I’m sharing my easy to make Hawaiian Style Sauce recipe, with authentic umami flavor, and the option for extra sweetness and/or spicy-heat. I finally wrote down my simplified classic, because I wanted to share this flavor that my family loves so much. When I make ribs, it’s like a special occasion, and this is the sauce I use!
This is an incredibly flavorful addition to meals prepared the way you love – whether grilling, baking, or sauteing a vegan, pescatarian, or carnivorous meal. This sauce is a naturally vegan recipe, made with honey and soy.
2020 view on Mili’s Sweets 10th anniversary
I am finally getting around to share what I was up to last year on this very weekend, when I invited family and friends, San Diego County venues, potential clients, and new and loyal customers alike, to my Mili’s Sweets tasting and anniversary party. In 2019, I was about to walk into my 10th year of doing business as Mili’s Sweets. It felt good to invest in myself and celebrate this special time. I chose the last weekend of September, because I would be actively booking for the new year, and I wanted to dedicate that joy to a beloved fan of my work: my dad.
Tuna with fresh Italian flavor
I’m sharing my mayo-free recipe for making tuna, with fresh Italian flavor. I use ingredients that add texture and bright, fresh flavors for this delicious lunch or snack, to top bread for a classic Italian-style sandwich. If I feel like a low-carb and gluten-free meal, I’ll use this to top a salad or as filling for romaine lettuce wraps.
fresh basil and herb vinaigrette
I love the flavor that fresh basil and herb vinaigrette bring to so many of my favorite foods. It is easy to create a versatile dressing, using a couple handfuls of fresh basil or herbs, and just a few other siimple ingredients. I like to add this freshness to green salads, or pasta dishes. This goodness also brings a garden-fresh dimension onto any Antipasto or charcuterie spread.
making focaccia
We are making focaccia (all the time). Focaccia is my favorite comfort food in the whole wide world. It’s a pan-baked, bread-style of pizza, created with a technique that is a traditional staple from Italy with intense texture, and authentic flavor. Each region of Italy has it’s own flavor and style, and I’m sharing what has been passed down from generation to generation from my mom’s home-country and small town of Tricarico.
making pizza
It is time I show you how making pizza is done at our home. I’m using either our Italian master dough recipe passed-down to us by Nonna, or my simple no-knead dough recipe, with outstanding results every time. You’ll enjoy the bite of a crisped outer crust, golden bottom, satisfying air pockets throughout, an awesome texture and chew, for amazing flavor, made with any toppings you can dream-up.
Nonna’s Rapini “Stufate”
Nonna is sharing her simple, one-pot recipe for cooking Rapini (or Broccoli Rabe), with an end result that is tender and full of flavor. “Stufate” is a slang term for the authentic Italian method of stewing stubborn or bitter leafy-vegetable greens like rapini, turnip, mustard, or just about any type of greens you would like to cook.
easy ice cream upgrades
Ice cream is my family’s all-time favorite dessert. We regularly go out for premium flavors, and keep our freezer stocked, all year around. It’s fun, and our special little-something to look forward to. Ice cream shops are a great experience, and grocery stores have decent options, but nothing compares to the easy ice cream upgrades we can make at home with plain/base vanilla or chocolate, to be totally transformed into fancy, super-awesome flavors that are beyond-premium.
Italian cucumber-tomato salad
Cucumber-Tomato salad takes me back to my childhood days, and is something I love to eat all the summer-time. The simple, pure-Italian flavor is so good and refreshing. Pair this with crusty bread, and a meal is served. In the heat of the summers growing up, when I was always spending time with my Italian family, we would pick freshness from the garden, and make a great big salad for lunch, because it was just too hot to cook.
fruit cobbler
Fruit Cobbler is one of my favorite ways to bake with fruit, especially in the summertime when stone fruit is fresh and abundant. The super soft-and-tender crumb inside, paired with a crisp bake on the outside, make for an awesome taste and texture. This dessert can be made with just about any fresh fruit or berry you can dream-up, to do all of the work for just a touch of sweetness and a bunch of wonderful flavor. My recipe is simple to put together, is naturally egg-free, and I share ways to make this classic recipe, gluten free, or vegan.
fruit-based reduction or syrup
A key to my recipe development, and the handcrafted food and desserts I offer for my work and at home, is making real flavor by way of fruit-based reductions and syrups. This is a process of simply cooking-down the juices and nectars of fresh fruit or berries, and pre-made fruit-based products like champagne, wine, and even balsamic vinegar.
Fruit-based liquid + sugar + heat = reduction or syrup.
master dough – traditional Italian recipe for making focaccia, pizza, and frittelle
My mom takes me through the ancient process of making the traditional Italian recipe of master dough by-hand, for making bread, focaccia, pizza and other traditions like frittelle (fry bread), from her hometown of Tricarico, Italy – a very small town, south of Naples.
Most every area in Italy makes their dough and bread differently. These ways and traditions are passed down from area to area, and from generation to generation. My grandmother was from Bari, but moved to my grandfather’s family’s town and preferred their bread so she learned from the people.