red sauce america
hi friends, lovers, & people probably related to me —
115 — 1 marketing team dinner, 1 birthday, 2 holiday parties, 1 sprained knee (volleyball, wasn’t even doing anything cool) & 1 more holiday party & losing my voice later and i am officially exhausted.
have you seen the christmas episode of the bear? this is kinda like that. jk.
Christmas Eve 2022, I’m wearing a blue velvet dress and flipping off the camera. There are other photos from that night but that’s the one I remember — burned into my memory. I had spent days in my parent’s galley kitchen where if someone is at the stove and someone is unloading the dishwasher, then you are constantly bumping butts. There are seven of us all together, plus a dog – so that was nearly always happening. I love it when we’re all together – it’s chaotic, wonderful, horrible, and delicious. The menu for Christmas Eve is always the same, unless we go to our aunt’s and the food there is a story for another time.
The menu if you’re curious is red sauce America and it probably always will be, there’s: arancini, meatballs, mozzarella sticks, sausage and peppers, chicken parm, pesto pasta, garlic bread, caesar salad, bruschetta salad, sometimes a lasagna, a baked ziti, stuffed shells, pizzelles and ice cream! Whew that sounds like a lot and it’s even more when one of your sisters decided to invite her boyfriend. But it’s tradition and so we have to do it and also because that sister requested it specifically so she could show her boyfriend how fun and amazing we are.
It did not work, and they broke up before New Years. Good riddance, he didn’t seem that excited about helping with the arancini. I just wanted him to feel included, so I gave him a job. He thought I was bossy; he was 27 years old (I was 28) and dating one of my younger sisters was I supposed to give him a high five, a medal? Truthfully, I was very nice and generous towards him and only gossiped with my other siblings about it all later — once he left of course. The sister in question didn’t mind too much — she was annoyed with him and the fact that he barely ate any of the dinner she was so excited about.
The funny thing about all of this is, this menu choice, is that we’re not Italian – at least as far as we know, my dad is a somewhat standard mix of Irish, German, and French and my mom, well she’s adopted and was raised in the most WASPY but Catholic Irish New Jersey family that there ever was. That’s honestly where red sauce America all started – Marco Polo in Summit, New Jersey – a classic joint. We would go there what felt like weekly when I was kid, the carpet was worn and emerald green, the fixtures a brassy gold, the waiters all had mustaches, the Shirley temples were bottomless, and my grandfather would leave pile of cash on the table, occasionally sneaking me a dollar. I would always eat too many raviolis and cry on the way home.
When we moved it was devastating to leave Marco Polo behind. My parents never really found an Italian red sauce joint they liked quite as much in the Chicago suburbs, so we pivoted to making elaborate feasts at home. Because sharing it all is really the best part. With meatball recipes from a close family friend and arancini recipes from the Food Network, thank you Giada. My mom branched out, she was always a good cook sticking to recipes we all knew and loved, but this was better. I do most of the cooking these days, she says I’m better at it – I say she just didn’t use enough garlic, but she taught me everything she knew and then some. Hopefully Christmas Eve 2023 is less dramatic than its predecessor, but as long as there’s red sauce America, I think we’ll be alright.
some recipes for your own red sauce america
arancini aka risotto balls — an absolute classic & if you’ve been to a party at my house you know & love these
chicken piccata w/ grilled bread — who doesn’t need some lemony brightness & caper(y) briny(ness) in their lives. also you know protein is good.
pasta cake — a really fun centerpiece, a christmas tree topper, the shiniest ornament
a big italian salad — bc you need vegetables & vinegary(ness)
caesar salad — bc you need more vegetables but also more cheese & anchovies
fusilli alla vodka — em’s favorite & also everbodys favorite
stuffed shells — my favorite & if i’ve made them for you, i probably love you
baked ziti lasagna situation — for when you can’t decide, make the baked pasta dish that is an absolute hit
garlic bread — how else are you going to sop up everything?
particularly good things i consumed in 2023
tried to make this list less chaotic than last year & also there is always going to be some repeats bc i am nothing if not a comfort watcher, listener, & eater.
food i made — scallion & pork dumplings w/ chili crisp, roast chickens, crushed olive & fennel salads, crispy potato tacos, chilaquiles verdes, PIZZA(s), breakfast burritos, nice pasta dinners, lemony crispy chicken cutlets, ice cream cakes
experiences — diversey wine tasting sundays, long runs to the lake, all the parties: galentines, maybe babies, goes well with turns 100, progressive dinner, pizza sunday, new tattoos, a couple of cabin dayz, friends getting married, getting engaged, backyard hangs, thrifting, birthdays!, promontory point, a lil travel: california, gr, mke, cleveland & florida, going to shows, staying up way too late, girls nights out, fake errands, riding my bike around, the farmers mkt, superior ketchups, lil trips to the burbs, chopping off all my hair so it’s the perfect length for turtlenecks, writing from the floor of my family room
restaurants — thattu (the naked chicken bites, the cocktails, the freaking pork chop) | cellar door (everything, but especially the gnocchi & the burger) | heritage (happy hour, oysters, the bump & the shot) | all together now (cheese curds & a salad )| dear margaret (honestly everything) | galit (salatin, pastrami, za’tar martini, phyllo pie) | bungalow (tavern tues, the ramp ranch, the pizza wine!) | le bouchon (steak frites, ofc)| chef’s special (hand pulled noodles, smashed cukes, crab rangoons, chili dumplings) | mi tocaya (the burrito, the crudo, the wine list)| pinpong (ginger martini, salt & pepper calamari, street noodles) | majordomo (the crispy potatoes) | doma (the hashbrown)| allez cafe (the breakfast sandwich & a iced cajeta latte) | loaf lounge (capicola breakfast sandwich) | the bagel (two eggs, bacon, hashbrowns & coffee) | dove’s lunchonette (the paddy melt w/ the chile toredos) | lula (pork belly + radicchio + grits winter breakfast special & potatoes for the table) | lardon (a charcuterie board in the sunshine) | the freeze (swirl cone rainbow sprinkles) | rhr (a hot dog w/ everything or a dbl cheeseburger no tomato) | cafe oliva (chicken tenders & french fries & an ipa w/ lime) | los (steak nachos w/ no beans & al pastor tacos) | lonesome rose (nachos & a pitcher of mezcal margs) | taqueria chingon (nachos w/ al pastor & guac) | onions & cilantro (steak quesadilla w/ refried beans, all the salsas, chips & guac) | windy city sweets (double scoop mondays, the moose tracks)| dryhop (a sneaky good cheeseburger) | lao peng you (dumplings) | lasita (are you industry chicken, the pie) | la masa (why is empandas, fries & a cocktail the perfect lunch?) futuroindy (incredible detroit style, incredible ranch) | the cone shoppe (the perfect soft serve) | tacos el cunado (al pastor, drinking the salsas like a shot) | best intentions (a tiny smashburger & the cuppa shrimp) | red & white (dollar oysters & several glasses of wine) | barbaro (mezcal margs & honestly anything)
books — the rabbit hutch: tess gunty | chaos: tom o’neill |tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow: gabrielle zevin | central places: delia cai | the lemon: s.e. boyd | romantic comedy: curtis sittenfield
podcasts — normal gossip | murder on sex island | celebrity memoir book club
movies — point break | easy a | the birdcage | the firm | la confidential
tv — poker face | only murders in the building | early law & order | new girl
songs — japanese posters: rebounder | lucky: dehd | stick season: noah kahan | paris: magic man | tonight: ezra koenig & phoenix
things — a custom holiday party crop top from a sentimental skirt, chunky black birkenstocks, the perfect vintage lounge set, obnoxiously large glasses, chubby coupes w/ surprising heft & lil ruby red vintage glasses perfect for amaro sips
currently consuming
a quiet & cozy morning
as always,
mk