Frank and Sharon, the Malvern Italian gestures-theme lecture evening on March 25th just couldn’t be beat – or so I thought.
And then came your Clarion University staff cooking class the night after!
Good times, right from the Italian market shopping in the morning, with you and the Dean:
– and what cooking class starts with pizza made by the hosts in their wood-burning oven?
…and not all classes feature bread made by the host!
(caption for photo sot to:
Frank, bread-baker (as well as pizza chef):
The pizza started us off, united the group over the good flavors of Italy..and then came the cooking good times. Frank, your family origins are Puglia in southern Italy – and our menu set this time was centered on the southern part of Italy that I know best, Sicily:
Green beans with cherry tomatoes, garlic and mint
Giovanni’s baked stuffed tomatoes
Radicchio/walunt/apple salad (but this one, not Sicilian!)
Marinated eggplants with basil, parsley, mint
Cauliflower/pinenut/currant pasta sauce
Pollo glassato (chicken recipe of Signora Vincenza, my Sicilian mother-in-law)
Amaretti-stuffed baked apples (amaretti made by Frank and Sharon!)
Our Sicilian antipasto goodness
Sharon, the evening was most special for me (as we united over cooking once again!) and thanks for letting me know how much you two enjoyed our time as well:
“Annie, what can we say? Spending time with you, learning from you, has been very special to us. And you are so good at relating to people that they can’t help but have a great time!
We truly love the honor of getting to cook with yoiu, and your talk left us wanting to learn more… Who knows? Maybe having a place in Italy is in our future after all! Thanks for everything!”
…and the greeting in your kitchen (right behind those homemade amaretti!) sums up the warmth of your home (“enter as friends, leave as family”):
Mille grazie to each all of you at Clarion who so warmly welcomed me in your “Clairon community,” first at the lecture and then over those good flavors of Italy!
Whew! What a wonderful experience this has been – the food, the best i’ve ever had. Hope to see you in Italy…” Laura
“A wonderful and special evening. The fun was in sharing time in the kitchen…” Ron
“A very happy animated, tremendous evening with friends and fine food’ Michael
The Dean on the beans
Frank at his pizza oven
Sharon, Parmesan-dicer
Susie preps for our amaretti-stuffed baked apples
Frank has the basil he needs for his Margherita pizzas
…and our dinner ended with a gesture you’d learned the night before – and an appropriate one for our feast: buonissimo!
“Buonissimo!”
…and so good to link with you all while cooking up that Sicilian goodness!
Cooking with Annie is ALWAYS the highlight. It was so much fun to have her shop with us at Gentile’s market. We also went to Luigi and Giovanni’s for supplies for the evening. We even got a taste of spring as the evening started, when the clouds parted and it was warm enough to enjoy the porch before dinner! All of our great friends from Clarion enjoyed the evening, as we knew they would, this being our third time cooking with Annie. And we can’t wait to visit her in Umbria!!
Frank and Sharon and all, so wondrous our time together! Mille grazie
Annie