lunch was brought to you by la Nonna Anna

My nonna wanted to have a big lunch, but she didn’t want to make it; apparently she is too old and doesn’t have the energy or “la voglia” anymore, which is fine with me. I mean, after more than 50 years of feeding people she deserves to pass the torch. So we struck a deal – she would pay for the groceries if I would make the meal. As far as I’m concerned, it was a pretty sweet deal. Something else that was a little different was that Dave wasn’t around to help cook, which meant I had to resort to the B-squad and Big Mike got the call up to the majors. He did pretty well though with the chopping of potatoes and barbequing of the meat.




I had such a blast preparing and cooking and laughing and drinking and eating. Ryan, the youngest in the family, stuck by my side all day and he supervised me at the BBQ and made sure to tell me when it was dessert time. We ate so much and there is still so much leftover, so feel free to stop by and try some of this:

• Pizza on the BBQ 2 ways (pesto with blue cheese, and spicy peppers with hot oil)
• Grape and gourmet tomatoes, all kinds of olives, spring onions, torn up chuncks of buffalo mozzerella
• Asparagus with lemon juice and parmesan cheese
• Jumbo butterflied shrimp with garlic and herbs
• Lamb skewered on rosemary stalks, served with mint jelly
• Chicken kebobs seasoned with herbs, served with homemade tzaziki sauce
• Roasted potatoes with garlic, parmesan cheese, lemon zest
• Sparkling fruit juice, sangria, bicchierinos and chocolates
• Homemade chocolate and vanilla tartuffo with strawberries in the middle
• Ricotta cheesecake topped with fig, apricot, cherry and white wine glaze