Boat Grandma makes the best gnocchi.

Our long weekend on Poseidon spoiled us with family and excellent, excellent food. We haven't broken it to Marco that "Boat Grandma" is a chef and that not all two-year olds get to eat veal chop and homemade gnocchi for dinner. Of course, we didn't break it to Grandma that not all two-year olds want to roll their own gnocchi and eat veal.

They make a nice pair.












With veal chop on the bone in one hand, he devours gnocchi with the other...





Marco credited Grandma for the best gnocchi. When we asked what Boat Papa makes the best, he said, "bananas." :)

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Oh, hi Brad.

On my way to take Marco to stay with Grandma extraordinaire ("Barney Grandma"), the bridge was closed for police activity. Complicated Cecchin Plan B. We pulled off, hop on BART, avert a momentary meltdown that the Marco's bike couldn't come on BART, run to the station dragging a 2-year old and navigate the "moving stairs" up onto the platform just as the train is pulling up.


Phewf. I relax and Marco says, "Oh, hi Brad." and climbs up on his lap. I look at him like a crazy person until I realize our next door neighbor is on BART with us. ha.

I like bananas and carrots too!

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Location:Oakland

RIP mohawk

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That's the cooking spirit.

You will never believe the amount of cooking that happened in our house a couple of weeks ago. Jeff's cousin Brian called and said, "Hey, let's cook." They selected a weekend. We didn't put out an invite because Jeff's family can smell a cook off 75 miles away. I think we had about 30 folks show up to make sure we were sticking to our Italian roots.


Here are the handsome chefs:
And their tools. Yes, Brian brought his own KitchenAid.
Yes, Jeff was insanely jealous that his was the least manly of the two.

Elizabeth and I sous cheffed.
Brian also brought butchered pig parts from a pig he raised (of course).
The boys' toys grind the meat double time for sausage.
We nearly missed a meal Friday night, but luckily while the potatoes boiled for gnocchi, we threw together some pesto for dinner with basil from our garden.
The fresh herbs were all from our garden, the veggies from Brian's.
Saturday morning as we prepped for the big party, Jeff threw a pizza into the oven for lunch. Narrowly avoiding another near missed meal.

As the oven cooled from pizza, Jeff threw in six loaves of bread for our feast.
The Cuisinart was making fresh breadcrumbs while the mixers tackled bread kneading and potato ricing. Our electrical got a work out.

We stuffed zucchini and mushrooms from the Farmer's Market with homemade sausage, homemade breadcrumbs and cheese. I also put together a veggie version, Jeff's family is a little heavy on the veggie types.

Friday night we marinated onions in balsamic. I nearly forgot (darn wine!) but Brian remember just in time to stuff his two chickens (that he raised of course). RIP Amelia and Virgil.

LOVE that Brian travels with his own kitchen counter. It was Grandma Eda's! Can you believe all of Brian's stuff fit into his Prius. ha.

The gnocchi crew at work.

The gorgeous gnocchi.

Sauce with veggies from Brian's garden.

His own tomato sauce with tomatoes from his garden.

The delicious conclusion.

Salad in a bowl the size of a canoe.

Needless to say, we wrecked the food. It was absolutely an amazing experience to see Brian and Jeff working together. Besides the fact that they resemble each other so much, their passion for food is a kick!

Oh and there were people there too.

After everyone left and the house was quiet and covered in flour, we boiled what was left of Virgil and Amelia for chicken stock. :)

Viva festa Italiana!