The Last Year of My Life in Food

The Beginning of My Blogging Days...

Hi! My name is Geena and I am a school counselor by day and a cook (in my own mind) by night! Food has always been important to my family growing up. We are 100% Italian and grew up in and around the Bronx, NY. It does not get more food oriented than the BX. There are stores that ONLY sell cheese, how amazing is that? Well, if you ask me, PRETTY DAMN AMAZING. The deli, bakery, and pizza scene in NY is unlike anywhere else. Other places try to call themselves delis and bakeries, but unless you've been to the ones in NY, you have no idea! 

Food has shaped my life (and unfortunately my body... but that's another story...) for a very long time! People are always asking me for recipes and ideas, so I figured I would put them all up in one spot so that others can check out what I am up to and so that I can keep a great history for my children to one day look back on. 

So....in the last year of my life, I got married...

(photo courtesy of Lauren Cowart Photography)

Went on a Honeymoon to Key West...

And moved to VA from NC...

And although it's been a hectic year, it has been fun and FILLED with food!


The Summer..


OUR WEDDING
Our wedding couldn't have been any more amazinggg! I had the love of my life there waiting to commit to me forever. My sisters, my parents, much of my immediate family, and closest friends.... they ALL were there! Even my grandmother took her very first plane ride at almost 87 years old (from Boston to NC), just be by my side for such an important day. Wow, what a family! 


All wedding photos are courtesy of Lauren Cowart Photography (the best photographer EVER!!)


Check out this CAKE!!!! Yum. 

The top layer was amaretto and apricot filling in a vanilla cake, the middle cake was lemon, and the bottom was coconut. We had a gorgeous grooms cake decorated in UNC Tarheels (GO HEELS!) and it was chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling!!!

Cocktail hour!

The Main Course

In true southern fashion, we had shrimp and grits with all the "fixins!" But the twist was that we served them in martini glasses. Many people are doing this with mashed potatoes, but we did them with grits!!

We also had two types of pasta and two types of salad. And we had filet mignon on toast with a horseradish sauce! :) SO YUMMY!

Cheers to love! :) 

OUR HONEYMOON!
Our honeymoon was so amazing too!!! We set off to Key West, Florida with a stop to Miami, FL mid-week! In Miami we had Sushi at Planet Sushi. The sushi was good. But the dessert was the highlight. We had Maki Banana Nutella Sushi! AMAZING! And in Key West, the spot to beat was the happy hour at A&B's Lobster House (downstairs bar). People seeking half-price drinks and appetizers swarmed the place! We were able to sit at the bar and the nice man shucking the oysters gave us at least a dozen free oysters because it was our anniversary! They were AMAZING!!! And the dirty gin martini's were awesome too!


After that we went to the number two most romantic dessert restaurant in the country. It's called Better than Sex. And let me tell you, it's AMAZING! There is no way to describe how delicious this food is, you just have to go!

A big glass of milk with a chocolate-dipped rim!

This was the Team Cream. Non-traditional creme brule with orange blossom shortbread cookies!

I believe this was the Peanut Butter Perversion. It was all amazing!

The Fall...


LIBBY'S BIRTHDAY!
One of the highlights of moving to the DC area is being around a few more friends and family members. One of those friends is Libby. She is an amazing friend, whose birthday falls in September. She decided to have a rooftop get-together for her birthday. And there was no way I was going to show up empty-handed to her birthday (like most other places I go). These are French-Vanilla Frappuccino Cupcakes. 

This was just a simple vanilla cake mixture. And I made frosting but replaced the liquid in the recipe with a Starbucks French Vanilla Frappuccino (the kind you buy at the grocery store in a glass bottle). Then I broke Pirouette cookies in thirds and stuck them in the top. Then I shook some cocoa over the tops of them! :) Voila! DONE.

THANKSGIVING!  
I also hosted my VERY FIRST Thanksgiving with my husband. We gad my mom, my step-dad, my little sister, my two sister in-laws, two my brother in-laws, my mother in-law, and my father-in law. Here's what the dishes looked like:

 Homemade cannoli! 

 My husband's deviled-eggs and biscuits, my father-in-law's sweet potato pie, and my mom's pumpkin pie!

My yummy turkey partly devoured! 

My mom's stuffing, a salad, my aunt's recipe for homemade cranberry sauce, homemade mashed potatoes, my husband's mac and cheese, my brussels sprouts with pancetta, butternut squash and parsnip soup. Lord only knows what else... 

THE GLUTEN-FREE DAYS!
There was a period of time that I thought I may have been allergic to gluten, and although I will never REALLY know if I was or not, I don't really care because that hellish nightmare is OVER. :) I mean really, as an Italian, I felt like a disgrace to my heritage- rice pasta? Corn meal pizza? And although I never met my great-grandparents to travel to the US from Italy during the great migration, I know they were hurt at the idea that I could subject myself to that kind of food. This is what it looked like when I finally decided to eat gluten again:

Well... I mean... this is what it looked like afterward. What!? I'm sorry I didn't exactly have time to take pictures of the food beforehand because I hadn't had gluten for FOUR MONTHS! But I made spaghetti with homemade sauce, meatballs, and homemade garlic bread. Clearly, I was ravenous!!!

The Winter...


MY OWN EDIBLE ARRANGEMENT!
My good friend Roxane had a birthday this past January and I wanted to get her a yummy Edible Arrangement to bring to her house so that all of the guests could enjoy it. Well, it turns out they are outrageously expensive. It turns out they're not too difficult to make! 

First things first, I bought a cute container to hold it all. Then I stuck a head of cabbage in it. I peeled off a few layers so that I could use it to stuff between the  sticks to look like leaves. I made some chocolate covered strawberries, cooped some cantaloupe with a melon-baller, cut up some orange slices, and sliced the pineapple (then used a cookie cutter to make a flower shape) to prep. I put about three or four grapes on a few skewers and stuck the dried chocolate covered strawberries and orange slices on their own skewers. Then I stuck the pineapple down the skewer and put the balls of melon over it to look like the pollen in a flower. Then I just shoved it all in at random and used the extra leaves of the cabbage to shove in between to hide some of the sticks and make it look really full and lush. It was a hit!

The Spring...


FESTIVE ICE!
I was having house guests one weekend and decided to do something fun and festive! I bought edible flowers and placed them in an ice cube tray. Then I filled up the tray and froze them! Easy as could be...

The Summer...


GAZPACHO!
So, I've been working on getting my old figure back and I have been trying to eat much healthier. I'm not sure than anything could be more health, and it's a cold soup- what a relief from the heat! 

This is how easy the recipe is... ARE YOU READY? You blend and then chill the following: 

1 cucumber

2 bell peppers (any color)

4 plum tomatoes (I used canned)

1 red onion

2 stalks of celery

2 carrots

3 minced garlic cloves

1/4c red wine vinegar

1/4 EVOO

salt and pepper to taste

If for some reason you do not have one or two of these veggies, it really doesn't affect the recipe much. Do what you can with what you have and it will be delicious and refreshing on those hot summer days!

FOURTH OF JULY!
A lot of people make cakes that look like an American Flag on the 4th! It's a super cute and festive treat, but cupcakes are easier to transport and eat! So i just make standard vanilla cake and vanilla frosting and topped them with three blueberries and a slice of a strawberry. You know that's easy!

Patriotic and Chic!

BAKLAVA! 
My husband LOVES baklava so I try to make it a few times a year. It's not too hard or time-consuming, but it does take patience. 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix a good dash of cinnamon in a bowl with 2/3c of sugar, 6 oz of chopped almonds, 6 oz of chopped pistachios, and 6oz of chopped walnuts. (I sometimes do not use pistachios, but instead use 3oz more walnuts and 3 oz more almonds. Set it aside for a minute.

Get a 13 x 9 in pan and butter the bottom and sides. Lay down a sheet of phyllo dough and brush it with butter (you will need a pound of phyllo and about 1 and ½ sticks of melted butter). Repeat that until you have eight buttered sheets. Then put 1/3 of the nut mixture onto the dough. Then continue to layer and butter 6 layers of dough. Then add the other 1/3 of the nut mixture. Then do another layer of six buttered-phyllo sheets. Add the rest of the nuts and then do another eight layers of buttered phyllo sheets. Brush the top with butter as well.

Place this in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the pan and cut. I did diamonds here, but I usually do squares. Put the pan back in the oven and cook for another 30 minutes. Let the baklava cool for about 2 hours.

Then make the syrup. Add 1 ¼ c of sugar, 1 ¼ c of honey, and 1 ¼ c of water. Put a good dash of cinnamon in it as well. Bring it to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Then pour the hot mixture over the baklava and cool for at least eight hours.

The only downside to this dish is that you cannot eat it right away… Oh well, tomorrow it will be DELICIOUS!

OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
This is my husband and I at my mom's house before we got wined and dined at the Belotta at 42 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in White Plains, NY!

We are so cute!! :) hehe

This is a tapas restaurant so we had a few dishes that we split. That night we started out with 1/2 dozen raw oysters and 1/2 dozen raw clams. Then we had steak with a fried egg and mojo verde on top. We also had shrimp empanadas and spinach with pine nuts, apples, and raisins. And the last dish was heirloom tomatoes with anchovies and fried capers.

Then finally dessert came and.... ::::sigh::::

Fried dough covered in sugar and coffee with vanilla and chocolate dipping sauces. I could not be stopped!

I hope you have enjoyed my year in food. I know what you are going to do the second you leave this site.... you're going to have a snack. hehe. Make it a yummy one!!!!!