Christmas memories and traditions during the holiday have always meant a lot to me. My family had instilled in me many traditions for Christmas. Naturally, our Italian Catholic heritage plays a big part in these traditions.

We would decorate our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after all the children were asleep, which meant the tree went up and was decorated very late, practically into the wee small hours of the morning. When the children would awake on Christmas morn they would view with bewilderment a beautiful lighted and decorated evergreen with gift wrapped presents under the tree. Gee, how come they never wondered how Santa had time to do that?  Read more...

The holidays will be here before we know it and this year I will give gifts that are used in the kitchen. It seems more and more people are cooking meals at home rather than going out to eat. This can be difficult for a cook who is not equipped with the right essentials.

Since I have been cooking for umpteen years, I have found some equipment that I cannot do without. Hopefully, this list will give you some ideas for those on your gift list. You can find many of these items in discount stores, or on sale, and even better on line. Searching the web gives you more opportunity to compare prices and many vendors offer free shipping.  Read more...

When cooking a large meal, such as Thanksgiving dinner, I try to find as many shortcuts as possible. One that works well and is just as delicious as starting from scratch, is turkey gravy made with a packaged dry seasoning mix.

I use turkey gravy mix and add chicken broth, dry white wine or dry vermouth, and finish it off with butter to enhance the flavors and give the gravy a homemade touch. Quick and easy is the way to go!

Ingredients:

Serves: 8  Read more...

• 2 packages gravy mix (Knorrs Turkey Gravy Mix)

What’s Thanksgiving dinner without a serving of cranberries? There are numerous ways to prepare cranberries, fresh, frozen or canned and I have prepared many a cranberry dish but my all time favorite is my Cranberry Gelatin Mold with a simple cream cheese topping.

In fact, my daughter Allison, who was not fond of cooking, did take this recipe with her when she was on her own and entertaining or needed to bring a dish to a dinner. This was one she would fix and received raves. It was a joy for me to see her prepare this recipe. It can be made days in advance and unmolded just before serving. Enjoy!  Read more...

I will always have fond memories of celebrating Thanksgiving with my parents and our relatives. My Dad was born in Italy and came to America at the age of 13. He lived with relatives who also emigrated from Italy before the Great Depression.  My Mother was first generation American and she also had relatives from Italy. However, since Thanksgiving is strictly an American holiday, it was extremely important to my parents and relatives because they wanted to be everything AMERICAN.  Read more...