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At Season and Stir we love men that cook and we LOVE recipes with a great history and a secret ingredient!  Peter has kept this recipe alive - and the family still enjoys it immensely.  While awaiting some recipes from some fabulous cooks to feature on our blog - today we are going to feature a recipe that was given to Peter's father Domenic by a chef named Nick Mosca - from the Elmwood Plantation Restaurant in New Orleans. On the original menu it was called Shrimp Mosca (with a secret ingredient) Mosca helped his family start the restaurant Mosca's, a local and still-running institution. He came to the Elmwood Planation in 1962, where he created a style that married the flavors of Italy with the elegance of New Orleans' finest Creole cooking. In 1978, another fire ravaged the Elmwood Planation and finally closed the restaurant.  However the family still owns a restaurant nearby called Mosca's that still serves this fabulous dish.  (There is peanut butter in this so sadly those with allergies - stay far away from) Ingredients: 2 pounds of shrimp in shell (we prefer wild caught)  6 whole cloves of garlic peeled 1 teaspoon of Rosemary 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper 1 pinch of salt 1/4 cup olive oil 1 stick of salted butter 1/4 cup of lemon juice 1/4 cup dry white wine - pinot grigio works well 1 large tablespoon of peanut butter 2 to 3 bay leaves Directions:  Start by washing and draining your shrimp well with shells still intact.  Sauté the shrimp in a beautiful stovetop to oven pan (like the ones we feature on season and stir) in the olive oil, garlic, black pepper, cayenne pepper, salt, rosemary and bay leaves.  When shells on shrimp turn a nice pink color - shut the heat and set aside.   In a separate small pan - like our Season and stir petite French butter copper pan (perfect heat conductor for cooking sauces) melt the stick of butter with the lemon juice, white wine and the peanut butter until melted. If the flavor of the wine is too strong we add a little more lemon juice.  Once melted - stir to combine and then shut heat and pour the sauce over the shrimp in your oven proof baking skillet.  Stir to make sure shrimp is coated in the sauce.  Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until heated through.  Serve with a warm crust of bread!  You will love this recipe and you can't distinguish the peanut butter - but know there is something special that gives the shrimp its flavor.   

Another Queen in the kitchen has graced us with a recipe! Peter's mom Josephine has always been a great cook and a phenomenal baker. One of the desserts she truly was gifted at was the chocolate soufflé!  She had a commercial oven at her home in Rochester - and they always came out perfect. For those history lovers of recipes - the soufflé was perfected in the mid-1800s by Marie-Antoine Carême who, in cooking for the newly rich in Paris, was aided by updated ovens that were heated by air drafts rather than coal When Peter was young he was in Chicago with his father and they went to the Whitehall Hotel which opened in 1974 as a small, European-style boutique hotel reminiscent of England's luxurious and charming accommodations.  The chef there made a marvelous chocolate soufflé and Peter's father Domenic loved it so much - he wanted his wife to learn to make one - and she did! Ingredients: 1 cup of confectioners sugar sifted 6 egg yolks 7 egg whites pinch of salt butter - 2 tablespoons plus extra for coating pan 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar 3/4 cups of gourmet chocolate - use semi sweet or bittersweet - do not use chocolate chips - as the flavor and texture will not be good.  Confectioner Sugar  Directions: Grease a 6 inch souffle dish generously with butter and coat the inside with sugar and shake out the excess.   Combine 2 tablespoons of cold water and the chocolate chips in the tops of a double boiler over hot water until melted. Then stir with a wire whisk until blended.  Cut two tablespoons of butter into small pieces and add to the chocolate a little at a time beating until the butter is melted and blended.   Cool slightly. Place the egg yolks in a large mixer bowl  and beat with an electric mixer until lemon colored.  Add the confectioners sugar gradually and beat until thick. Add the pinch of salt and blend. Then add a 1/4 of the chocolate mixture and mix with a wire whisk until blended.   Add the remaining chocolate mixture and beat until well blended again.  In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Fold 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture, blending well.   Fold in the remaining egg whites until well mixed. Spoon in the prepared souffle dish and smooth the top.   Bake in a 400 degree oven for 35 minutes or until set.  Dust with Confectioners sugar and serve immediately! Here are a couple of tips that help if you are making it for the first time.... Chill the batter as the oven preheats.  As you preheat the oven, place the batter in the refrigerator. This quick 5-10 minute chill slightly thickens the batter and helps the soufflés rise a bit taller. After refrigerating, spoon into your souffle dish. You could also cover and chill the batter up to 2 days in advance. Reduce oven temperature: Preheat the oven to a hot 400°F. Then immediately after you place the soufflés inside, reduce the temperature down to 375°F (191°C). Why? The initial hot burst of air will help the batter rise up, while the slightly lower heat will help evenly cook the centers.

Talk about a young girl that can really cook! Annarita is our cousin from Italy - she lives in the area Aggie's Mom was from - the Acerra, Italy region.  We first met her when she was about 10 years old and we went to Acerra and had a family reunion on a rooftop!  This was her with all the cousin's children - when we met her.... My family in Chicago was so blessed when her and her boyfriend Arturo visited this summer and stayed with Aggie's Mom.  Everyone was treated to her cooking - and truly enjoyed her recipes - of which she has many.  Here is her recipes for Bread and Pizza Dough accordingly. Bread Dough Ingredients  2.2 pounds of flour - 1/2 a 0 type of flour (Zero flour refers to the grade of flour and how fine it is ground.)  and 1/2  type 1 flour 2.5 cups of water 6 teaspoons of salt 1 tablespoon of dry yeast We will be featuring some great zero type flours in December when the arrive and we are so excited! Directions:   Use a Stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix for one minute half the flour with about 10 ounces of the water. Cover it with a cloth and wait one hour.  Then add the rest of the flour and the yeast and the remaining water, but slowly, a little bit at a time. Put the stand mixer to 1 speed for 10 minutes of kneading and then a higher speed for 8 minutes. Then add the salt and mix for 2 more minutes.  The dough has to rest about a half hour covered by a cloth. After that put the dough on a work surface with a little bit of semolina flour and wet your hands a little bit to shape the dough.  You should be folding the dough in half - see video on our Instagram and Facebook posts of this recipe. Wait about a half hour and do this about 6 times waiting a half hour from the previous session.  This is truly a labor of love. At the end you need to shape the dough and place in a bread bowl or basket - we have those on Season and Stir! Put a little semolina flour over the top.  Cover with a cloth and wait about an hour.  Then place in the refrigerator overnight.  The next day cook it in a Dutch oven that has been prewarmed for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Take the bread from the refrigerator and place on parchment paper to make some cuts with your bread scorer - we have a great bread scoring kit on the seasonandstir.com that you can use to make really artistic cuts in your dough.  Take the Dutch oven out of the prewarmed oven and place the bread in the Dutch oven and cook it for 30 minutes covered and the last 30 minutes uncovered - so a total of an hour oven time.  This is the ingredients for the pizza flour: 1 pound 2 ounces of 0 flour - Zero flour refers to the grade of flour and how fine it is ground.  1 3/4 cup of water 2 teaspoons of salt 4 teaspoons of oil 1 teaspoon of brewer's yeast We hope Annarita will share more recipes from that region of Italy soon!

Season and Stir features three products from this fabulous Chef and hope to add more to our online collection - as our customers familiarize their kitchens with these new taste sensations!

How can it already be November?  But it is and we know it is the month of Thanksgiving Celebrations. In honor of our hosting Thanksgiving this year we wanted to share our traditional Thanksgiving Turkey stuffing recipe.  This recipe was handed down to Aggie's mother Julia by her mother in law - Laura.  As a matter of fact we think Aggie's grandmother was telling Julia to get in the kitchen and learn the Turkey stuffing recipe in the photo below! Peter liked it so much it became the stuffing we have cooked for over 40 years.  This is the amount of stuffing to cook for a 20 pound turkey - as we like to stuff the Turkey and then have an extra bowl of stuffing to warm in the oven.  If you have extra that is great - as it is delicious the next day with some cranberry sauce. Turkey Stuffing Ingredients:   4  pounds of ground veal 3 pounds of mushrooms peeled and chopped (use the stems too) Large handful each of both dark and yellow raisins Pine Nuts - (this is optional for those with nut allergies) however if you do add them -we toast ours Bunch of celery with the leaves - chopped (may chop in food processor) 1 large apple - peeled and chopped 12 - 14 chestnuts - cooked - if they are small you can use a few extra. In the original recipe we boiled them however you can use the already cooked. (Season and Stir has the Matiz organic chestnuts from Spain that are cooked, peeled and ready to eat) Although we are waiting on delivery any day of our second order! 4  large carrots Rice - about two cups Large onion chopped Chicken Broth Salt and Pepper to taste Paprika and flour for top of Turkey Whiskey or Brandy Butter - softened Olive Oil Directions:  In a large pan brown the chopped onion in a mix of Olive Oil and Butter. (We have some fabulous oils on the site right now) Add the veal, then when browned - add the chopped celery with the leaves and also a chopped apple.    Remove from the heat and add in the raisins - both light and dark and the toasted pine nuts.  You can toast the pine nuts in a pan on top of the stove or in the oven - just watch closely so they do not burn.  Add in chopped chestnuts - do not chop too much you want to see the pieces of chestnut in the filling.  In a separate pan cook the two cups of Rice in a mixture of chicken broth and water with the chopped carrots.  When cooked and all liquid is absorbed, shut heat and set aside. In a sauté pan - brown your chopped mushrooms in butter.  When cooked let cool slightly and then mix everything together - the veal mixture with the rice mixture and the mushrooms.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  We also add a nice handful of grated Parmesan cheese.  You can make this a day ahead and when ready to stuff the turkey - rub the inside well with salt and pepper and butter.  Add your turkey stuffing.  Then sprinkle turkey generously with flour and paprika.  We love to cook our Turkeys in the Nesco cookers - but its great in the oven too.  We also love to add chicken broth, whiskey or brandy,  and a little butter to the bottom of the pan when cooking the turkey.  You will use this juice to make a gravy afterwards.  *For the extra pan of stuffing you bake in the oven - dot the top of it with pats of butter prior to baking.   *We have also added in chopped Italian Parsley for additional flavor Please comment - on what Turkey stuffing your family traditionally eats every year - and send us a recipe!      

We do not think we need to introduce this cook!  She had her very own cooking show AND her own cookbook.  We are delighted she shared this fabulous recipe with us.  Peter's family has known Cathy and her family since they were children - and Cathy was so helpful to Aggie when she left her big family in Chicago and moved to a new city.  She always called and invited Aggie and the kids over for lunches and or dinners - as she was (and still is) always entertaining!  She has hosted beautiful parties in her homes here in Michigan and in Naples Florida.  She is always cooking for her four children and their beautiful families.  In Italy Braciola are called involtini, you can probably find a version of this recipe for each region but the most traditional braciola recipe hails from Campania.  In Sicily they are sometimes called bruciuluni. Here is Cathy's recipe for Braciola - which is a Rolled Italian Meat.  Ingredients: 1 cup of Italian Breadcrumbs Olive Oil 4 pieces of chip steak 8 pieces of hard salami 8 pieces of Provolone Cheese 4 hard boiled eggs, quartered length-wise 1 large onion, sliced String Toothpicks Directions:   In a large small bowl, mix together breadcrumbs and enough olive oil until mixture crumbles Lay meat out on a baking sheet. Sprinkle one chip steak with a quarter of the breadcrumb mixture. Lay two pieces of salami and cheese on top of breadcrumb leaving enough room on either end to fold over. Place 1/4 of egg and onion on top of cheese. Fold the ends over to seal and toll up jelly roll style. Secure with kitchen string or with toothpicks Repeat with remaining chip steaks. *These meat rolls can be broiled or sauteed to lightly brown. Add them to your Italian sauce while cooking. Prior to serving remove string or toothpicks and slice horizontally for a tasty treat. Top with a spoon of your Italian sauce. Streamline your health journey with a doctor support service. Submit your food receipts effortlessly for personalized guidance. Access expert advice seamlessly for a holistic approach to your well-being. Serves 8 The best braciola Cathy says is made with a very lean cutlet of beef tenderized with a meat pounder.  Please see Season and Stir's selection of cutting boards to pound meat - and our circular meat tenderizer tool for help with this recipe!  

Another great bread recipe on the blog today!   Italy has always had a love affair with bread and bread makers.... This recipe, courtesy of Marie Montella looks delicious.  Marie's oldest son Sam married our daughter Josephine and from the first time we met Marie she was cooking up a storm. I am sure her husband Pat appreciates her culinary skills. Marie is quite the cook - and you can always find her in the kitchen whipping up some really good old time recipes as well as exploring new ones that she will share from time to time on her Instagram or Facebook pages.   Marie has four children and 12 grandchildren who truly enjoy her cooking!  Let us know by commenting on the blog post - if you have ever made your own bread like Marie.  Grandma's Italian Bread Ingredients: 2 1/4 teaspoons of dry yeast 3 1/2 cups of warm water 8 cups of all purpose flour - divided 1 tablespoon of shortening 3 teaspoons of salt 1 teaspoon of sugar 1 cup of hot water for baking In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in the 3 1/2 cups of warm water.   Add 3 cups of flour and the shortening, salt and sugar. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes, then add the rest of the flour, beating until all flour is incorporated and a sticky dough ball is formed. Turn out onto a floured surface, putting a little bit more flour on the top to prevent sticking.  Allow the dough to rest for 5 minutes before transferring to a well- greased bowl. Turn the dough over in the bowl once to get it coated. Cover lightly with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for at least two hours.  Punch  the dough down.  Divide dough in half.  On a lightly floured surface and with floured hands, gently form it into a ball and place on a sheet of parchment.  Do the same with the second half. Let both loaves rest for 40 minutes. Place a pizza stone in the oven on the middle shelf.  On the lower rack, place the broiler pan or another metal pan.  You will use this to hold the water during baking.   Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  If you do not have a pizza stone, you can also use a rimmed baking sheet turned upside down. Allow the stone to sit in the oven for 20 minutes at 450 degrees before placing the dough on top of it. If using a baking sheet, only place it into the oven for 10 minutes prior to baking, not the 20 required for the pizza stone.  Lightly dust the top of the first loaf with flour and then, with a sharp knife, score an X into the top. Place the dough with the parchment onto the pizza stone or upside down baking sheet in the oven.  Pour the one cup of water into the broiler pan.  Quickly shut the oven door to contain the steam. Bake for 24-28 minutes, until golden brown.  Do the same with the second loaf.  The loaves can be tested for doneness by tapping on the bottom.  The should sound hollow.  Enjoy! Also make sure you visit Season and Stir to see our lovely Herbs de Provence Boule mix under Pasta and Dry Ingredients - when you are in a hurry but want a nice warm crusty bread like Marie has shared with us.   

Our oldest grandson is definitely a food connoisseur and has a passion for cooking. When he is not on soccer field you may find him in the kitchen with his mom helping her cook. Since he was quite young he would go on food adventures to restaurants from all cultures and would never shy away from trying some pretty exotic dishes.   One time when he was asked what he wanted for his birthday he replied without hesitation….that he would like an Iberico ham and had the catalog to show the exact product he wanted! Next year when he heads to Spain we hope he gets to try some! Here is a recipe he literally whipped up for himself recently in his kitchen! Michael’s Cherry Tomato and Artichoke Pasta   Ingredients: EVOO Minced Garlic Artichokes in Olive Oil We used Iberico grilled artichokes in oil Cherry Tomatoes Parmesan Fusilli Cut Pasta Sauté a healthy amount of garlic in olive oilAdd Cherry tomatoes and sauté until blistered Season with Salt and PepperDrain most of oil from artichokes but leave a littleAdd Artichokes to tomatoes and sauté Reserve some pasta water to add to tomatoes and artichokes Additionally add a healthy amount of grated Parmesan cheese Toss in pasta and add a ladle of pasta water to blend it all togetherEnjoy! Have a young chef in your life? Check out our cooking and baking tools for junior chefs! 

We met Natalie Hindman many years ago when her brother married one of Peter's cousins!  She comes from a great family and her Mom and Peter's Mom are dear friends.  Natalie is quite an extraordinary cook and baker as you can see from this beautiful focaccia bread she crafted - but also from her blog where she highlights so many of her wonderful recipes.  They can be found at persanatalie.blogspot.com  - Follow her blog for some sensational cooking ideas.   In 2019 a woman named Teri Culetto - who began baking bread in 2018, right around the time she visited a Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, made a botanical focaccia bread.  Her first bread project titled "Vincent Van Dough" had quite the following on Instagram and inspired others to create these works of Art. Natalie knocked it out of the ballpark with her botanical focaccia creation! Here is her recipe for this bread that is too pretty to eat! INGREDIENTS   STARTER This can be made 12 to 24 hours before you use it   1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup lukewarm water 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast   DOUGH RECIPE   3 2/3 Cups plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt   1 1/4 cup lukewarm water 1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 Tablespoon sugar Plus your dough starter     Seasoning for top of dough   1/4 Olive oil 4 cloves garlic minced 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dry rosemary parmesan cheese   Veggies of your choice for decorating     DIRECTIONS   To make your starter add the 3 ingredients together and mix until smooth...It should look like pancake batter consistency it is ready to use in 12 hours, but can be used later   When you are ready to make your dough add lukewarm water along with yeast, sugar and olive oil ...stir and set aside....add the flour and salt to stand mixer with dough hook.....give a stir and then slowly add yeast mixture...mix ...then add dough starter.and mix  until sticky dough forms...add dough to lightly floured surface...knead a few times and add dough to oiled bowl...cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 2 hours   Once dough is double in size...punch down and add dough to your oiled pan patting and spreading until even and size you like...cover with towel and let rise a second time until puffy about 1 hour   Preheat Oven to 450 then lower to 400 degrees for baking   Once dough has risen for second time brush with seasoned olive oil the sprinkle with parmesan cheese....then decorate with veggies of your choice   Bake at 400 for 25 minutes or until golden brown Season and Stir carries a delicious Focaccia Bread Mix - on our site under Pasta/Dry Goods and/or Specialty Section as well. We hope this is one of many recipes Natalie shares with us and now that our escargot pans from France are on the site - we hope she returns with that recipe as well!