I LOVE to cook…..it is seriously one of my favorite things to do.  Now the clean up, that is another story.  I get it from my mother who is the most amazing cook.  EVERYTHING she makes is out of this world and she learned from the best – Grammy Coradini.  My Grammy was the sweetest, kindest little pint sized Italian lady.  She made everything from scratch – pasta, gnocchi, cinnamon rolls, marinara, you name it, she made it and she made it taste like a dream.

Everyone should have a Grammy Coradini in their life.  We lost her this past year but I think about her everyday.  She was really special to all of us.  She made her grandchildren feel special, all 12 grandchildren and all 23 great grandchildren.  When I was little I used to spend a week with her during the summer and she would take me to work with her.  She was a caterer of sorts.  She would cook and serve dinner parties for some elite families on the North Shore of Chicago.  She would take me with her and I would be her prep cook.  She would let me help serve the fancy people.  I have such amazing memories of this and it is where my love of cooking started.

Over Christmas we all got together and cooked all of Grammy’s favorite recipes, drank loads of vino and just hung out to celebrate her.  It was a great night.  One that I hope will become a tradition.  This past Christmas was our first without her.  We remembered her in style.  She would have LOVED it.

She made the best homemade tortellini and banana cream pie.  The absolute best.

I did not get blessed with a nice ass, a green thumb or a tidy house but I did get blessed with an amazing family.  We have 7 kids in our family and one awesome Mom (and Dad).

So the other day when I was making one of our favorites, “Good shit Indian chicken”, I turned my back for a second and my giant baby had pushed the time out stool into the kitchen to help.  (On a side note, if you have not made that Indian chicken recipe I posted, do it.)

Then his older brother got wind of what was going on so he wanted to help too.  How can I say no to these guys?  I try but I am not very good at it.

I love that my pals love to cook and help Mommy cook….well, I use the term “help” loosely.  Everything takes longer and is messier than I bargained for but it is awesome.  My pals can lick a beater clean in about 3.2 seconds.  They have also been known to crack a dozen eggs on the floor and dump out a 5 lb bag of flour but Mommy was to peeved to take photos of that.  Peeved is putting it nicely, very nicely.

So tonight they want to make their favorite for dinner – english muffin pizzas.  They like to compete to see who can fit the most pepperoni on their pizza.  Last time we made these (which was last week), I ended up cleaning pizza sauce off the kitchen lights so wish me luck.

Grammy Coradini would be so proud of these little guys.  I know I am.