I grew up in a very Italian Catholic household. We all went to Catholic school and knew all the feast days. I thought we were pretty good, but nothing prepared me for the feast that was put on for St. Joseph’s Day by the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, Lodge 174. Holy Zeppole! It was amazing. The feast day is March 19th, but our meeting was March…
I didn’t know I was different. I just assumed everyone’s mother had an electric Jesus she told her problems to and a collection of saints that could fill a room. I thought everyone invited you in, filled the table with food, then cried when you didn’t eat enough. Then I got older and saw very calm white women on TV who baked cookies, wore pearls and aprons and never…
Happy Valentine’s Day! I wish you happiness on this love-fest of a day, which I detested in college because the parade of flowers always went to the other girls, but never to me or my close friends. Of course I was jealous! Who doesn’t want someone who you’re crazy about to love you back and lavish you with gifts? I’d like to say I’m much more mature now…
It was so gratifying to finally be able to have almost everyone over, even in my tiny apartment after missing Christmas back here for so many years. …
Here are my twelve, hard-learned truths about pie crusts. …
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it wast the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing…
Today, my friend Nicol Zanzarella (audiobook reader and actress extraordinaire) and I decided we needed to take our friend Debra Deyan, owner of Deyan Audio, out for a belated birthday lunch. Deyan Audio records audiobooks and has won so many Audie Awards (the audiobook equivalent of the Oscars) it’s almost unfair. Deb and Nicol are amazing, and two of the most driven, dedicated people I know, so getting…
I I’ve been cooking for over a month, but haven’t perfected anything for a while. Sometimes cooking magic happens the first time I make something and I can blog about it right away. But usually, I make it and it’s not quite as amazing as I know it could be, so I have to make it again, then tweak it and make it again and again before I…
Have you ever tasted or smelled something that instantly took you back in time? Well, the other night I went back to being a 9-year-old tasting my mom’s homemade cannoli at Christmas time in our flour-dusted kitchen. It was cannoli teleportation. (This was a post from several years ago, but since the holidays are hovering closer, I wanted to share this recipe again.) I am a novice cannoli…
On this day back in 1974, my college friends and I decided we were sick of seeing lucky girls getting roses delivered to them willy-nilly, while we got nothing. So we held a Valentine’s Day Sleep-A-Thon. My friend and resident artist, Dawn created fabulous posters for our doors that said anyone could participate, in the VD Sleep-a- Thon. All you had to do was sleep through the day…