I am forever grateful my December birthday buddies-women who have helped me celebrate across the years. To my best bud J., who was there beside me in high school in every crazy moment, happy and sad. I can’t think of anyone I would have rather been there to laugh and cry with. Our moms were in the hospital together when we were born and all these years later, we’re still friends.

To A., who I actually share my birthday with-a very Buon Compleanno Anno to you! We began celebrating back in college and and have been there for each other ever since. To my best college friend who has been a part of my life for so many years. Someday we will spend our birthdays together again. I’m with you in spirit…

To G. who I knew had to be a Sagittarius-you’re just too cool to be born under any other sign. A very Happy Birthday to you and to a lot more shared birthday parties.

And to L., who I shared so many great times with. We were almost roommates (lived across the hall from each other) and never missed an opportunity to have fun together. Here’s to happier days.

I am thankful for having all these women in my life- Happy Birthday!

I’m still plodding along trying to learn the Italian language. I just realized that it was about three years ago that I enrolled in classes at our local community college. As much as I wanted to study Italian, it had been years (and I mean years) since I had taken a class. I was lucky to get a teacher who was better than most and I was happy to be a student once again. Two years of classes and I was prepared for my month of living Italian in Arezzo.

I’m still studying. I carry my books around daily and attempt to get some time in for a little grammar. In all honesty I can sit down and take a grammar test on any given day and fare pretty well, but how often do we need to do that and how important is it anyway? After about a six week break I’m meeting with P., my Sicilian tutor this weekend, finally! I can’t wait to attempt some conservation and more than that, I long to just sit there and listen to her speak that beautiful language. I’m happy to be able to admit that I understand just about everything that she’s saying. Answering her, now that’s another story!

And about that dreaming in Italian. Well, I’m not quite sure that I’m doing that, but whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, I have an Italian song running through my head. It’s a start…

Thanksgiving. What a wonderful way to spend a day with friends around a table filled to the brim with fabulous food. I totally appreciated the fact that I was not the hostess and cook of oh so many dishes and was thrilled to be a guest. I savored every bite and appreciated the work that every guest put into the holiday meal. It was all great, until I realized we were walking out empty handed, with nothing to nibble on later in the evening, let alone turkey for sandwiches the day after. I have to say that we were offered to take part in leftovers, but I felt that we should leave the food for family members.

I knew right then that I would be recreating Thanksgiving dinner at our house as soon as I had some extra time. Seeing that it’s just the two of us, I did not feel the pressure to make a bevy of side dishes, but just enough to make it an authentic Thanksgiving re-creation. By the way, the real reason for this meal is for the leftovers-sandwiches, tacos, enchiladas and maybe even tetrazzini!

Next to the stuffing, this cranberry sauce is my favorite part of the meal!

….Tart. Having offered to be the dessert maker for our Thanksgiving celebration, I wanted to make sure that I presented an end to the great meal that would be something that would appeal to all the guests and be would representative of the holiday. My first thought was of a pumpkin cheesecake, but I rejected that at once as being a bit too heavy. I am not a pumpkin pie fan, so that too was dismissed. A few years back a friend served a luscious pumpkin panna cotta, but I didn’t want to mess with individual servings.

And then it hit me-it had to be something with apples. I remember a delicious apple tart that I was served while visiting my friend B. in the UK. I searched and searched for her recipe and by the time I found it, I had already chosen one that I found on Epicurious. The filling is ground almonds with a touch of Calvados (an apple brandy) topped by tart, thinly sliced apples. Served with a dollop of whipped cream, it was the perfect last bite to our holiday meal.

Apple Almond Tart

Crust

2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons Calvados or brandy
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces

3 large tart green apples, cored and sliced into thin wedges

1/4 cup apricot preserves

Stir egg yolks into Calvados. Combine flour, sugar and salt in food processor, add butter and cut in using on/off turns until the butter is the size of small peas. With the machine running, add the yolk mixture. Process until moist clumps form. Gather dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. (Can be made a day ahead and kept refrigerated. Let soften slightly before rolling).

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 14″ round. Transfer to an 11″ tart pan with removable bottom. Fold overhang in and press. Chill while making filling.

Filling

1-1/4 cups blanched, slivered almonds
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons Calvados or brandy
1 teasoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature

Combine almonds, 3/4 cup sugar, eggs 1 tablespoon Calvados, extracts and salt in food processor. Blend until soft paste forms. Add 4 tablespoons butter and blend 10 seconds. Spread in crust. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile stir apples, 1 tablespoon Calvados and 1 tablespoon sugar in large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Drain apples, overlap in concentric circles atop filling. Melt 2 tablepoosn butter and brush over apples. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake tart 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake unitl the apples are tender, about 50-55 minutes. Remove from oven. Stir preserves and 1 tablespoon Calvados in small saucepan until preserves melt. Strain into small bowl and brush over apples. Cool.

Serves: 10

For the first Thanksgiving in a very long time, we are not hosting the big dinner at our house. Initially I was rather disappointed, but this morning as I sit here sipping a cappuccino and eating an incredible chocolate cookie, I’ve decided that I’m okay with not having a million things to do in the next few hours. I will be preparing an hors d’oeuvres and a dessert, so check back to see my contribution to the holiday feast.

This has been an interesting and challenging year for many (or should I say “most”) of us. Despite these uncertain times, I have so much to be thankful for-J., , my sister, mom and extended family, all my wonderful friends and the hope of Italy in my future!

I would like to dedicate this post today to my good friend B. who has graciously included us in her family’s Thanksgiving celebration. I am thankful that she is healthy and able to be “hostess with the mostest” today. A few years back she would not have been able to decorate and cook and entertain as she was battling leukemia. Today she is happy and healthy and I give thanks for her recovery.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I cook every night. It’s what I do. We’re hungry and need food. I go to the fridge and cupboard and figure something out. I don’t spend a lot of time fretting or consternating, but I do realize that there are a lot of people who do not take this easy approach to dinner time.

Half of the battle is having a pantry full of basics (olive oils, vinegars, herbs and spices, pastas, rice, couscous, canned beans and tomatoes and more). With a fridge full of veggies from the farmers’ market and chicken breasts, steaks and chops in the freezer, it’s fairly simple to put a great meal together. I love to try new recipes and cook showstopping dishes, but on your average week night, I prefer to cook food that’s quick and easy, yet full of flavor.

Some years back we had a wonderful french bistro in town. As interesting as their menu was, I always seemed to order the same thing-roasted chicken breasts with fresh herbs. To me a well cooked chicken breast is the sign of a good kitchen. This favorite restaurant changed hands over the years and once the original owner (from France) left, it was never the same. Rather than lamenting the fact that I’d never have that dinner again, I set put to recreate it at home and it couldn’t be easier.

The main course of roasted chicken breast is really a no-brainer. You start with chicken breasts on the bone with skin. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Rub breasts with olive oil and top with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast chicken until skin is crispy, about 25 minutes. While the chicken is in the oven chop a bunch of fresh herbs-your choice.

Tonight I did chives, parsley and dill. Tarragon is also great. Use what you love. When you take the chicken out of the oven, top with fresh herbs and serve. We had this with mushrooms that I tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted alongside the chicken. A salad of arugula and toasted pine nuts tossed with extra virgin olive oil and rice wine vinegar rounded out the meal. Dinner, ready in less than 45 minutes. Buon Appetito!

I’ve been blogging a little over two years now. It’s interesting for me to look back to some of those early posts and see how I was writing back then. I’ve been thinking a lot about my father lately and decided it would be nice to re-visit a post that I wrote exactly two years ago. So take a look and read about my father’s connection to Italy.

I’ve always thought that the years my father spent in Italy drew him to find a nice Italian girl when he returned from the war-my mother!

Although I cook dinner every single evening, you wouldn’t know it from my recent blog entries. I’ve been what you could call “uninspired”. I love being in the kitchen and I love to write, but lately I haven’t been able to put those two things together and get it my culinary efforts onto the blog. I’ve said this before, but I always struggle with taking the time to photograph my food. I’ve moved my camera closer to the kitchen in hopes of correcting this, but that still hasn’t helped much. What’s a girl to do?

Today I have a new excuse for posting the recipe with promises of the picture to follow-I didn’t read the recipe close enough. I thought I really read it until I started mixing the ingredients together and then I noticed “chill dough for 2 hours”. Now normally this wouldn’t bother me, but one of the reasons I was making these cookies was to bring to our friends who are having us to dinner this evening. When the two hours have passed we will already be sitting in their living room, hopefully sipping champagne! So the baking of the cookies will not take place until the morning and I promise then to photograph the finished product.

The dough for these cookies makes a basic chocolate cookie that you can use a variety of ways. It is from the December issue of Sunset magazine and they list four different ways to dress up the basic recipe. They all sounded good to me, but as soon as I saw the words Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies, I knew what I’d be making!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Thumbprints

10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup peanut butter
Put chocolates and butter in metal bowl set over a pan filled with 1 inch simmering water. Cook, stirring occasionally until melted, then remove from heat and cool slightly. Whisk in eggs and sugar, mixing until combined. Then whisk in flour, baking powder and salt. Chill dough covered, until firm, about 2 hours.

Let dough sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop 1 tablespoon portions of dough, rolling each into a bowl and put onto sheets, about 1″ apart. Press your thumb into the center of each cookie, making a small well. Fill a pastry bag (or use a plastic bag with tip cut off) with peanut butter and pipe about 1 teaspoon peanut butter into each cookie. Bake cookies until they no longer look wet on top, about 8 minutes. let cool on baking sheets. Yield:about 40 cookies

Don’t overbake-these cookies should be slightly gooey.

It seems that just when you can’t figure out where you’re going or what you’ll be doing, opportunity knocks. I’m a firm believer that it is good to hope and to dream and think that all will work out for the best. Of course I’ve been known to worry now and then (J. is probably laughing right now), but deep in my heart I know that it’s better to keep an open mind and stay positive. Something good will happen and and although it may take a while, things will get better.

I would like to express my thanks for the many people who have given me opportunities over the years that have allowed me to prove what I can do, have enabled me to grow and allowed me to meet all sorts of people and forge new friendships. You just never know what’s around the next corner…

‘Tis the season’, well it’s almost the season. I just realized that Thanksgiving is actually next week and from there it’s a frenzy of cooking and baking throughout the month of December. Of course I have my favorite cookie recipes, but I’m alway on the quest for great new recipes for entertaining and gift giving.

Gourmet magazine is gone but there are still other great food publications. I was really impressed by December’s issue of Food & Wine and these are my picks for recipes to try in the next few weeks:

For Entertaining:

Tomato Tartlets
Boiled Shrimp with Spicy Mayonnaise
Lamb Pizzettes
Sausage Stuffed Peppadews
Curried Crab Dip
Mixed Mushroom Strudel
Brown Butter Cranberry Tart

There’s also a wonderful list of pairings of sparkling wines and cheeses.

For Gift Giving

Classic Butterscotch Sauce
Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Caramels
Chocolate Almond Toffee

And for Breakfast after all the cooking and partying:

Eggs Roasted in Tomato Sauce

Happy Cooking to one and all!