Trechate
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
2tsp baking powder

Mix all ingredients together and spread dough into paper thin strips (like lasagna sheets). Cut 4x5 inch strips and then braid one at a time. Try and find a fancy cutter like my Aunt Eleanor uses - see the above picture. She assured me that I could find one at most grocery stores but I have yet to find one in the UK, maybe she could buy me one for my bday (is that a big enough hint?)

Once you have made your Goldilocks braids (trechate means braids in Italian), deep fry and when cool, sprinkle with icing sugar.

I think I would alter the recipe a little and add a bit of vanilla essence or some cinnamon but the traditional way is plain. They are lovely to serve and lovely to eat! Big hugs to my favourite Dolce Aunty for the recipe.

White bears?
I have never had these before as I usually only have gummy bears that are hard and chewy. These Bassetts' ones were soft and had white icing sugar on them. It was very weird to eat them - and my colleague at work thought it was strange to have never had them before.

I didn't like them - I prefer hard, chewy gummy bears - especially the Haribo ones. It just felt wrong to have the light dusting of icing sugar on them. Ick.

Festa di San Giuseppe

Yesterday was la Festa di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Day) which is a big feast day in Italy. So if you know anyone with any name descendant from Joseph (like Juisy, Josie, Josephine, Joe, Giuseppa (hi Zia E!) etc.) then you should've called them and given them your best wishes. My sister Josephine, was lucky enough to have fresh zeppole delivered to her home by our lovely Uncle Frank -awwh so sweet!

It was St. Paddy's day on Saturday too - that was quite a day. Around London you could see lots of green clothing, shamrocks hanging from everywhere, kids with faces painted, lots of Irish flags and lots of Guinness being consumed. The pubs were full and there was a lot of dancing and celebrating for the Irish saint. Anyhow, we digress....St.Joseph's Day is celebrated with the usual Catholic stuff, church, prayers, parades and lots of food.

The feast gives thanks to St. Joseph/San Giuseppe for preventing a famine in Sicily during the Middle Ages. According to legend, there was a severe drought, and the people of Sicily prayed for their patron saint to bring them rain. They promised that if he answered their prayers, they would prepare a large feast to honor him. The rain did come, and they prepared a large feast to celebrate. The fava bean was the crop which saved the population from starvation, and is a traditional part of St. Joseph's Day altars and traditions. Giving food to the needy is a St. Joseph's Day custom. And eating a pastry called zeppole -yum!

Zeppole are like flat cream puffs filled with custard or cheese, sprinkled with icing sugar then topped off with a cherry. They are delicious and Cousin Basilio gave me the recipe for them!