this is a photo of the floor in my mother’s den. the den used to be my bedroom back in 1981, but then i moved out and it was fully renovated and it’s now the room where my mom and her guy spend most of their time. and this is the large petit point area rug that resides in that room which somehow never ceases to mesmerize me. there are 30 patterns, 6 x 5, making a unique rectangle and then it repeats. i am totally OCD when it comes to this rug… wednesday when my mother heard i was coming to visit she decided to make a ‘meet the daughter luncheon’ and serve a few things from my blog. it was a sweet mommy-like concept and after i pleaded with her to just get it all catered (because i know…) we decided on 2 recentdishes that would work nicely together and then i gave her the shopping list. i’ve got to give her credit because after the initial obligatory resistance ("claudia, does it have to be this? can’t you just use that?") she hit quite a few stores really trying to get it right. pimenton, pancetta, san marzano tomatoes, fleur de sel, capers, walnut oil, swiss chard, saffron, french lentils – not her usual go-to ingredients. she cooks the basics, orders in, fine dines with the best of them and then zabars does the rest. so on a saturday morning – and knowing better, my mom heads off to ‘fairway‘ in search of the ‘right’ canned tomatoes. my phone rings and i pick up. the conversation goes something like this…

claudia? i’m in fairway and it’s packed and i can’t find the marzini tomatoes mom, they’re san marzano. san maaarzaaanooo… oh. hold on i see someone. "excuse me? do you have any san marzini tomatoes?" mom? mom! san maaarzaaanooo – not marzini. claudia, no one speaks english here, ok? mom, tell me what you’re looking at. find the ones from italy that say crushed on the can, ok? claudia, they’re all on the very bottom shelf, you have no idea what it’s like here. mom, i used to live there, remember? wait, i have to get down lower, hold on… i hate this damn pocketbook, it’s too big and heavy – hold on….. (i overhear a voice in the background – an older woman also with a very thick nyc accent) "your cart is blocking the aisle and this is no place to be having a conversation" my mother says to me "can you believe these people? HORRIBLE…"

i arrived at her home on wednesday late morning and with the help of lou ann, who works for my mom (bless you, lou ann) we began to make the roasted grape and pancetta salad so that everything would be ready to plate when we sat down to eat. i could write an entire post – and a long one at that, about my mom and the cooking and the dialogue and the arguing… we’re ny jews. she’s 73 and my mother. if you have any questions, you just couldn’t understand. it’s a comedy routine at best and a near murder scene – well, too often. somehow we get through it reasonably unscathed. my mom has a good sense of humor and a short memory. this is a good thing.

mom set a beautiful table for our pre-valentine’s day luncheon and it really was just so very lovely. big thanks to margie, marie, joan, rita and barbara for coming out on a rainy day to sit and talk and share some good food and wine – and stories. and thank you for your thoughtful gifts (all from williams sonoma!) but mostly for your time. the 4 hours flew by and it made me so happy to see that my mother’s life is filled with such great women. at about 6:30 that evening i got in a cab to meet one of my favorite bloggers for the very first time, amy of ‘minimally invasive‘. i’ve been blogging less than a year and still I can’t even recall how i found amy, but when i did, her photo’s, her food and overall demeanor kinda drew me in and i fast became a fan. she’s a natural with a camera and is a graphic designer so when i was ready for a ceF redesign, i went to her under the guise of who she might suggest to help me with a banner. luckily she took the bait and then took the time and gave me what i wanted – and i paid her as one might pay a true foodie, with a promise of dinner.

we decided on ‘insieme‘ based on both location and pedigree. last may i had a great dinner at ‘hearth‘ and insieme is now the uptown restaurant of chef marco canora where he has left jason frosolone to tend hearth. i also found out that afternoon that my mom had been to ‘insieme’ just the week before and LOVED it – which has to be in capitals because she either LOVES it, or it’s NOT good, or it’s HORRIBLE. my brother does a routine where he says: mom is never cold – she’s freezing, she’s not hot – she’s boiling, she’s not tired – she’s exhausted, she’s never hungry – she’s starving. you get the drift. funny stuff… right away amy and i decided to begin with 2 of insieme’s ‘midtown manhattan’s’ served straight up, made with rittenhouse rye and amaro. and let me just tell you here and now that that was one very fine cocktail. you know, i gotta tell you something else. i love manhattan’s. i always have. but because i love manhattan - well, it has always felt so corny to order them and so i just stopped. but from here on in – it’s manhattan’s for me. made with rye. people, you have just witnessed an epiphany. wow… the lighting in the restaurant was absolutely terrible for any photo ops, so i didn’t bother to shoot anything until dessert. we ordered the grilled sardines (truly excellent) and the fritto misto alla lucchese (truly sub par), a plate of unattractive slabs of 4 kinds of veal – liver, tongue, sweetbreads and cutlet. it was the bummer of the night, badly executed in every way. but then i had the chestnut fettucine with an elk ragu and pomegranate seeds and amy had the branzino saltimbocca wrapped in prosciutto atop cippolini onions, savoy cabbage and sage. both were very good. for dessert, we began with a glass each of pear ‘eau de vie‘ which i had somehow never heard of. we chose two, one italian and one from oregon and there was no contest. USA all the way, plus ours cost less. a double victory. shallow, but still…

(two pear eau de vie selections – italian on the left, oregonian(?) on the right) then i began looking down the long list of all the various ‘eau de vie’ selections and my eyes fall upon ‘slivovitz‘, pear ‘eau de vie’s’ kosher plum cousin. this was the drink of my people! my grandparents and their parents used to drink this back in the old country and then down on the lower east side.

(amy boozing it up) as fate would have it, amy is a savory cheese plate kinda girl, but i think when she saw the horror in my eyes she acquiesced and instead we chose a theme of orange and cheese desserts of the sweeter kind.

an orange torta di ricotta and then the westfield farm goat cheese with 5 spiced candied kumquats and a very ‘pithy’ (amy’s word and a great one) orange sorbet.

i only had to traverse the 2 blocks to my hotel, but amy had a much longer journey ahead. so our evening came to a close and we parted ways, now friends as opposed to just internet buddies. and i have this feeling that in time, another dinner awaits us…