As I was organizing the file son my laptop today I came across some of my digital art pieces. This one is part of my “A past look into my brain” collection and it’s titled Politics.

A made this piece in June of 2007. I can’t recall what I was thinking at the time but I can sure see how it relates to the present. Can you?

Born January 3rd, 1920, Katalina Herskovitz, my grandmother, would have been 97 years old today. She passed 10 years ago on Christmas Eve. And on this particular year, her Hebrew death anniversary fell on New Years Day; on Sunday, the day she always had as over for lunch.

To some, she was Katy. To others, Katyca; but we called her Anyu (A-ñu) which in Hungarian means mother. You see, Anyu was born in Transylvania which in 1920 was, questionably Romania but after the war, it reverted back to Hungary. She then married a Hungarian so that is the language they spoke at home. So when my oldest cousin, David, heard my aunt and my father call her Anyu, the name stuck, and 6 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren later that is how we still refer to her.

She was an extraordinary woman. She loved to cook for us and had some staples that until this day my sisters and I make for our sons. I am planning on sharing some of her recipes with you on later posts. Today, I want to talk about winter foods. The Winter is also something that reminds me of my Anyu; it was the only time that she would be caught wearing pants. This woman would only be seen in dresses or skirts otherwise. She loved going on Ski trips with us. The highlight of her day was to be waiting for us at the house with her famous tomato soup to warm us up after a long day of skiing.

I like to think of soups in the winter too. This week I’ve been craving corn chowder. And so tonight, inspired by this post, I made the Chief in Training’s recipe of corn chowder (which was her grandmother’s recipe), with a twist. First, I switched the bacon for turkey bacon, and instead of regular milk and cream, I used Organic Valley Lactose-Free Milk and Lactose-Free Half & Half  (some members of my family have a “beef” with lactose). Other than that, I doubled the recipe and voila. It was delicious

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention that I had the history of Transylvania all wrong. The correct story goes like this:  Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, mostly settled by ethnic Hungarians. After WW l, Transylvania became, and still is,  part of Romania.

I stand corrected!

A couple of nights ago we had our good friends and neighbors over to celebrate our friendship, our families, and say goodbye to 2016. It was an evening filled with laughter, a good old game of Family Feud, wine, and delicious appetizers (if I may say so myself).

On the menu for the evening: caramelized onion quiche, bbq kielbasa, mozzarella and tomato skewers, a big salad, cheese, chicken liver pate, and crackers.  (recipes to follow).

For the salad, I used Baby Arugula, almond slivers, and dates. I dressed the salad with white balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. It’s super simple and delicious.

For the skewers, I used Marzano tomatoes cut in half, fresh basil leaves, and store-bought mozzarella balls. I placed the basil in between the cheese and the tomato. Once all the skewers were assembled and arranged on the platter, I drizzled them all with Balsamic Vinegar Reduction.

The bbq kielbasa that I made is a recipe from The Frugal Girls I found on Pinterest. This is the second time I make it but this time I varied it a little bit. The recipe calls for very specific ingredients. I used them all, but instead of regular kielbasa I used turkey kielbasa and I used an additional package of it, so instead of 2 I used 3. The recipe also calls from a bottle of Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce, which I used; but I also used half a bottle of Old Mule.

The star was the caramelized onion quiche. I didn’t change anything from the recipe I used from Simply Recipes I just followed the steps exactly as suggested. I also chose to make the crust but you can certainly make this with a frozen, store-bought crust.

We served this with a variety of microbrewery beers, a bottle of 2012 Sean Minor Cabernet Sauvignon, a bottle of 2015 Josh Cellars Sauvignon Blan, and lots of love!

How do you celebrate with friends?