When my friend Maria planned a bonfire cookie party to celebrate her 60th birthday, she texted me that she knew I wouldn’t be able to come.

I couldn’t go because of my lung disease and the smoke. I was so touched that she remembered and thought of it.

She went on to text why don’t we do a tea party to celebrate both of our birthdays. 

Of course, I began planning what type of tea sandwiches, tea cakes, and sweets to make. 

I also invited our friend Kat to join us. Kat and I have been belly dancing for 20 years. 

Kat and Maria were friends. She brought Maria to one of our belly dance shows. I think she came to class the following week.

Yesterday morning, I found an article about Galentine’s Day. Here’s the article I read to find out about it.

What Is Galentine’s Day? Meaning and Origin of the Modern Holiday | YourDictionary

“Gal”entines Day can be celebrated between February 1 and 13. The tea party was set for Saturday, February 10, so it qualified 

I baked Earl gray tea cakes on Friday and glazed them with a made-from-scratch lavender glaze. Next, I baked lemon bars made with Meyer lemons. They came out amazing. 

Finding Meyer lemons at Trader Joe’s that were $2.99 a bag, the same price as conventional and less than $3.99 for organic, is fantastic. 

Just before the party, I made two kinds of tea sandwiches. The first was a cucumber and Boursin cheese sandwich. I used the Boursin cheese I made for “Sydney’s omelet.” It made the sandwiches so flavorful. 

I forgot to take a photo of the sandwich platter. 😑

I whipped up a small batch of curried egg salad for the other sandwiches. The table setting came together quickly since I had a lot of different serving pieces and dishes.

Maria brought a tea party floral arrangement in a teacup. It couldn’t have been more perfect!

Nelly was a little doll and so happy to have friends over. She loves Maria, and she took her to Kat immediately. She settled into her little bed in the dining room. She would go over to Kat for a little loving. 

She also spent her time inside Maria’s sweater that was hung on the stair post. Nelly smelled Maria & Jon’s three dogs, two donkeys, two chickens, one cat, and a flock of sheep. 

Note…the sweater didn’t smell like any of the animals to a human’s nose. LOL.

I have always loved having tea parties since I was a little girl, plus I got to use my Mema’s rosebud teacups. I have beautiful memories of Mema and me drinking tea and having Stella Dora Anisette Toast. 💖

My friends and I enjoyed the food and tea. We had fun conversations and lots of laughs, exactly like the new holiday we had learned about, Galentine’s Day!

I took the leftover cookies with me to Martin’s dinner party last and got to share them with my other friends. Life is really good.

One of my favorite TV series is “The Bear.” I’m not going to get into the series or episodes, but in season two, Sydney makes Natalie, who is pregnant, an omelet. An omelet that is made with so much care and love.

After watching that episode, I started craving Sydney’s omelet. I watched Sydney several times making the omelet, taking note of Chef Sydney’s carefully prepared ingredients and techniques.

I made my first ever Boursin cheese and bought a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips, something I hardly ever purchase. I finely chopped some chives and was ready to go.

Marty likes to turn everything into a competition, which I knew when I asked him if we wanted to make our omelets together.

This is what was left in the sieve. When working on your culinary skills, this is a necessary step.

Marty is a better short-order cook than I am and can make a perfect French omelet. It is harder than you think.

This is why an executive chef will ask an applicant to make a French omelet. It tells them everything they need to know about the person’s skills.

Marty’s omelet is on the left, and mine is on the right.

I circled the flaws in my omelet in these two photos.

Long story short, Marty made a perfect omelet, while mine had two golden patches. I would not have been hired if this was an interview.

I know most people would think, “Big shit,” that I had flaws in my omelet, but I am working on my skills, and this bugged the hell out of me.

The last scrumptious bite.

The omelet is a viral recipe, and people are going nuts over it. We aren’t the type to try anything viral like people do on TikTok, but this was different because we “know” Chef Sydney.

Many people are making the omelet their own by using different chips, but we wanted to make it exactly as it was on the show.

I’m skeptical if cheddar jalapeño chips would have paired with the Boursin cheese, or would it take over?

It was every bit as delicious as it looked on the show. The smooth Boursin cheese and the sour cream and onion ruffle chips crunch were a flavor bomb with a great mouth feel.

Even perfectly cooked French omelets can be a bit bland, but this takes it to the next level. That is why this scene in the episode and the recipe is the talk of the town.

Call it what you will: meat mallet, pounder, or tenderizer. I have a 4-sided one that is about 30 years old. I have a flat pounder that I never use for meat but as a hammer.

It’s part of my Italian tool kit, which contains a pounder, a butter knife, duct tape, and zip ties. That’s what my dad called it, but I have to tell you this tool kit is very useful.

I admit that even though I had a 4-sided mallet, I never used all four sides. I never even thought about them until recently.

I become a better cook every day and love to share everything I have learned or taught myself with you. If only I learned these things decades ago.

Every kitchen needs to have a meat mallet, whether you are a vegetarian or vegan. Their use is not limited to only meats.

You can use a mallet to crush garlic, nuts, and olives to remove pits, peppercorns, potatoes, rice, lemongrass, cardamom pods, crackers, cookies, or candies. Pretty handy, right?

I wanted to attempt to make braciole, Italian stuffed meat that is braised in tomato sauce; again, I watched a video on how to make it and how to pound the meat with a mallet properly.

I felt stupid; I didn’t know how to use a mallet properly. You learn by doing, so that’s what I did. The braciole came out good! 100% better than my previous too-tough and thick version

Last Saturday, I wanted to make stuffed pork tenderloin. I remembered what I learned from the braciole and took photos as I went along.

Sam was visiting for the weekend, taking a class, so while he and Marty were out of the house, I prepped our dinner. This was perfect so I could spend more time with them instead of alone in the kitchen.

Knowing how to use a meat mallet is so much easier now. It’s all about using all 4-sides and letting gravity do the work—no more upper body workouts when preparing dinner.

The tenderloin opened like a book turned into this!

I removed the silverskin and butterflied the pork by carefully cutting it horizontally, like opening a book, making sure I didn’t cut all the way through.

Here is a video I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQplmbaTzao

Next, I placed the open book on the cutting board and covered it with plastic wrap. I used side number one, then two, three, and the flat side. Gravity did the work.

The first pork tenderloin came out textbook perfect; the larger one I cut a little too far in the middle. Ugh! I repaired it when I used butcher’s twine to tie the stuffed tenderloin closed

The stuffed tenderloin in the distance looks like it did before I started, the front one not so much. 😕

I made a simple stuffing for the pork; you can use any recipe or boxed stuffing mix. I added cooked chestnuts since I have a few bags on hand.

The chestnuts gave the stuffing a delightful sweetness Marty and Sam couldn’t put their fingers on. I am so glad I tried this; now I’ll always put them into stuffing.

Ocean State Job Lot always has packages of cooked chestnuts at their registers. How random, right?

I always stock up on them since I use them for a pasta sauce with chestnuts and mushrooms and a dish called chestnut chicken.

I seasoned the meat with onion & garlic powder, kosher salt & pepper, and paprika, then put it into the fridge until dinner.

I popped the pork into a 400-degree oven and roasted it for about 30 minutes or until it registered an internal temperature of 145-150 degrees.

I also made garlic & parmesan sweet potatoes, a recipe Sam found turned out to be a keeper. Here is the link to the recipe:

https://www.eatwell101.com/garlic-parmesan-roasted-sweet-potato-recipe

The sweet potatoes didn’t turn mushy; you could remove them still “shingled” when plating.

A few green beans sauteed in butter, kosher salt & pepper rounded out the plate. Marty requested this meal that he loved for his birthday dinner next month. Yay!

Don’t let seemingly intimidating recipes, like braciole, dictate what you can make or not. Try it if you have never used a meat mallet or use it often. What else can I do with a mallet, you may ask?

Chicken that has been tenderized and pounded thinner is perfect for chicken parm, chicken marsala, grilled chicken, or breaded chicken cutlets for sandwiches. The same goes for pork or flank steaks. Trust me on this.

If you don’t have a meat mallet, they run from $9.99 to $30 at most stores or on Amazon. I recommend a 4-sided one, but the decision will be yours.

It will make you a better cook if it inspires you to become one like me. I always want to get better at everything I do, like dancing, gardening, drawing, and writing. I will never settle for “good enough.”

By now, most of my readers know I am from New Jersey. I grew up in Elizabeth for the first nine years of my life; then we moved to Iselin. It felt far away, far away from the Italian section of Elizabeth.

It wasn’t until I moved to Vermont that I realized that people outside of downstate NY & NJ didn’t understand the Italian American lingo. You didn’t have to be Italian to know the lingo; people just did.

It felt so weird to me when I had to pronounce Italian food “properly” if I wanted people to understand what the fuck I was saying.

I still tawk the way I tawk at home, but I have learned to speak broadcast news when need be. Here is what I’m talking about:

Written by Peter Genovese from NJ Advance Media

Rule Number One for Speaking Jersey Italian: Drop the vowel at the end of each word. Most of the time, anyway. This is like that “i before e except after c” rule you learned in fifth grade. It holds true except when it doesn’t. So, “cavadeel” instead of cavatelli, cappacol or gabbagool instead of cappacola,  “manicot” or “manigott”  instead of manicotti.

Pasta fagiole is “pasta fazool,” right? Not so fast. Several chefs pronounced every last syllable – “fa-gee-o-li.” Others pronounced every letter in “cavatelli,” not the widely accepted “cavadeel.”

Rule Number Two for Speaking Jersey Italian:  Get the “easy” words right, then proceed to the tougher ones. “Gnocchi” looks uncomplicated, but to speak it like a true Italian, you must roll the “gno” – “gnawww-ki.”  It is certainly not “knock-ki.” Same with “ravioli.” Give the “ioli” a little operatic flourish, prolonging the three syllables a bit, but not so much that people start thinking you learned Italian by reading cans of Chef Boyardee.

Rule Number Three for Speaking Jersey Italian: Impress your Italian friends with the proper pronounciation of words they thought they had been pronouncing right all along. One good example: bruschetta. It’s “broos-ketta-a,” says Filippo Russo, the chef/owner of da Filippo in Somerville. “That’s all over Italy.”

Rule Number Four for Speaking Jersey Italian: It’s “sauce.” Unless the chef insists it’s “gravy.” Which is correct?

Here is how I understand the difference between the two. Marinara sauce contains no meats. The sauce is made and cooked quickly, in under an hour, and is bright red.

I call “gravy” Sunday sauce. It’s a 50/50 split, as people call it. Sunday sauce is always eaten on, you guessed it, on a Sunday as a family Sunday dinner.

Sunday Sauce is usually made on a Friday or Saturday since the prep time is lengthy and the sauce cooks on a slow simmer all day. This type of sauce always tastes better when prepared a day or two ahead.

“Gravy” is used because it contains several kinds of meats such as braciole, pork ribs or neck, sausage, and meatballs.

The meats are browned before adding them to the sauce, giving it a rich, brownish-red color. Meats are used when making any gravy; see how it makes sense now.

Yesterday, I made butternut squash manicotti with a creamy parmesan sauce with shallots and thyme. I served it with chicken Milanese. The two dishes were delicious and worth the time and effort.

While I was working in the kitchen yesterday, Marty asked me if a bomb had gone off in the kitchen. I have to admit the kitchen was bad even though I usually clean as I go, but that didn’t happen yesterday. When I have to pivot while I am cooking, things get wild.

Here is why I had to pivot. After attempting to make butternut squash ravioli, which failed miserably, I decided to make manicotti. Here’s what happened.

I rolled out my pasta dough. It was perfect, and it wasn’t sticking to the workbench. I used a small scoop when portioning out the squash filling on the dough.

I was holding my breath as I placed the other piece of pasta dough over the top. I carefully began to press the top to the bottom around the filling, and the dough started to break, and the squash was squishing through the top. Mother fucker! Ugh!!

After swearing, I took the top off, wiped the filling from the dough, and put it back in the bowl. The dough was very wet, so I needed to add more flour and knead it until it was smooth. This is gluten-free mind out so things were iffy at this point.

This was the point I had to decide what to do. Do I make lasagna like last time, or do I make manicotti? After I rolled out some rectangles, I blanched, filled, and rolled them.

The next step I didn’t plan on, but the manicotti needed a bechamel sauce. I’m a great sauce maker, so this extra step was no biggie.

I still had one last messy thing I had to do, pound out chicken breasts, bread them, and fry them. I popped them into a warm oven while the manicotti baked.

Then I tackled the inevitable clean-up, which was not that bad.

Here is the kitchen all cleaned up with the manicotti waiting to be popped into the oven. This cooking project was way more work and effort than I had planned.

I’ve yet to successfully make gluten-free ravioli after trying many times. It took me seven years to perfect our spatzle, so this is no different. I’ll figure it out. Someday.

Have a great week, guys! ♥️