This was one of the most fun interviews we’ve ever done- talking more about our marriage, and how to make it work when you’re running a business together. Check it out and leave comments on Nona Brooklyn’s site!
It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve written anything for Nona. I’ve got a whole bunch of essays half started, but then between work on the book proposal and the business plan and the running the business and taking care of the kids etc etc etc, my “writing for fun” sort of gets the shaft.
Last week, Peter Hobbs, the most understanding editor in the whole wide world, shot me an email and asked if my family participated in the Italian-American tradition of the “Feast of the Seven Fishes”, and if we did would I mind giving him a family recipe. And even though I’m so busy that I’m weeks behind on emails and sleeping, I had to do contribute because it was an opportunity to share with all of you the recipe for my favorite dish in the ENTIRE world: my father’s baked clams.
These are “Last meal on death row” clams. “Go to heaven and you can only eat one thing for the rest of eternity” clams. ”Pick up a magic lamp and accidentally wake up an evil genie that turns your favorite food into a person you have to marry” clams. When my dad makes these, he usually makes well over 100, sometimes 150, for a family of four. We eat, then take a break to nap it out and digest a bit. Then we go back for round 2.
More important than sharing the recipe with you, it was an opportunity to show off my dad, who’s the most amazing/brilliant/wonderful/completely man I have ever known. I’m proud he’s my father, and I wanted to show him off a bit. I also wanted you to see a little bit of what I have to put up with when I talk to him.
So ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy with reckless abandon my father’s recipe for Baked Clams on Nona Brooklyn.
I know, I know…..we’re on vacation. How can I be posting while at Sesame Place? Scheduled posts, people……right now I’m speaking to the you who is in the future, and you’re hearing my words from the past, just like that Keanau Reeves movie with the magical mailbox that sucked something awful. Does this mean that Tumblr has some sort of supernatural ability? Without dicing words, yes. FEAR THE TUMBLR, folks.
I haven’t had a column up on Nona Brooklyn for a few weeks, so I’m making is up to you people with TWO articles back to back.
The first article was written as a response to many of the emails I received my last article, Confessions of a Mother Chef, unexpectedly went viral. Seriously, I am so touched by many of the comments and letters, and had no idea something I wrote late at night after the kids were finally in bed would resonate so loudly with people. I’m not 100% comfortable with sharing some of the things I wrote about in the follow-up, but after I spoke to a few women who had written thank you notes for the last article, I felt it was something essential to talk about. I hope it becomes a starting point for lots of women out there who had the same experience to be able to speak openly about it.
The second article is just a bunch of smart-ass satire about my struggles in getting a book deal. It WILL happen one day, I swear- I work too hard and am way to persistent for it not to.
Hope you guys enjoy both! And as always, leave comments on the Nona Brooklyn website and Facebook page- they are a small business and comments really help the growth of the site!
Thanks to you guys, we are two-thirds of the way to our IndieGoGo goal with only 48 hours left!!! So on Monday, you’re either going to get a “WOOHOO, WE DID IT!” post, or a “Ummm….heh…..so um….how you guys doing? We’re totally cool over here, really” post. Considering I’m pretty much as stressed as all hell over this, I’m just going to move onto another subject while I silently freak out all weekend about it.
As you saw in my previous post, my new NonaBrooklyn column is up! Please leave comments and share with your friends- that site is a full time job for some very, very good people, and I really want to see it do well.
If you want to watch me have a nervous breakdown this weekend as I survive the IndieGoGo countdown, follow us on Twitter or Facebook! In the meantime, enjoy these flavors- we’re going a bit oldskool today and bringing out some of our classics from the early days of Robicelli’s. A reminder of where we’ve been before we look ahead to where we’re going.
Clockwise from front: PB&J, Chocolate Turtle, Butterbeer, Car Bomb
PB&J: Vanilla cake, peanut butter buttercream, grape jelly, roasted peanuts
CHOCOLATE TURTLE: Chocolate cake, salted caramel buttercream, candied pecans, ganache & salted caramel drizzles
BUTTERBEER: Butterscotch soaked cake, butterscotch buttercream, edible gold dust
CAR BOMB: Chocolate Guinness stout cake, Jameson whiskey ganache, Bailey’s Irish Cream buttercream
Available at:
CAFE AT SAM’S BAKERY- 94th Street off 3rd Ave, Bay Ridge
THE CUPCAKE STAND: Fifth Avenue between 60th and 61st, Sunset Park
CRESPELLA CREPE & ESPRESSO BAR- 321 7th Avenue at 9th Street, Park Slope
BLUE APRON FOODS: Union St. off 7th Ave, Park Slope
TAZZA CAFES- Henry off Atlantic and Clark off Henry, Brooklyn Heights
COURT STREET GROCERS: 485 Court Street, Carroll Gardens
RADISH- Bedford Ave off N8th, Williamsburg
***NEW LOCATION!*** BERRY PARK: 4 Berry Street, Williamsburg
EASTERN DISTRICT- Manhattan Ave off Eagle St, Greenpoint
BROOKLYN STANDARD: Nassau Ave & Jewel St, Greenpoint
RED HOOK LOBSTER POUND: 284 Van Brunt Street, Red Hook *Whoopie Pies and Wild Maine Blueberry Cobbler cupcakes only*
CAKESHOP- Ludlow btwn Stanton & Rivington, Lower East Side
***NEW LOCATION!*** LINK CAFE @ THE SHERATON TRIBECA: 307 Canal Street, Tribeca
JOE: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY- W. 120th btwn Broadway & Amsterdam Avenue
SCHNITZEL AND THINGS: Third Avenue btwn 45th & 46th Streets, Midtown
*Note: Not all locations receive all flavors. The flavors recieved are determined by each store’s management, not by us. If there’s something in the upcoming rotation you want to see, let them know directly
This week is for all the moms out there who don’t always know what the hell they’re doing. If you enjoy it, please leave a note in the comment section!
Really hope you enjoy the article, guys. And please, help Nona out by leaving comments- it helps me as a burgeoning writer, and the site as it grows and expands. Plus, I love interacting with you guys! From what I’ve seen in the comments so far, it’s nice to know that there are other people who experienced the sorts of things I did when I was growing up. No one likes to suffer alone. :)
If you haven’t been subscribing to Nona Brooklyn, you’re missing out. Their site and blog has been my go-to for keeping up with everything that’s going on with all my fellow Brooklyn small food businesses, and I anxiously await their newsletter in my inbox every week.
Earlier this month, they asked us if we could share some of our favorite Thanksgiving side dishes, and we happily complied. We’re in some prestigious company- we’re featured along such geniuses as Brent from The Meat Hook, Cathy Erway, our good friends at Radish, and the amazing ladies from Four & Twenty Blackbirds. We hope you enjoy the piece!
