There’s one thing that causes a festive stir at our calm family Christmas celebrations each year: Gram’s gingerbread cookies. A huge batch of these will silently disappear from their “secret” hiding place Christmas Day. My brother has happily eaten dozens of these instead of dinner. (This year he's already polished off the gingerbread ornaments on the tree.)
Some boys enroute to the oven.
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Halloween brings our annual tradition of getting family and friends together for a costume party. It’s also our yearly excuse to buy a crazy amount of booze, decorate the house and whip up a whole variety of creative recipes. This year, I’m making the easiest dessert and party-favor of all: chocolate bark.
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From the Jan. 26 edition of Chester County Cuisine & Nightlife. Learn more at www.dailylocal.com/cc.
How do you learn a foreign language? If you’re like me, you end up skimming a phrase book on the plane en route.
But, if a good glass of wine and an Italian lunch sound tempting, here’s some inspiration to start your linguistics training before the voyage begins.
Trattoria San Nicola, an Italian restaurant in Paoli, is introducing a new series called “Italian Lessons Over Lunch,” held every Tuesday starting at 12pm and lasting a little over an hour. The course covers introductory Italian and is designed for newcomers. Guests are welcome to join anytime.
“We’re focusing on Italian language basics that are easy to retain and can be used right away in everyday life,” explained instructor Marie Jose Napier, an Italian native and a foreign language professor at several local universities.
Napier presented her lesson of the day with warmth and humor, delving into several helpful cultural basics. For example, she corrected the rampant mispronunciation of classic Italian dishes like bruschetta. (It’s brus-ketta, FYI, not bru-shetta).
And the traditional Italian greeting of a kiss on each cheek? The double cheek kiss is considered good luck, so don’t kiss just one cheek when saying hello in Italy.
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