I would like to thank everyone for their kind comments about the passing of my Mom-Mom.  Our family truly appreciates all of the support we received from our friends and family.  We gathered yesterday to say “goodbye” to my Mom-Mom…or as my Uncle Art put it, “See you later.”  I already miss her so much and it hurts to know that she isn’t here right now.  The other night I reread some old emails from her and it brought tears to my eyes realizing how much she cared about her grandchildren and family.  I admire and love her so much and I know that she is continuing her journey in heaven with her loved ones that she has missed dearly over the years.  She is finally reunited with her daughter, my Aunt Ginny, who we lost last November.  I could only imagine how happy the two of them are and can picture them somewhere in peace by the ocean.

Now, to completely change the subject, I do have a good recipe to share.

This recipe for Black Beans & Rice with Chicken and Apple Salsa comes from the January 2012 issue of Bon Appetit.  I found this recipe while I was flipping through Bon Appetit in the store one day and instead of buying the magazine, I took a picture of the recipe with my phone so I would remember to look up the recipe online.  I was so excited to try this recipe as I love black beans, rice, avocado, and the likes.

I got around to making this recipe tonight for Christina and I and it turned out delicious.  It made the perfect amount for 4 people so I packed up the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  I love having a good lunch…it makes my day so much better!  I added to the recipe a bit and decided to add in sliced avocado because I don’t think I can eat a mexican meal without avocado.  I also added shredded cheese and hot sauce.  As I was following the recipe I realized that there was nothing spicy about it so the hot sauce definitely gave it the kick it needed.  I highly recommend trying this recipe.  It is full of different flavors, healthy, and delicious.

Question:  What adaptations would you make to this recipe?

 All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.

This past Wednesday night, our Mom-Mom passed away peacefully in her home at the age of 83.  This fall she became sick and was diagnosed with liver cancer.  She spent most of the fall in the hospital and stayed strong for a very long time.  Our family was very happy to get Mom-Mom back home, but she was still very sick.  We know that she wouldn’t have wanted to spend the very end of her life alone in the hospital.  We tried to make her as comfortable as we could; although we could never take away the pain she was experiencing.  Our family really came together during this time and worked and continue to work together to make the best of the situations we are handed.

Although it is very hard to say goodbye to Mom-Mom, I am trying to find comfort in knowing that she has found peace and happiness in heaven.  My Mom-Mom had so much faith and she was so accepting of death.  After all, that is the journey of life, everyone who is born must one day die.  I am just really going to miss her.  She was a brilliant 83 year old woman who had so much energy and love and always was giving the best advice.  She lived a very long life and experienced more than I could even imagine.  I’m sad that her time with us could not have lasted longer.  However, I know that she is now beginning her new journey in heaven and now reunited with her daughter, Virginia, her sisters and brothers, and mother, among many other loved ones.  We are all going to miss her immensely.  I will always carry her in my heart wherever I go.

Our family wrote Mom-Mom a beautiful obituary.

PONZIO, MARY (KONDRATOW) – of Atlantic City passed away peacefully in her home on January 11, 2012. She was born on April 22, 1928 and raised in Atlantic City, the youngest of five children. She attended Atlantic City High School and graduated in 1945. Growing up during the Great Depression, Mary was inspired by her mother, Ahaphia who instilled in her a sense of faith, love for her family, courage, honesty, respect, and an appreciation for hard work; values that were in turn taught to her family. Mary enjoyed a loving and caring relationship with her brother, John, and sisters Sophie, Eva, and Anna. In 1947, Mary wed her husband, Arthur. Together, they raised four children. They say, “Behind every great man is a great woman”. Mary and Arthur’s relationship was based on this foundation. The essence of Mary’s life was her devotion to her husband and her family. During the early years of her marriage, she volunteered her time toward civic endeavors. For nearly thirty years, Mary operated a rooming house in Atlantic City. She later worked together with her husband and sons in establishing Arthur W. Ponzio Co. Mary enjoyed ice skating, biking on the boardwalk, and cooking for her family. She was known for her “best” fried flounder, “best” spaghetti and crabs, “best” strawberry shortcake, and “best” rice pudding. Mary took great pleasure in spending time together with her husband flounder fishing on their boat and enjoying the peacefulness of the ocean. Mary is survived by her husband, Arthur, Sr., her three sons, Arthur, Jr. and his wife Dottie Ponzio of Galloway Township; Dr. Robert and his wife Suzanne Ponzio of Sewell; and Daniel, Sr. of Atlantic City. Also survived by twelve grandchildren; Gregory Goff Jr. (Charlene), Michael Chait (Kim), Jennifer Levito (Ken), William Ponzio (Megan), Brian Ponzio, Dr. Danielle Ponzio, Mary Ponzio, Christina Ponzio, Amber Ponzio, Daniel Ponzio, Jr., Olivia Ponzio, and Nicholas Ponzio; and seven great-grandchildren, Gregory Goff III, Kristy Goff, Elizabeth Chait, Jennifer Levito, Alyssa Levito, Connor Levito, and Remy Ponzio. Also survived by her many loving nieces and nephews. Mary is pre-deceased by her daughter, Virginia Ponzio, brother, John Kondratow and sisters, Sophie Dawson, Eva Cook, and Anna Ziesing. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00am on Tuesday, January 17th at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Atlantic City where viewing will be held beginning at 9:00am until time of Mass. Interment will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery Mays Landing. Arrangements by the George H. Wimberg Funeral Home.

I am so lucky to have been named after such a beautiful person.  

I hope you all had a fun New Years Eve!  I was down the shore with Harry, his brother, and their two friends.  I had a really nice night  The next morning Harry, his friend Greg, and I met up with their friends in Philly for the Mummer’s Day Parade  They go every New Years day but this was my first experience….quiteeeeee interesting, let me tell you haha but I actually had a really fun time!  Harry and I were pooped once we finally got home…I cannot wait to get some good sleep in tonight .  The picture above was taken by my best friend Jen.  I thought it looked so pretty/serene so I decided to share it!  What great weather it was for new years eve and day… I hear cold weather is on its way, though…womp womp.

What did you do on new years eve?  

what are your new years resolutions?

I havent had the luxury of reading a book for fun since… umm…well..lets just say its been awhile.  Last year when our Aunt Ginny passed away ,my Mommom (who is the mother of our Aunt Ginny) read books about heaven, losing loved ones and such. She told Mary and I that all of the books were nice and comforting but nothing hit home until she read Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo and that we had to read it when we had the chance.  I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to read this book.  My Dad read it, my oldest sister Danielle read it, and recently Mary read it, too. I just never did…until last week.  I finished the book in less than a day (granted, it is a short book).  I have since bought the book for my friend, Jen, and now have my other friend Therese reading it and gave my copy to my boyfriend to read (you WILL read this book, HARRY! hahah).

This book is about an encounter that a little boy named Colton Burpo had with heaven.  It made me think about heaven in a different light and call me corny for saying that a BOOK did this to me buttttt it truly gave me a sense of happiness and peace.  Although I am not a “church-goer”, I have faith.  I pray to God and I try to be a good person.  But as many people do…sometimes I find myself questioning my faith.  After reading this book, I no longer question.  And although I still miss my Aunt and Grandmom very much and although I still cry from time to time when I think about them, I  feel happy/content to know that my Aunt and Grandmom are in a WONDERFUL place right now. They are happy and they ARE watching over me.  And now that my Mommom is now sick, it gives me a sense of peace and hope that when it is all said and done,  it will all be okay in the end…it will all be MORE than okay in the end because what is waiting for my Mommom (and everyone for that matter) at the end of all of this is something extraordinarily beautiful/amazing.

One thing is for sure…this book has had me thinking A LOT about my faith, heaven etc. If you have a free moment, read this book…it is fantastic.

I graduated from Loyola University in May and havent been back to Baltimore since.  I miss Baltimore and college so much. Sometimes I look through old photos from college; it brings back tons of great memories, butttttt it also makes me kind of sad at the same time.  I’ll never be living with all of my friends all together ever again/ will never have the easy/fun college life ever again.  You truly dont realize how great you have it until it’s all over.  But I will say, by the end of my 4 years at Loyola, I was ready to move on in my life.  Ready to continue my education in Physician Assistant school, meet new people, and start a new chapter in my life.  I will ALWAYS miss Loyola and all of my friends there, though and they will forever have a place in my heart….hahaha how CORNYYYYY am I?!

Yesterday my boyfriend and I took a trip for the night back to Baltimore. It felt SO great to be back.  When we drove through my school the smile that was on my face was…well…pretty darn PATHETIC.  It just made me so so happy to see my school again.  Once I got over the excitement of seeing my school again Harry and I went out to dinner at Sotto Sopra.  If you are looking for a GREAT Italian restaurant to go to for dinner in Baltimore….GO HERE!!!! It was AWESOME. Great drinks and AMAZING food.  Even the homemade bread was amazing…might just be the best bread I ever had?  Perhaps. and their pasta is all homemade…delectable. We had so much fun there together!  

I also took Harry to Vaccaro’s Bakery to get some gelatooooo .  I loveeee their gelato…particularly the Peanuto (Peanut Butter fudge)…swoon.  It really is amazing. Harry loved it as well.  He ordered the chocolate hazelnut flavor and was trying to tell me it was better than mine…psh. you can keep your flavor..I am perfectly content with my Peanuto, okay?! OKAY.  We both looked like two little kids sitting there eating our gelato smiling from ear to ear! haha!  Harry and I had a really nice time together in Baltimore. We were only there for a very short amount of time but we had a lot of fun and relaxed.  We ate great food, worked out, shopped, and walked around baltimore together…perfect little getaway with the perfecto boy. How corny, once again. I am in a corny mood, just go with it, will ya!?  The picture below is of Harry and I after dinner at Sotto Sopra

Okay…so what about these cinnabons, you ask?  My momma lovessss sticky buns. She always get them from a local bakery for Easter and Christmas breakfast.  Last Christmas I told her that I wanted to attempt to make her cinnabons instead of getting them from the bakery.  I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that claimed to taste just like the Cinnabons you get at the mall (which I used to get all the time at the mall when I was a little tike…oink oink).  They came out AMAZING and really did taste like the real deal.  So this Christmas I of course had to make them for her again.  Yeah, they might be pretty darn horrible for you, but hey its once a year… splurge a little. Live a little. CARPE DIEM!  Put on your stretchy yoga pants and manja!

Before getting into the recipe for these bundles of joy…you HAVE to watch this video from the comedian Louis CK about Cinnabons…it is hilarious.  Mary’s boyfriend  Todd told me about it awhile ago and then Harry showed it to me. Made me laugh. WATCH IT NOWWWWW!

The above photo is from last Christmas.  But I thought it was pretty funny so I will share again.  Its just me pigging out on some cinnabons on Christmas morning. oink oink.

Q: Do you usually have a Christmas breakfast with your family? What do you make?

I hope that you all had a nice and relaxing Christmas/holiday with your family!!   On Christmas Eve, Mary’s boyfriend’s (Todd) family came over for dinner. We all had a really nice night.  Todd’s Father brought a delicious antipasta spread, Mary made homemade bread (yumm), my mom made fresh pasta with lobster, shrimp, and crab in red sauce (yes, please!!!) and  I made Chocolate PB truffles, biscotti, and chocolate chip cookies.  We all had a really nice time together…very relaxing!

On Christmas morning Danielle came over and we opened presents and had breakfast. I felt bad that Danielle couldnt be here for Christmas Eve or Christmas dinner– she had to work in the hospital.  It was nice that she could be here on Christmas morning, though!  After breakfast we went on a run. It felt good to be outside and felt great to workout– I have lost a lot of endurance, though  And to imagine..just a month ago I was running the Philadelphia Marathon…go figure! haha

For Christmas dinner my family went to visit my Mommom in the nursing home.  We had 17 people at the nursing home!  My Mom prepared food at home and brought it over and we had dinner together in a room they had for us.  It was a really nice night and I wouldnt have wanted to spend Christmas any other way.  It was so nice to be all together as a family.  It really makes me so sad to see my Mommom so unhappy/ in pain and to see the sadness on my Poppop’s face. It truly breaks my heart.

These truffles are part of what I made for dessert on Christmas Eve.  When I saw this recipe for Crispy Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles on How Sweet Eats, I knew this recipe had to be MINE…ALLLLL MINE!!  Anything with peanut butter and chocolate is a WIN in my book.  It’s the perfect combination, isnt it?    Make these. They are GOOD, REALY good. and guess what? they are super easy to make, too!  DO IT.

 This is Mary helping to prepare Christmas Eve dinner…killing God’s innocent, delicious lobster creatures.

Well hello there, friends.  Can’t believe today is already Christmas Eve.   It doesnt seem possible!!  With keeping busy with school and everything, December literally flew by before I even realized that it was even December! Well not really. that was sort of a  joke. A sad, sad attempt at a joke. But anyway… school has been keeping me extremely busy these past three weeks.  I am now off for two weeks, two whole weeks! WOO!!!!!  Its only been 3 days off so far and I already feel so relaxed and well-rested again.  It is nice to have a break and recharge the batteries sometimes.  I have no real plans- just going to relax and enjoy life  Of course I have work to do (actually a pretty good amount of work, too!) but I am going to pretend, for the time being, that I do not and deal with it later.  SMART plan, I know.

Tonight I am going back home to my house (well I guess its now just my parents house since I do not live there anymore ) for Christmas Eve.  I am really excited to go home. Even though my home is not too far away from Philly, I hardly am ever home.  And when I am home, I am usually studying.  This time, I get to relax with my family and two pups, Bradley and Andie.  Mary’s boyfriend’s family is coming over to.  Mama is making fresh pasta with lobster, crab, and shrimp…YES PLEASE!  I really cannot wait to be with everyone. I havent even seen my family’s christmas tree yet!  This year we got a REAL one.  For as long as I can remember, we always had fake trees in my house, so this is pretty darn exciting for me.

Tomorrow my oldest sister is coming over for Breakfast. She is not able to spend Christmas or Christmas Eve with us because she has to work (she is an orthopedic resident) Per my Mama’s request, I am making Christmas Cinnabons to go with breakfast.  They are really good (and easy to make)…you should try it out.  Breakfast on Christmas morning has always been a big deal at our house.  I LOVE breakfast and especially love our Christmas Breakfast tradition.

My mommom has been very ill and is now in a rehab center so this year my entire family is bringing Christmas to her at the center in a little room we rented out.   This year will definitely not be our usual Christmas but I dont think anyone in our family would want to spend it any other way.  I know it will make her very happy to spend time with everyone and I know my Poppop will be happy to be with her again.

I made Peanut Butter Truffles (recipe coming soon), chocolate chip cookies, and biscotti to bring to my parents house for Christmas Eve.  I made our “usual  fig almond biscotti” and decided to also make Giada’s Holiday Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti (dipped in white chocolate).  The base of the biscotti is actually the same– just different toppings.  It turned out great! and I really like how pretty the white chocolate dip makes the biscotti look  If you are going to a holiday party (or New Years Eve party?) or just want to make them for yourself, they will be a sure hit.  nom nom nom!  Hope you enjoy!

Hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  My weekend was pretty fantastic; however, it flew by.  Now, I have a five day work week before Christmas and no work for a week…which is something that I am definitely looking forward to!  This weekend started off great with an awesome dinner Friday night with Todd at one of our favorite restaurants, Agiato, in Manayunk.  It was a fun night walking around Manayunk in the cold with all of the holiday lights up on Main Street.  We enjoyed a really nice dinner and shared a bottle of wine…which was the perfect way to kick off the weekend.

In the early afternoon on Saturday, my friend Lauren came over, along with my sister and her friend for cookie baking!  Last year Lauren and I baked Christmas cookies together and we made a TON of cookies.  This year, we said that we wouldn’t make as many, but we still ended up making quite a bit!  We ended up making Oreos, Kitchen Sink Cookies, NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt, Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies, Ultimate M&M Cookies, and Green Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had such a fun time baking cookies with everyone.  Definitely one of the best ways to spend an entire Saturday!

NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

Homemade Oreos

Honestly, I don’t think anyone should ever consume as many cookies as I have in the past two days.  It is pretty sickening.  But, I’m alright with it…cookies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is sometimes the best thing to do.  I kept “accidentally” breaking cookies so then I would have to eat them because, let’s face it,  no one wants to look at or eat a broken cookie!  Thankfully, Lauren and I were going to a Christmas Party Saturday night so we were able to share our cookies with our friends.

I figured that I should actually make some real food for dinner tonight, so I made a Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Milk inspired by an awesome soup I had at DiBruno Bros. in Philadelphia (if you are ever in Philadelphia & are a foodie…don’t miss out on this store!).

It felt good to take a break from the cookies for a little and eat some real food.  But, as soon as I cleaned up from dinner, another cookie it was.  I just can’t get enough.  The good news is I pretty much ate through my entire stash of cookies so they won’t be around much longer!

Let’s get back to the soup, shall we?  Well, it’s no secret that I love squash.  If you check out our recipe page, I’m sure you will find at least 10 recipes featuring squash.  There are just so many things that you can do with squash.  This soup is super creamy due to the coconut milk.  This soup also has curry in it.  I have never cooked with curry until today…and I’ve only had it a handful of times.  Curry was listed as an ingredient in the soup that I bought at DiBruno Bros., so I decided that I would use it in my recipe too!  This turned out absolutely delicious and I’m already excited to bring in the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.  I think I have a new found love for curry and coconut milk!

I hope everyone has a great week and that you are ready for the holidays!  I know that I am excited to get this week started…I’m really looking forward to the holidays!

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only two weeks away!  I am very excited but at the same time I have not done anything too Christmasy yet…which is sort of a bummer.  I don’t have much time, so I better do something to fix that!  Last year, we had a huge cooking baking extravaganza with our friend, Lauren…that is also the same time we discovered the best chocolate cookie recipe in the world (which, by the way, I can’t wait to make again).  I have a feeling that I’ll be in more of the Christmas mood once I start baking some cookies!

Today I have a fantastic recipe to share that I came across on How Sweet It Is.  How Sweet It Is is a brilliant blog and she comes up with some of the best recipes.  Every morning before I go to work I look forward to reading her post for the day.  When I saw her recipe for Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Whole Wheat Lasagna, I knew that I had to make it.   After she posted about her lasagna, she wrote a post on a recipe for Roasted Butternut Baked Penne.  This recipe is essentially the same dish as this lasagna except minus the whole lasagna thing…. We actually ended up making that version of this dish back in November.  We absolutely loved that so we couldn’t wait to try the lasagna!

This made for the perfect Sunday night dinner.  I am so glad that we made this because while it is similar to her baked butternut squash penne, it is at the same time, very different.  This dish definitely required more hands on time in comparison to the baked penne version.  However, I definitely think that it was worth it.  We loved everything about this lasagna.  In fact, we loved it so much that Christina and I gobbled the whole thing up for dinner.  The next time I make this, I will probably serve a simple salad along the side.

This is a very cheesy lasagna that truly has it all…brown butter, mascarpone, parmesan, mozzarella, sage, nutmeg, and shallots.  If you are looking for that unique, flavorful, and filling pasta dish…you have found it.

I hope your week kicks off to a good start!

Well this week pretty much sucked the life out of me.  As of late, school as been completely consuming every second of my life.  I barely work out anymore and have been getting minimal sleep… wednesday and thursday night combined I got 8 hours of sleep.  SUPER healthy for you, let me tell ya!

Thursday night I went to a yoga class and the instructor had us do a lot of moves with our eyes closed and was  talking about how sometimes you feel like you are walking through life blind and everything is crumbling down around you. (check, check)  but that you cannot give up on it and have to keep on putting your best foot ward and have faith and trust.  I felt like yelling “AMEN, SISTER! NAMASTE!” from the back of the room but I restrained myself haha.  The yoga  really hit home for me, though.  So what if I COMPLETELY BOMBED my pharmacology quiz.  You just have to put it behind you and keep on plugging away and work your buttocks off and have faith that things will work out.  I really miss yoga.  During marathon training I didnt do much of anything besides run (when I could) so yoga  is a nice change of pace.  I also have never been this tight in my life…I am so tight that it actually hurts to even sit in child’s pose…yes, I just said that.  I need to make it a priority to go more often!

Where was I going with this? oh yeah… okay. Back on track now.  The only thing I was looking forward to this week was Friday.   After class on Friday my friends Audrey, Karen, Jen, Harry & I went to get a drink. It was nice to not think about school for once and to clear my mind.  Then Harry & I went back home and I made him some dinner (Barefoot Contessa’s Weeknight Bolognese) and dessert (which was obviously homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate sauce and brownies!).  I made the ice cream the night before (and actually fell asleep before the ice cream was done churning…woops!  I dont think it affected anything  too much, though).

It turned out good! I would have liked it to be a tad bit more creamier, though (but I am just a fan of super creamy, custardy ice creams that use eggs).  Not sure what I would change about this recipe for next time to change this.  Oh and maybe some green food dye for shits and giggles next time (isnt green mint chocolate chip better?  or more fun i guess).  Harry liked it a lot, I think so anyway… he could have just been a great liar haha

Anyway, I had a really nice night with Harry. Very relaxing.  I cannot wait for christmas break to come and to be able to do nothing and sleep in everyday! YES!

Hope you all have a nice weekend!  Do you have any fun plans?

Last week as I was shopping in Wegmans, I perused through the December 2011 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.  I came across a recipe for Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas and Feta and I knew that I had to make it.  So this weekend I picked up the ingredients and I decided to make it tonight.  This recipe is wonderful because not only does it require minimal, simple ingredients, it is also very easy and not time consuming to make.  Apparently this is a very popular dish in Israel and it is known as shakshuka.  

Since it was just me and my sister eating tonight I decided to cut the recipe in half which ended up being perfect for the two of us.  This dish would be perfect to enjoy any time of the day.  It is full of flavor and very nutritious.  It is a nice change from the typical eggs, potatoes, and toast meal.  I am really looking forward to making this again.