I think it's a wicked idea! TOPS doesn't endorse any one diet plan. In fact, we've had people in our club that also belong to Weight Watchers, or Jennie Craig. We're about healthy life styles, rather than diets. If you must pin us down to a "diet", then we'd say the Exchange Diet. IOW, we exchange unhealthy food for healthy food. Heavy cream would be exchanged for low-fat cream. A slice of pecan pie would be exchanged for an apple. Get the idea. TOPS is about changing your life style.
So there I am reading my church bulletin and I see "St. Rocco's Cookie Contest." How's that for Pastoral Reflection! I immediately began to
The biggest stumbling block is the fact that the parish, St. Mary's, is saturated with wonderful Italian cooks. What was I thinking!
But I couldn't let go of the thought. So I brought the contest to my TOPS meeting. They latched onto the idea like a shy child on to his mother's skirt. The recipes morphed into culinary baking concepts. (Although Gen Gen, a purist, was horrified at the very idea of exchanging her Italian recipes. Some just don't get the concept.)
I've been marauding Italian cookbooks and learning all about blanching, icing, piping, meringue, etc., because the club is having a sampling at the next meeting. We will all bring our cookies to the meeting and we'll vote for the most tasty. That's the one, TOPS 463 will enter in the St. Rocco's Italian Cookie Contest.
As for me, I asked my favorite priest, Father Aniello, who's Italian as you can get, his favorite. He said,
My favorites are the sfogliatella from Naples and the Paste secche (the dry little cookies made from almond pastry).
Hmmmm. Maybe I'll make karvojus.
No comments:
Post a Comment