🎄Merry Christmas Eve!
We’re back from a too-quick trip to the Tri-State Area to visit my aunt and cousins in Connecticut. My auntie Angie just celebrated her 90th birthday on Dec. 21st. There was so much good food at the celebration, including traditional Italian-American Christmas desserts, homemade pizza slices, chicken picatta and penne with vodka sauce.
Because it was in the 20s and lower 30s Fahrenheit outside, I burned off the calories immediately.
My favorite dessert on the table, which made me choke up a little and miss my mom, was the scartellate. (pretty much the same as cartellate, which are like cartwheels, with dough rolled in a roseate shape, but scartellate is the unwound ribbon version that the Pugliese make, similar to crostolli). They’re a light-as-a-feather, delicately fried dough pastry topped with honey, along with other optional toppings such as cinnamon, confetti, nuts or powdered sugar.
Speaking of burning off calories. You should see my aunt on her regular walk. She smoked us.
🚘Relief mixes with anxiety amid turnpike expansion
Roadwork was officially completed this week on the Florida Turnpike in Minneola. While many residents welcome the expansion, others are concerned about rapid development in the once-rural area. Read more here.
📻What else is on our radar?
𝄞 Florida Hall of Fame inducts Apopka country music star: Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd announced the 2025 inductees into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. John Anderson, from nearby Apopka, is a country vocalist and guitarist whose career has spanned more than 40 years. Because of his vocal timbre and instrumentation, he’s grouped in the neo-traditionalist movement with other artists such as Ricky Scaggs and George Strait, but has a style all his own. Known for hits like “Swingin’” and “Seminole Wind,” Anderson has won numerous awards, including being inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014. Read about other inductees here.
🤦Executive facepalm: Bari Weiss, founder of The Free Press and the TV news editor-in-chief (who has no TV news leadership experience), decided with CBS-Paramount execs to pull a segment about human rights violations at CECOT from “60 Minutes,” which ironically is going viral now because Canada’s broadcast of “60 Minutes” included the segment.
🍬What deliciousness is under our Christmas tree?
Baci (Italian for kisses) are a popular Italian treat and holiday item, available at Trader Joe’s or on Amazon. Made by the famous chocolate makers at Perugina, a Baci box is a great gift to bring to a holiday dinner or open a box up and use the individually foil-wrapped confections as stocking stuffers.
Coated with dark chocolate and filled with gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut cream) and hazelnuts, each Bacio (kiss) has a little message inside, kind of like a fortune cookie.
The messages are poetic, funny and inspirational, all about love, musing on romance, relationships, friendship and familial love.
Vi mando un bacio grande di Natale! Sending you a big Christmas kiss!
🎅Happy Holidays, everybody!
JG
Dining and Cooking