This Strufolli recipe is for Anthony. Anthony commented on my Struffoi recipe…and gave me a great laugh. I ordered the Struffoli balls and didn’t make them… for Easter. Now it’s Christmas and time to make them again. Anthony’s Comment: “They look wonderful, but there’s no recipe! Go to an Italian bakery and BUY them? That’s … Continue reading
After my last year’s flop at making a Rhubarb Gallette…once again I could not resist the staunch scarlet stalks at the Green City Farmers Market. There was a recipe in the Italy Issue of Bon Appétit for “Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata” by Karen DeMasco. I was ready, a year had passed since my last foray … Continue reading
Struffoli, strufoli, struffoli—Italian Honey Balls! A Neapolitan dessert my Grandma Micaletti brought to every Easter Sunday family celebration I can remember—since I was a little girl. Grandma Micaletti, my dad’s mom, didn’t cook. She was a bakery girl. There never was a Struffoli recipe handed down in our family. My mom’s family was from Abruzzi. … Continue reading
Call it my Italian Spring thing. It begins with forsythia’s bright yellow star-shaped flowers, then childhood’s marshmallow “peeps” everywhere and before I know it I’m heading to the bakery for a Lemon Slice aka Lemon Square, Lemon bar— the same bright yellow shimmying pastry —but I’ve been using the wrong name. And I just got … Continue reading
Austria. A journey of beauty, music, food and craftsmanship. Salzburger Nockerl is a meringue and raspberry dessert soufflé, in three peaks, inspired by the three mountains that border Salzburg. The same mountains Maria and the Sound of Music family climbed in their escape— truth be known, they took a train to Italy! Salzberg Nockerl reminds … Continue reading
This week a wolf appeared in my dreams with a bag of dough. According to the American Indian Medicine Cards: the discovery of power through the ways of animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson— the wolf appears to empower the teacher within us to share our knowledge with others. Mama Mic’s Magic Dough included … Continue reading
Raspberry picking. Careful not to damage the vines, avoiding the stickers that surround the berries, they stick like velcro. Somehow still managing your share of scratches from the prickly vines, reaching over and under the leaves for the juiciest ones, swatting mosquitoes after the rain, and shooing the eager bees seeking their sweetness. Is it … Continue reading
“Flops are a part of life’s menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.” —Rosalind Russell. Me either. Rhubarb resonates summer afternoons of my early entrepreneur days in our yard. My grocery store sign set up under the dwarf mulberry tree, the hanging branches creating an enclosure … Continue reading
Italian Handful 