Italian Feast

Chicken parmesan, homemade sauce, meatballs, gnocchi, penne, cheesy bread, OH MY!

My Italian grandmother-in-law is in town from New York. Whenever she comes to town, her & my mother-in-law cook.....and cook.....and cook....and cook. And they cook Italian! They are very Italian. My MIL even has an Uncle Tony and an Aunt Carmela, just like The Sopranos. They also do grand hand gestures when they talk and cuss in Italian! My husband looks more like his German father.

That's my MIL, Grand-MIL, The Moose, & Ryan (my husband)

This meal is days of cooking with lots of secret family recipes. So I don't have the full monty to share. I'll start with the chicken parmesan. They pound chicken breasts to thin and tender cutlets & bread them. Here's the breading station.

Fry them.

Look at the size of that sauce pot! They do not play around when they cook.

Layer the chicken, sauce, & cheese. They said they normally do 3 layers of chicken, but did 2 this time. It's sauce, chicken, mozzarella, parmesan, repeat.

Bake.

Here's the cheesy bread! I have this recipe and will share next time I make it. It's sooooooo good.

This is a bag of my homemade gnocchi. It's frozen. Just pop it in boiling water (don't overcrowd, 1 layer at a time), then remove when they float to the top. My gnocchi got RAVE reviews! I'm very excited that it got a thumbs up from the Italians!

While the sauce is simmering, they add a lot of homemade meatballs and a bunch of shredded pork (it's usually Italian sausage but they didn't make it to the Italian meat market).

This is a super super spicy sauce! I love it. This is not the traditional Italian, slow-cook sauce. This is just a quick sauce they make. They added some gnocchi and penne to the pot.

And then we feasted!  

This is The Moose's very 1st sauce! And it's his great-grandmother's famous Italian recipe. We are so happy to have shared this experience with her.