Category: italian

Grazing date night

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian, restaurants

For our wedding anniversary this year we had some big plans to eat out at a nice Italian restaurant near our home. We had been talking about it for several days, but when the time came to get ready to go, we hesitated. “I’m not that hungry”, my husband said. “We don’t have to eat big tonight,” he added. We don’t? Hmmmm….radical concept.

Jimmy the Greek’s on Saco Avenue, Old Orchard Beach was our first stop on our newly revised anniversary “we don’t have to eat big” itinerary. We ordered a Grecian Calzone, which contains sausage, spinach, garlic, feta, and mozzarella…and it is enormous. I was extremely grateful that we’d decided to split it instead of each ordering our own! It was excellent; I’d definitely order it again.

Next, we drove down to the beach and walked around, visiting the shops. We walked around for about an hour when we first got there. We bought some jelly beans from the candy store (pomegranate and cinnamon) and a couple of fruit slices (for b) and a piece of snickers fudge (for me).

Then, we sampled pistachio and banana pudding gelato at Dolce (something or other) Caffe, which were fine. Next, we went to get pier fries (don’t ask me from whom. I was in such a hurry to buy them that once I recognized the storefront, I didn’t stop to catch the name of the place but we go to the same one every year). Ah, pier fries. . .no further words are needed.

So, even though I’d been really looking forward to that annual  Chicken Braccioletinne at Varano’s, what we did (and ate!) instead was actually much better, and just perfect.

How do you celebrate your wedding anniversary?

The best birthday cake ever

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, italian
Italian Rum Cake with peaches and strawberries with whipped cream frosting
The best birthday cake ever!

So, why am I still talking about (and eating!) birthday cake in July when my birthday was in May? Because my brother and I are Irish (and Italian!) twins, born just 13 months apart…and where there are birthdays, there must be cake!

Besides having our birthdays at the end of warm weather months, another thing we have in common is this: we both LOVE Italian Rum Cake, especially if it’s made by La Cascia’s Bakery in Burlington, MA. Alas, our respective family members do not. We therefore typically do not indulge ourselves with our favorite cake on our birthdays in the interest of the family as a whole. It’s not that much fun eating your birthday cake while the rest of the family (who really wanted ice cream cake/chocolate cake with vanilla frosting/yellow cake with chocolate frosting/chocolate cake with marshmallow frosting like his girlfriend’s mother used to make 25 years ago…) looks on, having no cake at all. Or worse, having a bite of your beloved Italian Rum Cake and barely making it to the kitchen barrel in time to spit it out, saying, “Eeeeeewwwwww! This cake is gross!”

The upside of this though is that we get to have our favorite birthday cake for breakfast every day until it’s gone. 🙂

If you are in the neighborhood and just stop by LaCascia’s for an Italian Rum Cake, they will usually have a few made up ahead of time, one of which you could take home. These have strawberries in the filling of pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream, frosted with buttercream; slivered almonds are arranged around the outside of it. This cake is very, very good.

If you have time to plan and order ahead, however, you can have your cake made the way you want it; you can have the birthday cake of (my brother’s and) my youth. The way we wanted it was with peaches and strawberries in the filling, and whipped cream frosting, hold the almonds. Not that we don’t like almonds, but our dad never wanted nuts on anything since he had a great deal of trouble eating them. This cake is amazingly excellent.

Enjoy!

At long last, a cupola

by Karen, posted in family, italian, raising chickens

My husband has been wanting a cupola for years. He even pointed out that cupola is an ITALIAN, hoping to persuade me that we need one, since I am enamoured with all things Italian. (Please note: man in the picture is the installer, not the husband).

And of course, what is a cupola without a weathervane? I ask you.

So we started looking at weathervanes online for just the right one.

We narrowed it down to two: a  hen with chicks, or a llama. First, I was leaning towards the hen. After all, we raise chickens currently, not llamas (although that is an option in the future).

Llamas, however, traditionally have functioned as guard animals for chickens, and my husband and son liked the idea of having a llama (figuratively, if not yet literally) keeping watch over our flock. Once they put it that way, so did I! So, the decision has been left up to me and I can’t decide.

Vote for which weathervane you would choose for the cupola!

Spelt Right Bagels at Hannaford

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, family, health, italian, tweens
Spelt Right Sesame Seed Bagel

I was shopping at the new Hannaford’s in Kennebunk (at the site of the old Stop’n Shop). There were several of those tables set up throughout the store where a person is handing out samples of food items that are sold there, along with a coupon to further entice you to buy.

I am a fan of “try before you buy” and routinely stop to try what they are offering. On this day a woman at one of the tables looked familiar. Turns out, she was. I had seen her before, but in print and online; this was the first time in person. It was Beth George, the founder of the Spelt Right Baking, which is located nearby in Yarmouth, Maine.

Well, Beth was very generous with samples of her bagels. My 11 year old daughter and I were lucky enough to try the whole grain, the sesame seed, and the multigrain. She cut us a good-sized piece of each (read: 2-3 good-sized bites) and generously spread them with cream cheese. All three types were delicious, with or without the cream cheese. Beth was also very gracious to my daughter (don’t you just love it when people are nice to your kids?).

My daughter, who just that morning would not eat the Italian Bread I had baked because it had “seeds” on it, was enthusiastically munching down Beth’s sesame seed bagel, declaring it “delicious!” and asking for another piece!

Have any of you ever tried the Spelt Right Baking bagels? Please, if you have not, do! They are excellent. You’ll find them in the freezer aisle. Beth also has a pizza dough that you can find (along with the bagels) at Whole Foods, and she runs an online store as well, that includes breads in addition to the bagels and pizza dough.

You can read about Beth’s story on her website, www.speltrightbaking.com. You can follow her blog (where she posts daily!), The Lunchbox Chronicles.

the 80/20 rule

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health, italian

who invented this? well, one source credits an italian with is inception. being of italian descent myself, i am of course predisposed to be enamoured with this idea.  ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle fmi). i have always heard of this rule in regard to food and dieting: follow your diet plan 80% of the time and then eat what you want (within reason) 20% of the time and you won’t gain weight. i had an epiphany today when  it occurred to me that this rule may likely apply to exercise too! as in, exercise (do SOMETHING) 80% of the time, then be the lump on the couch (fondly known far and wide as the “couch potato”) if you want for the other 20%. i was very surprised to learn that the rule is actually was originally referencing land ownership in italy. well, since food comes from the land (well, some of it anyway), i guess it is not too far a reach to apply the pareto concept to eating habits.

does the 80/20 rule work for any of you in regard to eating and/or exercise and weight management? if not, what DOES work?

this is what worked (and is still working) for me: http://www.weightwatchers.com/Index.aspx

spring ritual

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, gardening, italian

my italian grandmother always said her birthday was on the first day of spring. actually, every so often she was right; her birthday was march 21st, and spring is usually on march 20th, but not always:(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox).  one sure sign that spring had come when i was little was The Making of the Dandelion Salad. my grandmother would send me out into the yard to gather dandelion leaves. this wasn’t as straightforward as it sounds. there were rules that must be followed:

1. leaves must be chosen from plants that had not yet flowered, otherwise they would be too bitter. 2. you had to look for plants that were far from the road, otherwise the exhaust from passing cars would poison them 3. leaves must be washed at least 3 times, because they were pretty dirty, what with actual dirt,  plus who knew what manner of animal had befouled the leaves in some manner? 4. the salad must always have olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper for dressing. that’s it. 

as i’m writing this, i realize one of the implicit gifts from this practice: nana always told me why i was being asked to do something a certain way. that was as important to me when i was 10 as it is to me now.

do you have any rituals from childhood that you remember? do you still practice any of them? who was an unsung hero in your childhood?

grieving my dead relatives, part 3

by Karen, posted in good grief, italian

my paternal grandmother’s birthday is today. her name was originally ‘maria’, anglicized to ‘mary’  (as so many were so many others) when she arrived here from italy around 1924 (http://www.ellisisland.org/). she died at the age of 93, about 6 years ago. she had sort of reconciled herself to the reality of her cognitive decline, as evidenced by her selling her house and moving in with my brother’s family a couple of years prior. he made her a little apartment in the basement of his home, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen area, and living room. that day, she got up in the early morning as she always did, made her cup of instant coffee in the microwave, sat down at her little kitchen table, and died. my brother heard her fall and ran down to help, but it was obvious that she was already well on her way to see God, so he just held her there on his lap on the floor until she passed. isn’t that the best way to die, while living your life?