Okay guys, I am giving away secrets here. I use yogurt in a lot of my cooking. It is one of my culinary secrets. When a dish needs a little extra tang or some creaminess, I dig out the ubiquitous carton of plain yogurt in my fridge. I prefer the Greek style yogurt, as many of you know, but sometimes it is not available, so I just go for the all natural, organic plain stuff. No one can ever guess that it is in there, but it really adds a wonderful element to some of the best dishes I have made.

My Dad and Step mom were here this weekend visiting us. I wanted them to see the things about St. Augustine that we love so much, so on Saturday AM, bright and early we took a trip to the Farmer’s Market. We picked up some beautiful fresh local shrimp. We got some more of those huge Meyer lemons. I had pasta at home already and standing there at the market with fresh shrimp, lemons and beautiful green spring onions a plan began to form. This is the kind of cooking I love – being inspired by the best products you can find. The recipe is almost secondary.

After the market we took them to the the beach where we are going to get married in April. As you can see it was REALLY cold here this weekend. I am so glad I brought my parka with me from New England! We had a really great time. Roberto was the best sous chef ever and we had a great time cooking together in the kitchen while Dad and Kayzie relaxed in the living room with a glass of wine (did I mention that Kayzie is a wine distributor and they brought their own wine on their trip?! - lucky us!) The pasta was delicious by the way…

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Every year, right around the holidays, I turn a year older (don’t I look so much older and wiser here snapping this poor green bean?!). Since most of my family has migrated to Florida over the past 10 years, we now make a point to celebrate birthdays together. Since my birthday is in December, right around the holidays, I usually save my family party for a time when most of my relatives are here – from Florida and from out of state. So in between Christmas and New Years and MOVING, we put this shindig on - nothing is getting in the way of a party with good food. So this year we celebrated my birthday on January 1st – New Year’s Day. Per tradition, the birthday person, (in this case, me) gets to choose the menu. The weather has turned a bit cold here in The Sunshine State and so I was after more hearty fare.

I chose an Armenian Vegetable Stew, called Kharn Panchareghen, out of one of my favorite cookbooks called Secrets of Cooking: Armenian/Lebanese/Persian which is an Armenian, Lebanese and Persian cookbook, written by the sister of one of my mom’s friends. The stew was delicious. I added some Kalamata olives, dried prunes and about a ¼ TBS of ground cinnamon to the original recipe. I also opted for canned plum tomatoes as opposed to fresh, as tomatoes are out of season right now and not very flavorful. It was rich in flavor and the secret touches of sweetness really intrigued the palate. We served the stew with Rice Pilaf, Naan bread and Greek Salad.

Then there was the question of the cake. Now this next picture looks kinda weird, but don’t be scared…there is a story, rest assured.

I am not normally a chocolate person, usually opting for spice cake or carrot cake on my birthday, but I saw Giada make chocolate espresso brownies recently. I LOVE espresso. My mom had given me a bundt cake pan shaped like a giant octopus (I know I am weird, I love octopi) and so a plan for chocolate chip espresso bundt cake with an espresso glaze came to life. My mom wanted to decorate the cake all in waves and pretty icing, but since I am not partial to icing, I requested just a glaze. Hence a pretty much unadorned Octopus cake. But it was good.

Now for the recipe:

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December is drawing to a close, which means we are almost at Royal Foodie Joust time! Be sure to get your entry in by January 1, 2008!

This month our ingredients were chosen by Emiline of Sugar Plum, who was the winner of last month’s joust. She picked these ingredients Pomegranate, Pistachios and Mint, to showcase the colors of the season. I love the flavors that all of these components bring as they are all featured heavily in the foods of the Mediterranean. I created this dish to celebrate Yule, or Winter Solstice which was on December 21st.

You too can create your own pomegranate, pistachio and mint recipe for your chance to WIN A PERSONALIZED APRON! For details - check out The LeftoverQueen Forum.

Also, I have been featured on GlamNest and wrote an article about how to use those holiday leftovers! So please check out this article too!

Best wishes to everyone for a healthy and food-filled New Year!

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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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This has been a lucky year full of wonderful surprises and accomplishments. I stepped out of my comfort zone to pursue my dream of working in food, turning my passion for Mediterranean cooking and leftovers into a job description I made up for myself:
Professional Foodie. I am still not exactly sure what path lies ahead of me, but I am sure I am at least going the right way as it seems I have been rewarded each step of the way. I have met so many lovely foodies online from all over the world and have gotten little signs everywhere confirming that I am on the right path. One of these signs is a great honor I have been given. I am so excited about it that I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. I have been asked to participate in a very special food blogging event.

Shelley from At Home in Rome lives in Rome (Obviously), which just so happens to be Roberto’s hometown. She also just so happens to know Gina DePalma, the pastry chef for
Mario Batali’s Babbo Restaurant in New York City.
Gina’s newest cookbook: Dolce Italiano: Desserts from the Babbo Kitchen has just come out and in order to commemorate this event, Shelley, along with a few of us fortunate food bloggers have had the honor to try two recipes from Gina’s new cookbook and blog about it. How fun is that?!

But that is not where the fun ends – oh no siree – you too can join in too. Go blog hopping with us and comment on each Dolce Italiano post on each of our blogs and you will be entered in a contest to win a Dolce Italiano cookbook signed by Gina herself (who is such a nice person to boot!).
Here is how you enter: Check out each of these blogs on the days mentioned (if you are just hearing about this contest for the first time, be sure that you go to visit all these blogs for their posts THIS week) and then comment on the post about Dolce Italiano. Do the same next week and you will have 10 chances to win that book! Here are the other great blogs and the days you need to visit them:

MONDAY: Sara – Ms. Adventures in Italy
TUESDAY: Ilva – Lucullian Delights
WEDNESDAY: Sognatrice – Bleeding Espresso
THURSDAY: Shelley – At Home in Rome
FRIDAY: Jenn – The Leftover Queen - RIGHT HERE!

Gina DePalma’s Dolce Italiano is a must have for foodies that love Italian food. Even for someone like me, who does not fancy herself a baker or pastry person, despite all the baking I have been doing through the Daring Bakers, I found the recipes to be well-explained, unique and wonderful – just full of the flavors of Italy. It is also a fun book to read! I can really relate to Gina’s intense passion for the food she makes and also her story as an Italian American deeply in touch with the foods of her roots. I am so excited to have this wonderful cookbook in my collection as I know I will be using it often!

So on to the great recipe!

One of my choices of recipe just had to be Salame di Cioccolato. This is a dessert that every child in Italy has had. It is like Nutella, ubiquitous when talking about the foods of Italy for kids. I first heard about Chocolate Salami from Roberto when I asked him what the first thing he remembers cooking was. This was it. Apparently there is (at least when he was a bambino) what he describes as a Disney/ Boy Scout guidebook for kids in Italy known as Manuale delle Giovani Marmotte (Jr. Woodchucks Guidebook) and a recipe for Chocolate Salami was in his version of the book. In his memory it was crushed up cookies and cocoa powder rolled up, chilled and then sliced. Well, as soon as I saw the upgraded, new and improved version in Gina’s new cookbook, I knew I had to make it for Roberto and bring him back to his childhood. So we spent the afternoon in the kitchen making this delicious concoction and having a wonderful time. In his opinion it is WAAAAY better than the one from Manuale delle Giovani Marmotte, shocking, isn’t it?

Try a chocolate salami today!

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This past weekend we celebrated my mom’s birthday and I wanted to share with everyone the cake I baked to commemorate this special day and tell the story of my mom and I and our love of food. I have been thinking for a while how best to participate in Jeni and Inge’s blogging event Apples & Thyme which is dedicated to all the women relatives in our lives that helped influence the way we cook and eat. I have discussed often the influence my family has had on my cooking here, I have shared some of my Nana’s signature recipes here and here. I have also posted other family recipes like my Aunt Theresa’s Zucchini Cake and my Aunt Sylvia’s Easter Bunny Breads. But this time I wanted to talk about my mom, the person who taught me how to really experience and LOVE food and who I have shared a great passion for food with all my life.

I grew up near Washington DC and that in itself greatly influenced my food philosophy. My mom and I always tried different restaurants of various cuisines and really relished in all the variety that surrounded us. It was our way of experiencing the world and other cultures through our palates instead of a plane. We then always took those flavors and creations home with us in our memories and re-created it at home to suit our needs. Therefore my food philosophy and relationship with my mom has always been about trying new things and re-inventing old favorites with a twist. I have learned a lot when it comes to cooking from my mom. She is very exacting with the way she cooks which makes her a great baker and decorator. I am more of a cooking with a whim kind of a person. Through watching her I have learned that some dishes take patience and practice and in the end you appreciate it all the more.
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Well guys, I am just posting obsessed. I just couldn’t leave for 10 days without posting yet another fall favorite to really get me in the mood to go to New England! I have been gearing up by drinking apple cider and hot chai teas and eating things with maple - but this is such a unique take on a comfort food - pan seared chicken.

This is a recipe we tried from my “bible” of Italian cooking – Italian: The Definitive Professional Guide to Italian Ingredients and Cooking Techniques. This is a Barnes and Noble book my mom picked up for me years ago – and it contains all the classic, regional Italian dishes with step-by-step, pictures and instructions. There is also 120 pages discussing Italian ingredients and how they are used regionally. Very informative! The funny thing about it is that it shows up in the households of many Italian Americans I know!

It has become my bible because everything we make from it turns out wonderful and tastes exactly as it should. It is a beautiful books filled with delightful, easy to make dishes! I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about classic Italian foods. It has become in-dispensable in our house!

This dish, Chicken Chianti is something I had never heard of before. You cook chicken in Chianti (not unheard of) and GRAPES! It was a wonderful dish full of the deep flavors associated with wine as well as the sweetness from the ripe fresh grapes! Very unique dish! Hope you enjoy it. See you all in 10 days!!!

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Happy Autumn Everyone! Wow, time is really flying! I have so busy working these past few weeks, I forgot that I still had this summer-y recipe waiting in the wings to get posted. Roberto and I are heading for a much needed vacation to New England to visit friends and family the second week of October and so I have been working feverishly hard on the Genesis project - typing out recipes, meeting with food vendors, collaborating with the menu design, etc. I have also been invited to participate in a very exciting blog event - I will reveal more about that later. But anyway, here is the long awaited second part to my Giada De Laurentiis tribute. Although the ingredients are summer, the colors are fall! Enjoy everyone!

I adore papaya – it has probably become my favorite fruit of all time – it has a wonderful creamy texture and is not too sweet but not at all bitter. I love eating it straight for breakfast or with a dollop of cardamom whipped cream for dessert. Paired in this salad with another creamy flavor of mine – avocado and you have a winning combination. The colors are beautiful and the flavors are simple. This is what makes this recipe great.

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