Recently we had my family over for an open house. We have been in our new place for a while now and not everyone had been here to see it. So we decided to do a luncheon. I had two ideas going into this party – I wanted to make something rustic and old-school hearkening back to the times that Italians stopped what they were doing to enjoy a nice lunch spread together out in the fields, on a big slab of wood turned into a table. Also along this theme, I really wanted to make something using ingredients that we already had at home.

Too many times when preparing for a party, I decide on a menu and then go and buy all the ingredients. This time, I wanted to challenge myself more and use what was around. We had been to the Farmer’s market the day before and had gotten our staples: potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, onions and beautiful bread. We also had a bag of frozen mussels in the freezer. So I decided to make a regional dish from Puglia, called Tiella di Cozze or Mussel Casserole – it is said to have descended from Spanish Paella. Since we were having a crowd, I also added some shrimp to the dish, which was topped off with a delicious bread crumb and parmesan topping! It was wonderful.

We served it with a nice green salad,Garlic-Rosemary Foccacia from Maria, the bread lady at the Farmer’s Market and finished with a

Yogurt Carrot Cake with Toasted Hazelnuts . Keep reading for the recipes.

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I have a confession to make….I forgot to do something…and I feel really bad about it….

I get a lot of offers to do product reviews for a variety of different companies whose products either are or relate to food in some way. Some products I just refuse right away because I cannot support the ingredients - either they are not healthful or just full of preservatives. Then there are the many that I do try that just aren’t very good – either once I get the product I realize it is full of nasty ingredients or the taste is just bad– so I won’t feature them on this blog because it is not fair to you, my faithful readers.

But there has been one very strong exception to the rule, and here is my confession. I received 2 boxes of Matisse and Jack’s Bake at Home Snacks a loooong time ago and I tried them and LOVED them. But for some reason the first box I made, we forgot to take pictures and then it took me a while to make the second box – which I did do very recently.

Here is why I love these products:

1) They are all full of good for you ingredients that are all natural.

2) They are customizable – meaning you add your own goodies to them, and they give you plenty of suggestions – you can even make them vegan.

3) They are as easy to make as a prepared cake mix – you just add wet ingredients (like yogurt or applesauce) to the dry, mix and bake. It could not be easier.

4) Best of all – they taste great – perfect for breakfast, snack or dessert with a bit of ice cream for an a la mode.

5) They are helping the environment by reducing waste that usually comes with conventional energy bar packaging.

So finally here is a great product line that I can support, and feel good about! They are full of good ingredients with a wonderful taste AND a mind for helping control environmental waste! There is just so much to love about these products!
I am just so sorry I took so long to do the write up and let everyone know about these delicious bars!

(I hope the great folks at Matisse & Jack’s can forgive me! )

The reason we are all gathered here today – at least in my corner of the universe, is because February 5th is
World Nutella Day 2008. This is the day that my buddies, American expats in Italy, Sara, Michelle and Shelley decided we should all sit back, relax and enjoy the Nutella.
This is a day to celebrate this delicious chocolate-hazelnut spread that puts smiles on faces young and old all across the world.

My first encounter with Nutella was when I lived in Norway, in 1994. Bread is a big thing in Norwegian cuisine. You eat it for breakfast and lunch with a wide variety of meats cheeses and spreads. My favorite was always Brunost (“Brown Cheese”) – I had it for breakfast and lunch, every single day. Of course, I was a foodie back then, too, I just didn’t know it yet, so I was addicted to going to the grocery stores there and seeing what kinds of products I could find that were unique to Norway. When I came across Nutella and realized you could eat it on toast for breakfast, I thought it was pure genius. I mean who doesn’t love the combination of Chocolate and Hazelnut? But for breakfast!? I thought this was a Norwegian invention and I was forever indebted, until I found out it was an Italian creation! Gotta love Italy. Anyway, I fell in love with the stuff. I discovered how good it went with waffles, another big treat in Norway. Well by that point I was hooked. When a Dutch friend of mine told me they eat chocolate sprinkles on their toast for breakfast, I began thinking we Americans are totally depraved.

Anyway, I digress. You are wondering about these wonderful pudding cakes I made. Well there is a story behind them too – I will try to be quick about it. Remember the Dolce Italiano Event back in November, where I, along with the geniuses behind World Nutella Day made recipes from Gina DePalma’s newest cookbook: Dolce Italiano: Desserts From the Babbo Kitchen? I made this and this.Well we were only allowed to make 2 desserts for that event (as if I was in any capacity with the impending holidays to make MORE than 2), but there was a third I was really wanting to try, her Chocolate and Date Pudding Cakes. I love dates and chocolate and pudding, so for me it was another match made in heaven. When I was thinking of a recipe to make for World Nutella Day, I immediately went to Gina’s cookbook to look for inspiration. I rediscovered these pudding cakes and decided to alter them to fit the bill for this fabulous celebration that I am sure Ms. DePalma would certainly sanction.

So what I did was instead of using the bittersweet chocolate and butter mixture, I decided to use Nutella. And in place of walnuts, I went for Hazelnuts, much more my liking and a much better match for the Nutella.

The verdict? These cakes are succulent. Yes, that is the word.

As Gina puts it : “The Medjool dates…contribute a deep caramel flavor that holds hands with the chocolate like a smitten teenager”.

Oh boy, does it. That with the warm taste of the hazelnuts underneath they are just pure heaven. I baked mine for 20 minutes and not minute longer. This made the centers perfectly moist and delicious. Bet you can’t have just one!
Happy World Nutella Day to everyone – get out there and get your Nutella on!

World Nutella Day: How you can participate.

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I have to admit, sometimes being unprepared does have its charms and advantages. In regards to this challenge it caused me to be creative and not be afraid to play with my baked goods a little bit. As most of you have heard at one time or another, up until I joined the Daring Bakers, I didn’t bake – as a point of principal. Any recipe that had the words: Knead or Yeast or even really Flour and that was as far as I got, I wasn’t going to make it. Period. When I joined the Daring Bakers, I followed each recipe word for word. I did some modifications, sometimes, but nothing that really diverted from the recipe too much. I didn’t want to mess it up! But times change, you get older and wiser and all that good stuff. So here I am – it has been almost a YEAR since I joined this fabulous group of food bloggers, and I still don’t have a pie pan in my possession…therefore, it doesn’t take me long to realize there is no way I am making a big honkin’ pie. I just don’t have the equipment. This was going to give me a chance to play with my pie crust a little and do something fun. I decide to go all French and create mini tartlettes with my fabulous new muffin tin that I got for Christmas – (now a note to you DB purists, this was an allowed modification to the challenge)!

Not only that, but I also got to christen my new Cuisinart Food Processor, an early wedding present from my Dad and Stepmom, who were here last weekend THANKS GUYS!!!
AND, it is also my first DB challenge in my new kitchen. So this challenge for me was also full of firsts. The pie crust in this recipe is great. Very buttery and flaky. Roberto and I went to visit my mom this weekend and she was making a chicken pot pie and needed a crust recipe. I gave her the recipe from this challenge (minus the sugar of course) and it was perfect! So delicious!

I learned a lot from this challenge too – number one, I never knew what actually made the pie filling of lemon meringue pie yellow. I assumed that it was from the lemons, but no, the color is actually derived from the egg yolks that make up the lemon curd. Very interesting. I wonder if the inventor of this pie planned it this way, or it just turned out to be the proper color by luck?

I also got really creative with my leftover lemon peels. As those who have been reading my Farmers Market series know, I got some fabulous Meyer lemons, recently. I have been using them in a variety of dishes. They are just so tasty, I couldn’t waste even a peel, so I decided to make a lemon simple syrup to get ready for my next kitchen project – limoncello. As I was rooting around for the vanilla extract, needed for the lemon meringue recipe, I came across some dried lavender flowers I had, so I decided to make Lavender-Meyer Lemon Syrup. I also expanded my love of leftovers into the baking world. After I finished filling my tartlette crusts for the challenge, I still had more filling and more meringue. So I decided to play and have fun. I added some Lavender-Meyer Lemon Syrup to my leftover lemon curd to make meringue cookies filled with Lavender Lemon Curd. I think I enjoyed them even more than the original tartlettes. There is just something so spectacular about the combination.

I also was a huge baking geek and researched online ways to keep the meringue from weeping. Lemon Meringue is my mom’s favorite and I had to make the tartlettes on Friday, so they were going to have to sit in the fridge overnight. So I wanted to do my best to keep them from disintegrating, since the recipe states you should eat the pies within 6 hours. I also learned a technique for making the perfect meringue (see my cooks noted embedded in the recipe for these tips).

This was a great challenge for me. I really had a great time making a huge mess in my new kitchen and using some new toys. It was really a fun day and left me feeling so happy and renewed inside. I am not sure why – maybe the sunshine stored inside those lemons!

So without further ado – here is the recipe for Lemon Meringue Pie.

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‘Twas the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring except for a huge pile of shortbread mice! My cat doesn’t know what to do and they are too cute for me to eat!

It appears that I am compelled to make sweet creatures for every holiday. There are Bunny Breads at Easter, Spiders and Kitties at Halloween and now Mice for Christmas. I must admit baking all these family Christmas cookies got me thinking. What do I want the generations after me to remember about holiday traditions? Immediately I knew it had to be whimsical and cute confections and creations – something that really brings that *magical* element to the holidays – something that speaks to the child in all of us who still remembers how wonderful it is to be a kid during the Holidays.

I saw these adorable cookies in a holiday baking book and I knew I had to try them out this year. If they were a success then I would make them every winter holiday season to bring joy and smiles to the faces of the people I love. Hope they make you smile!

Happy Holidays to everyone! I have so enjoyed meeting all of you through the blogosphere this year, it has been wonderful. I really wish all of you and yours the best and most joyous holiday season!

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Happy Yule Everyone!

Yule is a celebration of the Winter Solstice. It marks the longest night of the year and celebrates the re-birth of the sun and longer days to come after the darkness of winter. Christmas was transplanted onto winter solstice some 1,600 years ago, centuries before the English language emerged from its Germanic roots. The tradition of burning a Yule log is to celebrate light itself and the lightening of the days thereafter. Personal faults, mistakes and bad choices are burned in the flame so everyone’s New Year can start with a clean slate. You never burn the entire log, you save a piece for next year to start the next Yule Log. Traditionally on the eve of the Winter Solstice, at midnight, you turn off all your lights or candle lights and everyone takes a moment to sit in the dark and reflect on the darkness, then at 12:01 everyone lights their own candles, turns on all the lights and gives thanks to the sun and its life sustaining power.

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These were the cookies growing up that really set our family Christmas cookies apart from the cookies you saw on other families’ tables. These are the cookies that my Nana made every year for my Pap who came here from Sicily when he was 3 years old because they were his absolute favorite. His most clear memory of his life in Sicily was sitting on the porch of his Nana, waiting for cookies. Perhaps the cookie he was waiting for was a Cuccidata, perhaps not. But I like to think it was. Sicilians are known for their love affair with sweets and make some of the best in the world.

The fig is so under-rated here in America. People just really don’t know what to do with figs. I am a huge lover of this sensual fruit. I have shown my adoration of it on pizza, on salad and even as a jam. It can be sweet, savory or in between. There are endless ways to use this beautiful fruit, but one of the best ways is in these cookies. Dried figs are mixed with raisins, a ground whole orange (peel and all) and walnuts to create a filling for one of the softest best smelling dough I have ever worked with. Then the fun part is in true colorful, Sicilian fashion, get crazy with the colors and decoration – colored icing, sprinkles and this year, chocolate really make each one of these cookies special. These cookies mean Christmas for the DiPiazza family. So I made these with my mom to honor the generations of DiPiazzas before us. Hope you enjoy!

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These cookies are a special treat for me. Every year at Christmas my two Aunts would make them. They were also featured at every family wedding I have gone to, although in the recent future, I see them less and less because the old tradition of the older generation baking the cookies for the couple happens less and less as most people have jobs these days and can’t afford all that time in the kitchen! It is sad that these traditions are being lost. So I have decided it is high time I get to making these traditional recipes with my mom, that make celebrations so special and memorable.

Anyway, back to the cookie. They are a delicious wafer cookie that is cooked on a special pizzelle iron and can be flavored in all sorts of ways. Traditionally in my family, they would be anise flavored. This year, we did anise, orange and vanilla all together and then we also added a bit of cinnamon to the last half of the batter. They are good! This is the fun of them – add your own flavor combinations or put some finely chopped nuts in! You can also shape them when they first come off the iron - you can make mini waffle cones or waffle bowls. Yum!

The thing that always struck me about these cookies are how beautiful they are, how crunchy they are (I LOVE crunchy cookies) and how quintessentially Italian they are. Now last Christmas, I was talking to Roberto about them when we were discussing holiday food traditions. I hadn’t had pizzelle in a few years, and he had never even heard of them. I couldn’t believe it! This cookie had graced the table of my family’s Christmas celebrations for generations and I had seen it as a part of other Italian Christmases. But he had never heard of them! Imagine! Again, this tells us a lot about regional Italian cooking. Being from Rome, his normal holiday cookie would be amaretti or a different kind of wafer cookie with flavored cream in the layers. I just love the food culture of Italy! So regionally specific! So of course I had to get him in on the pizzelle making too!

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