loves Italy and has traveled there extensively probably gave one as a Chrimbly gift one year and our mother leapt on it. Who knows, the parentals honeymooned in Venice so maybe it wasn’t a new thing for her?
Over the years my sister and I have talked about panettone and smoked salmon but they’ve not been added back to our Christmas table yet. We’ve both been given them and I suspect my sister has munched hers in secret with a good smothering of butter and not confessed. Mine I’ve either re-gifted (confessing obvs) or I’ve popped it out for the birds and squirrels.
Until this year or should I say last year. I saw these panettone in pretty tins which is a rarity around these parts, no so pondside I might add and snapped them up. One I gifted and the other which was chocolate I kept more for the tin than the contents. Still feeling queasy here about it all.
Last weekend I had a hankering for something cakey and broke into the tin to retrieve the panettone. Omg it was simply deelish!! All the wonderful fragrant taste and smell and texture that I recall from the first time of taking a bite eons ago. It was superb, even the vanilla blobs were tasty and I’m not an icing kinda gal or a filling kinda gal for that matter, but this was so damn yummy.
I sent a pic and a message to my sister saying “maybe she was right” …. or maybe I’m turning into my mother and maybe that’s no bad thing.
Ciao bella sweethearts xxx
P.S. she sported her fair share of glam dressing gowns!!