It's snowing this morning, so instead of being a hundred miles from home by breakfast time, we were snowbound. Fortunately we had laid in provisions for a nice, simple  brunch that took about 15 minutes of time in the kitchen:

• Bound for Glory Vermont Cheddar from  The Cheese Shop
• A Poached Salmon, served warm with
•  Jumbo Shrimp poached with the salmon, and
• A simple Dill-Boursin Cheese Sauce that I invented when I discovered I had no more heavy cream.
• For tea, Lorna had her favorite Anastasia Tea and I had a smoky Lapsang Souchong.

This simple brunch took almost no effort to prepare. I keep my clarified court-bouillon in the fridge, so the poaching the salmon and shrimp was a simple matter of putting it in a just-big-enough pot, covering with the cold court-bouillon, and bringing to just short of the boil. Instead of letting it cool all the way, I let it sit there while I made the sauce, a five-minute affair.

To make the sauce, I melted a tablespoon of butter and added as much flour to make a roux, added some milk to make a thin white sauce, added about a tablespoon of dried dill, then about a half of a small shallot-and-chive Boursin cheese. The cheese melted into the white sauce, thickening it nicely.

I love salmon, especially the milder Atlantic Salmon. We have salmon for dinner at least once a week, so I am always interested in finding new preparations.

I found this one in Favourite Irish Recipes. The Irish and salmon go way back. The "King of Fishes" figures prominently in Irish folklore, and in the cuisine of that island nation as well. This is a simple and delicious way to prepare it: in a buttered pan in a moderate oven for about 15-20 minutes for 3/4 of a pound, with a little sliced onion and parsley, and some cider and cream. I had Jersey Cow Cream from Vermont and some old-fashioned hard cider from a jug in the cellar. The fish was delicious, especially washed down with a little more of that cider.

The Poles have a saying that a fish should swim "once in water, once in butter, and once in wine", the last of which is in your belly. I humbly propose that an Irish-style salmon can do very well indeed if his last swim is in hard cider from the cellar!

For the last of our four Exploring Italy feasts, we discovered Naples and Campania. All three wines were traditional to Campania, based on the ancient and under-appreciated Aglianico grape.

Antipasti, with a Mastroberardino Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio:

• Polpo alla Luciana (marinated octopus)
• Marinated Olives
• Fritto di Mozzarella
• Wine Biscuits and Fennel Taralli
• Two pizzas: a Pizza alla Napolitana (tomatoes, mozzarella, anchovies) and a Pizza alla Gamberi (garlic,  shrimp, and bay scallops)

The Pasta, with a spicy, delicious Aglianico di Taburna 2008:

• Fusilli Aglio e Olio - a simple olive oil and garlic sauce for the pasta, with no tomatoes

The Main Course, with a fabulous Feudi di San Gregorio Taurasi 2004.

• Peperoni Ripieni (bell peppers stuffed with rice, mozzarella, and hard-cooked egg)
• The Porchetta! My all-time favorite dinner... courtesy of my brother Bill. Follow the link to see his excellent little treatise on Porchetta.

Dessert was not Italian - this being my birthday, Annette made her special mincemeat pie with her homemade green tomato mincemeat - my favorite!

WINE NOTES: It was something of an adventure getting the wines for this feast.

The Feast of Seven Fishes is a southern Italian tradition that is catching on again among the descendants of the Italian-American immigrant community. The basic idea is simple: while awaiting the birth of Jesus, we abstain from meat and dairy foods. Naturally for Italians this is an invitation to get creative with fish, so traditionally we prepare a feast featuring seven different seafood dishes and as many vegetarian dishes as you like.

It is also important to note that southern Italy has historically been very poor. It certainly was during the great waves of immigration from there in the early Twentieth Century. Many of the dishes passed down through family tradition reflect this: smelts, sardines, octopus, eel, baccala, and anchovies in pasta all are common foods in the feasts that strive for authenticity.

There's really no point in trying to get too authentic about the seven fishes, since many of the seafoods and other ingredients are not available in New England. A certain amount of substitution is unavoidable, which brings up the idea of following the tradition in spirit more than in substance: if my great-grandfather in Campania were to celebrate Christmas Eve in foodie style, how would he do it? If he immigrated to Plymouth, how then?

Every year my employer allows us an afternoon for a Yankee Swap and some goodies. The affair has grown with the company over the years, from an original potluck by yours truly serving 25 employees to a small team of dedicated elves serving the 94 employees in the Lexington office of an international corporation.

A small amount is catered in from the outfit that provides food for our lunchtime meetings; this is because we have no way of preparing hot food in quantity. But you might be surprised at what we set out with just a few creative people who want to show a good time to their colleagues.

Annette has fond memories of Venice, so we turned to that fair city for the third in our Exploring Italy series of celebratory birthday feasts. Most of the dishes came from Anna Del Conte's The Classic Food of Northern Italy.

We had:

• A Cato Corner Hooligan cheese (one of Annette's favorites) and some Reggiano Parmesan with a bottle of Allegrini Palazzo delle Torre 2009
• Risi e Bisi: a hearty traditional soup of rice and baby peas with crushed fennel seed
• A bottle of Secco-Bertani Valpolicella 2008
• Baccala Mantecato on Broiled Polenta: another Venetian classic that was far more delicate than we expected from the salt cod.
• A bottle of an excellent, chocolatey San Giuseppe Amarone della Valpolicella 2003.
• Stewed Savoy Cabbage: cored and quartered Savoy cabbage cooked on a soffrito of panceta, onion, and parsley and then braised in white wine - the surprise hit of the evening!
• Stuffed Sole (spinach, golden raisins, pignoli)  in a Venetian Saffron Sauce (a reduction of the fish poaching liquid with saffron and a bit of sugar).
• For dessert we had something non-Italian: a cranberry mincemeat pie made by a friend and brought down by Annette.

Our old friend Owen lives in Germany now, so we don't see him very often. He was visiting the US this week on family business with his daughter Sarah and a lady friend, Brigitte. Our opportunity to see them was a Sunday brunch. Because Brigitte doesn't get fresh seafood very often and seldom sees New England fare, I set up a little highlights of New England brunch: 

• We started with scones and Rhode Island johnnycakes, with New Hampshire maple syrup, wild Maine blueberry preserves, and local cranberry preserves, plus some traditional lemon curd and Double devon clotted cream from Mrs Bridge's Pantry in Woodstock, Connecticut. 
• On another plate we had some Grafton Village Special Reserve Cheddar, from Vermont.
• Then we had scrambled eggs with chives and sage from the garden (still good thanks to this bizarrely warm December!) and my celebrated lobster salad with fresh-from-the-harbor lobsters from Wood's Seafoods, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• We finished up with a Christmas Pudding and Hard Sauce to make the brunch extra-festive.

So we represented all six New England states in one brunch!