Christmas eating.

I'm such a lucky lady. I've finally obtained the super secret recipe for the Rapino holiday soup. It's only taken me 30 years to get this recipe! To put it in perspective, my mother spent decades trying to get this recipe out of my paternal grandmother. I mean the woman practically took it to her grave. If you've ever met a true Italian woman, her purpose and reason for breathing and living is to feed people. To protect this, they never share their recipes and therefore, she never wrote her recipes down. They were all up in that head of her's. And I'm sure she had some secret ingredient or certain way of doing things that made her food taste just slightly better that we will never know. With all of this said, I don't blame my grandmother for keeping it all hush hush. That's how she kept her worth, not that anyone would ever be able to trump her. But I understand, she needed to keep those recipes to herself for insurance. Fortunately for me, I managed to ask and email my cousin and aunts enough that they finally gave it up and wrote down the ingredients and approximate measurements. Maybe that's an exaggeration (shocker, I'm exaggerating! Oh wait, and there's our friend, sarcasm.), they were quite helpful.

Anyway, let's talk holiday soup! Holiday soup is a traditional Italian soup that is made and eaten on holidays, hence the name "holiday" soup. We're so creative, I know. To most other people in the U.S., holiday soup is also known as Italian wedding soup. I will tell you though, that crap that you get in a can doesn't hold a candle to holiday soup. Let me put it this way, my mother who is a total foodie, especially with Italian food, said this batch of soup I made today was the best soup she's had since my grandmother made it. Um, hello! That's a HUGE compliment coming from my mother. She does not mess when it comes to Italian food. And my father, don't even get me started, was over the moon. He talked about how good that soup was all night and even said it tasted just like my grandmother's. I couldn't be more thrilled! My grandmother was the best cook my family has ever known. And this recipe came straight from Italy. It was not some recipe found in a magazine or book. Straight from the boot, people!!

Normally I'm willing to share recipes in a split second. On my grandmother's behalf and to walk in her footsteps, I think I'm going to keep this one in the family. Haha. Sorry!!!

I will tell you what is in it though: tiny little meatballs (that took three of us to roll by hand! And my dad is by far the best at it since his mother made him do it while growing up - he's the holiday soup expert!), chicken broth (my grandmother used to make giant jars of this stuff from scratch - I don't have the expertise or time to do that so I get it out of a box), homemade croutons, and escarole. That's it! And it's amazing!

The main dish for Christmas dinner was my mother's yummy lasagna. O-M-G, she makes a mean lasagna. So your next question probably is: Did she make her own sauce? The answer here on this occasion is no. On other occasions, she does make her own sauce and it's really good. But today she used Rao's sauce. If you are going to buy sauce, this is certainly the way to go. It's more expensive than other brands like Ragu and such but trust me, it's worth every extra penny. It's like $10 a jar. Like I said a little steep but you haven't taken the 5 hours to cook this sauce or expensed the money to make it taste this good. For those of you who don't know, Rao's is a restaurant in NYC where the tables are owned by people. Meaning its ultra exclusive and you can't just make a reservation to go there. You have to know someone. Once you taste the sauce, you'll understand why.

Okay so you're now probably wondering what in god's name this looks like. Well, lucky for you, I take pictures of all of my food! Haha. It's not normal, I know. But it makes me happy. With no further adieu here are some pics of making the meatballs and croutons and the final products.

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas meals as much as I enjoyed mine!

Much love, peace, and joy to you all during this holiday season! Salud!

The Green Monster

So I vowed to try out this Green Monster that I've been reading so much about on the web.  

See The Violet Online Blog and The Green Monster Movement.  And so I did.  

It tastes so much better than it looks!  I promise.  And it's super healthy.  Gives me tons of energy and fills me up.  Okay so here is what is in it:

2 cups spinach

1 banana

handful of blueberries

1.5 tbsp ground flaxseed

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

lots of ice - this sucker must be drank cold!

Try it just once, for me.  Let me know how you like it or any other versions of it that you come up with!  I tried a tbsp of organic creamy peanut butter today - very good.  I bet other fruits would be great too.  

Good luck, beautiful - or as the Italians say: Buona fortuna, bella!

xoxo

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

So for my 30th birthday, my dear friend, Cecy, sent a fabulous, adorable cupcake book all the way from Memphis, TN, called Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery.  After much hype and talk about making these cupcakes to friends, roommates, and co-workers, I finally did it!  Now keep in mind, I am not a baker.  I am a cook.  I can whip up almost anything in the kitchen but I certainly don't feel my most comfortable baking.  Cut to me yelling at my roommate last night, "I am NOT a baker! I've already messed up half of the things in this recipe!"  I'm just a little dramatic...[that's sarcasm]. With no further ado, here are my dark chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate buttercream frosting! (Recipe to follow.  I promise.)

Update: Here is the recipe that I promised!  Note dark chocolate was my own spin on this recipe as I am a much bigger fan of it in comparison to milk or bittersweet chocolate.  

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

4 oz of dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

6 tbsp of unsalted butter, room temp

3/4 cup of packed brown sugar

2 large eggs, preferrably organic or free-range

1.25 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup 2% milk, room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

Oven: 375 degrees and line cupcake pans with liners

Break the chocolate up in a bowl and melt in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Let cool slightly.

In a big bowl, cream the butter and sugar.

In a separate bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg yolks for several min.

Add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar, beat well.

Add the chocolate, beat well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl. 

Mix the milk and vanilla together.

Add 1/3 of the flour to the chocolate mixture, beat well.

Add 1/3 of the mild, beat well.  

Repeat until all blended.

In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.

Fold the egg whites into the batter with a metal spoon.

Spoon into the cups, filling about 2/3 of the way up. 

Bake for 20-25 min for regular size or 15 min for minis.

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

6 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

1 cup/2 sticks of unsalted butter, room temp

1 tbsp 2% milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2.5 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

Break the chocolate into pieces in a bowl and melt in microwave - 30 second intervals.  Let cool slightly.

In a big bowl, beat butter, milk, vanilla, and sugar.

Add melted chocolate, beat well. 

Done and done. You have homemade cupcakes from scratch!  And I can't lie they are quite tasty... I had 3 of them.  Oops...haha.  Hope you enjoy them as much as we did at home and at the Census Bureau (aka work)!