TAKING A LITTLE BREAK...

I have not been keeping this site up as much as I would like to... SO!...

I am going to take a break for a while, gather some new knowledge, interview some family members and come back refreshed and renewed.

Please check my Italian Mama Gone Crazy site daily...

Ciao for a little bit.

Saundra

MMM...ITALIAN TUNA SALAD (NO MAYO)

Italians don't eat a lot of mayo, but we sure love our olive oil. This is a much more heart healthy version of Tuna Salad and it tastes better the longer it sits. For added crunch add some Romaine lettuce and you have a fantastic main dish salad.

ITALIAN TUNA SALAD

2 6-ounce cans chunk light tuna or albacore
10 cherry tomatoes
1/2 small red onion sliced into very thin slices

1 med cucumber cored and sliced

3 ribs celery cut into "c's"
extra-virgin olive oil to taste
balsamic vinegar to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon celery seed (optional)

Cooking Instructions
Combine tuna, tomatoes, onion, cucumbers oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Toss gently. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen things to stir into plain pasta.

1. Olive oil and garlic, heated up in a saute pan. YUM!

2. Fried sliced zucchini and olive oil.

3. Sun Dried Tomatoes in Olive oil and a sprinkle of Pecorino Romano.

4. Ricotta cheese and black pepper.

5. Fresh spinach, feta cheese and drizzle of olive oil.

6. A light Tomato sauce and peas (not canned, please)

7. Any kind of pesto.

8. Saute'd Spring veggies and a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning.

9. Seafood and it's natural liquor, sprinkle with cheese.

10. Saute'd cabbage and carmelized onions. (MY KIDS FAVORITE)

11. Butter and black pepper and sprinkle cheese.

12. Thai peanut sauce and peanuts.

13. MMMM...Marinara

SUMMER'S COMING!

SUMMER'S COMING!!!

You know what that means!!! Gardens, fresh produce EVERYWHERE, trees FULL of fruit, everything bursting with flavor!

One of my absolute favorite delicacies is ZUCCHINI FLOWERS. Yes, they are edible and they are FAB-U-LOUS!

Almost every pizza in Italy has at least one zucchini flower in it, if you order the veggie. The flavor is unreal and quite unlike the zucchini. My Papa used to quick fry them in olive oil and we ate them as a side dish all summer long. Oh, how I miss them!

This year, I am going to grow a HUGE patch of zucchini JUST to eat the flowers! Some people stuff them with cheese and such, but I am a purist. I like them lightly saute'd and lightly salted.

If you have never tried them, I invite you to my home to try them if you live close by, but lots of Farmer's Markets sell them. Usually only uppity restaurants use them, but they are a peasants meal in Italy, and peasants meals are my ultimate favorite kind of meal.

They are great as a pizza topping and look lovely too. I don't eat them raw, because they tend to be a little fuzzy raw, but lightly cooking them makes them sing!

If you ever see them at markets, pick up one or two to try at home and let me know what you think. I don't know any flower eating people, and would love to compare notes!

More domani! (tomorrow)

Ciao!

CAPPUCCINO FREEZE

THIS IS MY LAST POST UNTIL MONDAY!!! ENJOY!!!

CAPPUCCINO FREEZE

¼ CUP INSTANT COFFEE GRANULES
1 CAN SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK (NOT EVAPORATED)
2 ½ cups WATER

Microwave ½ cup water until boiling
Dissolve instant coffee
Pour in remaining cold water
Mix in Sweetened Condensed Milk

Pour into three tubs.

Freeze 8 hours or until firm

Shave

THURSDAY THIRTEEN II

THIRTEEN ITALIAN FOODS THAT SAY "I LOVEA YOUA"

OYSTERS

SHRIMP

LASAGNA

HOMEMADE BREAD

GRANITA

SANGRIA

ONE LONG STRING OF PASTA (think Lady & the Tramp)

HEART SHAPED PIZZA

CAPPUCCINO

24 k GOLD EDIBLE LEAF STRATEGICALLY PLACED (wink, wink)

WEDDING SOUP

PIZZELLES

SPELL "I LOVE YOU" WITH LONG PASTA ON A PLATE IN CURSIVE.

Wordless Wednesday (well almost wordless)

PROOF POSITIVE TO THE OLD SAYING...

"If you leave an Italian family's house hungry, its your own dang fault"

New York 2004, My cousin Joe's Restaurant

This is how he fed all his customers. My boys were in HEAVEN!

My Cousin Joe at the head of the Christmas table at his house.

One of my Giveaway Shows

My Mama's pastries.

MMM...PESTO!

PESTO!
One of the truly easiest dishes known to the pasta world!
I have actually found some very good bottled versions, when in a pinch, but it is surprisinly easy and versatile.

Did you know that you don't HAVE to make it with Basil? No! You can make it with spinach, parsley, chicory, cilantro, sundried tomatoes, olives etc...!
If you have a good blender or a food processor it make the process even easier, but a chunky pesto is lovely also.

My favorite thing about Pesto is that it is a "Raw" sauce. No cooking involved except for the pasta.
Another great reason to make it a regular staple is the nutrition it has. When you read the ingredients, you'll see what I mean.
It is also wonderful to freeze in ice cube trays, and after they are frozen, you can pop them into a bag and keep them in the freezer. They are great popped into any soup, stew, or sauce for extra flavor and a kick.

BASIC INGREDIENTS ARE:

2 cups Fresh Basil or Spinach

1/2 cup Pine Nuts or Walnuts

1 cup Grated Italian Hard Cheese (I love Romano)

2 cloves fresh Garlic

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Whiz the first 4 ingredients in a food processor and drizzle in up to 1/2 cup Olive Oil until it is the consistency you like.
Cook pasta, Mix in 2 Tbs of Pesto and freeze the rest of the pesto for another time.
Enjoy!

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOD FRENZY!

I don't exactly LOVE cooking, but I do enjoy cooking on the weekends. I don't know why... I enjoy punishing myself I suppose...

I think I like it because we are all home together and we can be on a more European schedule for a couple of days.

For the last couple of years, my favorite things to make for lunch on Saturdays are Panini.

Basically they are Italian Grilled Cheese sandwiches, but SO much better than just cheese and weak bread.
Start out with a miche or large loaf of good Country, Sourdough or Whole Grain bread. Cut it into 1/2 in slices. Make sure it is a hearty bread, not the "full of air" bread from the store.

Then assemble your favorite ingredients and match 3 or 4 together.

My favorites sandwich consists of...

Grilled eggplant slices

Roasted Red Peppers

Fresh Buffalo Milk Mozzarella

Grilled onions

But

Here's a list of ingredients to use

Grated Asiago or Fontina Cheese

Fresh Turkey breast

Fresh Roast Beef

Sauted green onion or shallots

Roasted Garlic

Prosciutto

Cotto Salami

Sliced marinated mushrooms or artichokes

Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil

and the lists goes on and on,...

Get a grill pan pan or panini press good and hot, build your sandwich with cheese touching the bread so it seals closed. Brush the outside of the sandwich with a little Olive Oil, and place in pan. Cook until toasted and melted and you are ready to go!

If you ever get hungry on a Saturday, come on over and grab a bite! I always make plenty!

Thursday Thirteen

THIRTEEN THINGS TO DO

TO MAKE YOUR

DINNER EXPERIENCE MORE ENJOYABLE

1. Eat on your "good stuff" even if it's not a special occasion! Life is too short not to use beautiful things every day.

2. Drink your beverages out of a gorgeous goblet... every day. Water tastes so much better when it's coming out of a beautiful goblet. It just feels chic.

3. Don't answer the phone during dinner hour and turn off the TV.

4. Buy the best cooking utensils you can afford. If you like what you use, you will use it more often, saving money down the road.

5. Listen to great music while cooking or eating. It just makes everything more enjoyable.

6. Never refuse help in the kitchen. Many hands make light work, and kids really learn a whole lot when cooking and serving and setting the table.

7. Adopt the "cook once, eat twice" mantra. If you are cooking chicken or ground beef for a meal, cook up some extra and refrigerate for a meal later in the week.

8. Set aside 1 hour a week to do all your prep work. Chop carrots, onion, herbs, cook meats, make dressings in that hour and use them for dinner during the week. The restaurant and fast food places won't be so tempting if you pre plan just a little bit.

9. Buy your bread fresh if you can. I had lunch with Andi yesterday at Panera Bread, and I will always buy my bread fresh from now on, from there. It's the same price as other stores and the variety is phenomenol!

I had a lovely time Andi, thank you!

10. If you ever have leftovers and don't know what to do with them... package them up nicely and give them to a neighbor you know lives alone, or you know doesn't cook for themselves. It shows love... share it.

11. Make sitting at the table with your family a priority. In my business, I hear that a lot of families take their food into different rooms of the house and eat separated. I was shocked. Eating together is the basis for many happy memories, and we learn a lot about each other, and would be a much happier society if we just slowed down a little and enjoyed the people we love so much. Dinner is the perfect time for this.

12. Instead of having a sugary dessert after dinner, put out a huge bowl of fruit on the table. It is a great way to end a meal on a sweet note without feeling weighed down with by a sugar spike.

13. The most important... compliment the person that made the food, whether you liked it or not. Time, thought and care went into the preparation, the taste is important, but the act was most important. Mom's love a hug and a kiss and a heartfelt "Thanks for dinner mom." as payment.

I would love other ideas for future Thursday Thirteens... please comment on some ideas for me!

Grazie!

Thank you!

Tuesday Tastings

Oranges are in abundance this time of year.

Italians eat them fresh just like everyone else... but they also love to cut the skin off and marinate it in sweet wine, or candy it for desserts.

They also love eating a fresh orange salad.

I have to say, it was a staple in my house growing up, because it was a staple of my Mama's house when she was a child. Sicilians make salad out of everything, and the orange is just the sweet fruit needed for a succulent, tangy

Fresh Orange and Red Onion Salad.

2 Juicy Oranges

(any kind, honey, blood orange, navel)
1/4 thinly sliced red onion

good, extra virgin olive oil

salt

pepper

Peel oranges with knife, and cut crosswise into large medallions or cut into wedges.

sprinkle sliced onions all over

drizzle fresh olive oil

add salt and pepper to taste...

Enjoy!

As a kid, my mom and I would a sandwich out of the salad. I thought it was just something we did. No one else I knew in our family liked it. Then when we were in Italy, I saw all my little cousins making orange sandwiches and I just looked at my Mama, and smiled.

Italians are adventurous eaters.

Try the salad. It is light, refreshing, tasty and absolutely gorgeous on a plain white plate, on a bed of arugula, watercress or endive.

Ciao, Mangia Bene!

Bye, Eat well!

GIVE ME REAL FOOD FROM NOW ON!

Mangia means "eat" in Italian.

Italians eat well... some more than others, but I digress...

Look in almost every pantry in Italy, (at least my family's in Italy) and you won't find very many "convenience" foods in there.

No boxes full of sodium, pre fab meals in a box, no packages of sodium laden, msg toting, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated palm kernel oil...etc...

Basically, they eat fresh, whole foods.

I have cleaned out my pantry as of late.

My new mantra is... "If it is in a box, it walks"

I have been re evaluating how we eat in my house.

While we always have loads of fresh fruit and veggies, we also had lots of convenience foods that, let's face it, aren't doing me a whole lot of good. Or my kids! They move more, therefore, the convenience foods aren't staying with them, but they sure have stayed with me.

My arthristis flares up more readily after a meal of convenience, and tends not to hurt when I eat healthy.

Convenience foods are things such as... Mac N Cheese in a box, Make in minutes Pastas with the powdered sauces, canned soups, Meat Helpers, Bread in seconds, etc...

Don't back lash me, I know some of those things are yummy, have you seen the size of my butt?

BUT, it is time to change ours and our childrens ideas about what food is.

Everyone is busy, or should I say, everyone claims to be busier than they really are.

How many TV shows are watched, books read, scrapbook pages done, phone calls made, toes painted etc... in one day?

I know, I know, we all enjoy those things, and we think we are busy when we are doing them, but sometimes you hear people say "I wish I could cook a meal at least 3 times a week for my family that is fresh and not from a box, but I just don't have the time!" Really? What if we Tivo'd the show and used that time to prep some fresh veggies and fruit and put them into bowls in the fridge? How about painting our toes when everyone else is in bed, and use that time to cut up a bunch of onions, celery, meat, herbs etc... and put them into bags so the prep work is done when we need to put a meal together?

What if we used those activities that seem to be sucking our days and evenings from us as rewards for doing the prep work?

Let's plan meals in advance and share them! Try using only whole ingredients, minimal amounts of processed foods, and loads of veggies!

You know who will thank us for it? Our health, our kids, our blood pressure, our arthritis, our sluggishness, our grandkids.

Throw out the processed foods. Cheese should NOT come from a CAN! (I never understood that concept), it should be something you shake or slice. If the "cheese" isn't refrigerated in the store...is it still cheese? Yes, I know it tastes good, but if we really looked at what we are setting our kids up for, we would stop. I look in the mirror every day and see what I don't want my kids to see when they look in the mirror. But, just because a kid isn't fat, doesn't mean he is healthy.

We are training our kid's taste buds for adulthoods full of bad choices.

My parents came from a country of fresh food to a country of "Gotta get it fast, and gotta get it now!" and none of us are thin. We bought into the whole "new country" mentality and it is time we give it back.

Please join me in serving our children good, fresh, lovely food.

If it comes in a box, it walks.

I love you, and hopefully soon you will be seeing a lot less of me. Naturally, without fad diets, meetings or extreme measures. Just good common sense.

More fresh Italian favorite foods and recipes soon.

Please share you favorite time saving ideas with me! I love learning!

Ciao!

MMM... OLIVE OIL

Olive Oil is the nectar of the gods.

At least in my book it is. I have never looked at a bottle of Wesson or Crisco oil and wanted to take a shot of it. Did you know you can do that? Lots of olive oil producers offer Oil tasting, just like wine tasting! It's delicious! I stop at one shot though, it's kinda weird drinking oil like that.

Olive is good for your heart and your liver. It is cleansing and just what the body needs to have everything run smoothly.

There are many applications for Olive Oil. Some of my Papa's favorites applications were used when I was a child. When I was 2 and up, my Papa never wanted me to be treated with Penicillin and such for ear ache. He was old school.

He cut a tiny sliver of garlic and put some Olive Oil on a cotton ball and put it in my ear, every 4 hours we changed it, viola! No more infection!

Have a cut? He put Olive Oil on it after the scab fell off, to prevent scarring. It worked.

Have dry skin? No problem, he used a tiny bit of Olive Oil on his elbows and knees and hands after a hard days work. Not before bed, of course. Yuck. I'll tell you some other time how he helped me get through teething or sleeping through the night when I had a cold!!!! ha ahahaha!!

Nowadays, those things aren't as prevalent, but I do still use some of the Old Papa's ways.

Olive Oil has always been for eating. It makes salad sing! It make Bruschetta crunchy and tasty, it makes foccacia delicious.

Here are a few "rules" for Olive Oil.

Extra Virgin, First Pressing, tends to be the most expensive, and should be used on food that aren't cooked, such as Salad, dipping bread, topping things. It burns quickly and easily.

Light Olive Oil is good for cooking, but not at high temperatures, just some light braising or quick frying.

Regular Olive oil is good for all applications.

Always keep Olive Oil out of direct sunlight, always keep it covered and away from heat so it doesn't go rancid. The greener the color, the purer the product.

Of course, Olive Oils from Italy or Spain are always the best.

Choosing Olive over other oils is always the best choice. It has so many beneficial properties that unless you have an allergy to nuts or nutmeats, it will do your body good.

Enjoy your Olive Oil!

Here's to Good Health!

Vive Bene!

Live well!

Ciao!