Daily Loaf

When I was a little girl, we lived in New York City.  I’m talking about the waaaaay early years before my pesky little attention hog of a baby brother was born.  Ah…..those were the days,  an only child basking in the undivided adoration of all the adults in my life.  I was the center of the universe.  The apple of everyone’s eye.

We didn’t go out for meals very often back then, unless you count my Nonna’s house.  My parents were practically kids themselves and could barely afford me!  When we did go to a restaurant, it was usually one of a short list of choices. The place I remember most fondly was a little neighborhood trattoria called Johnny’s.  The owners, John and Marie, were a nice, middle-aged Italian couple who kind of adopted my parents.  My father hadn’t been in this country very long and Marie used to make him all the special dishes he missed from home.  I, of course, being outrageously precocious and incredibly cute, always rated special treatment there as well.

Many years have passed since then.  Johnny’s is long gone, but I still remember the warmth and hospitality my family always experienced there. Another thing I vividly remember is sneaking sips of my mother’s espresso as I enjoyed one of my favorite treats of all time – tortoni.  How I loved it! Read the rest of this entry »

Every year I obsess about the first few weeks of school. Not because I’m worried about my children’s teachers — I’m more concerned about lunchtime.

My kids do purchase the stuff made at school, but there are also times when they’re fortunate to have fabulous food prepared for them by their gourmet cook father. Yes, we do send leftovers and those wonderful Thermos containers that keep food hot are a godsend. But all too soon there will be days when a quickly made sandwich ends up in the bag.

What causes me consternation is not that my kids will get odd looks when they bring a frittata or curry soup that might not appear on a regular school lunch menu; rather it is that the kind of sandwich my children prefer always gets a comment from a new teacher or another child in class who isn’t familiar with our sandwich filler choices.

My kids like Nutella. For those not familiar with it, Nutella looks like a chocolate spread, so to the untrained eye my children are eating a chocolate sandwich. In these days of hyped up healthy eating-isms, chocolate is bad!

At some point, early in the year, I find myself explaining: Read the rest of this entry »

In an effort to draw attention to the plight of the honey bee, Haagen-Dazs is having a Bee-built Flavor Day on Tuesday May 12th.

From 4pm – 8pm (at participating locations) you can get a free single scoop of any of the Haagen-Dazs Bee-built flavors.

The only locations in the area are International Plaza and Countryside Mall, but I do not know if they are “participating locations.”

Read more about the honey bee crisis here.

Is it possible to be in love with a chocolate cake? Is it possible to marry it? How about toasted coconut ice cream? Can I marry it too? Please tell me I can. Oh, but wait, that means I would be married to 3 things, my husband, chocolate cake and toasted coconut ice cream. Welp, I guess it’s time to move to Utah! (I know, polygamy and polyandry is illegal, even in Utah)

What you gaze upon is quite possibly the most decedent, moist, over the top, heavenly flourless chocolate cake. If I ever get put in the slammer and am on death row and need a last meal, this will be it. With a big ass glass of cold milk. Since this cake only consists of 3 ingredients, Read the rest of this entry »

Too cold outside to run and get ice cream? In Florida, it is never too cold for ice cream. But I am sure that when you are freezing your ass off, the last thing on your mind is a big ol’ bowl of Rocky Road. So I present you an alternative, Banana Split Salad. I could literally shove my face in this bowl and lick it clean. And it’s from Paula Deen so you know it has to be ridiculously yummy! Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time in years, I dragged out my ice cream maker with plans to introduce my son to the glories of homemade frozen treats. But as soon as we hit the supermarket for the necessary supplies, I was confronted with something that made me put the kibosh on our epic gourmet dessert: vanilla beans are $5! Each!

No sense shelling out $10 in ingredients for a quart of ice cream — homemade or no — so I settled for vanilla extract. The result? Well, the four-year old was pleased, but me … not so much.

After the break, I’ll give you the lowdown on why vanilla is so expensive, cost-saving tactics that won’t sacrifice quality, a recipe for Vanilla Sugar, as well as the usual buying/storing/using advice: Read the rest of this entry »