Star Wars Italian Food: Anakin and Padme Wedding Cookies Recipe AKA Barely Italian Wedding Cookies Recipe

I can't seem to help myself...I'm still cooking/baking Italian!!! It's what I know. I don't know how to cook UKish, yet. 😄  We love, love, love Italian Wedding cookies. Not only the perfect almond flavoring, but also the way they sweetly MELT in one's mouth. Yum!!!

Real Italian Flavor!

One of the things about most Italian Wedding Cookie Recipes is they are made with only vanilla flavoring. That's not how it's done in our "barely Italian" family. We use flavors one would expect coming from Italy...and we like it better than the ones we have bought anywhere else. However, one can adjust the flavorings if they are making these into Mexican Wedding Cookies or Russian Teacakes. For instance, you might want to use Mexican vanilla and cinnamon in the Mexican Wedding Cookies. In Russian Teacakes, you might want to substitute some honey and ground walnuts for a more traditional flavor.

Roll 3 Times!

Also, many people only roll their cookies once in confectioner's sugar, but we roll each cookie three times in the powdered sugar to make sure the layer is thick for three reasons: (1) Wedding cookies are not that sweet on their own...they pick up most of their sweetness from the outer layer of powdered sugar. (2) The wedding cookies stay softer by being enclosed in this thick layer, less chance of drying out. (3) Most Italians believe strongly in the "Trinity" and the "three-strand cord wedding" and it's symbolic.

And don't forget the free printable Star Wars Party Food Label!!! 

Star Wars Italian Food:
Anakin and Padme Wedding Cookies Recipe
AKA Barely Italian Wedding Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups salted butter, melted
• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 1/2 cups blanched almond meal
• 3 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon almond extract or amaretto extract (whichever you prefer)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Extra 2 cups of confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar) for rolling baked cookies

So as many of you now know...I'm barely Italian according to my DNA results. It took me a bit of time to come to grip with the reality of this brutal blow to my identity!!! LOL

I'm serious...I find out that I'm BARELY Italian. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I'm Italian, love God and my family, and adore Star Wars.

I mean I studied how to cook Italian. I took being Italian very seriously. I was ITALIAN!!!

Remember in the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" when Gus Portokalos says, "There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek." I always felt that way about being Italian...
"There are two kinds of people:
1. Italians
2. Everyone else who wishes they were Italian."

Since receiving my DNA results I feel like I've slipped from Category 1 - Italian...into Category 2 - Everyone else who wishes they were Italian.  I began calling myself, "BARELY Italian." Yet, I've had an interesting development since writing that last post.

My sixteen year old son theorized, "Mom, if you have 'acquired autism' for Levi's sake, then can't you have 'Acquired Italianism' for your own sake?"

For those of you who are not aware, my fourteen year old son has Autism. Years ago, Levi was sad that he was the only person in the family who had autism. I quickly rebutted, "But that's not true. From all my time hanging out with you...I've acquired autism. Haven't you noticed I'm quirky too? That's because I have "Acquired Autism!"

Levi loved it. He no longer felt alone in our family.

I can fully see the reality that I have "Acquired Italianism."

However, I think you, my readers and friends, should vote and help me decide. The poll is both below and on the side of my full website and will be open until the end of August 2017. Let me know what you think. Xoxoxox

Thanks Family Tree DNA for changing my identity!!! I'm "barely" Italian.

It's been quite some time since I've posted on my website. Honestly, it's because I've been incredibly busy with my life, but I miss my personal websites.

My *shocking* news is that thanks to Family Tree DNA...I learned I am less than 2% Italian. That's right...I'm BARELY Italian. I guess the Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and British are dominant in my blood. I'm 96% from the UK Isles. This brings back my deep concern as a child...that I was adopted. Yes, I used to believe that I came from another planet and was left to my earthly parents to raise, thus my ability to fly around the house as a child. (Disclaimer: Since growing up on Earth, I have lost that ability.) LOL!

For days I reeled with this news...do I continue My Italiano Connection or just take it down, since it would be fraudulent to pretend I'm Italian???

However, the brat in me figured it would be better to just accept that I'm BARELY Italian and allow all of you to enjoy the humor of my dilemma. So I've added the "barely" disclaimer in my title header of this site. Enjoy! I'm not certain how to make very much Scottish or Irish food, but I guess I'll have to learn!!! xoxoxox

Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

The other day we covered the Soffitto, also known as one of the Holy Trinities of Italian Cooking and to many it is the only Holy Trinity. In fact, I have learned since posting about it, that many have never heard it called Soffritto, but in their households growing up it was known as the "Holy Trinity" or just the "Trinity." Perhaps, this is a regional thing.

The purpose of my Soffritto in that post was to use as a base for some Italian Infused Chicken, which would become the base of several of my upcoming meals. Now there is not a hardcore recipe for Italian Infused Chicken, it is kind of your call as to how much chicken you want to cook up and which herbs. So feel free to play with it, alter it, and make it your own. Here was how I made my last batch. Recipes incorporating this chicken will soon follow.

Italian Infused Chicken Recipe

Ingredients:

Directions:

Spray 13X9 pan with olive oil or coat it with butter. Heat oven to 300 degrees.
After preparing Soffritto in a skillet, dump it into the 13X9 and even it out on the bottom of the pan.
Add some more olive oil and butter to the skillet, enough to keep the chicken from sticking as you brown it in the pan. Place 3-4 chicken thighs into skillet and quickly brown on both sides and then place them on the bed of soffritto in the 13X9 pan (chicken will still be raw, we are only browning it for flavor).
After all chicken thighs are browned and added to the 13X9 pan, add more minced garlic to the skillet and saute for about 2 minutes just to make fragrant. Scoop onto chicken in 13X9 pan.
Pour 16 oz of chicken broth over chicken. Then sprinkle with salt, pepper, and whichever herb you prefer to flavor your chicken. I used thyme. Cover with foil.

Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours or until chicken thighs internal temperature reaches a minimum of 165 degrees.

Serve Chicken Thighs with other sides or remove chicken meat from bones and save with the broth and soffritto left in the 13X9 pan for other meals during the week.

To start out the first of October 2014,
I thought I would include a great little profile picture you can use on Facebook, Twitter, etc to celebrate our heritage.

Italian Festival of Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Buongiorno! We all know that everybody wants to be Italian. ;) 

Lego's Dan Parker

That's why even if you are not Italian, you won't want to miss out on this great time of Italian-American culture.

If you live in Pennsylvania or the surrounding states be sure to make your way to Fayette County this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and eat some amazing Italian food, stomp on some grapes, check out a car show, win a Chevy Camaro, enjoy good music and dancing, learn about building amazing Lego contraptions.

Italian Festival of Fayette County

For more information visit their Italian Festival website. Your $5 not only enters you for a chance to win a Camaro, but also benefits charities such as:

Buongiorno miei amata amici! Much of our glassware that has come into our homes, has been influenced through the great artists of glass blowing. Whether goblets for wine, vases for floral displays, or chandeliers illuminating our homes, they all root in glass blowing.

In Italy, blown glass dates back to the first century, when Phoenicians exploited their glass-blowing trade in Rome and the entire Roman Empire. I use the term exploited, as while blown glass was a highly desired item, the Caesars would not permit the Roman citizens to engage in such a trade. Thus the Phoenicians cornered the market, until such a time Italians learned the trade and were permitted to market their products.

Over the centuries, in the Venice region of Italy, came a superior quality of blown glass known as Venetian Glass. To this day, many artists in the Venice region have shops catering to this very trade, such as Murano Chandeliers, which we have pictured to the right. I am not meaning to give a preference to this company, as I have never owned one of their products, simply illustrating an example and borrowed one of their photos for the purpose.

In the USA, we have several Italian and/or American famous glass artisans, of which I will touch on a couple of notable interest.


Lino Tagliapietra, is a maestro of glass artistry and while born in Murano, Italy, in 1979 he came to the USA to start teaching his centuries old technical knowledge of working with glass. Lino, is considered renowned in almost all parts of the world and has established himself as such The Maestro or Master of Glass. His collections are exhibited in museums across the globe.


Dante Marioni is influenced in the Venetian style. He excels in Reticello (net) and Murrine (mosaic) techniques. His work has graced the cover of The White House Collection of American Crafts and he has published Dante Marioni: Blown Glass through Hudson Hill Press.

Today, as you enjoy your glass of wine, cut flowers from your garden and display them in a vase, or enjoy the light emitting from a fixture in your home, you will remember Italy.

Buongiorno miei amata amici! Biscotti's root words mean "twice baked" which is befitting for this treat. In Italian biscotti means cookie or biscuit. Thus biscotti is a twice-baked cookie! For it is first baked into a loaf and then sliced diagonally into cookies and rebaked to toast the outside of this delicacy giving it a crisp outside and a texture similar to shortbread inside. In our family, homemade Biscotti is also consumed twice as fast, as store bought versions.

Biscotti was developed in Tuscany and served with wine, such as Vin Santo. It is a dipping cookie, whether paired with wine, coffee, or tea. Coffee houses have found that customers love biscotti with their cup of cappuccino. They also make an elegant decor on top of gelato.

Because Biscotti are baked so as to dry them out to prevent mold and they keep well in an airtight container for months at a time, sailors loved them, notably Christopher Columbus. The shelf life is approximately 2-6 months without preservatives, dependent upon your additions and how well they are dried out during baking.

Versatility is the chef's friend with biscotti. Your imagination is your limit. Traditionally they were made with butter, eggs, sugar, flour, and almonds. Today, you can find them in many flavors and baking them yourself lends you the key to unique biscotti. Your friends and family will be raving about the best biscotti they have ever enjoyed after savoring your baking.

• 3/4 cup of real butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-2 T of flavoring (depending on the strength)
• 2 1/2 cups of flour
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Chocolate for melting (I used 50/50 of Ghirardelli's milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips)

For my amaretto flavored cookies I confess I did not only use a little almond extract flavoring, but I also added my husband's amaretto flavored non-dairy creamer (about a 1/3 cup). I should like to try them with some Italian Amaretto liqueur in the future.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper for the best result, otherwise lightly grease your cookie sheet.

In my Kitchen Aid mixer I creamed together the butter and sugar, then added the flavorings. I then beat in the eggs, baking powder, and salt. I then mixed in the flour until well blended.

I divided the dough in half and shaped it into foot long logs on my cookie sheet, pressing each into about a 1/2" thick. This needs not be exact, as biscotti is forgiving.

Bake the biscotti for about 30 minutes either on the bottom or center racks of your oven. Remove from oven and cool down enough to work with, but not all the way cool. Using a serrated knife, cut them diagonally into 1/2" thick slices. Gently separate the slices from each other just a tad so the heat can get to all sides of each slice. Place back in oven for another 10-15 minutes to finish the baking, turning slices over about midway.

After removing from the oven, let them cool some. I then melted chocolate (can be done either in the microwave or in the top of a double boiler), spooned it into a small Ziploc baggie and snip a very small tip off one corner. Then I squeezed zig-zags across the biscotti in a couple of directions. I did place the cookies in the freezer for a couple of minutes to set the chocolate before storing. In the future, I will share with you a traditional biscotti recipe using olive oil, instead of butter.

Let your imagination guide you. One could add sliced almonds to this or crush almonds to put on top of the chocolate. Or why not try hazelnuts? For kid friendly biscotti, replace the amaretto with vanilla and cinnamon and then glaze them with white chocolate or icing with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on it. Christmas time you could use crush Ghirardelli Peppermint Chocolate to use inside or drizzle on the outside and serve with Ghirardelli's famous Peppermint Hot Cocoa.

I did not add real almonds to mine to keep mine kid friendly and my children love it. They rather enjoy learning about their Italian Culture through their taste buds.

Buongiorno miei amata amici (Good day my beloved friends)! Distinctively an Italian egg dish, often packed for lunch on a workday in Italy. It is set apart from an Omelette or Quiche. An Omelette you make only on the stovetop. A true Quiche has a crust and often includes milk or cream and bakes in the oven. Similar in the fact, that you can add almost any ingredient your heart desires. Leftover meats or veges folded into this scrumptious dish makes breakfast, lunch, or dinner a snap. Thus, a good staple in any Italian family diet.

In my pictures, you will see that I used turkey breakfast sausage, broccoli, and cheddar cheese as my contributions, as I was making it for a low carbohydrate (AKA low carb) breakfast. My beloved well-seasoned, Lodge brand cast iron skillet superbly transfers from stovetop to oven.

• 1 Tablespoon of Cold Pressed Oil (Olive or Canola)
• 2 Servings of Vegetables (Broccoli, Potatoes, Peppers, Spinach, Tomatoes, etc)
• 2 Servings of Meat (Bacon, Sausage, Italian Sausage, Chicken, etc)
• 6 Eggs
• Spices (Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Onion, etc)
• 2 Servings of Cheese (Cheddar, Colby Jack, Jack, Mozarella, etc)

First heat your small-medium sized oven/broiler proof skillet on the stovetop (medium heat) and coat with the oil. Add any raw meat, raw veges and spices. Cover and yet stir occasionally until meat and veges are done to your liking. If you are using leftovers, now add them so as to warm them up.

Whisk 6 eggs and pour them over the meat and veges in the skillet. Using a heat-resistant spatuala, turn them as if making scrambled eggs. When the eggs are mostly done, but not quite, add the cheese to the top of this dish and place about 6 inches under the broiler in your oven for a few minutes, until the cheese is golden. Remove from oven, place back on an unheated burner on your stovetop and permit to stand for 5 minutes to finish the baking process.

Cut, serve, and



~Photo above featuring a plate by Corelle's Impressions line: Textured Leaves~