Turns Out I'm Still Italian After All!

You almost can't tell that I'm Italian---I have pale skin most of the time (of course the pool helped with that this year), I don't look Italian, I don't speak Italian and besides the occasional pot of spaghetti sauce, I don't cook Italian. I've been to Italy, but I'm not sure that counts. I changed all that last weekend---I'm definitely Italian through and through (okay maybe only half)---and I have the FOOD to prove it---and I've been on a roll.

It really started when I was in St. Louis for nearly a month helping mom after her surgery. Visiting my favorite Italian restaurants is a must when I'm in town. We just don't have any Italian restaurants like them here in Nashville. 

I decided that I was going to cook Italian for my friends. I left St. Louis with a cooler of toasted ravioli, Valenti bread and aged cheeses. I finally had that dinner last weekend. I decided to serve courses. There were 11 of us.

The week before, I went to the liquor store to find just the right wines for the party. I told my buddy at the store that I was serving Italian and wanted some "respectable" wines. He said, "so you're thinking the $30.00 range?" I said, "well, I was really thinking more in the $20.00 range." I didn't want to look cheap, but I was really thinking more in the $15.00 range. He helped me with 6 different types. I got 2 of each for a case. They ranged from $14.00 to $28.00 a bottle. That's when I started to complain to Connie---entertaining is expensive and I'm mad that some of our friends never do anything.  Anyway, she's good to let me vent. I swore to her that this is the last time I was doing something. Of course, it doesn't do a lot of good to complain to her because she shares my plight. She is the only one that plans and does as much as I do. We rant and rave and say we're not going to do it anymore, but then we can't hold out because we want to do fun stuff. Enough of the complaints and on to the dinner.

I started cooking on Saturday morning. Butch had gone to play golf, so I had the house to myself. I put on my music and really enjoyed the process. I used fresh herbs from my farmer (I don't know if I've reported this---another story---I get a basket of fresh vegetables every week) and lots of fresh vegetables. I cut flowers from the garden for the table and had all the food ready by 1 p.m. I took my nap floating in the pool.

Dinner:

Course 1: Toasted ravioli---2---1 with butter, 1 with sauce.

Course 2: Grandpa's soup via grandma---my grandpa Preli made the best soup. It's the only thing he made. When he died, grandma tried to duplicate it. She got pretty close. She babysat Sandy a lot when she was a baby, so I was at her house all the time. I wrote things down when she cooked because she didn't have any actual recipes. 

Course 3: Italian salad with all kinds of good stuff in it---like St. Louis salads. I used the Pasta House dressing recipe, but substituted balsamic vinegar for the red-wine vinegar and it was great. I served a slice of Italian bread (toasted with butter and herbs) with the salad.

Course 4: Gnocchis (home-made with Grandma Preli's recipe) with spaghetti sauce, bruggeloni (I have no idea how to spell that---it's the round steak with seasonings, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese rolled around hard boiled eggs and cooked in the the sauce) along with another slice of bread.

Course 5: Fresh Blackberry cake. For 4 weeks in a row, I've gotten a quart of fresh blackberries from the farmer. I found that recipe on the internet---homemade from scratch---delicious.

The meal was a success---and fun to do. Even Butch, who really doesn't care about food, told me it was great. 

Now this week, the whole family is here for our annual first week of August last hurrah before school begins. I was telling the girls about my dinner party last week. I had planned to make some spaghetti for them this week as I made a HUGE pot of sauce and froze it. Then I got to thinking---I made this great Italian meal for my friends, why don't I do it for the family? So, I did. The Lapps family were gone today and Butch was playing golf, so, again, I had the house to myself. I made the entire dinner over again. This time there would just be 10 of us---or so I thought. Jordan ended up calling to find out if she could bring her boyfriend. Sure, what's one more.

Did the whole meal again. I let Victoria and Elizabeth help me make the gnocchis. Funny how I have so much patience when it comes to my grandkids. When my girls were little, I could not bake with them. I "wigged out" about the mess. Our family Christmas cookie baking day ended up with me making the dough ahead of time to avoid the mess. We all rolled them out and baked them. Then, Butch was in charge of decorating. I went in the other room and just cringed when I heard the sprinkles hitting the floor.  I've come a long way.

Anyway, after cooking a huge Italian meal twice in the same week, something crazy has started to happen. I'm talking more with my hands and an accent has emerged. Turns out I'm still Italian after all! Arrivederci! (Okay, so I cheated---translations.com).