Revisiting Gnocchi with Signora Sofia’s Meat Sauce

I love it when my 11-year old, Alexia, walks up to me, looks me straight in the eyes and says: ‘Mamma, can you make gnocchi? You haven’t made them in a while…only this time use the gnocchi meat sauce. Wait! No, make the Gorgonzola sauce…hmmmm, no, do that next time. Definitely make the meat sauce this time.’

I think I can manage that, I say with a smile.

Then she’ll give me a side hug. If I’m lucky, she’ll peck me on the cheek, though I always see her wiping her lips as she walks away. She doesn’t know I notice. While she feels and cares deeply, love for her is not a contact sport. Erik and I hope that lasts into her dating years…

christmas chocolate salami

‘Just a little bit more.’

I’ve been saying that a lot lately, particularly when asked if I would like more of something delicious. I’m borrowing the well-known phrase from John D. Rockefeller, of course. In his case, he was answering the question ‘how much money is enough?’ As for me, I’m more titillated by a perfectly grilled lamb chop than by a big wad of cash. It’s probably why I’m feeling like a fattened Christmas turkey these days.

frittata with butternut squash & potatoes

Nothing can take the air out of a room like the announcement that a vegetarian will be joining the Christmas festivities.

got chili? then make these jalapeño cheddar corn muffins

Corn is for the chickens!

Growing up, I heard my mom say it a thousand times. She exclaimed it, really. Yes, she was never neutral about corn.

Not even around late November, when our off-the-boat Italian family ventured outside of our otherwise Italian-custom entrenched home to celebrate the rather ‘foreign’ holiday of Thanksgiving.

revisiting velvety steak chili with butternut squash & dark chocolate

I felt peculiar the other day as I added roasted butternut squash and dark chocolate to the same dish.

And yet, there I was, putting this very unlikely couple into my steak chili and feeling a whole lot of dissonance.  It reminded me of how I felt the time I passed a young man driving a souped-up Mustang on the highway when I wasn’t even speeding.

coconut risotto with garlic & lime shrimp

I dedicate this post to all you wonderful folks out there in charge of hosting the Thanksgiving feast.

In all likelihood, you are already deep in the throes of planning and preparing your home for the event, all of which is done – clearly – in addition to professional and family obligations. There may even be times, particularly when you find yourself licking tiny beads of sweat from your upper lip, when you wonder how you ever ended up hosting in the first place. I think I may be of some assistance here.

classic ham, cream & peas pasta

I don’t mean to be unkind, but have you ever seen a recipe that – after perusing it for ingredients and instructions – makes you say to yourself: you’ve got to be kidding…I may as well eat boiled water! Sure, it seems easy enough to put together, but you just know that even if you use the finest of ingredients and the best of the limited technique required, at best you will dish out an utterly bland and uninspired meal.

turbo-charged penicillin soup with matzah balls

The ‘bad cold’ bug hit my family early this year.

It visits us every year, regrettably, with the precise regularity of a termite inspection. One of my daughters usually brings it home from school in January, mercifully after the holidays, and within a week and a half we all fall prey. It’s the one and only downside of having school-age children, whom I consider to be just cuter and more lovable versions of petri dishes.

revisiting the delights of a perfectly baked, autumn apple

Try being in a bad mood when these puppies are baking in the oven. Just try it.

on the soapbox about 15-minute recipes, plus…pork medallions with capered sun-dried tomato butter

Whenever I see a ‘15-minute recipe’ I want to run for the hills. Sometimes, depending on the recipe, I am also tempted to add a little screaming and flailing of the arms for good effect.