Prosciutto and Pastries and Prosecco, Oh My! The Foodie Low-Down on My Italian Adventure

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#stuffmyface #ItalyAdventure #girltime by @ahputnam

Hello, strangers! I realize I haven’t seen you around here in MONTHS, and that’s entirely my fault. I had this idea (I’m always having these ideas…) that when I was in Italy I would cook and photograph it (badly, with my iPhone) for you, and post at least once or twice, but alas, like so many of my ideas this one lacked follow-through. I did very little of anything that could be called ‘cooking’, preferring to spend my time eating paprika-flavored Pringles and making Caprese salads and roasted chicken breast and veggies when I needed to eat a real meal inside my home. And of course much of my consumption happened outside the apartment, because: ITALY. That said, I did make a Thanksgiving dinner for my Italian friends (and a few Americans), including my famous pumpkin pie recipe and a whole roasted turkey that would have fed twice as many of us, so the trip wasn’t completely without kitchen activity.

For those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram or Twitter, I offer here by way of apology for my absence some of my favorite foodie photos from the trip (for those of you who do follow me, I’m throwing in some new pics), and at the end of the post I’ll link to the recipes I used for Thanksgiving – I’m happy to report that the Italians were properly blown away, especially by the pumpkin pie and the stuffing, which was unlike anything they’d ever tried before. I also promise to work harder to get back to our regularly scheduled programming, and to share some of the exciting developments that have occurred in my life since last we met.

Pics and captions are after the jump!

Thanksgiving Across the Pond

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Normally around this time of year I'd be looking out at the above view, loving Northern California with my whole heart while the women in my family (that's about 90% of the clan) bustle around in the background, bickering over seating charts and discussing salad choices and oven schedules and answering the ever-ringing phone with the same refrain: "Butterball Hotline!"  It's the most wonderful time of the year – Thanksgiving is when the extended family gathers, really, and we break up into nuclear pockets over Christmas/Chanukah/New Year's.

This year, though, I can't afford the time or money to go home.  For the first time ever in my life, I'll be missing out on Thanksgiving with my family, and it hurts to think of everyone gathering without me while I sit in my office and schedule books for production...  So I decided I wouldn't allow myself to mope.  If I can't be with my family, I'll make my own holiday, right here in the land our forefathers fled before the holiday ever existed – the BF and I will be doing a Friendsgiving this year, and we're holding nothing back.

We've invited Brits and expat Americans and even a few from farther afield, and the guest list has gotten a little out of hand: we're now expecting around 25 people.  Our table seats ten, and we don't even have that many chairs, but I figure making do and an attitude of 'the more the merrier' is what Turkey Day is all about, so to that end we've bought a bunch of paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery and are planning to seat people wherever we can (including the floor), and we've ordered a 10kg turkey and people will be bringing sides, and I'm going to bake at least two of my family's famous pumpkin pies and mash lots of rutabagas, and I'm committing all the wisdom on the NYT Thanksgiving Helpline to memory... so I think it'll be great fun in the end.

I'll still miss my family, of course, but there's no cure for homesickness like being run off one's feet, and I think I've got that pretty well covered – in fact, I would do well to pause in the middle of my recently-constant moans about how stressed I am and be grateful for everything I have: a great boyfriend, fantastic friends, a book that I wrote up on Amazon for pre-order (!!!), a new job title that ought to bolster my resumé nicely, and a family worth missing when I can't be with them.  I'm a pretty lucky lady.

And now I must stop thinking and go do things, for there are more dishes to wash and seating charts to plan and pie crusts to be rolled out and RSVPs to gather and wine to be ordered and...

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

An Easy, Healthy Dessert: Baked Apples

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I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions.  If I had to guess, I'd say my hesitation is born of cynicism, which is in turn born of too many resolutions made and broken.  I try to make year-round changes, because for me the pressure of 'this is your one shot this year to make a change' is just asking for a massive (and early) failure.

That said, I'm fully aware that the clean slate of a new year is a helpful motivator for a lot of people.  And what's the most common resolution, in my experience?  Lose weight!  Or just eat better and be fitter (sort of my constant resolution).  And in support of that, and of all y'all who tire of my constant butter and sugar assaults, I give you baked apples!

Another famous recipe from Gram: Mexican Brownies!

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Remember those cookies I told you about a while back?  The ones that are amazingly delicious and addictive but a little finicky?  Or the pumpkin pie, which basically put my mom's family on the map, baking-wise?  Well, they're not the only recipes my grandmother handed down– the trump card, her ace in the hole, the ultimate indulgence, was her recipe for Mexican Brownies.

Now, I know I say 'ridiculous' a lot, but this time I mean it.  These things are ridiculous.  I mean, a whole box of powdered sugar for the frosting?  Buttermilk AND margarine in the cake?  This is serious stuff, guys.  Sugar overload, and it hurts so good.

My family's super-secret Pumpkin Pie recipe, revealed!

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It's time.

I've decided I finally know you guys well enough to let you in on the big family secret: Great-Grandmother's Pumpkin Pie.

Don't take this lightly, now.  I made this pie every year for my friends at college, and every year the list of pie requests grew; I made no fewer than 10 pies my senior year.  And when we graduated, after much coercion, I agreed to give the recipe to my friend Brittany, but I swore her to secrecy.  And now I'm blowing the whole thing open by posting the recipe on the internet.  I'm taking a big risk for y'all.

The antidote to a meltdown: pumpkin pie bread!

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Last week, I made up my very own recipe for the first time!  Oh, yeah, I've fiddled with recipes before, adding deliciousness or subbing when necessary, but I'd never just straight-up made up a recipe!  It was a very exciting moment for me.