Jerry Lee Lewis’ signature song of “Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire” was playing in the background. What a song to get you pumped up and motivated. Since I was going to be cooking zucchini AGAIN, I needed some motivation! I had 13 zucchini in the fridge, neighbors and friends were avoiding me when I
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This month’s five favorites start with a great memory I wanted to share while we were in Italy last September. We ran into Phil Rosenthal, the writer and producer of the “Everybody Loves Raymond Show,” star of “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having,” and also “Somebody Feed Phil.” He happened to be filming a segment for
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Summer season is salad season in our house. Salads just taste better in summer. You can’t get ingredients fresher than picking off the vine in a backyard garden or picking them up at a local farmer’s market. Even the vegetables in the local grocery stores seem to carry fresher veggies this time of year.  When
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One of my favorite things to do is to take cooking classes. Shocker I know. What I love about taking a class is learning new cooking techniques or ingredient combinations or secrets from other chefs that make them successful in presenting a meal, or, or, or….  So when I was in Sicily a few years
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Alfredo sauce has intimidated cooks for years. In the Southern regions of Italy where my family originates, it is not used much because they tend to use the tomato based sauces. The white sauces are typically used more in the Northern regions of Italy. So Alfredo sauce was not something that was cooked in our
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Do you have a favorite “go-to” meal that you just have to have when you are not feeling well? Soups have such a calming and nurturing effect. Chicken soup is a popular favorite for many people. How about good old Campbell’s tomato soup? That is also on the list of top soups for the sick. 
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When we were in Italy last Fall, we visited Manduria, where Anna lives. She is Antimo Cimino’s mother and the sweetest lady on the planet. She works hard every day cooking and baking for her husband and family. This visit she taught me how to make her famous biscotti cookies. These cookies are like the
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When you think of a rainbow, I’m sure you don’t automatically think of rainbow-colored artisan pasta… or do you? If nothing else, this blog might encourage you to break out into the “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” song (either the Judy Garland version or the Isreal “IZ” Kamakawiso’ole version.) I’m privileged to share this fabulous post
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Doesn’t the title of this recipe just make you want to break out into the Simon and Garfunkel Scarborough Fair song? I have to admit I was humming it quite a bit while I was cooking. Well, I did try singing it, but realized I didn’t know most of the words and had to stick
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  Visiting Bologna, Italy several times has left me with many beautiful memories of the meats, cheeses, pastas, wines, the city of Bologna, and the countryside surrounding the city. It’s where I had my first experience of making tortellini and tortelloni by experts in the field. A previous blog chronicled this visit. If you want to
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Baking bread of any type is a favorite guilty pleasure of mine. I know what you’re thinking, cooking of any kind is a happy thing for me, however, there’s something about baking bread that adds extra joy. I don’t know if it’s the kneading of the bread, or the aroma of bread baking in the
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I can remember when Italian restaurants would serve garlic bread when you sat down at the table much like Mexican restaurants that bring chips and salsa to the table. Well, that isn’t the “norm” these days. In fact, if you want garlic bread at some restaurants today, you have to pay extra! Maybe the more recent
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