Friendsgiving!

Our first friendsgiving potluck took place last Saturday and was a smashing success. Food and drinks and toys and kids and chatter everywhere, a cozy fire outside, a soul music playlist...seriously, such a great way to kick off the start of the holiday season.

 T and I invited several of our favorite friends and their kids to come party potluck style the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I took care of the main dish in addition to preparing a couple simple sides and an appetizer. We bought a few 6 packs and some soft drinks, made a boozy apple cranberry punch and pretty much relied on our party to fall together. And it totally did.

I made these bomb chicken thighs with chorizo and orange zest (no potatoes this time), a green salad, delish green beans with garlic, pine nuts and basil, minestrone and a bruchetta appetizer. Our guests came through with a cheese and cracker plate, creamed corn, cranberry brie bites, two macaroni and cheeses (!) and lots of different desserts and drinks.

After most people had eaten (we kept it casual - it wasn't a sit down dinner or anything), we made smores and had drinks by the fire.

It was such a chill, nice evening. Can't wait for next year's! Here are some tips I've learned that might help for planning your own friendsgiving, or large gatherings in general:

• Don't try and be a hero. Make what is feasible for you and rely on friends to help out. We specified on our invite that guests were to bring a side, app, dessert or drink to share. As the hostess I was able to make a big main dish and regular sized sides knowing that our guests were going to contribute. 
• Pick easy dishes and dishes that you can prep in advance. I had my minestrone done in a flash earlier that day. I also parboiled my green beans and had the garlic for them minced so that before our people arrived I could saute them together really quickly and serve warm. The main chicken dish took hardly any attention at all - you basically throw some things together and forget about it while it bakes.
• Clean your kitchen as you go! And make sure before you begin cooking that your dishwasher is empty.
• Fire! Build a fire outside if you have the means. There's literally no better tool to get your guests gathered together and chatting. Everyone wants to be by the fire. Plus, smores.
• Make a good playlist!With songs that people like; ones that are easy to listen to. I love Led Zeppelin and Wu Tang but that's not the best music to have conversations over. For this party I went with a 60s/70s soul vibe and picked the songs myself. You can listen here, or Spotify has a bunch of great playlists available.
• Let things go and have fun. People will move your flower centerpiece arrangements in order to talk with the people across from them. Kids will drag toys into the living room, wine will spill....whatever. Have a good time and deal with it tomorrow. :)

Happy holidays!

Christmas 2014

My favorite thing in life is to gather with the people I love to eat, drink and be merry, so naturally the holiday season is my jam.

This year we bought a $20 tree from the grocery store because Christmas tree farm trees are just stupid expensive. And I think it looks at least as lovely as any $100 farm tree.

 

 

 

 Every year over Thanksgiving dinner (this is how food-centered my family is!) we discuss what we'll make for Christmas dinner. We like to go all out with holiday food and never do the traditional turkey and potatoes or anything like that. We always go for all the way homemade and it's almost always Italian. This year we decided on Nana Stizzo's roast cooked in tomato sauce and pasta. The day before Christmas Eve my sisters, parents and I made fettuccini to be dried and saved for our Christmas dinner. Despite the photos, Van actually was not very helpful to the process.

We enjoyed a ham dinner on the Eve at T's dad's house. I made these bomb-ass potatoes. Van was gifted some Lincoln Logs and a Daniel Tiger stuffed animal that says "Hi Neighbor!" and "Do you want to make believe with me?". He loves it. And the farm dog figure that comes with the Lincoln Logs...the logs themselves mostly piss him off because he has a hard time matching up the ends. :)

After dinner and the exchange of gifts we headed to my friend's parents' house for some drinks, desserts and SANTA. I love that Santa shows up at this annual Christmas party for a bit because it'll be a cold day in hell when I wait in some mall line to pay $ for a picture of my kid on Santa's lap. Nope, no thank you.

singing carols with auntie kristel, waiting for santa

he told santa he wanted candy for Christmas. last year he asked santa if he knew how to play Christmas songs on the piano.

Christmas morning was fun, but rushed. I really need to remedy this for next year. Tony's mom's family gets together for Christmas day brunch/lunch which is really gnarly for us because we are such late birds. We basically force V out of bed each year, rush him through gift opening at our house, run him across the street to my parents house for a gift exchange, and run him back home to change so we can get out the door and to T's family's event. He's a really good sport about it, but next year I'm going to advocate for a little more time to ourselves Christmas morning so Van can relax and eat breakfast and play with his cool new stuff before having to put everything away to go to see T's family. I'll figure something out!

Nonetheless, he really enjoyed himself.

After brunch and games with T's family we headed to my parents' house to enjoy the fruits of our pasta making labor a few days before. It was as good as we hoped it would be. I had so much fun playing Heads Up at brunch that I made some of my family play it on Christmas night. We exchanged gifts with my sisters, ate hella food, and drank a bunch of wine...good times. The best times, really.

playing grocery store with granddad and his new cart and "food" from aunt rachel

A Delicious Thing I Make Sometimes: Chicken with Spanish Chorizo and Potatoes

This meal is so freaking good. The prep could not be simpler, it dirties few dishes and comes out pretty perfect every time.

I first saw this Nigella recipe on a web site somewhere. I pretty much do what the recipe calls for, but for some reason the version that is so posted and popular makes WAY more food than your typical family can eat at one sitting. It's more than my family of big eaters could eat over the course of a few dinners. It also makes things sound a little more involved than they really are. I don't like recipes that call for lots of measuring and instruction following. I use terms like "glug" when referring to olive oil amounts.

Here's how I make it:

What you'll need

• Little potatoes, or big ones cut into chunks so they're like little potatoes
• Chicken thighs WITH SKIN (for the love of God, make sure there is skin on there. If you're not into crispy chicken skin then just forget about this recipe. The crispy skin is the most glorious part of this whole meal.)
• Spanish Chorizo, sliced up into bite sized pieces. Make sure it's SPANISH chorizo.
• Red onion (cut it however you like it. I kinda slice mine - it's more in there for flavor, but they do soften and taste pretty good in the mix)
• Dried oregano
• Orange zest (from one orange)
• Olive oil
• S/P

Mix up your potatoes (how every many you want - I make sure I have a handful of little potatoes per person), onion and chorizo. Toss with a bit of olive oil and dump it all in an oven dish of sorts. Like one you'd use to make lasagna.

Place your chicken thighs (however many your family eats...4, 6, whatever) skin side up on top of the potato, chorizo and onion mixture. Maybe drizzle a bit of olive oil on the top of your chicken.

Grab a cheese grater and grate the zest of the orange all over the chicken, potatoes, chorizo and onion. Don't be stingy. And don't squeeze any of the orange on top. This is not the place for orange juice. Just the zest.

Sprinkle a bit of salt, pepper and dried oregano over everything (not too much salt - chorizo is salty) before placing it into a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for one hour.

Halfway through cooking I like to pull it out for a second, toss the potatoes around a bit and kinda baste everything with the orangey, oregano-ey grease that's collected on the bottom.

My sister makes this without the orange zest ( which I would never do - the subtle orange flavor is really, really good) and will sometimes sub kielbasa for chorizo or try other kinds of dried herbs in lieu of oregano. It's a really easily adaptable dish. I make it all the time. There's nothing not to like here. Pretty bomb.

Roman Holiday and a Day in Paris

i'm back to the grind this week after a really dope two weeks spent throughout Italy and Paris with my Tony, my Vanny, my mom and my dad. tony and I spent a week and a half in Florence, Rome and Calabria in 2010 and it was pretty special to get to relive that with my parents and van for this trip.

the trip was a nice pace and we saw a lot in our time there, considering we were towing my almost two year old along the whole time. I have to say, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a better internationally traveling twenty two month old than my son. I will give this kid props for the rest of my life for being such a rockstar on our trip. hours and hours and HOURS in a planes and trains and taxis with jet lag and luggage to lug and language barriers is never fun. it's hard enough for grown adults to keep their shit together under those circumstances and I knew that expecting my toddler to was insane. I also knew, however, that if any kid could do it, it would be my kid. were he not such an adaptable child, I would never have thought to bring him halfway across the world on vacation. somehow I just had a feeling that he could pull this off and he totally did. he is such a champ. he is the best.

our first five days were spent in FLORENCE. beautiful, beautiful Firenze. on our last trip I wanted to sob as our train departed Florence because I already missed it. I wonder if as I see more of the world if I'll still regard Florence as my favorite place. I really, really, really love it there.

highlights of our Florence stay:

• our old world, adorable rental apartment, with it's view of the duomo from the windows
• the food! including a new trattoria across from where we were staying. the owner was so sweet to van and gave him complimentary biscotti both times we ate there.
• taking a night walk with tony only to find the coolest cover band in the world was playing a small club right on our same street. I was lured in by their cover of "stay with me" by rod stewart and stayed long enough to hear them cover wilco! so crazy. they were adorable.
• watching van chase birds around the boboli gardens.
• our dinner at café academia on a recommendation from an old friend. van pinched his fingers between the table and his high chair and the whole restaurant about stopped functioning. the wait staff rushed to bring him ice and kiss his hand! they brought him a bowl of strawberries and a cookie, and later gave him a cup of juice with a little straw. as customers filed out after their dinners (and long after van had stopped crying) they came by to pet his head and make sure his hand was okay. it was the sweetest display I've ever seen. Italians LOVE babies.
• a day trip to pisa and lucca, where I had the best bruschetta of my life.
• david!

next up was ROME. my italian family lives 5-6 hours south (by train) from rome. if we didn't have to essentially pass it to get to my family i would not have chosen to visit there again. i liked rome last time, but once was enough for me. i feel like i saw everything there was to see there in 2010. it's a great city, but it's really big and really busy. it's the opposite of quaint.

highlights from rome:

• our beautiful apartment! it was located in a neighborhood pretty far from any tourist attractions, which is probably why it was so affordable. we didn't mind though, since it was literally only steps away from the metro station which takes you anywhere you need to get to. the apartment was decorated beautifully and the owner was so sweet and accommodating. we adored her and her little son silvestro, who is only a month older than van.
• the collosseum and the roman forum. it's such a trip to be somewhere so old!
• the capuchin crypt. just, wow. 
• the trevi fountain - van probably threw 5 euro in there.
• dinner at da mario. my cousin nicola's cousin works there with his brother. we had the best meal there on our last trip and knew we had to go back. marcello hooked it up once again with course after course of delicious food. my favorite part was the tempura battered zucchini flowers. 

after three busy days in rome we headed south to the region of calabria. my family hails from a rustic little village outside of cosenza called TORANO CASTELLO.

highlights from torano castello:

• the spectacular enormous moon that shined over the village the first nights we were there. it was gigantic! i've never seen anything like it. 
• getting to meet little angelo, my cousin's baby. van loved him too. he was a friendly little thing, and has the best head of thick black hair.
• speeding around the village streets in nic's tiny car, going from house to house to greet family members. every place we stopped a relative attempted to give us something...wine, beer, coca cola, cookies, cake...
• dinner at my granddad's cousin elena's house. we had salami, bread, olives and peppers first. next was the rigatoni in tomato sauce with short ribs. then out came the breaded cod, broccoli rabe, roasted potatoes and risotto balls. last was salad, followed by fruit and coffee. ridiculous! so much food, and everything was fresh and delicious.
• dinner at my granddad's cousin sante's house. getting to meet sante's grandson and namesake who is just a little older than van. his wife prepared a huge meal similar to Elena's, only with home made pasta and meatballs instead of ribs and cannolis for dessert. nic translated sante's wife's recipe for these really delicious pickled peppers everyone there makes. I can't wait to try do it myself! we ate and drank and passed around old letters, cards and photos that my great grandfather had sent to his Italian nieces and nephews that they saved all these years!
• on our last night in the village our family threw us a little pizza party at my granddad's cousin's bar/restaurant. a friend of the family came with his son and brought two accordions and a guitar! they all took turns passing the instruments around and playing songs.
• a vacuum packed sopressata my cousin sidaro handed me as we were leaving, for me to enjoy back home in California. :)

we left torano castello via a 5 hour train to rome. we boarded our plane that evening and arrived in PARIS!

while our apartment's location was fantastic, the actual dwelling left a lot to be desired. it was up four flights of stairs that smelled like the water from a carnival ride. the apartment was itty bitty - smaller than it appeared in the photos on air bnb, and with lots more clutter. oh well. we were only going to be there for two nights and one day. we'd survive.

here our my highlights from my day in Paris:

• literally turning the corner past our apartment and seeing the top of the Eiffel tower.
• the Eiffel tower! duh! we went and saw it first thing and it is amazing.
• the store fronts. Parisians take such care in making things look beautiful. the baked goods look so pretty lined up in the windows of the patisseries. the dry cleaner displayed a vintage dress form with a chic coat. the florists fill the windows and street outside the shop with flowers organized by color. the cafes and restaurants are each decorated in their unique way, with big signs out front in cool fonts. you can tell just by taking a quick jaunt around the neighborhood that beauty and style play a big part in Parisian culture. I appreciated that very much.
• our funny waiters at the café where we had our first French meal. I had bœuf bourguignon. the bread it came with was SO good. probably the best bread ever, and i'm a lover and eater of bread so I feel pretty qualified to make that judgment.
• taking a walk in the 9th and stumbling upon block after block after block of music stores! a store of guitars next to a store of recording equipment next to a store full of pedals next to a store of drums...it went on and on forever. tony was in heaven.
• dinner at chartier, on a recommendation from my boss. he goes there every time he is in paris, and i'm so glad he told me to make the trip out there. I guess it's a bit touristy and doesn't offer anything mind blowing, but the atmosphere is fun and the building that it's in is totally charming.
• taking van on the carousel at the Eiffel tower after dinner and watching it twinkle with lights for 5 minutes at the top of the hour. it was literally marvelous. I could stare at it forever.

we were there, and now we're here. things seem to different when you've been somewhere so far away. i'm glad to be home. as fun and wonderful as it all was, living out of a suitcase and relying on public transit and taxis it quite tiring and hectic, especially with a young toddler. I was sad to leave, but looking forward to a diversity of  meals, water pressure and a working hair straightener.

we arrived at SFO last Wednesday afternoon. my brother in law took us to get Mexican food on our way home. you can take the Stizzos out of California, but you can't take the California out of the Stizzos.