PENNE W/ PROSCIUTTO AND SPINACH

This is a rustic and hearty meal that is perfect on a cold winter night!! Everything can be combined ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to bake.

First, start out by making a thick and smooth besciamella sauce, by whisking some butter, flour,milk, salt and pepper. ( nutmeg optional)

Next, toss in 1lb. of al dente pasta with the warm besciamella sauce in a large bowl, stir in a 10 oz. of frozen chopped spinach which has been thawed and squeezed dry. Fold in 1/2 lb. of diced prosciutto, 1 cup of grated Parm, salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, pour everything into a roasting pan, dot with butter, sprinkle with more cheese, and bake at 450 for about 30 min’s or until golden and a little crunchy!!

Buon Appetito!!

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AN INVASION OF BUNNIES & A TRIP TO THE BAKERY!!!

For the last couple of days I’ve been helping my girlfriend prepare for a baby shower she is giving for her daughter this weekend. This will be her first Grandchild and as you can imagine she is so excited. Being the friend that I am, I had told her about a shower that I went to over the summer that had these cute little Bunnies made out of washcloths and shower puffs, as party favors. What was I thinking???? So we Googled the directions and off to the craft store she went, buying little eyes, ribbon, and everything else she needed. No problem I thought, we only had to make 36, we could pull this off in no time!!! WRONG!!! She arrived at my house at 9:00 pm after I put a big pot of coffee on. How hard could it be? Well, the folding of the washcloth was hard to figure out! It took us almost 2 hrs. to finally master that! Then we had to figure out how to attach the shower puff, and finally, we had to hot glue all the nose and eyes on. She left my house close to 2:00 am!!! But after about 5 hrs…….

These cute little Bunnies were born!! Aren’t they adorable??? I just had to share them with you!!…. Needless to say, I dreamt of Bunnies that night!!….. Now, on to the bakery part.

Her daughter requested ONE thing only if she was to have a shower, she wanted a Cannoli cake!! My friend, not being of Italian decent,knew I would point her in the right direction. So off we went to my favorite Italian bakery to order her cake!
When I told the Hubby where we were going, he got so excited and said ” make sure you bring me home something!” So with my camera in tow this time, I thought I’d share some pictures with you.

Crunchy, flaky, and creamy “Sfogliatelle !!!”

Don’t these look good?????

Check out the cookies!!!!!! All butter!!!! We each bought a few to have later with coffee, they never made it home ( ha ha)

Hubby’s favorite, fig cookies, like his Mom use to make!!

And finally, this was his little treat that was waiting for him after dinner! Sfogliatelle, and Cannoli. Oh, and by the way, the Cannoli is to die for!!! made fresh to order, creamy and good with a nice and crunchy shell…. I have to say the Cannoli is my favorite!!!

Chicago still has many great Italian bakeries around, but they are getting few and far between. Some of the fantastic ones I remember as a kid are gone, and as the owners are getting up in age it seems the “new generation” of kids aren’t as eager to carry on with the family tradition. Oh, so sad!!! But for now, we’ll savor the “special ones” that are left!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

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POST TURKEY DAY REFLECTIONS!!!

I’m sure everyone is out of their” Turkey Coma’s” by now, and have eaten their leftovers at least once! I know we have! I hope every ones dinners came out fantastic and you all got to enjoy your day with family and friends!! There will be no recipes on this post, because we all have our specialties that our family’s love, just a few pictures of the main characters.

This actually was the first time I didn’t stuff the bird ( believe me, I heard about it!!) But I wanted to do something different since my kids won’t let me put a modern twist on any of the old standbys. And besides it was a 24lb. bird and it would have took forever to cook!

So I just stuffed it with a bunch of fresh herbs, lemon, and whole garlic cloves. I also rubbed the outside with butter and herbs. I tried to make it look pretty by stuffing fresh sage under the breast skin,but that didn’t turn out as nice as I wanted it to. But at least the turkey had a lot of flavor!!!

One of the highlights in my family is of course, stuffed artichokes, a favorite for “special occasions” I searched for 3 days to find some decent ones, then I finally came across these beauties!! They were huge, un– blemished, with plenty of room to stuff them. I steamed them first to get them tender, then I baked them. They weren’t cheap, but they were worth every penny!

Our deserts consisted of pumpkin pie, lemon bars, chocolate cake, banana cake w/carmel frosting, and to top it off my daughter made some killer gingerbread lattes!!! The day was filled with family, food, games with my Granddaughter, movies for the guys, Shriek3 for B, and holding a new baby.
When it was all said and done, we had a ton of leftovers!!! so everyone got a nice care package when they left! Even my daughters dogs!!

Looking forward to reading all of your blogs!!!

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