Italian

Family Traditions• Italian Mom Stories• Pasta, Polenta and Risotto• Thoughts on Life

Six Simple Words That Can End Your Life

September 2, 2014

Last weekend I made sauce for the first time in months. It even had the power to draw my daughter downstairs before 11 a.m. Still in her pajamas, sleepy-eyed, she said, “I love waking up to the smell of spaghetti sauce.” The smell is heavenly. The garlic and olive oil mingle with the sausage, tomatoes and herbs, filling your kitchen with tomatoey love. You should start cooking it…

Dipping Sauces, Spreads, Marinades and Salad Dressings• Italian Mom Stories• Pasta, Polenta and Risotto

If You Don't Make Your Own Pesto, You Should be Slapped

August 19, 2014

If you don’t make your own pesto, you should be slapped. * There I said it. That’s probably the most controversial thing you’ll see on this blog, and I mean it. Why? Because you’re passing up your moment of culinary immortality. Years from now, people will forget how you looked, what you said and what you wore, but they’ll never forget the creamy, fresh taste of your pasta…

Italian Dad Stories• Italian Mom Stories• Thoughts on Life

The Hideous Dachshund

March 28, 2014

I have now been in this apartment for about 29 days. It’s hard to remember exact numbers because I was between bouts of near-vomiting when I moved, but that’s pretty close. Yet, I am still not completely unpacked and my bedroom looks like it belongs to someone on “Hoarders.” Does it bother me? No, because a hideous dachshund taught me a valuable lesson in my younger days that…

Italian Mom Stories• Soups

Chicken Soup or Exlax?

February 12, 2014

Since this is flu season and you’re probably suffering through a pretty crappy winter, I wanted to post my mom’s chicken soup story and recipe. If you’re sick and miserable, at least you’ll be sick, miserable, laughing and well fed. If you’re able to read this story and not laugh, you should probably go to the hospital; you’re dying. As for the rest of you, reading this story…

Baking• Biscotti• Cookies

Biscotti That May Get You Blacklisted

February 7, 2014

If you have an Italian grandmother who bakes biscotti, you should probably stop reading right now. Once you have this recipe, don’t blame me if she turns on you, and don’t say I didn’t warn you. OK, my conscience is clear. I started baking biscotti more than 20 years ago. I was never really a fan of them when I was young because they were always the same;…

Baking• Bread• Italian Mom Stories• Thoughts on Life

Mom, Fitting In and Food

February 3, 2014

These were the names on my street in New Brighton, Pennsylvania when I was growing up: Pfeiffer, Schaeffer, Smeltzer, Pfleghar, Anderson, Golbertson, Tunno. It’s like those second grade quizzes where you pick the one that doesn’t fit. The 50’s and 60’s were not the diversity-loving present. I was born only 10 years after WWII ended, and back then things like internment camps were a reality. My parents wanted…

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