Chef Jess

Yesterday it snowed some and I got really crafty.  I'm trying to clean out the office armoire because I have more stuff I want to store in there.  Thankfully, this fall we put together the shelves we bought for the cellar, so I have more room down there to hide the stuff from up here.  And then, when we run out of space in the cellar, we have a garage that is practically too small for a car, but plenty big for a crap load of stuff.  It's a beautiful thing.

Anyway, I got crafty.  I made wine charms as I plan to eventually become rich selling hand made wine charms around Italy.  Then, I finally put together the scrapbook for our wedding that I received as a shower gift.  I'm really happy with that.  And I worked on the "Our First Year Together" calendar scrapbook that I also received as a shower gift.  (One was from my mom and one from my grandparents, but I don't remember which was which).  That is still not finished, but I added a year's worth of activities to the calendar and got an idea what photos will be on each month.  Anyway, crafty.

From Blogger Pictures

So those of you who are keeping track of me via Facebook in addition to this blog, may have noticed that I did a little experimenting in the kitchen last week.  I don't follow recipes except when I'm baking, so every night's dinner is really an experiment, but I made some things I'd never made before which is always fun.

Tuesday we went to dinner at Gaetano's house with Gabrielle and Angela.  I offered to make dessert, so I made what I call black bottom cupcakes.  The recipe is from my Healthy Foods book that Laura gave me.  Instead of frosting there is a second batter with cream cheese and chocolate chips.  Delish!  I made a horrible mistake though, I didn't save enough for Fabri and I so Detta & Gaetano got about a dozen cupcakes!

Wednesday we had Pasqualino & Sylvia over for a tea.  I have never hosted a tea before, but they don't drink and she is somewhat of a picky eater, so both dinner and aperitivo seemed out of the question to me.  For the tea I made my first coffee cake from my new Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  That turned out really well, but next time I will put the topping in the middle of the cake like my Aunt Pam does.  Pasqualino apparently raved about it to the rest of the family because when we saw them on Thursday they had all heard about it and all wanted to try it!

Thursday we went to Fabri's family for dinner also with Gaetano & Detta & Sofia.  Maria Pia said she was going to make some steaks, so I brought a side dish of roasted winter veggies.  There were carrots, potatoes and brussel sprouts.  For most of the family, that was the first time they ate a brussel sprout, but they all got eaten up, so I think they enjoyed it.

From Blogger Pictures

Then Friday I didn't go into the museum, so I had time to try a new recipe for lunch.  I made Chickpea Fritters and they were really yummy.  In fact, they were so yummy, I felt guilty eating them for lunch with out Fabri, so I just had a couple and saved the reset to have for dinner with Fabri.  That's just the kind of gal I am.