Remembering Easter Traditions

As a child growing up in an Italian household there are many things that I can recall that became traditions with each and every holiday.  They always centered on food.  Aunt Lucy’s egg nog at Christmas time, Mom’s ham roasts at Easter, and the pig roast at Aunt Agnes’s house for the Fourth of July.  But one thing we always did as a family was to make my Nana’s Easter Calzone (some call it Pizza Gaine).

Most recently we would gather at cousin Nicole’s and bang out 100 of these beautiful, delicious calzones.  We would divide up the jobs, me on dough, Dad and Uncle Vinny cutting up the cold cuts, kids peeling eggs, and everyone else working on baking, cooling, and of course eating.

These look like calzones but are filled with pepperoni, ham, and salami all mixed up with hard boiled eggs, raw eggs, and parmesan cheese.  The dough is basically a pastry with added egg and baking powder.  Every year, each bite takes me right back to being a kid.  I think it’s one of those communal feelings where every member of the family has the very same feeling.  How many foods can you think of that will do that for you?

Over the past few years, whether a result of diets or lack of time, we have not gotten together to do this wonderful tradition and I have missed that taste of my past.  This year, I decided to go it alone and surprise everyone at East Sunday brunch (I’ve  been elected this year to host a brunch for my immediate family).  Fortunately, they keep well for a week and can be frozen once cooked.  But knowing me, I’ll be delivering one to my parents and my sister well before our meal next weekend!

Normally, I’d share the recipe (see P.S. below),  but honestly, it’s kind of a “feel” your way around thing when it comes to putting it together,so it’s a bit less than exact. I will, however, show a copy of the recipe I work from which includes my less than perfect notes.  If you need help, I’m glad to interpret.   I’m lucky enough that I was one of the family members who paid close attention to detail!  Whatever your spring holiday is, I hope you have some time to revive an old recipe just to taste the past and remember…And hey, if you’re in the neighborhood, stop in for a taste of my childhood, there is always enough to share!

P.S.

I decided to place the recipe here anyway.  I decided to re-write my instructions and I believe that it’s doable if you want to give it a go!  My tip would be to make sure that you immediately use any cut-away dough in the next calzone, that way you will end up with nothing extra at the end.

Tomasello family easter calzone – 3-20-16, 9-24 AM

 

Just a Little Something Called Chicken and Peas

Remember when you were young and you had a favorite dish that mom made?  Maybe it was pizza, or meatloaf (mine wasn’t meatloaf…I actually didn’t love it until I became a full fledged adult…or maybe it was after that ricotta stuffed meatloaf that my aunt taught me to make.  More on that one another time!).  Anyway, one of my favorites was Mom’s chicken and peas.

The simplicity of this dish is what makes it so good!  Three ingredients:  Chicken, peas, and a white onion with some spices thrown at it.  I make this when I am in a hurry to feed a few more mouths than just mine and Jerry’s.  It’s usually a favorite served with some simple white rice (I like mine with a little truffle oil for added flavor-heck if I could put truffles in my morning smoothie, I would!)

1 package boneless chicken thighs

1 package chicken drumsticks

1 white onion, sliced

2 cans of peas (I know the sodium, right?  But believe me it really adds flavor)

salt/pepper

Dried thyme

Arrange the chicken in a casserole (I like to alternate thighs and drumsticks for presentation), top with the  white onion, then pour on one can of peas with juice and the other after draining.  push peas and onions into sides of chicken pieces to expose the meat more.

Top with salt and pepper and about a tablespoon or so of thyme.  Bake for 45 minutes at 375.  Serve with white rice (or even quinoa, if you like).

That Irish Soda Bread

Some years ago, before I became a business teacher, I spent my time working for a bank.  You meet all kinds of people when you are in that kind of business and you work for all kinds of people as you move around quite frequently.

One of the more influential people that I met was a manager, Pat, that I had the privilege of training with and subsequently working under.  She was a fantastic baker, as I recall, and one of her favorites was her Irish Soda Bread.  She reluctantly shared her “secret” with me and I have been making it ever since.  Even had an older Irish friend, who was a transplant here in the states directly from Ireland, who couldn’t wait for this bread each and every year.  He said it really did remind him of home and his own Mum’s soda bread.

Here’s the recipe:

The Recipe:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking soda
Mix this all together.
Add: 1.5 sticks of softened butter with pastry blender until large, coarse crumbs appear.
ADD: 1 cup rasins
Then make a well and pour in 1 1/3 cups of butter milk. form this into a ball with as little kneading as possible.

Turn out onto a floured surface and cut into 2 or 3 separate pieces.

Press to about 1.5 inch thickness and place each into a round cake pan (It won’t fill it) and slice the surface with a serrated knife into a cross.

Bake at 350 for 55 minutes

What is this…What’s this all about?

For the last 38 years of my life I seem to have had one mission and one mission only…to create perfect food.  Over the years, I have come to realize that perfection is a shadow that I will chase for the rest of my years, but with each and every food creation it’s 2 steps forward and 1 step back.

I don’t cook for a living, I cook for the love of it.  I can’t wait to wow people when they come over and watch their faces as they try to take it all in.  Sometimes it’s simple, in a Martha way, and sometimes it’s over the top but always presented in the best way possible.  I have been told that I have a certain aesthetic.  So be it. I have had amazing teachers in my life in the form of my very Italian family.  Mom is amazing; she often made food that was outside of the Italian realm and gave me a great background in variety.   She and her sisters share amazing recipes, techniques, and presentation skills with me all the time.

When I first got serious about how I was going to cook, I realized that I had to learn the root from which good food is made up.  Yup, that means lots of reading and trial and error in making things like mother sauces (once you can do these well the sky is the limit).  I still prefer, after all of these years, to use as many raw ingredients as possible.  What’s a shortcut?  A way towards unhealthy living and not such great food.  Semi-homemade…nah, that’s for amateurs, something that works for the lazy cook.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll eat mac and cheese from a box, if that’s what you make me and I will even love it.  But when I make the same dish, I prefer to break it down and recreate it using the most basic ingredients that I can.  And I don’t just mean cooking, that goes for baking, as well.