I make a number of cookies every Christmas, some traditional Italian family favorites, while others are cookies I grew up with myself. I tend to make the same cookies year after year because my family each have their personal favorites and I want to keep everyone happy. This year I decided to add a couple of new cookies to my baking schedule, and chose a few recipes that I personally knew I would enjoy. I love, love, love anything mocha flavored as I feel coffee and chocolate were made to be...
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I’ve seen this tasty Sicilian pasta dish with many different variations, but almost all contain almonds along with tomatoes ground into a type of pesto for the sauce. Though I prefer making this dish with fresh, ripe, garden fresh tomatoes, when they are out of season I find a combination of good quality canned tomatoes along with sun-dried tomatoes work well. Because I had some leftover Sun-Dried Tomato & Chili Pesto in my refrigerator, I used this, but sun-dried tomatoes in oil...
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I’ve been back in the US for 6 weeks now and apart from our weekly pizza night, I’ve yet to use my sourdough starter that I brought back from Umbria with me and then tenderly fed to bring it back to life. In Umbria, I bake healthy grain filled breads weekly that we use to toast, make sandwiches, or simply nibble on as a snack, as that type of bread is not readily found there. Here in the US healthy grain bread is readily available so I find I just do not bake bread as often, even...
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When we are in Umbria for six months every year I make a number of different types of jams and jellies that I share with our farmhouse guests. Unfortunately though, when I get back to North America I seem to get a little lazy and rarely do any canning at all. Since I went a little crazy this past Thanksgiving buying too many bags of cranberries, I decided to use some along with pink grapefruit to make a nice marmalade for my family to enjoy over the holidays. When we are all together,...
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With the holidays quickly approaching, I’m busy getting some special treats completed ahead of time so that when my family all arrive I can spend time with them and not be stuck in the kitchen preparing meals. When my family all gather at our house, they all enjoy spending time playing in the pool, watching holiday movies, and playing board games together. With a house full of people in my house for Christmas, there are always hungry folks looking for snacks throughout the day, so I try...
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I recently headed to a local specialty food store to look for a relish or chutney to go along with a pork tenderloin I was making that evening. I found one brand I thought looked really interesting made with apples, garlic and jalapeno peppers, but it was a small jar and cost almost $10. Since there was no way I was going to spend that much for a little jar of relish for our pork, I decide to make my own and wrote down what ingredients were used from the jar I found at the store.
I was very... Read the whole entry »
Nutella is a very popular Italian hazelnut and chocolate spread with many uses. In my house, my grandkids love to spread it on their toast when they visit (a special treat!), and we make a great Nutella pizza for dessert. Personally though, I find the Nutella brand too sweet for my taste so I decided to make my own.
I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, and I used both a little cocoa powder as well as melted dark chocolate in my version. I also found that the finished spread ended up a... Read the whole entry »
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