Photographs by Ted Axelrod. In Christian cultures around the world, seafood is the culinary centerpiece of the Christmas Eve table. Fasting or meatless meals prior to a feast day was proscribed by the Catholic Church, and yet the practice of eating fish the night before Christmas has also been widely embraced by Protestants. My own
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“At Christmas time in Italy, families make what we call the ‘keeping cakes of Christmas,’” explains Mary Ann Esposito, star of PBS’s Ciao Italia, television’s longest-running cooking show, and the author of numerous best-selling cookbooks. “Each cake is part of a long tradition of holiday celebrations, and each has its own story.” “The first keeping
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