A Proper Send Off

My sister and her family just left the country and headed back to Cambodia.  They have an orphanage that they are operating there called Cosette's Hope Children's Home.  My mom and dad came up from NM, and we got together for a couple of dinners.  I was responsible for the Italian meal.

As I was planning the menu, my sister informed me that her husband has never been a pasta guy, but that maybe it was her sauce that he was not a fan of.  Well, I love a challenge, and started searching out a menu that might change his mind.

Thanks to Marie at Proud Italian Cook, I found an idea for a large pasta dish with roasted veggies.  When our two families get together it is a crowd, so the description is what caught my eye first.

This is a pic of the veg after it had been roasted.  Cauliflower; Carrots; Onions; Broccoli; Carrots; Red, Yellow and Orange Peppers: and Cherry Tomatoes roasted with Garlic and Olive Oil.

After the Rigatoni was cooked, I added it all together in one of those big catering pans, sprinkled some fresh grated Parm on it, and to the fridge it went.  

In my crockpot, I made a Pork Ragu from Michele Scicolone.  You can find her recipe in her book The Italian Slow Cooker (highly recommend!) or here. Like Giulianna, I too made a few changes here and there, but kept mostly to the recipe - because it is just that good!  Since I already had the Rigatoni, I didn't want to repeat it for the pork.  I wanted to make Polenta, but since my mission was to wow my brother-in-law, and the fact that my husband is not a huge fan, I decided to do Garlic, Parmesan, Mashed Potatoes.  

I roasted several heads of garlic in the oven while the veg was cooking, and boiled up 10 pounds of potatoes.   I didn't use a lot of cream or milk, but instead added olive oil to the potatoes.  Mixed with the parm, they were super creamy.  I put those in a big pan too, ready to be heated in the oven the next day.  Before heating them back up, I added a layer of parm to give them a delicious golden crust. (Later, as we were setting them on the counter, my sister informed me that her kids didn't like mashed potatoes.  Oh well, they'll keep)
Since my dad thinks that everything needs a side of spaghetti (even spaghetti!), I made some of that for him with my homemade sauce.  Add to that a large fresh salad and - Done!
My counter was beautiful with all the huge trays of food.  I am just sorry I didn't get pictures of it all.  But when you have 22 people wanting the food, they don't want to wait for the pictures.  

For dessert, I made Bocconcini con Crema (cream puffs) with chocolate and vanilla puddings inside.  The first batch I made, I didn't stir them long enough, and they were a little flat.  I really don't mind making them, but knowing how many I wanted to make (ended up with 72), and already with blisters on my hand, I switched to my hand held mixer with the small paddles attached.  They turned out exactly as I had planned - light and airy.   I used my small cookie scoop since we had so many little hands.  I thought it would be easier for them to handle and less chance of pudding on the floor! 

 After we were done and everyone was full, we had a few leftovers.  BUT hardly any of the potatoes.  My sister was stunned!  She couldn't believe how much her kids ate.  At one point, one of my nieces said, "Mom, can you cook like this?", and my sister answered, "No.  Sorry."  It was the best compliment I got that evening.  That, and watching the kids exit the kitchen and grab little bites of potatoes on their way.

As for my brother-in-law.  Well, he may not be a true convert, but I think I opened his eyes to Italian as being more then frozen meatballs in a jarred sauce.  ;)

Fresh Air is Good For the Heart and Soul

Today, we took the family up to Mount Evans.  The drive was a bit nerve-wracking at times (not a guard rail anywhere), but the sights were breathtaking.  And it was so good to spend the day outside with the family.

Lunch at Summit Lake

She was a bit cold!

Chilly at the top - only 48 degrees

 

Not All Pizzas Are Bad

We have done some pretty big pizza feeds at our house.  The most recent being 26 people, and that was only my brother's family, my sister's family, and mine!  Yes, we are Italian.  No, we are not Catholic.  :)

We did some crazy pizzas that day.  In fact, we did 11 pizzas and focaccias for all of us.  Not gonna lie, not all them were low fat, low carb or low anything for that matter.  But all yummy!  We had enough pizza that leftovers on the back deck at 11pm with just my brother's family was as delightful as the company.

My family loves pizza (back to that Italian thing, I guess), but I don't always like all the calories that American pizza carries.  So, the other night I made 2 pizzas for our family.  (The two big kids were camping with friends, so 2 was enough)  One was pepperoni.  The pepperoni was good, but we figured that by stepping up to a nicer pepperoni we would be getting all the flavor with less pepperoni, but save ourselves some calories.  I didn't go crazy with the sauce or cheese either.

The other was more traditional.  Olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, basil and Parmesan cheese.

Both were on a thin crusts.  By doing that, I can control the crunch on the crust and not just have thick bread.  If I want bread, I'll make bread.  But pizza deserves to have its flavors stand on their own.  If you make a thick crust, you have to add more toppings in order to taste something besides bread.

So, have some pizza (unless you have gluten issues), just don't supersize me.

 

A Movie for Thought

Last night, I was flicking through Netflix and found a movie that caught my eye.  It is called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross.  I'm not going to give you a synopsis of the movie you can do that on your own.  It just was a really good movie to watch the night before we were going to start our juicing.  Very inspirational, and cool that it has some resources that people can follow if they are interested.


And then today, James told me that he had just started noticing some patches developing on him that sounded very much like what Joe had.  But, even if it isn't, I know that this is the right decision for us to be making now!