A White Christmas

getting ready for the snow!!! (As you can see in the following pictures, my youngest never made it out there!)

the first of three snowmen that got progressively larger as the snow kept falling!





look at that - at least 10 inches!

Anyone from Vegas knows snow is a RARITY.....but last week it snowed twice! We live closer to the mountains so we got about 8 or 10 inches and it's still here! I know it has nothing to do with la bella italia, but I thought I'd share our snowy photos with you all!

Plus it's pretty funny thinking about how my husband's ride home from work consisted of getting snuck in the snow and rolling on the ice!!! Then, he had to park his car down the street and walk home because it wouldn't make it up the hill!!! Poor guy...he loved it though! Now we have the story to tell our kids when times are tough - "Hey, kids, you think life is hard? We had to walk uphill in the snow, barefoot!"

Okay maybe not barefoot, but it makes the story sound better right?

Well, I hope wherever you are your families enjoy a wonderful Christmas - white or not!

I know our Christmas will be full of family, fun, and food!! So, I will definitely follow up with recipes and pictures after the holidays! Until then,

Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo !

A Paisano's Blog

I never would have thought that my entrance into the blogging world several months ago would bring me to where I am today.

The exposure for my articles has been great and I can't thank you all enough for reading them. I also LOVE reading your comments....sharing these Italian family memories and traditions is the best way to spread the culture.

Well, all this blogging has led me to a new friend who enjoys spreading the culture as much as una mamma italiana! He goes by "Domenico" and his blog is full of great recipes and stories. A word of advice, don't read it while you're hungry!

Anyways, "Cucina Domenico" is sure to be your new favorite go-to blog for recipes of all kinds. He is a fellow paisano and I applaud him for keeping traditions alive...... Bravo Domenico!

Christmas Commercialized

Well, Una Mamma has been at it again....revealing my very opinionated self in my articles!

My newest article focuses on the commercialization of the Christmas season. Perhaps you might not realize how bad it really is until you get pushed over in the mall by a crazed holiday shopper. Hopefully, you won't have to suffer that - just read my article instead:)

It's my little way of remembering what Christmas is really supposed to be about. I'm sure you all know people who try to outdo each other every year with the biggest and best gift. Well, personally, I would be happy with a thoughtful card or a token from the dollar store. It does NOT make me happy to know someone spent a bunch of money on me just to fulfill their deeply rooted psychological need to impress people. Know what I mean?

Anyways, let's all try to keep the true spirit of giving in the forefront this year. And please, comment and share your own family's Christmas traditions. You never know what it might mean to someone else.

My article, "Christmas Commercialized," appears on www.italiansrus.com

Or you can access the article directly by clicking here.

Una Mamma's Christmas Card

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
So this is the time of year that I send out all my Christmas cards to family and friends. I didn't want to leave all of you out, so here it is. Una Mamma's e-card! This was the photo we included in each envelope to give everyone an updated picture of la famiglia! A dear friend of mine takes such great photos for our family and we had to show them off!
Merry Christmas to you and yours!

A late followup on Thanksgiving!

What a spread......

As you can see, we had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. And now, a whole week later, we arejust as thankful that the madness is over (and so are the leftovers!) But what a day. We spent the day eating a fabulous (early) dinner at my parent's house. This was, of course, preceded by a game of tackle football in the yard, in which my son's jeans were ruined with grass stains (thanks honey).

Nonetheless, I love that they hosted Thanksgiving because it took a lot of the burden off of me!! I did, however, bring the sweet potatoes (recipe to follow) which were quite tasty if I do say so myself...

Then we went for dessert at my in-laws' which was especially great for my kids because almost all of their cousins were there (9 of them...which totals 12 kids in one house - most under the age of 7!) It was chaos (but great) which is why I was able to take NO pictures that night:)

But, as promised, here's the recipe for those sweet potatoes:

SWEET AND SAVORY SWEET POTATOES

1 5lb. bag of sweet potatoes

3 TB pure maple syrup

2 TB brown sugar

3 TB melted butter

cayenne pepper

black pepper

sea salt

Peel and cube the sweet potatoes. Combine remaining ingredients and toss cubed potatoes until coated. (Use salt and pepper according to your taste, although the beauty of this dish is the spicy with the sweet)

Spread onto a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until tender and slightly browned on the edges.

Now, mangia!

I hope you all had as wonderful a Thanksgiving as I did. I would love to hear your recipes!

The WORST thing you could ever do to an Italian...

So the polls have closed, the results are in......And it looks like the WORST thing you could do to an Italian is serve them a plate of rinsed pasta topped with Ragu or Prego or some other sacrilegious jarred sauce. And when I say "topped" I mean topped, not TOSSED.

Utter disgrace. You probably know my opinions by now on pasta that is not tossed in with the sauce. If not, click here.

I hope that now the world will see this food faux pas and never again attempt to serve an Italian (or any human) this embarrassment of a meal.

It should also be noted that the two answers that tied for second place were turning down an invitation for food of any kind and calling them a derogatory name (i.e. wop, gavon, etc.).

Making fun of their mamma came in last....this is dispappointing considering the importance of this issue. But, despite it's apparent insignificance with the voters, let this serve as a warning - no one better make fun of this mamma.