Treat of the Week: Birthday and Memorial Day Festivities

Our holiday weekend kicked off with the celebration of my mother’s birthday. As I’ve mentioned before, my father cooks twice a year—once on Mothers’ Day and once on the anniversary of my mother’s birth. This time, he created a lovely Italian feast of grilled chicken ravioli with broccoli, pancetta and a lovely sauce of cream and gorgonzola cheese. 

The real triumph, however, was a gorgeous marble cake—made from scratch, and certainly, the best he’s ever made. My father even decorated the cake with a rose-colored icing that he made himself. The result was a rick, moist, fudgy wonderful cake and a job very well done.

The following day, we celebrated, with the rest of the U.S., Memorial Day. With my mother back in the kitchen, we feasted on pork barbeque, brown rice seasoned with turmeric, sugar snap peas, freshly-baked cornbread, and something new—breaded, baked zucchini. I actually helped with the zucchini. Thin slices of zucchini were dipped in a mixture of egg whites, mustard and other seasonings and then dragged through panko bread crumbs, Romano cheese, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. These were then baked in a hot oven until crisp. I quite enjoyed them! We finished up this great meal with another wonderful treat. To being with, my mother made one of my favorite cookies—her famous chocolate chip cookies. But, these aren’t just your usual chocolate chip cookies. They’re filled with semi-sweet and bitter-sweet chips and dried cherries. They are, in short, perfection. Then, my mother made ice cream—dark chocolate ice cream to be exact which reminded me a lot of eating a similar cold confection at the Fountain restaurant at Fortnum & Mason in London. Topped with homemade fudge sauce and whipped cream, it was the perfect end to a wonderful meal.