Browsing Tag

holidays

Smitten Kitchen’s Bakery Style Butter Cookies

December 24, 2019

chocolate dipped butter cookies with sprinkles

Hi friends! Happy Christmas Eve! I know it has been a long time since I’ve blogged. Ten months. After giving my blog a small makeover at the beginning of February, everything came to a screeching halt within the same month. I didn’t intend to step away from blogging, but it became necessary. This year had several rough patches for me so I (reluctantly) gave myself permission to let my blog go dormant. I found myself struggling with anxiety and overwhelm–not only regarding my blog, but about several other Life Things. It was next to impossible to feel creative when I […]

Baked Rigatoni with Zucchini and Ham

December 20, 2018

How have we already arrived to the end of the year?! I’m always surprised once the holiday season arrives despite knowing that it is approaching. I’ve never been one to begin preparing for Christmas mid-year, but I’m starting to think that isn’t such a bad idea. I started this month feeling under the weather for two weeks straight which put me behind on everything I have wanted to do for Christmas, including publishing more blog posts. As much as I love the holidays, it is also the time of year that I feel the most overwhelmed. The pressure is completely self-imposed […]

Crostoli

February 13, 2018

Buon martedì grasso! Welcome to the February edition of Cucina Conversations. Our posts are early this month since we are reprising the fun topic of carnevale which in Italy began on February 3rd and ends today, “Fat Tuesday”. For the past two weeks, the shiny bakery cases of pasticcerie (pastry shops) and forni (bakeries) across Italy have been filled with overflowing trays traditional carnevale sweets: castagnole di ricotta (ricotta fritters), frìtole veneziane (Venetian sweet fritters), bomboloni (doughnuts), fritelle di mele (apple fritters), and my personal favorites, crostoli (fried pastry ribbons). Crostoli have a special place in my heart and culinary memory because both my maternal nonna Liliana and paternal nonna Ada used to make these […]

Struffoli

December 27, 2017

Welcome to the December edition of Cucina Conversations! For our last post of the year, my fellow Cucina Conversations friends and I are reprising last year’s topic and sharing ricette di natale–Christmas recipes. The holiday season has been a flurry of activity for me since last month and I’ve neglected my small corner of the Internet (yet again), but I wasn’t about to end the year without sharing one more traditional Italian recipe with you! My contribution to this month’s theme is show-stopping struffoli. Struffoli originated in Napoli, the capital of the region of Campania, and dates back to the time […]

Frìtole Veneziane

February 28, 2017

Buon martedì grasso and welcome to the February edition of Cucina Conversations! Today is Fat Tuesday, the last day for Christians worldwide to indulge before the lean forty days of Lent. Martedì grasso is also the final day of carnevale season. This month, the bloggers of Cucina Conversations are telling you about the variety of traditional foods prepared and eaten during the three weeks of carnevale. To commemorate my recent trip to the Veneto and my northern Italian heritage, I made frìtole veneziane–known in the Venetian dialect as frìtoe venessiane– a yeasted sweet fritter laced with liquor-soaked raisins and fragrant pine nuts, and coated abundantly in granulated sugar. Frìtole are considered an institution of the carnevale […]

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