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.
Mili’s blog
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.