Proud Italian Cook

POST TURKEY DAY REFLECTIONS!!!

November 23, 2007 by Marie 13 Comments

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!!!

13 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: stuffed artichokes, turkey

PENNE W/SHRIMP & BROCCOLI AGLIO OLIO!!

November 21, 2007 by Marie 7 Comments

If you are opting for something a little lighter before the big turkey showdown this is a quick and light meal to make. Hubby and I had this last night. I usually always have a bag of shrimp in my freezer, it’s something easy to defrost and quick to cook!

THIS IS ALL YOU DO:

Put a pan of water on for your pasta, when it boils blanch the broccoli for 1 minute and scoop out with slotted spoon, then drop pasta in the same water and cook al dente.
While that’s cooking, saute at least 4 cloves of of shaved garlic with olive oil till golden, then you want to put your shrimp and broccoli in the oil and saute, next deglaze everything with some white wine. When the sauce reduces a little and all the flavors are blended, put in your pasta so it soaks up the sauce, add salt & pepper to taste, and in this case I added some sun dried tomatoes, which I think adds color and flavor. That’s it!!!!

Buon Appetito

7 Comments Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged: broccolli, shrimp, sundried tomatoes

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP!!!

November 18, 2007 by Marie 18 Comments

I’ve been to many Italian weddings in my life and I have NEVER been served this soup! So how did this name come about? That was the exact conversation my Sister- in- law Jennie and I had on the phone the other day. So I decided to do a tiny bit of research and came up with this… Somewhere along the way, the name Minestra Maritata got mis-translated.
The literal translation is “married soup” which in this case, refers to the ingredients, which are a perfect “marriage” of the meat and greens in the soup.

That sounds logical, doesn’t it? If any of you have a little trivia on Italian Wedding Soup, I would love to hear about it. Now on with the recipe!!

First of all I want to say, that there are many, many variations of this soup, I just prefer a little more color, so I add some tomatoes and carrot to mine.

INGREDIENTS

Your favorite Italian meat balls with lots of Romano cheese in them and made tiny, of course
About 6 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1 onion
1 big carrot or 2
1 cup of orzo pasta
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
2 cups of kale, escarole, or chard (shredded) more if you want!
1 small can of diced tomatoes
Salt and pepper

Get your nice heavy soup pan out, then take the garlic, carrot, onion, and saute in a little butter.
Next throw in broth and tomatoes.
I like my broth clear so I don’t put the uncooked meatballs right in my soup pot just yet. I separately put them in another pan with some extra broth and softly cook them, so this way there is no foam in my soup. When they are mostly cooked through I scoop them out with a slotted spoon and put them right into the big pot! The result is a nice clear broth!
After it’s been simmering for a while, I throw in my greens, which in this case was chard, and my 1 cup of orzo.
Also, if you have any leftover rinds of Romano or Parm, this would be an excellent time to use them.