Obesity is on the rise

Healthy ketchup with those fries?

Genetically modified food and a toxic spill

Can we lose weight with a pill?

Still… farmer’s markets made us pleased

And food trucks have filled a need.

Cooking at home is again a trend

And school lunches are on the mend

Whether you get recipes from blogs, apps, or tweets

It’s again ok for us to eat meats!

So we raise our glass and propose a toast

That in this New Year, we all get what we desire most!

“Con tantissimi auguri di felicità nella vita e . . . in cucina.” (With many good wishes of happiness in life … and in the kitchen.)

Welcome to our brand new look!  We are excited about all the new features of our blog.  Recipes, divided according to categories, is an easy way to search or browse the recipes we’ve posted.  Our Forum will be a place for you to share your opinions on a variety of topics and ask questions.  Giuliano’s Tips and Techniques will be the place to go for a sampling of what has earned him the IACP’s Cooking Teacher of the Year Award.  Finally, we are thrilled about our Marcella Hazan’s Musings page.  Here you will find some of mamma Marcella’s favorite pearls of wisdom.  We will be updating content regularly, so please visit often!  We are grateful to Thomas Dawson of TCDawson Designs for creating our design and for implementing all our cool new features.  Please let us know what you think.

To toast our new look, in Italy we would say cin cin (pronounced “chin chin”), which is the sound glasses makes when clinked together.  Venetians often meet for a glass of Prosecco.  They call it an ombra, “shadow” in Venetian, because it was the custom to enjoy it in the shade of St. Mark’s bell tower.  Prosecco is a light, not too dry sparkling wine from Conegliano, north of Venice.  A favorite refreshing aperitif of ours is a variation on the classic Bellini, a drink made with Prosecco and white peach nectar.  Our over-prolific guava tree inspired us to use guava juice instead of peach and so our Bellini Tropicale was born.

Bellini Tropicale

© by Giuliano & Lael Hazan

Serves 6-8 people

1 bottle chilled Prosecco

2 cups chilled guava juice

Pour Prosecco and guava juice into a pitcher.  Stir well and serve in Champagne flutes.  Cin cin!